Balu Brigada
Powerstation, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Friday, June 12th
All the way from Mairangi Bay, via a slight detour around the world, homegrown talent Balu Brigada returned home to play in front of 1000 Kiwis at a sold-out Powerstation on Friday night.
Balu Brigada — part of Rolling Stone AU/NZ‘s Future of Music 2026 series — brought along their high school friend Juney Boy for his “first gig ever,” and he warmed up the chatty crowd with his infectious psychedelic pop music.
While Juney Boy has mostly released music from his home studio, he’s no stranger to the stage, having toured with LEISURE and Daily J in the past. He was now comfortably able to deliver a lush set of “demos,” brought to life by Nat Hathaway’s muted basslines, Josh Parker’s washed-out 6-string soundscape, and Timothee Nolier’s solid backbeat.
Credit: Nico Rose Penny
Henry and Pierre Beasley were preceded by their band members, Tom Leggett and Harper Finn, and overpowering white strobes as they casually walked on stage holding up peace signs. This was the final show of their world tour, having completed a mostly sold-out run through Europe and Australia.
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The brothers asked if the excitable crowd was “ready to go crazy” for their homecoming show.
The night was a sentimental celebration of their debut album, Portal, which has now amassed more than 180 million streams on Spotify alone, peaked at No. 4 on the Top 20 Aotearoa Albums Chart, and hasn’t left the chart since its release 41 weeks ago.
At last month’s 2026 Aotearoa Music Awards, they were also awarded the prestigious Te Manu Mātārae Tūī, recognising the band’s significant impact on the music landscape in Aotearoa and internationally.
Pierre and Henry sincerely thanked the Powerstation crowd. “Last time we played in Auckland, we played at Whammy, and it didn’t sell out,” they admitted.
Now, after working on their music for over a decade, they finally played what’s been their dream venue for a long time, the Powerstation. (Fun fact: in 2017, I asked Pierre to play bass in my funk-rock band, and I’m happy he said no, because we now have Balu Brigada. You’re welcome, New Zealand.)
Credit: Nico Rose Penny
My main takeaway from last night? It was simply incredible to see so many Kiwis out supporting Kiwi music.
Balu Brigada played a varied set, mostly showcasing tracks from their debut album, with the hard-hitting “Backseat” and now-totally-viral “So Cold” being clear crowd favourites, while also showcasing more intimate album cuts like “Butterfly Boy” and “4:25”.
While I highly rate this album, and indeed took home a vinyl copy, my favourite moments came from the many singles that didn’t make the album, like “Designer”, “Moonman”, and Henry dedicating “Too Good” to his wife.
Credit: Nico Rose Penny
The absolute highlight will have to be when the band closed out their set with my absolute favourite Balu song, “Could You Not Speak So Loud”, during which Henry made his way right into the middle of the moshpit to shred the last crazy phased-out 16th note guitar solo of the epic homecoming show.
I think they succeeded in making their parents, “Mama and Papa Beasley up on the balcony,” extremely proud.
Koen Aldershof is a writer and musician based in Auckland. He plays in local indie-pop band Marmalade.
