24 Aug 2015

Live review: Pass The Gat at San Fran

10:59 am on 24 August 2015

Louis Baker, Warren Maxwell and Thomas Oliver team up for Pass The Gat.

 

Louis Baker, Warren Maxwell and Thomas Oliver.

Louis Baker, Warren Maxwell and Thomas Oliver. Photo: Unknown

It didn’t seem fair that three very different Wellington guitarists joined forces for the Auckland Arts Festival earlier this year and fans in the capital didn’t get to see them play together. Thankfully on Saturday the audience at San Fran were treated to Pass The Gat, a collaboration between Louis Baker, Warren Maxwell and Thomas Oliver.

Two seats, a wooden box and five guitars decked the stage and the trio joined their instruments to rapturous applause from the crowd. Thomas Oliver began with his beautiful Weissenborn guitar across his knees, Louis Baker had a white electric guitar in hand while Warren Maxwell sat atop the box between the pair with wire brush drumsticks.

Starting the show with Oliver’s ‘The Strangest Feeling I’m Home’, they quickly set the mood, bringing the crowd into a wonderfully intimate show. Oliver’s velvet-like vocals were wonderfully matched with harmonies from Baker and Maxwell.

Maxwell then handed the electric guitar to Oliver, jokingly making mention of passing the gat - “It’s all about branding”, he said - while Baker picked up his acoustic guitar for ‘Just Want To Thank You’.

Maxwell’s gentle brushes again accompanied the lead with Baker’s silky smooth voice gaining adoration from numerous audience members. “Oh, Louis Baker’s voice is just beautiful,” was heard on more than one occasion during the show.

You’d be foolish for thinking that Warren Maxwell plays with anything less than 100% heart and passion and his solo rendition of Little Bushman’s ‘Next Time’, accompanied by the story behind it, garnered a few tears. Losing a baby tugs on the heartstrings as it is, without Maxwell wrapping you up in the woolen warmth of his voice and guitar playing.

While Oliver switched between his numerous guitars with ease, at one point turning the Weissenborn into a purely percussive instrument, his new track ‘If I Move To Mars’ undoubtedly left many members of the audience wishing the soft-rock song was written just for them.

With Oliver’s parents and Aunt in the audience, down from Hawkes Bay, he offered his thanks for their support, noting that other artists didn’t always receive the same encouragement from their family.

A cover of ‘Take Me To The River’ lifted spirits before Maxwell got a bit more political with a recent Trinity Roots song, ‘El Kaptain’, “a song about a pirate captain who wants the boat to go in this direction (pointing right), while the rest of the people on the boat want it to go over there (pointing left).”

Rounding out the set was the song that brought me to Maxwell in the first place and, despite having heard it plenty, the lush vocal and guitar harmonies from the trio in ‘Home, Land and Sea, filled me with contentment.

Seeing these three musicians play was like being at the coolest house party where good friends and family pick up guitars and play.  

Each of them looked totally comfortable to take the lead or to let someone else have the spotlight. They were at ease on stage, with the audience and with each other. Perhaps this is because Thomas, Warren and Louis were enjoying playing songs they love - for family, fans and friends.