7/10/92

by Bruce Stirling

AUCKLAND singer-songwriter Jan Hellriegel finished a short season in Wellington with a powerful show that pushed her rich voice and the intimate venue's capacity close to their limits. And she thought Tuesdays were meant to be quiet.

The midweek gig was even more crowded than Sunday's performance and left the shoulder-to-shoulder audience not so much breathless as airless. With its small space and low stage, Bodega is a bit like someone's front room and that's how the regulars liketo treat it. That leaves the musicians like a television in the corner, and if the set doesn't start entertaining they switch to a loud conversation channel.

No such worries for Hellriegel and her band who rang out over the babble with the big nagging riff of Richmond Road Revisited and a languid reading of the title track from the It's My Sin album. The applause would have been louder but with a fine ale in one hand and nowhere to put it down the sound of one hand flapping wasn't a true reflection of our appreciation.

Without their slightly excessive studio gloss, the raw power of Hellriegel's songs became apparent as the night wore on. While it was hardly the artist stripped bare, the smoothness of the album at least looked a bit dishevelled, the lush vocals gaining a rough edge. I'm Alive was writ large while the new songs maintained a pretty high strike rate with the dodgy Stupidest Thing compensated for by Ice.

The three-guitar assault had lyricism to spare, and easily accomodated both the rock energy of I'm Alive or The Way I Feel as well as the big sweep of Touch Greenstone, the best new song of the night. Hellriegel was concerned that everyone got away before midnight - "Don't you all have work tomorrow?" - and gave us her best rolling home kind of a song, Westy Gals. The langurous tone was just right, and while it doesn't have the big dumb quality of an anthem (for the westy girls who didn't get away) it's a nice way to say goodbye.

Jan Hellriegel - no worries.