Anthonie Tonnon

Available only as a cassette tape – buy it at his gigs – this captures Anthonie Tonnon (formerly Tono/Tono and The Finance Company) stepping up at The Inch Bar in Dunedin to perform a solo set; his first solo set in his former hometown since moving to Auckland, since the break-up of The Finance Company.

I’m a fan of Tonnon’s work, have been since I heard the first Tono & The Finance Company EP and the album. I’ve written previously of a Tonnon live gig. I think he’s a great songwriter and he is going about it the right way as a performer too; he has moves, a shtick, a look, a charisma.

That shtick, and the way he lets his voice go – strangling out the Kiwi vowel sounds in his Kiwi-ism lyrics – probably annoys as many people as it entices but I like it. I like what he does. It takes me back to first discovering Jonathan Richman and The Mutton Birds, more recently The Eversons and The Boa Constrictors. There’s something in Tonnon’s writing that for me works. The very fact that it’s not the predictable love-song stuff; that it’s about a form of storytelling – and this comes through in his performances too.

This cassette tape is a nice lo-fi edition to what he’s about and what he’s doing. A gift for fans. A wee trinket. I like this sort of a thing.

Next time you see him play grab a copy of this, support the artist, and hear stripped-back/solo reimaginings of some of the Finance Company material (Marion Bates Realty) as well as new songs (well, new at the time: 13.11.12 is the date on the spine).