Live at The Powerstation
3 October 2026
Live Review by Music Journalist: Paul Marshall
America, 20 Years On – And Still No Backing Track
It's another night at The Powerstation in Mt Eden, and I arrive just as the doors are opening. There are surprisingly only about fifty people standing outside.
I'm guessing the majority are still across the road at Galbraith's, sucking down a lager or two before committing themselves to the evening.
Tonight's headliners are Razorlight, finally making their first-ever headline appearance in New Zealand as part of their America 20th Anniversary Tour. The tour celebrates the band's self-titled second album, the record that went five-times platinum in the UK, hit Number One and turned Razorlight into one of the defining British guitar bands of the mid-2000s.
But before we get to Razorlight, there is a support act.
No Broadcast.
I've never heard of them.
A quick Google search tells me they're a Christchurch band with a history stretching back to 2007.
I look at the stage.
No drum kit.
No collection of amplifiers.
No obvious evidence that a four-piece Christchurch band is about to take the stage.
It doesn't take long to solve the mystery.
Josh Braden walks onto the stage alone.
No announcement. No explanation. No grand entrance.
He simply picks up a guitar and starts playing.
Quietly.
Very quietly.
It's less "ladies and gentlemen, please welcome No Broadcast" and more like you've just stepped into an elevator and somebody has pressed play on the background music.
The first song is peaceful, ethereal and laid-back. There's nothing inherently wrong with it, but this is The Powerstation and the room is filling up for Razorlight. The atmosphere is already starting to work against him.
The second song brings out a loop pedal.
I'm hoping this might be the moment when things begin to build.
They don't.
The music remains subdued, and around the room conversations begin to rise above the performance. People aren't being deliberately rude; Braden simply isn't commanding their attention.
And that's the problem.
Music can be quiet and still grab you by the throat. It can be sparse and completely mesmerising.
Tonight, this isn't doing that.
By now the audience chatter is louder than the music.
At one point even the lighting guy appears to have surrendered, leaning on the lighting desk while tapping away on his phone.
Near the end Braden says:
"Thank you very much for being here and thank you very much for listening."
And fair play to him.
He gets through it.
The good news for the roadies is that there isn't much gear to clear from the stage.
Razorlight are next.
And suddenly, everything changes.
The lights drop.
The band explode onto the stage.
"Rip It Up."
From the opening note, you know you're dealing with an entirely different proposition.
The Powerstation is now packed, and the crowd is a great cross-section of ages. There are people here who bought Razorlight when it came out in 2006, people who discovered the band later, and younger fans who weren't even old enough to remember when America first hit the charts.
And they're all jumping.
Johnny Borrell is on fire.
His voice is warm, silky and remarkably strong. There is none of the vocal wear and tear you might expect from a singer who has spent two decades fronting one of Britain's most recognisable guitar bands.
Then there's drummer Andy Burrows.
His Ludwig kit has been rather wonderfully decorated with what appears to be a jungle's worth of pristine plastic green leaves.
I suspect this may be the compromise.
The hired kit is grey.
Burrows is famously associated with playing a green Ludwig kit.
So what do you do when the real thing isn't available?
Apparently, you bring the garden with you.
I love it.
And Burrows is fantastic.
His drumming drives the songs without ever overpowering them, while his backing vocals add another layer to Borrell's voice. That vocal relationship is one of the understated strengths of the band tonight.
There is remarkably little between-song chatter from Borrell for most of the performance. He doesn't seem particularly interested in standing around telling us stories about the old days.
He's letting the songs do the talking.
Perhaps that's deliberate.
This is the opening New Zealand date of a substantial 20th Anniversary tour, with Australia and a series of shows still ahead. Maybe Borrell is conserving his voice.
Whatever the reason, it works.
Eventually he gives us:
"How you doing... You alright?"
Apparently we are.
Very alright.
Then comes "Before I Fall to Pieces", and The Powerstation turns into a giant karaoke bar.
Hands go up.
People clap.
People stomp.
People dance.
People sing every word.
This is what happens when you put genuinely great songs in front of a room full of people who have been waiting twenty years to hear them played live.
At another point Borrell announces:
"This is what my insides sound like."
Then he proceeds to attack his guitar with a collection of effects, squeezing strange, squelching and distorted sounds out of it.
It's weird.
It's noisy.
And it's brilliant.
Because this isn't a greatest-hits jukebox where every song has been polished until it resembles the record.
They're playing.
They're experimenting.
They're leaving room for things to go sideways.
Then comes "Wire to Wire."
Borrell removes the last remaining barrier between himself and the audience and decides that his shirt is surplus to requirements.
Off it comes.
The female contingent of the audience appears to approve.
But it's what Borrell says later that really sums up the evening.
"We have no click track behind us, no backing track, there's nothing pre-recorded. We make mistakes, we speed up, we slow down, we f*** up, we get it right."
The crowd erupts.
And you can understand why.
Because in an age where live music can sometimes mean watching musicians reproduce a version of a recording through a carefully controlled digital safety net, Razorlight are making a very deliberate point.
This is live.
Every note is happening in front of us.
There is no invisible safety net waiting to catch them.
And yes, occasionally things might not be perfect.
That's the point.
Perfect is what the record is for.
Live music should have danger.
It should breathe.
It should occasionally wobble.
And when a band is good enough, those imperfections become part of the experience rather than mistakes you want removed.
Borrell finishes his little declaration with:
"So thank you for coming out and supporting real live music."
The response tells him exactly what the room thinks.
After "Somewhere Else", the band disappear backstage.
The crowd refuses to let them stay there.
Clapping starts.
Then shouting.
Then cheering.
Then the entire room is demanding their return.
They oblige.
"Goodnight" arrives with a distinctly punkish energy and absolutely whips the place back into action.
And then, finally, the song everyone has been waiting for.
"America."
Phones suddenly appear everywhere.
Screens light up across the room as people attempt to capture the moment for posterity.
It's slightly ironic, really.
Razorlight have spent the evening telling us there is no backing track, no click track and no pre-recorded safety net.
And the audience responds by turning the room into a sea of tiny recording studios.
But nobody seems to care.
Because twenty years after America first arrived, it still has the ability to make a room full of people move.
And perhaps that's the real story of tonight.
Razorlight aren't simply performing an album from 2006.
They're reopening a chapter in people's lives.
For some, these songs are tied to university, first apartments, first jobs, first loves, nights out, cheap drinks, broken hearts and the particular optimism that seemed to surround British guitar music in the early 2000s.
For others, they're simply bloody good songs.
And tonight, in a packed Powerstation, they sound remarkably alive.
Razorlight came to Auckland carrying twenty years of history with them.
They left having made it sound like none of it was history at all.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what live music is supposed to do.
Setlist:
- Rip It Up
- In the Morning
- Sugar High
- Stumble & Fall
- Golden Touch
- Vice
- I Can't Stop This Feeling I've Got
- Before I Fall to Pieces
- In the City
- Wire to Wire
- Hold On
- Cool People
- Pop Song
- Los Angeles Waltz
- Who Needs Love
- Don’t Go Back to Dalston
- Somewhere Else
Encore
18. Back to the Start
19. Good Night
20. America
Reviewer: Paul Marshall
Photography by Paul Marshall
WATCH THE LIVE VIDEO at Paul Was There -