Nadia & Ivy at The Church 12/5/13

I knew it was going to be a good night when I discovered that Mei Wah sold deep fried Moros, it had been some time since I'd had my favourite deep fried treat, so I wasn't even bothered that I'd be a bit late to the Dunedin leg of the Nadia Reid & Luckless Tour at The Church on Dundas St. We arrived some way into Ivy Rossiter's set, and as I've managed to miss the opening acts of most of the gigs I've been to lately I wasn't bothered about that either - as long as I didn't miss Nadia!
But I should have been bothered. I have a 'thing' for girls who can play electric guitar, by 'thing' I mean I'm totally and utterly inspired by, and jealous of women behind a guitar, rocking out to a heavy riff, that they wrote, I wish I was that cool. I now have a thing for Ivy. Not only does she have a powerful Janis-esque voice but she can play, boy can she play. By the time she played her last song, 'Better than being blue' I was totally in awe - that one track made my night.
Then it was Nadia's turn. Accompanied by my all time favourite, double bass, she played even better than last time I saw her, which was pretty unbelievable - In a Yurt in Nelson on my birthday last year. As the New Edinburgh Folk Club's 'Clarion' says "This is no gloss-laden floss-pedalling romp through a handful of chords" - Nadia's lyrics are tales of joy and sorrow, and she captures you and takes you on a true journey to the places they came from. I can't  name a favourite track from her - I like them all. She even managed a sweet rendition of Anika Moa's 'Mother' for Mother's Day, I wished my mum had been there watching, I think she would have loved it as much as I did. A glass of red would have been a nice accompaniment too - but poor student status put pay to that.
For a fresh May evening in Dunedin I couldn't have thought of a better way to spend it, and I can't wait for the new material these ladies are working on to become available - I'll be sure to blog that too!