The Axolotl man cometh: The Veils warm up cold Kirikiriroa night with their dark energy
Sunday, 5 July 2026
What: The Veils
Where: Last Place, Hamilton
When: Friday night
Reviewed by: Mike Mather
It's easy to see why David Lynch dug The Veils.
The New Zealand/English band led by Finn Andrews have a unique and frequently sinister sound that welds anguished, bluesy ballads with more sonically-charged dark grunge riffs - sometimes within the same song.
As such, they would have naturally appealed to an auteur like Lynch, whose frequently nightmarish film and television creations seem specifically crafted to allow the inclusion of artists like The Veils in the soundtrack.
Such was the band's appearance in a profoundly disturbing scene in the third season of Twin Peaks (which is really saying something, because the entire show was a series of disturbing scenes). I won't elaborate, but clips are available on YouTube if the reader is inclined to seek them out.
And how lucky were we in Hamilton to be treated to the experience of The Veils playing in an intimate venue like Last Place?
The Collingwood St bar has in recent years become the go-to location in Hamilton for quality acts touring Aotearoa. It's an environment that allows the audience to get nice and close to the artists, almost as if they were playing in your front lounge (and especially so if your home has a lounge that somehow segues into the garage area). It felt almost claustrophobic - but in a good way. Lynchesque, even.
Opening proceedings this night was a short set of melancholic songs from Kiwi/Aussie artist Jazmine Mary. In fact it was a little too short an appearance from this top-tier songwriter, whose devastatingly frank and evocative 2025 release I Want To Rock And Roll was one of the most significant local albums of that year.
Oh well. The first rule of entertainment is always leave them wanting more.
The Veils' set started with a quartet of exquisite tracks from the just-released new album Fragile World - a self-assured set of songs that is likely one of the band's best - before moving into older, more familiar territory in the form of Swimming With Crocodiles, from their acclaimed 2016 album Total Depravity.
There was a nice big crowd packed into Last Place for the show, some of whom had come from quite far afield (Tauranga represent!).
Weirdly, there was a small group in the crowd of, well, let’s call them loud talkers - who were doing a fair amount of their loud talking during the music. I'm sure there would have been others fighting the compulsion to lean over and tell them to stop their yakking. If this actually was a David Lynch movie, some terrible fate would have immediately befallen them.
Led by the soulful yet cheerful Andrews, the band were a well-tuned unit, at home in the homely setting. Sometimes soft and tender. Sometimes raw and vicious.
Highlights? The creeping menace of Here Come The Dead, the diabolically catchy riffs of Low Lays the Devil, and the slinking sublimity of Jesus for the Jugular, which had some in the audience in a state of ecstacy that approached some kind of religious fervour.
The encore, when it came, was unexpected: A solo performance by Andrews of The Tide that Left and Never Came Back.
Then, he was joined by a single fellow bandmember for the group's signature tune, Axolotl: Violin player Dave Khan, who loomed over his instrument in the predatory manner of a cat that has just caught a tiny mouse. It looked and sounded terrific.
Afterwards, as the satisfied crowd spilled out onto Collingwood St, they were instantly immersed into the cold, clammy embrace of the foggy Hamilton night.
A veil had descended on the city for The Veils. A wonderfully poetic happenstance for a night of pure rock and roll poetry.