By Amberleigh Jack
NZ rock stalwarts Shihad played their second-to-last gig ever as part of the Loud Forever tour at Auckland's Spark Arena on Friday night. Photo: Supplied/ Nick Paulsen
Review - As the 1996 anthem 'Home Again' brought the curtains down on Shihad's two-hour Auckland swan song gig, I felt a pang of regret.
I turned down seeing the Wellington rockers for the first time at some stage in the 1990s. There had been more "not tonight" moments over the years. Sure, I loved the band, I'd been to shows, I'd heard all the albums, sung loudly and off-key to anthems over the years and had heated, late night discussions with strangers about how no Kiwi rock band performs better live.
But Shihad was our rock security blanket for a long time. It was easy to take for granted, because it'd always be there in the background.
Then suddenly it wasn't.
For Friday's penultimate show of the Loud Forever farewell tour, Jon Toogood, Karl Kippenberger, Phil Knight and Tom Larkin - with an uncanny ability to bring exceptional power and talent to the stage - added a final accolade to their 37-year career, selling more single show tickets than any local hard rock headlined gig.
Karl Kippenberger (left) and Jon Toogood, bringing the frantic wall of sound Shihad are known for. Photo: Supplied/ Connor Crawford
I lost count at 20-something songs during the two-hour set that included tracks from each of the band's 10 studio albums. Each one bringing ferocity, raised arms and intense noise to the packed arena, pausing only during brief technical guitar intermissions. Unintentional, and no doubt frustrating, but not enough to dampen the energy flow between this band and crowd.
Later, backstage, bassist Kippenberger tells me that rather than feeling like the end of something, Friday's show felt like another gig to celebrate. Although on this night, "there were a lot of people crying in the front row for 'Home Again'". And that really hits home.
"... again," laughs Larkin.
Still, "the energy of all those people… there's nothing sad about it. I love it," Kippenberger says.
Shihad drummer Tom Larkin Photo: Supplied/ Connor Crawford
It was clear the Spark Arena crowd threw that love back in spades.
I arrived in time to see another Kiwi act, D4, give a quickly-filling arena a lesson in blue jean-wearing, guitar-sliding, amp-climbing rock and roll fun. 'What I Want' saw a mini mosh forming centre stage, and inspired the gentleman beside me to light a joint and slide on his indoor sunnies.
But when the black-clad members of the main act walked on stage, the crowd gave a hint of the kind of noise more than 6000 fans are capable of producing. The band responded by breaking straight into 'Tear Down Those Names' from their latest album, Old Gods.
It was heavy, it was metal, it was the kind of loud that hits you, physically, deep in your chest.
Shihad Photo: Supplied/ Nick Paulsen
Toogood, the ringmaster of this metal circus can still command a stage like he's in his 20s. Whether calling for raised hands, claps, or jumping, the crowd obliged. He urged everyone to "get your f..ken hands in the air" and up they went, and stayed up.
But while the first half of the set, powering through hits from the most recent albums, gave good noise, the raised metal hands directly before 'Comfort Me' seemed to be the cue, for band and crowd alike, to prove - for the rest of the set - this one goes to 11.
Photo: Supplied/ Nick Paulsen
This felt like a final gig we'll all be retelling stories from in 20 years, whether watching the cellphone light show and swaying arms during 'Pacifier', joining a choir of thousands for the chorus of 'Run', dancing and sweating with strangers to the Split Enz cover 'I Got You' or catching a lump in the throat as the curtain finally closed with the only anthem that could precede lights up on Shihad's final Auckland showdown - 'Home Again'.
Shihad's Phil Knight, during Friday's gig. Photo: Supplied/ Connor Crawford
With just one remaining set left in the band's 37-year run - at Saturday's Homegrown Festival in Wellington - I ask the band if reality has set in yet.
"It hasn't hit me. It's f…ing weird. It's the weirdest thing," Knight says.
Jon Toogood Photo: Supplied/ Connor Crawford
Larkin likens the situation to planning a funeral and ensuring everything is planned and executed in the best possible way to honour the person.
"That's part of your duty to putting them to rest," he says.
In a way, that's what the band's doing now: Making sure the shows are the best they can be each night.
"You don't want to take that moment to absorb the grief," he says.
"You feel it, and you carry it, and you use that to help you deliver it … I think that's how we're getting through it."
And for those heading to Homegrown on Saturday night?
Larkin says there's a special announcement planned for the end of the set, and he and Kippenberger laugh.
"It's not going to be very Kiss-like, but it's a special announcement." (At Kiss's final show at Madison Square Garden in 2023, the band announced a plan to continue performing - as digital avatars).
"The plan for tomorrow is to do the best f…in' show we can," Knight says.
Photo: Supplied/ Connor Crawford
And with that, the band we're not quite ready to let go of is set to take its final bow.
The D4's Jimmy Christmas said it perfectly earlier in the night: "Thank you boys for everything. Loud forever, motherf…ers."
Photo: Supplied/ Connor Crawford
Photo: Supplied/ Nick Paulsen
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