Review: Bic Runga at Freo.Social

Bic Runga at Freo.Social
w/ Silicon
Thursday, April 16, 2026

New Zealand nineties chanteuse Bic Runga came to Fremantle on Thursday night to showcase Red Sunset, her first album of original material in fifteen years. With widespread international acclaim alongside a career spanning three decades, tonight surprisingly appeared to be Runga’s first ever headline show in Western Australia.

Opening the evening was the bracingly experimental electronica of Silicon, the musical alter ego of Runga’s husband, Kody Nielson. With scratchy, vocoder-distorted lyrics and a sparse yet extremely fulfilling musical soundscape, this opening set was a dreamy concoction of jazz, funk, and arthouse pop; the vibe was relaxed, chill, and ethereal. With all the hallmarks of an intimate jam session attended by several hundred of their closest friends, Silicon took the audience places they probably never quite expected so early in the night.

Leaning heavily into the colour palette of her latest release, before the show and between sets, Runga’s own right eye, bathed in scarlet, watched over the gathering crowd from the stage’s rear screen. At some times this view was comforting, at others perturbing—it was a striking visual representation of the artist’s evolution over the last decade and a half, beyond merely the chart-friendly pop of her early career.

The brooding eye lifted its gaze, the band came onto the stage, and with a shy wave, Bic Runga entered, resplendent in a bright red ensemble outfit. The set began with Glass Atrium, the first track from the new album, and, without any vocals, it was almost an orchestral overture into the night ahead. From there, Runga pivoted to one of the stronger songs from her new material, Paris in the Rain, a distinctive, pulsing, insistent beat accompanied by the breathiest of lyrics, putting directly in mind the finest retro electro-pop, akin perhaps to Ladyhawke or La Roux.

Other stand-out moments from the new album included Ghost in Your Bed and title track Red Sunset, the former a joyful throwback to the hazy psychedelia of the late sixties, the latter a throbbing, metronomic New Wave-style treat deserving of all the exposure it can glean.

It was telling how much pride Runga appeared to take in her new works. Eight of ten songs from the album were in the setlist, making up almost half the total tracks played on the night, so she did not rest on the laurels of her earlier hits, which could have been so easy to do on this tour.

Still, the biggest reactions from the crowd came for the older pieces, with Get Some Sleep an early example of this. Even so, Runga’s brand-new material was asserted boldly into the performance with a sense of style and panache by a self-assured artist brimming with confidence.

Red Sunset as played tonight was not an album marking time, neither leaning into nostalgia nor an easy legacy play; it was and remained a vibrant and vivacious statement of intent, with Runga still with an awful lot to say via her music.

Which is not to say her familiar hits did not land where they needed to, simply that they were deployed more sparingly than initially expected. Something Good acted as an anchor point in amongst the newer material, direct and positively refreshing in its intentional naivete, whilst Drive dispensed with the rest of the band as Runga played solo on acoustic guitar, her aching vocals as fresh as they were thirty years ago, this paean to deep romantic longing having aged like fine wine.

The night ended on the song far and away Runga’s biggest hit, a piece that seemed to be absolutely everywhere at the turn of the millennium, Sway. The audience, which had been enthusiastic but surprisingly muted for much of the performance, as if hushed and concentrated to hear every lyric or feel every nuance, finally found its voice at this denouement of the evening, heartily singing along with Runga word for word.

Signing off with typical Kiwi understatement—“Thank you so much, that was super”—Runga declined to immediately disappear backstage, stepping instead straight across to the merch desk. There she signed vinyl and CDs, happily chatted to her fans, and ensured the only physical copies of Red Sunset that remained this side of the Tasman would not have to make the long journey home with her.

A generous and gracious host for the evening, Runga was delightfully effusive in her praise towards her band, her crew, the audience, and Fremantle itself: “Palm Springs with a beach, full of great second-hand stores.” It may have taken her fifteen years to release the latest album, but the energy and urgency heard in Runga’s newer material tonight appeared to signpost a rediscovered passion for her art. The wait for whatever comes next should not be so long.

PAUL MEEK

Photos by Linda Dunjey