Salient

Che Fu and the Vector Wellington Orchestra

By Tony Barnao | 22 Sep, 2008

Saturday 13 September
Michael Fowler Centre

Che Fu is the master of uplifting, inspiring melodies and lyrics. Che can bring shivers to the back of your neck. And an orchestra has been known to have exactly the same profound effect upon the audience. The combination of the two was bound to be the recipe for an epic performance.

Che and his boys the Crates strutted onto the stage dressed in tight black blazers and took their respective positions next to the orchestra. No pissing around either. Straight into it. At times Che’s band and the orchestra were extremely tight, but at other points they fell out of sync with each other. I felt that, had they had the chance to practice more with the orchestra, this could have been a much tighter performance. But I totally believe that these collaborations need to happen WAY more often. If I can recall, New Zealand pop music has done fuck all of this: we have had Bic Runga, Shapeshifter, Salmonella Dub and now Che Fu. Orchestras barely ever play popular music, they are always playing dead people’s music. It’s totally time that we use the power of live orchestras to enhance our modern music because these performances have the potential to truly inspire the masses into a much higher standard of contemporary pop music. Let’s face it, pop music today is totally fucking SOULLESS. Which is why I LOVED it when Che played his new song. His lyrics implied that there are not enough songs about love de love love on the radio! Che is a man who knows what the fuck is going on. His lyrics are pretty fucking inspiring, I would call Che a modern day prophet in a totally literal sense. Just listen to his fucking lyrics.

At times in the performance, Che’s almost gospel-like voice, mixed with the sound of the live orchestra, was a truly blissful experience. By the second half, fans ran down the isles and up to the front to perform the electric boogaloo.

Total Phatness.