Opening the show was Whanganui songwriter Anthony Tonon, who delivered an unexpected, but very creative and quirky solo set.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t mind it, though it did take me a couple of songs to figure him out.<\/p>\n
When Dobbyn took the stage, the audience erupted in cheers.<\/p>\n
It was a full house; the audience was buzzing yet completely silent and it felt like we were witnessing history.<\/p>\n
On stage, Dobbyn was accompanied by an incredibly talented seven-piece band.<\/p>\n
Behind them, a large image of the Twist album cover filled the backdrop, setting the visual tone for the evening.<\/p>\n
The stage setting was simple, but the lighting and the new theatre space did a great job in creating an incredible atmosphere.<\/p>\n
At 69, and living with Parkinson\u2019s, Dobbyn\u2019s performance is nothing short of remarkable.<\/p>\n
Sir Dave Dobbyn at BNZ Theatre in Hamilton. Photo \/ Levi Santana<\/p>\n
I know voices can lose range with age, but his hasn\u2019t lost a thing.<\/p>\n
Control, tone, power \u2013 it\u2019s all there.<\/p>\n
More than that, there\u2019s warmth, generosity and a quiet authority that only comes from decades of writing songs that matter.<\/p>\n
Dobbyn played big fan favourites but also a few surprises.<\/p>\n
A highlight for me was You Outta Be In Love, because I\u2019ve never heard this song live before, so it was a real surprise and a genuine treat.<\/p>\n
Dobbyn dedicated it to all the couples in the room, and everyone sang along.<\/p>\n
There was strong representation from the album Twist, including It Dawned on Me, as well as tracks from Lament for the Numb like Maybe The Rain, and a welcome surprise in Be Mine Tonight and Language.<\/p>\n
Slice of Heaven and Welcome Home turned the room into a single voice, as everyone sang and danced along.<\/p>\n
Notable omissions were Loyal, Whaling and Bliss, but their absence wasn\u2019t felt too deeply because he performed so many other great songs.<\/p>\n
I could tell the Hamilton performance meant a lot to Dobbyn.<\/p>\n
On several occasions, he admitted to feeling nervous, perhaps due to the weight of expectation for the brand-new theatre, but also because it was a special family moment.<\/p>\n
His son Eli Dobbyn shared the stage with him, playing percussion in the band, while his wife, sister and brother-in-law, who travelled from the US, were in the audience.<\/p>\n
He dedicated his performance of Beside You for them, which felt quite special.<\/p>\n
Between songs, Dobbyn was relaxed and engaging with the audience, joking about expecting cowbells from the crowd \u2013 a warm nod to the Chiefs.<\/p>\n
He showed himself to be every bit the good man New Zealand has long believed him to be.<\/p>\n
The night ended with the crowd demanding he and his band to return to the stage not once, but twice \u2013 and they delivered the encores magnificently.<\/p>\n
Following a performance by Teeks on Friday, Dobbyn was the second big artist to perform at the BNZ Theatre.<\/p>\n
I think there is something beautifully fitting about him being such a big part of the theatre\u2019s opening weekend: one of New Zealand\u2019s greatest songwriters who helped form the idea of what it means to be a Kiwi, contributes to the launch of a new cultural home for Waikato, a space that will define us into the future.<\/p>\n
Blair Dowling is the Hits Waikato 10-3 day show host. He is also a long-time musician and the drummer of local band Jesse and the O\u2019Brien\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opening the show was Whanganui songwriter Anthony Tonon, who delivered an unexpected, but very creative and quirky solo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[28500,43863,9635,83062,149399,156,793,4968,8531,25140,13840,3302,130,111,139,69,5270,2682,6777,762,58423,5257,544,4626,131,7069,810],"class_list":["post-260040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-bnz","tag-certainly","tag-dave","tag-dobbyn","tag-dobbyns","tag-entertainment","tag-felt","tag-gigs","tag-hamiltons","tag-lights","tag-like","tag-matter","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-one","tag-others","tag-performance","tag-review","tag-selected","tag-significant","tag-some","tag-songs","tag-than","tag-theatre","tag-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}