August 9th, 1993

by Possum

Jan Hellriegel played the Hillcrest to a modest sized crowd. This seemed to impress Jan who was only anticipating a meagre turnout.

She played some old songs and many of her new ones. The new songs are sung in her characteristic low voice, giving the impression that Jan was deep-throating the lyrics, giving a very sultry sound. I was a little bit disappointed that the new songs appeared to follow the same formula. But stay tuned for an upcoming album.

Jan's band were rather lacking in energy and the drummer seemed to drown out the subtleties of her music. The crowd got into the old stuff but were rather stand-offish in the beginning, there was a lack of connection of sorts between artist and audience.

The highlight of the evening was Jan's cover of Motorhead's song Ace of Spades. The place started to rock and the crowd was enthralled... but she said that she was running out of songs and if anyone would like to make a request... Someone did but unfortunately she didn't know it. What a shame 'cos Jan does good covers.

If the music didn't please you, then it was worth going to hear Jan's pearls of wisdom. The best anecdote she told was about when she asked by Australian journalists why NZ music had such a distinctive sound. She replied 'Because we are all losers'. Oh Jan...