The opportunity doesn’t come along everyday where people are able to hang out with their favourite musical artist, especially when the artist is an international superstar.
But that’s exactly what happened when Paeroa’s Quinn Barker, 27, went along to see Donavon Frankenreiter’s “tantalising” performance at the Tuning Fork in Auckland on November 18.
Longtime-fan Quinn told The Profile he missed out on the opportunity to see Donavon at Coroglen Tavern in 2018, so as soon as he saw that Donavon was set to take his tour to Aotearoa this year, he said he had to get tickets. “My mum and dad had an original Donavon Frankenreiter CD in the early 2000’s that they would always put in our old school Sony MHC 55 stereo, so I’ve been hooked ever since. His songs are in all my playlists today.”
People might recognise some of Donavons biggest hits such as blues folk tune It Don’t Matter, which has accumulated more than 88 million streams on Spotify alone, or Free which has gathered more than 139 million streams on the same streaming service.
Both tunes were Quinn’s favourite of the performance – “the classics were even better live”, he said.
Donavon just “popped up in the crowd next to me” before the gig started, and then the two got to chat after the gig as well, Quinn said.
He was joined on the tour by son Hendrix, and both musicians signed a tour poster for Quinn, which he said would be added to the man cave once it was framed.
“[Donavon] was so chill and I told him he needs to come back to Waihī Beach or perform in raglan as they love surfing.”
The music maker told Quinn he wished they could stop off for a surf but they had to push on to their Wellington show the following day and then the Australian leg of the tour, Quinn said.
But according to the Paeroa man, who attracted a lot of community support and a viral online presence in 2020 for his volunteer clean-up work throughout the Karangahake Gorge – it was a tantalising experience to see and meet the musician he looked up to, he said.
The best part about meeting Donavon, he said, was just seeing him perform and “vibe with the crowd”.
“Having a short yarn with him showed me how good of a guy he is, so genuine and positive which reflects in his music.”
The only disappointment was that Quinn couldn’t offer Donavon a taste of home.
“I was gonna shout him an L&P at the bar but they didn’t have any.”
By DAVIDDA HIKATANGATA
