Wellington Fringe Festival: The Girmit

This was in Porirua, so it didn't affect my boycott to review this gig. Lucinda found it, so I was along for the ride. - This was a relaxed performance, but it was still atmospheric, with some subtle lighting and the amazing sculptures in the room lent some ambience. Girmit is a name for Fijian Indians who were enslaved to work on sugar plantations. One of these sculptures, Cry of the Stolen People, looked exactly right. - As a piece, it was loosely structured around three main elements: sound samples that reflected the migrant narrative combined with songs and readings of accounts from those early, desperate days. For example, the first song was about the signing of emigration papers, and used a live sample of a document being signed. Sorta shoegaze, but with a distinctive Indian flavour. Both Nadia and Harshaa had very nice singing voices and carried the tunes well. The looped samples were very minimalistic, though there wasn't enough time for it to get trippy and trance-like. The narrative flow was good, and it was surprisingly unpretentious. Most of the preachiness was saved for after the show. The EP is available on Bandcamp: https://missleading.bandcamp.com/album/destination-plantation