Thursday 14 March 2013

Let Her Go


“Well you only need the light when it's burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go

Only know you've been high when you're feeling low
Only hate the road when you’re missin' home
Only know you love her when you let her go
And you let her go”

Let Her Go – Passenger (aka Mike Rosenberg)

To make my life simpler and easier I name my blogs after the title song. This blog is technically called Let Her Go – but if I could give it another name it would be How to Confuse Your Audience in Five Songs.

Let me explain. Last Saturday night the gorgeous and talented Ed Sheeran took over Vector Arena with a fantastic performance. Like with most concerts there were the opening acts to sit through. I thought I had my faith renewed in these acts since discovering Luger Boa, Clap Clap Riot and other great Kiwi musicians. Alas, it wasn’t so with this recent event, as Mike – or “Passenger” - came on stage for a quick visit before handing over to the world’s favourite red head.

Passenger started off his set with a new song. It was so new, Passenger informed us, we should bear with him if he got the lyrics wrong or messed up the chords. Okay, not a convincing start. Onto song number two, which was a cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s Sound of Silence. Passenger said he wanted the crowd to be ... silent for the song (I see what you did there, Mike). The cover was, most unfortunately, one of the worst, overdramatic covers I’d ever heard. I just didn’t get it. Song three: a novelty song where the audience was sing along some lalalala thing if you agreed with the things Passenger was singing that he hated. For the record, Passenger hates include racism and pointless Facebook status updates (yes, in the same song). Song four was his single, a bit forgettable in my opinion. And song five was a sweet sing a long about having hope in our hearts (though I got confused with his accent and accidentally sung about having holes in our hearts). Amongst all this Passenger was joking about his life and career and being in New Zealand. Yes, all very, very confusing – from the performance to the mash up of emotion I was left with, I was mystified.

Right, so if I didn’t like his performance so much, why dedicate a blog to him? Because I kind of liked him too – he amused me and got the crowd enthused in his own way. I would love to see him in a pub over a few beers with some mates. There’s a great market for singing stand up comedians and I wish Passenger toured the world doing this, because I would pay to see it. This has stumped me even more though – how do I love and hate something at the same time!

This is music though: the amazing, the terrible and the utterly confusing. 


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