Cameron Winter
Holy Trinity Cathedral, Auckland, NZ
Wednesday, February 4th
The first verse of “The Rolling Stones”, track one of Cameron Winter’s debut album Heavy Metal, boldly states: “I will keep breaking cups until my left hand looks wrong / Until my miracle drugs write the miracle song / I will keep rolling down until my best shirt rolls off / Until the conga line behind me is a thousand chickens long.”
Arriving at Parnell’s Holy Trinity Cathedral on Wednesday evening, the massive, snaking line of fans was easily a thousand chickens long. No more cups need to be broken. The ceramicists can sleep easy tonight.
I haven’t spent a lot of time in churches, but that night I was glad to be there. The building is beautiful, the acoustics phenomenal, and a gently sloping floor made viewing easy even for a seated show.
The crowd filtered in and quickly filled up every available seat in the house. Those who missed out on tickets — clearly a lot of people — stood outside and viewed through the windows. On stage stood a grand piano and a microphone. There was no opening act. As soon as the clock hit 8pm, the lights dimmed, and a hush fell over the crowd. Winter came out to rapturous applause as the first notes of “It All Fell in the River” began.
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The silence resumed and the crowd hung off every mumbled word, every gentle chord, and every yelling smash on the piano. We were treated to unreleased songs like “Emperor XIII in Shades”, with the lyric “It’s too bad what happened to Jesus / But Friday was alright”, which got a chuckle from the crowd.
Credit: Nico Rose/@nicorosepenny
Dynamic and moving, Winter made excellent use of the vocal microphone’s proximity effect: lean in close and the sound is booming and bassy; pull back and it thins out; hit it from the side and it changes again. This was a masterclass in proximity.
He’s got songs, that’s for sure. “Love Takes Miles” and “$0” worked wonderfully in the intimate setting. Throughout the precisely 58 min performance, not one word was spoken to the crowd. Songs flowed into each other, interludes were had. There were moments of near-musical-comedy where outros became playfully extended, and the crowd were lapping it up. At one point, it got so quiet you could hear the birds chirping outside, a backing chorus from nature’s finest. A short and sweet new song,
“Ben”, was debuted. “Ben, Ben, Beeeeeeeeeeeen, Ben, this is your fault not mine” gained another round of laughter and applause from the crowd. This ran straight into “Nina” and “Field of Cops”, an intense, pounding piano howl and definitely a highlight of the night. As the final song ended with the line “Take it with you when you leave,” applause rang out and the house lights came on. Safe to say we all took something with us when we left.
@luazerti Cameron Winter at Holy Trinity Cathedral Auckland 04/02/26 ✝️ Praying now that all of those who missed out on this show get another opportunity in future 🥺 Felt so so sorry for all the people walking around trying to find tickets in line 😭 #cameronwinter #heavymetal #lovetakesmiles #laneway #geese
There is no doubt Winter’s star is on the rise, but it wouldn’t be right not to mention Geese, his band that exploded into every corner of the internet last year, with probably one of the biggest promotional campaigns I’ve seen for an indie band. Geese are truly massive and it’s absolutely fascinating to watch their snowballing success.
Somewhere between Brat Summer and Geese Winter, we had Heavy Metal, Winter’s debut solo album. It’s a heavily orchestrated and ornate record. For those who are fully soaked in Geese, having the winter of their lives, what they saw on Wednesday night at the Holy Trinity was really very special to them. We all felt it.
Winter, still young at just 23, shows age is irrelevant. Where he goes from here will be something to behold, both in his solo music, with his band, and with whatever else comes next. I look forward to seeing where his music goes.
When I watch an artist perform, I like to get an understanding of who that artist is. In such an intense and stripped-back environment, that can be a special opportunity to share a glimpse of this, but I think that was something that we didn’t get. This is by no means a criticism — artists don’t owe the crowd anything, they can show what they choose and give what they want. Pull back the curtain or put up a fence, it does’t matter, there’s a beauty in that. At the end of the night I’m still not sure who Cameron Winter is, but maybe that doesn’t really matter. He sure can play the piano.
James Sullivan is a musician based in Tāmaki Makaurau. His Jim Nothing project won Best Alternative Artist at the 2025 Aotearoa Awards. Find out more about his music here. Check out Geese’s upcoming tour dates here.
