Gig Review: The Butlers at Neck of the Woods

The Butlers at Neck of the Woods, Friday 4 October 2024 

Full feature by Matthew Pledger 

Photography by Sean Hollier 

Friday night's sold-out Butlers gig at Neck of the Woods was a lovely reminder that Kiwi tunes in a sweaty little dungeon with a bunch of strangers is just fucking fantastic. 

The Butlers just clocked up a very committed 7-year relationship with making lovely tunes, and they keep getting better and better. Watching The Butler's play is just like an amazing casual relationship, it’s fun, it’s hot, it usually coincides with drinking alcohol, annnnnnd you’ll wanna see them all the time to end the night. 

There were moments on stage where the band looked so free and in the moment. That sort of creative looseness is special to witness, and I imagine it's absolutely liberating to be a part of on-stage. One of the great musical tangents was portrayed by lead singer Walt when he reinforced the idea that a little T-Pain hurt nobody, and gave us a verse from “Buy U A Drank” towards the end of “No Good Nina”.

Big Red on the saxophone was phenomenal. The sax solos throughout the night were magical, and there was a moment where Big Red took front and centre and blew the house down. “I think we’ll keep him around,” said Walt as he wrapped Big Red in a warm embrace. 

Bradley King who is allegedly “very single” and most definitely very good at playing Lead Guitar went back and forth with Big Red on the Sax in a solo-off. This may sound ridiculous but it felt like the two were using their instruments to have a conversation with each other, it was quite intimate in the way they were so intensely focused on each other and listening. 

“We wrote this [Leopard Of Sweet Dreams] from our first RnV experience,” Walt paused, and then went on, “I won't get into it, but nothing good happened that night except this.” That song, on that night, was its own concert. The tune was delightfully drawn out and sounded so psychedelic. The songwriting on that tune doesn't get the credit it deserves, 

“And there were two tigers with sunkissed skin, 

wrapped up in roses of wreath, 

out of the shadows came a cheetah, 

he looked like an angel but sounded like chaos” 

Those words so beautifully capture a moment and feeling. The way Leopard Of Sweet Dreams crescendoed to the sax solo was spiritual. Just see The Butlers, experience it, let the tunes wash over and through you! 

‘No Good Nina’ has grown into a Kiwi anthem, and so it should be. A sold-out choir sang together. Another gorgeously written song.

“I’m tryna stay straight and narrow like I probably should

But oh my Nina you’re just no good, you’re just no good

You go the things that i want, the things that i like, 

No good Nina keeps me up all night” 

By the way, add George Berry to the Mount Rushmore of singing drummers. George Berry, Karen Carpenter, Anderson .Paak, Phil Collins. 

Friday night was truly The Butlers at their best. If you are a casual fan and haven’t yet dipped your toes into seeing them live, do it, they are great. Also, the crowd The Butlers attract are such a lovely group of people, it feels like a community more than just a group of people. 

The Butlers were great, and so were Sam Cullen and Double Parked who also played.

Art that makes you feel something, whether it’s sadness, awe, joy or something you can latch onto and connect with is like magic. Sam Cullen’s, 'The Cold Midwinter’ so incredibly captures the feeling of being in an Invercargill pub at 4am in the morning. It’s sad, and personal, but also triumphant in an overcoming way. It's a song that could very nicely sit on Sam Fender's latest album Seventeen Going Under. It’s phenomenal. 

Double Parked took to the stage next. They were so fucking aggressively Kiwi, in the same way, Fontaines D.C. are Irish, and Amyl & the Sniffers are Aussie. Infectious and raucous from start to end. They had it all, and they sounded like a band that could play on a very big stage in front of a very big audience. 

‘West Coast’ was one of the highlights during the set. The guitar solos, the drummer absolutely beating the life out of his kit, and the chanting “It’s a West Coast lifestyle” were all magic.

One of the lads in the band saw The Gorillaz play at Coachella, which was maybe the inspiration to cover ‘Feel Good Inc’. That cover was heavy, rocky and wild. They absolutely killed the De La Soul rap verse too.

All in all the sweaty dungeon that is Neck of the Woods was a paradise of Kiwi tunes and stories on Friday night and it was. Unbeatable. 

I left the gig with such a full heart, being able to see 3 very talented Kiwi bands was beautiful. It was my Swiss cousin's first day in Aotearoa, and together we got to experience such a uniquely Kiwi night out. That's priceless. So thank you to The Butlers, Double Parked, Sam Cullen and everyone at Neck of the Woods for a helluva time.