Troy Kingi playing at The Church, Christchurch, Friday 24 November 2023. Photo: Dan Buchanan
By Dan Buchanan*
Review - I first saw Troy Kingi on TV nearly a decade ago. It was a Saturday morning kids show and he was making his way through a few songs from his first EP, strumming his acoustic guitar and crooning soulfully. I remember thinking then that this guy would be one to watch.
Fast forward 10 years and Bay of Islands-based Kingi has become a national taonga. He has won numerous awards, nominations, mentorships, movie parts and the 2020 Mātairangi Mahi Toi Māori Artist Residency at Government House.
Now, Kingi is nearing the end of a monumental task - 10 albums, 10 genres, 10 years. Ask any creative worth their salt what they think about it and they just shake their head in disbelief. An undertaking this big would destroy most artists, but here we are. Album seven in the 10-10-10 series, Time Wasters: Soundtrack to Current Day Meanderings has been out for a week and Troy Kingi and The Room Service are in town to perform it live and showing no signs of slowing down.
New brew pub on the block The Church (yes, actually a former church) surprised me as venue of choice for the gig, but I guess that is one of the qualities that make Troy Kingi special. Much like his forte for bending genres, he is always a pleasant surprise and this venue too had me second guessing first impressions.
The Church is a beautiful venue and welcome addition to the live music scene, set to become a favorite for locals and live music alike. Opening act DJ duo Craigslist put the exceptional sound system through its paces with a selection of vinyl that would have made the main act happy and had plenty of folk up dancing. Nice to see local legend and previous album collaborator Delaney Davidson in the crowd too.
Kingi took the stage a little after 10pm and grooved through a selection of tracks from the new album. His self confessed favourites 'Rubix', 'Fantasy League' and 'Chess' getting cheers from the faithful. It was hard to imagine how an instrumental gig would be received but the pocket that bassist Marike Hodgson and drummer Treye Liu sat in set a solid foundation to boogie to and laid the perfect base for Forrest Thorpe to layer keys, trumpet and harmonies under Kingi's guitar and vocals.
Other tracks of note were Zygertron album opener 'Aztechknowledgey', a nice touch with the vocals partly substituted for guitar. Throwback to classic 'Cold Steel' was well received as were the many other tracks including a cover of a recent Marlon Williams hit that Kingi admitted "I've been thrashing all year".
I would not fault Kingi if he retired at the end of 10-10-10 to spend time on his other passions. I would be happy just having seen him deliver his sermon tonight at The Church. As one crowd member said, his Christchurch show felt like "a new spiritual awakening".
* Dan Buchanan is a music reviewer based in Christchurch.