Gig Review: The Veils @ Meow Nui, Wellington – 04/07/2026

“Hello, I’m 33, I’m a Cancer, and I need a cigarette,” she announces with her usual dry, ironic humour. Unfortunately, it may have fallen a bit flat. The room wasn’t really paying much attention when Jazmine Mary came out to open the night’s proceedings. Appearing solo, she delivered a stripped-back set of dark folk: some songs I knew, such as Narcotics Anonymous and Back of the Bar, and some I didn’t, including a brilliant new one about a “miserable house”. Unfortunately, I don’t think many in the late-filling room knew them either. The response was, I thought, cruelly muted. That was unfair. She’s been in town a few times. I think I saw her about this time last year at Meow, Nui’s sister club down the road, where she was really well received. Her album I Want To Rock is an instant classic to these ears – a heady mix of slow-burning dream-folk, breathy vocals, minimal guitar arrangements, haunting calm, and dark irony. A shame it didn’t land like that tonight.

The Veils’ Fragile World album tour had its final stop “in your beautiful city”, Finn Andrews exclaimed as he took the stage tonight. He’s always been a bit of a charmer. They kicked off with Aurora, from the new album, a song that may well have been inspired by the weather phenomenon he experienced last year while staying around these parts. It was atmospheric, accented by Tom Healy’s beautiful guitar licks – shafts of sonic light that seemed tuned to the cold, bold colour frequencies of the aurora itself. Quite mesmerising.

That was followed by the equally stunning Lungs, which I can’t help comparing, just a little, to Florence and the Machine – not only because of the common title, but because of the euphoric arc Finn and the band build over the course of the song.

Finn’s voice is a little strained, and the cracks show, yet they seem to add a touch of vulnerability, too. He soldiers on despite the obvious ravages of touring and winter, and the band smashes out one of their biggest hits, Swimming With The Crocodiles, with awesome force. Joseph McCallum appears chilled and relaxed behind his kit, but he’s driving that kick drum with a focused, almost hypnotic force.

Tall, gangly Dave Khan has been hovering over on-stage right, conspicuous through his subtle contributions on vocals, keys, and shakers, until now, when his trademark violin comes out for a very sweet rendition of Birds from 2013’s Time Stays, We Go. From there, the anguish and menace build. There’s more than a hint of Nick Cave and The Black Seeds in the manic delivery of Here Comes The Dead, Low Lays The Devil, and the closer, Jesus For The Jugular. There is plenty of wild ranting, clashing drums, violent guitars – thanks to Healy and long-time Veil member Dan Raishbrook – and swirling violin from Khan, with Andrews’ fire-and-brimstone preacher antics unfolding under dark, gothic, blood-toned lighting.

Yet not all of the set is like this. It’s also peppered with soulful, poetic numbers such as the singalong lullaby The Dream Of Life, an “attempted country song” (My Foolish Heart), mystical Grecian underworlds (The Ladder), and vibrant optimism (New Day). Altogether, it shows what a vast range of styles and moods Finn Andrews is capable of producing. And, to be honest, I’ve yet to hear him produce a clanger. Every song in his canon has its own individuality and commonality.

At the end of the set, the band leaves and Finn returns to play a delicate number from his own back catalogue, before Khan rejoins for the very last song. The rest don’t return. That seems a little unfinished, somehow.

By the end, Meow Nui felt less like a venue than a storm cellar: intimate, charged, and rattling with something half-sacred and half-feral. The Veils had moved with ease from spectral folk to full-band exorcism, threading the fragile new material through older favourites until the whole set felt like one long, fevered transmission. Andrews’ voice was clearly fraying by the final stretch, but somehow that only made the closing run more gripping. It held just long enough for a stunning, spine-tingling Axolotl – one last flash of beauty from a band still capable of sounding bruised, dangerous, and utterly alive. Anything more might have broken him. Leave them wanting more, they say. And we did.

Photo Credit: Finn Zemba for Muzic.NZ
The Veils Gallery
Jazmine Mary Gallery