Berri Txarrack @ Whammy Bar, Auckland – 18/02/2018

Upon arrival to Whammy Bar, the first thing I noticed is the intimate crowd who were circled around the stage as Lookin Up were setting up. They are currently doing a headline tour around NZ and with a quick intro they dove into their set, hammering out track after track. Sam their drummer was clearly into it, as he smashed through the songs with a lot of energy and passion in his face. They were all quite into it, however guitarist//backing vocals Luke and vocalist/guitarist Jamie seemed to stay where they were, although that could have been due to the small stage. Regardless of movement, the crowd clearly enjoying it, as they head banged along. I’m quite surprised no one attempted to 2-step because there were definitely a couple of parts that encouraged that. There were no instrumental faults and the vocals were very clear, providing the crowd with a great set of hardcore music.

The crowd seemed to pack in a bit more as Berri Txarrak began to set up. Then they went straight in playing track after track. Berri Txarrak are from Basque Country and perform all their music in Basque. The first couple of interruptions came with screams of “Auckland!”. Then during 1 song the lights suddenly went out with only the fairy lights providing some form of light. It set a particularly grunge setting which the crowd seemed to be somewhat into. The crowd seemed particularly foreign themselves and clearly knew the bands music.

Then came a song that the crowd had to kick off. Vocalist/Guitarist Gorka Urbizu explained to the crowd how it will go and put them through a few test run with the assistance of Bassist David Gonzalez. The crowd nailed it and the song went off. But the excitement didn’t stop there, their tour manager Pau Vargas then bought a small chocolate mudcake with 1000 on the top. Berri Txarrack were celebrating their 1000^th show and the crowd were so happy for them, they sang Happy Birthday to the band.

The crowd then kept that energy up and clapped along in the next song which they performed in English, a cover of Kids by MGMT. But then it got interesting. Towards the end of the song the whole band froze in position, including drummer Galder Izagirre. Then they didn’t finish it until the crowd screamed loud enough. When the bands set finally ended the crowd made sure it wasn’t over, with what I believe was a ‘1 more song’ chant. The band gave them what they wanted and even came off the stage at the end to share the cake with them.

It was a great show and I’m sure the crowd at Rise Against will enjoy their set too.

_{Review written by Shelley Te Haara}