NZ Herald :: Brooke Fraser at the Auckland Town Hall

October 18 2004. By Scott Kara

Someone give the back-up singer a tambourine. Please. No doubt she has a great voice, and is a perfect accompaniment to Brooke Fraser, but her hands are either clasped in prayer, held aloft, or at a very distracting loose end most of the time.

Brooke, get your girl a tambourine, or a shaker, or ... something.

But we are here to see Fraser.

She is officially a superstar: she has sold more than 60,000 copies of her album What To Do With Daylight, and has a sold-out Auckland Town Hall gig - something Fraser herself is clearly amazed at.

The sporadic whoops and cries of her name from the audience are further proof of this success.

From her tender solo cover version of People Get Ready, to the crowd-pleasing Anything (complete with a classy whiplash leg movement by Fraser in the chorus), and the anthem Lifeline, Fraser is effortless, yet passionate and gutsy on stage. It's a sign of a natural performer, but more importantly, a natural songwriter.

She is a great pianist and guitar player, but the thing you notice most about her is her voice. She doesn't miss a note. It is gentle, tender and breathy but with a hint of grit and gravel to give it substance.

Interludes between songs include stories about anything from pretending to be in the CIA and hooning around Auckland, to meeting the child she sponsors in Cambodia.

Fraser tells us if you sign up to sponsor a child after the show then you get a free album. But most of them already have the album - you can tell, they're hanging on her every lyric.

Fraser is at her weakest when she funks it up. The final song was the most up the night got, but it lacked the power that the previous song, the beautiful Arithmetic, had.

She may have to live a little longer in the big bad world before the funk comes, but in the meantime lets just sit back, relax and enjoy the sweeter, softer moments.