Louisa Nicklin at Double Whammy
Friday 20 September 2024
Full feature by Gannon Platts-Mills
Photography by Milad Asadi
Hailing from Tāmaki Makaurau, Louisa Nicklin has emerged in the indie scene championing a damning style, complete with morose and mournful vocal passages, her self-proclaimed ‘weird voice’ a thrilling freshness to ears worn by cut and paste melodic indie vocals.
Showcasing songs primarily from her recently released “The Big Sulk”, Nicklin drew a vibrant crowd of fans to the last show on a tour that has taken Nicklin and Co pinballing up and down the land of the long white cloud. With drummer Mason Fairey and bassist Eamon Edmundson-Wells filling out the backline along with Ali Burns on synth and guitar, the group has clearly honed their setlist to perfection over their month of touring. An effortlessly tight and creative ensemble, peppered with such talented guests as Shayne P Carter, Durham Fenwick and Chelsea Prastiti throughout the night. Most of whom are frequent collaborators with Nicklin, filling out the stage at various points to create a spectacle of musical symbiosis, as the crowd and artists became increasingly connected in the intimate and inclusive atmosphere.
Green Grove gripped the crowd from the first moment with his hypnagogic creations. His music caught me by surprise as a first-time listener, with Durham Fenwick’s alias manifesting in me a presumption of a thumping, swampy, dub groove. This multi-instrumentalist couldn’t be further from it. Rather this entrancing individual produced what can only be described as soothing audio collages, so tastefully layered that my brain could hardly separate the music from the haze of the house lighting that hung in the air.
Groopchat followed with a similarly intoxicating energy, a formidable trio whose on-stage presence only grew with each successive punk anthem. Denoted by catchy hooks that one couldn’t help but scream out from the crowd, and infectious chemistry that radiated between the three, flashing grins at each other across the stage. They are certainly a very easy band to root for.
With a palette seasoned by the tasteful and talented acts that proceeded, my attention was piqued as the house lights dropped on the stage, prefacing the Auckland native’s home-ground crescendo.
Nicklin’s repertoire seems to have a strong grasp of dynamics, leafing back and forth between such deep cuts as “The Shroud” and high energy “Thick” (that harkens one’s mind back to some of the darker, wailing Siouxsie and The Banshees anthems). The occasionally heavy drums and demo tape Cobain-esque guitar at points strikes a pleasant contrast to the stunning simplicity of many of the fingerstyle passages that dance a careful waltz beneath Nicklin’s vocals, unmuddied by suggestive progressions.
Throughout the performance, my ear is drawn by Nicklin’s ethereal reverby-picking progressions which seem to invoke the melodramatic inner child in me, particularly produced live, calling to mind those primitive emotions that are so easy to get stuck on… and sulk about.
And with the final bass note of “Thick” plucked, Nicklin’s emphatic sulk came to a close, rounding out her tour of Aotearoa. I exited awestruck, and more than just a little bit excited for her projects to come.
Watch the video for 'Thick' by Louisa Nicklin below!
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