The Mountain Goats – The Powerstation: April 10, 2026 (13th Floor Concert Review)
With Vaianu visiting the next day, 13th Floor scribe Simon Coffey, slipped one in by catching returning American lofi, indie folk group The Mountain Goats, on their first visit in 16 years at his favourite Tamaki Makaurau venue – The Powerstation.
Sixteen years since John Darnielle last performed in Aotearoa as The Mountain Goats, at the mighty Kings Arms Tavern in Tamaki Makaurau, and Poneke’s San Fran. One accompanying musician on this visit didn’t make that trip, a symptom of the duality of The Mountain Goats in actuality being a vessel for John Darnielle generous musical output.
With 23 albums under his belt, I admit my on and off love affair centers around three albums: 2002’s twin cyclones – All Hail West Texas & Tallahassee, and 2009’s The Life of the World to Come so it was some treppidation I drank beer, waited and listened to Fela Kuti (courtesy of the Mountain Goats spotify show playlist) as the night began.
Where’s Jai
Chatting to one of the crew, we muse as to the interesting choice of opening act, supposedly one of 20 offered, chosen ultimately by who knows. Whereʼs Jai, have been around since 2021, a high school band, an Academy band, made up of North Shore kids, you know, the downtrodden masses with real life stories. Fronted by two singers Grace Allis and Leigh Edmeades, with Michael Walmsley (guitar), Jai Nielsen (bass), and Gene Todd (drums). Onstage, I’m wondering why Allis & Edmeades are dressed like they are backing singers for Poison, while the boys are fully clothed in their emo clobber, is it their schtick perhaps? But which one?
The music, their mahi is easy listening, but energetic pop- rock, competent, no denying they can bang their songs out with appreciative skills, but while they may play indie in the band’s bio, reality is that they long ditched the edginess, as the create a sound that draws from artists like Alanis Morissette, Tadpole and Gwen Stefani (in fact they do a cover of Just A Girl later in their set)
Whereʼs Jai (actually where is the question mark at the end?) play a set mainly from their debut album Fresh Out Of Air, with a couple of new ones, Allis is chatty, the more confident of the two, and brings the audience along, an audience of mainly 40 something and rising, an audience Whereʼs Jai aren’t usually in front of. I repeat myself. The band has chops, and a developing sound, but perhaps some of the weak faux ska/reggae material has done its dash, and it’s time for the band to go their own way.
The Mountain Goats
Darkness envelopes the room, and John Darnielle is joined by John Wurster on drums and Matt Douglas on keys, guitar, bass and saxophone. The band are touring their latest album, 2025’s Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan, and as such they kick off with Rocks In my Pocket from it, thus the rollercoaster ride that is a The Mountain Goats show begins.
Darnielle is chatty, and increasingly conversing in his fast and ever so slightly nervous sounding manner. It’s about the music, the way he creates and is inspired to write, that distinguishes it from generic scripted show banter. As the three, well two (Wurster is nailed to his drum stool) switch between instruments, and as Darnielle darts along the stage, connecting with his big friendly smile, there was an energy of inclusiveness in the room tonight as the audience travelled the night in adoration.
Yes, as Darnielle began, I was taken back a moment to seeing them at the San Fran in Poneke a decade and a half ago, his voice has lost none of its amore, and accented delivery of jovial narratives, narratives of the dystopia and mundanity of reality. Aligned, Wurster and Douglas seamlessly enriched Darnielle acoustic guitar playing, patiently waiting as he occasionally fussed over a momentarily forgotten key (much to his and the audiences mirth)
The night flipped between the three and just he, as blocks of song were traversed and shared in an indie-folk realm, Darnielle shifting between gentle rhythms and fast paced punkish stresses on his guitar. The stories, the chatter, the connecting enthralled, sometimes a little lost as he raced in tempo: referencing the fraughtness of fans singing along, Andrew Eldritch (Sisters of Mercy), that death comes to us all – Bleed Out. There was the rare singalong when This Year seemed the end of it all, as the 11pm curfew approached, and then was breached.
I did get one song tonight, No Children, about a couple who hate each other, from 2002’s Tallahassee, and while there was a dearth of the over familiar, tonight The Mountain Goats shared a whole night of joy. Please, let’s hope it’s not another 16 years before they return.
Simon Coffey
Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Chris Warne:
The Mountain Goats:
Where’s Jai:
Selist: Rocks In my Pocket (2025), First Blood (2022), Cotton (2004), Moon Over Goldsboro (2006), New Zion (2008), Water Tower (2023), Broken To Begin With (2025), Dutch Orchestra Blues (2000), You Were Cool (2010), Andrew Eldritch Is Moving Back To Leeds (2017), Younger (2019), We Were Patriots (2023), The Diaz Brothers (2012), Before I Got There (2021), Bleed Out (2022), Dance Music (2005), The Young Thousands (2004), This Year (2005) Encore You or Your Memory (2025, No Children (2002)
