Living in Adelaide, it’s a rare occasion where I find myself surrounded by fellow islanders at an event or show. I’m at The Gov tonight covering New Zealand’s Nesian Mystik and the first thing I notice is how different the crowd is from when I was here on Thursday night. Although there are tables and seats set out in the venue, people are already dancing to island beats provided by the band onstage. It’s hard to find somebody in the joint who isn’t sporting a tattoo representing their pacific island heritage and the diversity in the ages of these people reminds me instantly of every major house party/get together I attended growing up.

Onstage already well into their set is Kaha, a band consisting of five brothers and their cousin. Formed in Adelaide back in the late 90s, Kaha follow heavily the reggae and soul influences which drive many NZ groups of this genre and it was obvious that the large crowd who had rocked up early to see them were enjoying the music to a high degree. Harmony laden and driven heavily by guitars and percussion, this band looked as if they were performing at a family do instead of a decently filled out venue – though, to islanders, there sometimes isn’t much difference between the two. A fun take on The Screaming Jets’ “Better” and a brilliant set closer which brought out a few brothers in traditional Maori dress, performing a haka made me definitely thankful that I’d arrived early enough to catch this band going hard.

Once the word had spread round the place that the headliners were in the building, the younger attendees tonight made beelines to the front of the stage (me included) to stake out their spots. Before long, the six members of Nesian Mystik were onstage and showing their first Adelaide crowd why they are so loved back home. Mixing up island humour with the cheeky charm they’re known for, the Nesian Mystik crew made their delivery of hip-hop and RnB seem ever so effortless. Awa Reeder’s vocals are smooth live velvet and have the attention of every female in the front few rows from start to finish. In amongst performances of “Brothaz”, “Dance Floor” and “Nesian 101”, the boys featured a mash-up of summer jams that everyone in the crowd resonated with – whether it be Inner Circle’s “Sweat” (for all the times our parents/relatives would play it at parties) or Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” (for those guys trying to be smooth around the single ladies), there was something that bonded everyone together in a sense of familiarity and unity.

The raps of Feleti ‘Sabre’ Strickson-Pua and Donald ‘Oldwun’ McNulty brought an edge to what could have been strictly a ‘pop’ laden hip-hop set and with the added talents of Dmon Atai on guitar and Heath ‘Notiq’ Manukau on the turntables, there was definitely a crisp and fresh vibe around the set. There was nothing over-exaggerated about tonight's performance and from where I stood, it was clear the crowd didn't need a full band in action to get a good dose of live music.

“Sun Goes Down” brought one of the biggest responses of the night as everyone joined in on vocals and even a man with his own acoustic guitar added his own touch, jamming along with the band from within the crowd. Nesian Mystik, though looking exhausted upon finishing their set, definitely looked satisfied with the massive reception they received tonight. There's something which really tied everyone at the show together tonight; if you came across another Samoan person in the crowd, you were instantly 'cousins', much the same as if two random Tongan guys wound up next to each other, they were 'brothers' by the end of the gig. It had been a long time since I'd been amongst this sort of easy-going and accepting crowd and it was at atmosphere which was instantly comforting and chilled out to be taken away by.

For their first time in Adelaide, I can only hope that they were impressed enough to make another journey out this way. We don't get many acts like this come through this town too often.