Compared to a lot of cities around the world, Auckland doesn’t get much in the way of international DJ talent so when we get one of EDM’s up-and-coming talent powerhouses we get a little hyped up.Off the back of Australia’s Listen Out festival, Red Rum Touring and Soundscape brought Lunice and Hudson Mohawke, aka TNGHT, to Auckland’s Studio for some outright chaos. Sold out to capacity, the 1000-strong crowd all looked like they were on Cinderella’s watch because as midnight chimed, a large queue had formed down K’ Road. 

 

Fortunately it wasn’t necessary for me to queue so I was able to witness Tommy Flowers

and Diaz Grimm warming up the crowd as everyone vied to get into the joint and lock in a

prime viewing spot for the night. Kudos to Tommy Flowers for dropping Fat Joe’s

‘Make it Rain’ as the trap-tastic crowd sang the chorus in unison. 

 

A last-minute announcement of a ‘Special International Guest’ had the crowd guessing…

Just Blaze or Nick Hook? Both were in town for other events and had the night free, and

both would be a great addition to any line-up. As 1am rolled around, the shock of red hair

and energized individual proved that we were in the right ballpark and Nick Hook took to

the stage.

 

Famed for causing a ruckus, this UK native has more than 20 DJ years under his belt

(that’s like 40 of ours in terms of the toll it takes on the body) and took the energy of

the Studio up ten notches in preparation for the headliners. 

 

Given the size and scale of the gig, it was a blinding shock to see the stellar light set-up that Red Rum had brought along. And I mean blinding – the brightest strobe light ever seen pulsated as TNGHT slowly brought their lengthy intro to a head. Boom, it was on! And then it wasn’t. Quickly into the set the unlikely duo (one Canadian, one Scottish) tripped a switch and Auckland’s finest began to chant ‘You f*cked up’. Lunice took this all in his stride and quickly left HudMo to fix the failing sound whilst he took to fixing the failing crowd. Leaping, miming and shaking hands got the crowd’s attention just as the music boomed back to life and the gig continued, but that wasn’t the last we saw of Lunice’s hyper energy front of stage. 

 

With musical references from across the board, TNGHT proved that they don’t entirely fit the trap music mould. From their production of crazy Kanye’s ‘Blood on the Leaves’, to the track that launched TNGHT to the world, “Higher Ground’, to the looping section of ‘You Look Like Shit’ from Mr Oizo and Marilyn Manson’s ‘Solid’, the crowd grew steadily rowdier as the music grew more diverse. Musically the highlight had to be TNGHT’s ‘Goooo’, taking me back to Euro summer festival sets; entertainment-wise Nick Hook going off mid-TNGHT set before a giant stage leap into the crowd. He remained surprisingly buoyant for a skinny dude.