Reb Fountain & Dave Khan
16th June 2021
OngaOnga Hall, OngaOnga, New Zealand.
Review by Rob Harbers, photography by Andrew Caldwell.
After a successful opening volley, the Small Hall Sessions return this week with the powerhouse that is Reb Fountain, playing alongside frequent collaborator Dave Khan. The first night of this round took place in the community of OngaOnga (population 168), and it’s sold-out status vindicates the efforts put in by all involved in this venture, with approximately ¾ of the audience being drawn from a small radius around the community. Truly taking the music to the people!
I last saw Reb play at Toitoi, with a full band, and there was a marked contrast between the two performances. Not to say that either was better or worse, just different from each other. Where the larger format drew on a wider sonic palette, in this more intimate setting the focus is much more on the voice, with the sparse accompaniment allowing for a different feel to the material – more on this to come.
The set opened with “Dance With Death Alive”, drawing on older material first-up, one of a trio from 2017’s “Hopeful and Hopeless” that would be played. Its lyrics spoke of “the only imprint we get to remind us we’re still alive”, while urging listeners to experience every moment, something of a musical memento mori, and a poignant note on which to begin. “Faster” followed on, ironically (given its title) played at a more languid pace than the recorded version. This allowed the voice to shine, setting up for the pleasures to come. Somehow its riff brought to mind “Wichita Lineman”, particularly Michael Stipe’s rendition, but that’s probably just me…
Peggy Seeger’s “Swim to the Star” with lyrical content drawing on the sinking of the Titanic, provided more texture, before two more songs from “Hopeful/Hopeless”, the title track and “Gold”. This first half almost functioned as an extended meditation on the themes explored on that EP, ones of, essentially, living every moment while we can. New song “Intermission”, marking the end of the first set (leading in to the, you guessed it, intermission!) continued in this vein, a central line being “This is how we make it out alive”, and nicely closed the loop with the first song, making for a unified suite of material drawing on similar sources.
Kicking off the second set was “Hawks and Doves”, giving Reb a chance to display her vocal range, on a song with a slow-burning intensity to it, leading in to new song “Psyche” with a stark piano accompanying further impressive and emotional vocals. New single “Heart” was given a fragile rendering, before “Hey Mom”, written during lockdown, closed out the night’s new material with a stunningly intense vocal arrangement. As mentioned previously, this smaller format allowed the vocals to stand out, and on this number they sure did!
Two songs from last year’s eponymous album closed out the main set, being “Samson” and “Don’t You Know Who I Am” respectively, the latter in particular displaying further the unique place that Reb occupies in music, somewhere out towards Cave-land, via a diversion through Patti Smith’s New York.
A standing ovation called for the encore, this being delivered in the form of “Blue Smoke”, taking us back 80 years(!) and breathing new life into this New Zealand classic. A fitting end to a bravura performance, one which held its audience enraptured throughout, and promises much for the next 4 nights, all but one of which are sold out – so if you haven’t got tickets yet, you’ll be up for an exploration of the HB countryside, in the form of a Saturday trip to Sherenden (the only date and venue not yet sold out, at time of writing) – but it’ll be a trip well worth the taking!
As I’ve said before, the way that we get to have more of these is by supporting them – so get yourself out there and go experience the warmth of your local communities on these cold winter nights!
Were you there at the OngaOnga Hall for this intimate gig? Or have you seen Reb Fountain & Dave Khan perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Set list:
Note: The Small Hall Sessions provided passes to Ambient Light to review and photograph this concert. As always, this has not influenced the review in any way and the opinions expressed are those of Ambient Light’s only. This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase a product using an affiliate link, Ambient Light will automatically receive a small commission.
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