Live Review: Nahko & Medicine For The People, Mike Love

The talented stylings of Mike Love opened up the stage at Metro Theatre last night by dropping straight into some great reggae grooves. As all four band members were positioned in a row each musician got to share in the limelight. The set highlight came as the crowd chanted "Who will stand with me and fight?" to which Love replied "Who will fight for our mother of the land and the seas?"

First shrouding the stage with incense, Nahko & Medicine For The People emerge amid the haze to a cheering and amped crowd. Wearing a Rolling Stones T-shirt Nahko Bear goes straight for the Telecaster saying "We are just gonna rock out a bit up here so I hope you don't mind." And they did just that, playing through a few tracks from their latest album On The Verge. The crowd cheers wildly as the acoustic plucking of 7 Feathers began.

Budding Trees follows and the crowd naturally dances along to its upbeat rhythm and catchy chorus. Nahko sings along happily before cutting the song midway through and humbly apologising for forgetting the lyrics. Luckily Nahko Bear knows how to roll with the punches and launches into his own little comedy act saying, "You guys have no idea the amount of weird shit that can go through your head on stage like, 'Is my fly undone and is it too weird if I check?', or 'Did I just fart?'"

The first hour of the show is predominantly made up of material from their album Black As Night, including the hit Aloha Ke Akua, which reaches new musical heights as the crowd belted out the chorus in unison. As the set moves into the second hour the band left the stage leaving Bear and drummer Justin Chittams to sing a duet medley of covers. From Drake to Fetty Wap to Adele, Bieber and even some Bob Marley the list goes on and on and on, the crowd cheers wildly.

Then the stage goes dark plunging the crowd into confusion and cries for more. A light filters down on the stage to reveal violinist, Tim Snider playing his instrument like a bass and looping a few melodies before bringing it up to his chin and stringing out a couple of mournful notes. Gradually increasing in tempo Snider starts to launch into a breakneck pace of intense riffs. With most of the hairs literally flayed off of his bow and his head banging wildly the show took a wholly unexpected turn as Medicine For The People jump right into a lengthy, experimental and incredibly psychedelic reggae space-jam.

Each musician took a turn leading the charge but the highlights rode in on the shoulders of guitarist Chase Makai whose talented bluesy climbs so naturally complemented the swirling sounds of reggae. And after a groovy musical Simon Says between the crowd and trumpeter Max Ribner, the entire Mike Love band returned to the stage. Not a single person in the crowd wasn't smiling ear to ear, most of all bassist, Patricio Zuñiga Labarca, who was grinning, grooving and loving every single second of it.

As the jam whittles down to just acoustic strumming somewhere around the shows two-and-a-half-hour mark, Nahko ends the show with Black As Night's title track. As the crowd chants along with the chorus "I am no master, I know nothin'' the audience's journey with Nahko & Medicine For The People came to an end.