Gig Review: Troy Kingi @ Lōemis Festival, Meow Nui, Wellington – 18/06/2026

Troy Kingi doesn’t do predictable. That much is clear long before he steps onto the stage at Meow Nui on Thursday night, part of Wellington’s Lōemis Festival – a midwinter celebration built on the strange, the fleeting, and the unrepeatable. This show, billed as the Pōneke premiere of Troy Kingi Presents: Night Lords, carried that same sense of rarity. As Kingi himself hinted in my interview with him, bringing together the album’s sprawling cast of collaborators for a single performance felt like catching lightning in a bottle – “who knows when all the stars are going to line up again.” And from the moment the lights dropped, it felt exactly like that.

The …Night Lords project marks Kingi’s ninth entry in his ambitious 10 albums in 10 genres series, pivoting hard into hip-hop and R&B while retaining his instinct for groove and atmosphere. Rather than attempting to dominate the genre, the album – and by extension, this live show – leans into collaboration, handing space to a deep bench of Aotearoa talent. To that end, it was local MC/Singer Mā who kicked off the night with selections from her recent album Blame It On The Weather (which got high accolades at the AMAs and the Taites, recently). They then bring out a few friends. “Troy’s got his entourage,” Mā tells us, “So this is my band….” Fair enough. That works really well, especially on the jazzy lament of whānau lost, Miss You, with help from Romi Wrights. And Iris Little also steps out to provide some sweet BVs on Papa’s Song. There’s a dedication to all the tradies (on the song Mahi), another to the ‘lesbian in the crowd’, a new ‘dis’ track that shreds the Destiny Church (part of a new project) and a funky new ‘reggae-tinged’ groove that morphs into a freestylin’ rendition of the Black Seeds So True.

I’ve seen Mā a few times now and every time they get more and more confident. Their delivery of spoken word, song and rap is totally unique. Incorporating te reo Māori into the music is always a bold move, some can get a bit whakamā about it. Mā has nailed that. They owned the room in that moment and we loved it.

The stage is now set for the main act. And speaking of that, it’s well kitted out. Couches, arm chairs, sheepskin rugs, a lava lamp, an old TV doubles as a drinks cabinet, there’s trinkets, a Japanese maneki‑neko, even an old timey world globe. And later on Melodownz will bring on his Kava bowl to share around. It’s a whānau vibe going on. The general kaupapa of the night is to share the mic. Each MC does a song of their own and one from the Night Lords album. In their ‘down time’ they hang onstage with the others, suppin’ and bopping along to the rhymes. It’s the greenroom onstage and the stage in the greenroom.

The lounge effect also created a real whānau vibe between those on and off the stage. SWIDT has us all doing Mexican waves. Tom Scott shared a doobie with the front row. Mā and Mokomokai hi-fived plenty of hands, too. It was time to celebrate coming together and sharing the kaupapa.

So, the collaborative ethos from the album translates beautifully live. Whether or not every featured artist could physically make it to Wellington, the set was structured to feel like a rolling cipher – voices stepping in and out, songs morphing around different energies. And when guests did appear, the impact was immediate. Mokomokai bursts on with intense energy, and a little bit of fire against the Colonial past, directed into his rhymes on Hori on a Hoiho. It hit with cinematic weight, its themes of identity and conflict conjured through dense, layered arrangements that felt even more immediate in a packed room. Back again Mā brought a cool, magnetic presence to Afters. I loved the funky vibes Diggy Dupé brought to his ‘love song’ about a motorcycle – Yammie Blue. One of my favs on the night, it slid into a looser, more playful pocket – its double-meaning lyricism still intact, but delivered with a swagger that drew knowing reactions from the crowd.

We also saw excellent contributions from the SWIDT boys (who did Isn’t How I Remember), MELODOWNZ (with a stonking version of C The Sun), JessB & Rubi Du (whose cool as River Don’t Change the Flow is so sweet!). A darker kick comes from Brandn Shiraz on No Heaven On Earth and Lucky Lance lightened the mood on Sudden Dip. One of the night’s most gripping moments came with Cold War, where the sharp lyricism associated with Mr Tom Scott’s excellent contribution hovered over the performance. The track’s fractured creation – passed between collaborators to complete – only seemed to amplify its tension live, giving it an unfinished edge that worked in its favour.

To introduce Much Too Late, Kingi admits he’d not included any of the rappers names on the Spotify tracks – so he could hide his own rapping “in plain sight” on this number. He need not have. By the time the set closed, the feeling was less of a standard tour stop and more of a one-night summit of Aotearoa hip-hop – filtered through Kingi’s genre-hopping lens.

In a festival built around winter’s darkness, transformation, and fleeting experiences, Night Lords at Meow Nui felt perfectly placed. Not just a concert, but a convergence – of artists, ideas, and timing.

And if Kingi was right, and this really was the only chance to see this configuration live, then Pōneke just got very, very lucky.

Photo Credit: Tim Gruar for Muzic.NZ
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