6/98 (written 8/9/98)

Jan Hellriegel spent a wonderful evening before an attentive, and appreciative audience playing a wide variety of songs from across her entire career. This was certainly a show to catch, as Jan performed a Cassandra's Ears number, plus some solo classics and a number of new songs, which have yet to be recorded. The setlist was as follows:

It was clear that Jan had been expecting a small singer/songwriter workshop and not a large audience of NZ Music lovers hankering for a performance, but nonetheless she skilfully delivered these songs on her acoustic guitar.

Manic illustrated her talent at guitar playing as she humbly announced how 'out of practice' she was and then deftly performed this speedy number with its demanding chords and fast playing (her hands were an artful blur). Sentimental Fool came out nicely on the acoustic, even without the dub drums, and had everyone bopping and toetapping.

The new songs were a tantalising taste of what's to come and were all executed in a very polished manner, amid pleasant banter and interest recollections.

Jan explained the origins of Ice, describing how in Dunedin, her and friends would drive out to the mountains to a large frozen lake. Here they would drink and party, and when members of the group went to pee on the frozen lake, the heat would melt the ice a little and the shift in temperature would cause the icy lake to wail and groan. This was a sound she wanted to replicate in the song (hence I suppose, the distorted guitars in the intro).

She also described how the surface of the lake was covered in millions of tiny frogs, which were unavoidable while transversing the area.

All in all, the concert was a lot of fun, and good luck finding a place to sit as the place was jammed. There followed a large number of other local performers including one rather esoteric fellow who performed a rather dunken, epic song Bring them all in (to my heart) - which I have to say was extremely catchy.