I went to see The Selecter
at Bodega in Wellington last weekend, and while it won’t rate as the best gig I’ve
seen all year, it was certainly one to help restore my otherwise ragged faith in
the concept of the "nostalgia circuit". Fronted by originals Pauline Black and Arthur 'Gaps' Hendrickson, The Selecter offered the not-quite-sold-out venue a highly polished performance; the band was professional, tight, and as sharp as ever. There were new (ish) songs near the end, but for the most part the gig was all about giving the punters exactly what they came to see – old stuff from the Too Much Pressure album, and other tunes from the band's 1979-1981 pomp.
And so we took a trip
back in time, from ‘Three Minute Hero’ second song in, to ‘Missing Words’,
‘Black and Blue’, ‘Celebrate the Bullet’, a superb ‘Train To Skaville’ cover, plus
many others, right on through to stand-outs ‘James Bond’ and ‘On My Radio’, which
closed the set after more than an hour of whirlwind energy. We then got another
20 minutes in the form of an encore, which included ‘Too Much Pressure’, the ubiquitous
title track from the album we were there to celebrate the 35th
anniversary of.
Pretty darned impressive,
recommended even.
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