REVIEW: BENEE at San Fran

Here at Something Something, we feel that gig reviews tend to ignore the basics, bag on the hard working musicians, and leave little room for the next artists to improve their events, at the end of the day sometimes you just want to know if there is good selfie lighting. However we’ve constructed a Gig Review Checklist through the lens of a more industry perspective.

New Zealand’s own rising superstar, BENEE, played at San Fran on Saturday night and here’s how we felt the gig went! 

We’ve scored them out of one to five SOMETHINGS in each of our crucial gig requirements:  

(1 being ‘not your best’, 5 being ‘wow amazing!’)

Promotions: 4 SOMETHINGS

I didn’t see a lot of promotion around Wellington, just on Facebook and Instagram but that’s potentially down to my lack of awareness of my surroundings. Not that the show even really needed a lot of promotion giving how quickly tickets sold out!

Turnout: 5 SOMETHINGS

Great turn out. Took a while for the majority of the crowd to show up, but as a sold out show it was obviously a pretty packed room. 

Atmosphere: 5 SOMETHINGS

The crowd was awesome and everyone just seemed to want to dance all night. Lots of love given to the opening acts and when BENEE came out it was just a big dance party and sing along. After BENEE’s set finished, the crowd chanted for an encore for several minutes until she came back out and had to try figure out what to play next, as she genuinely was not expecting an encore. Great people with great vibes.

Sound: 3 SOMETHINGS

Sound was okay but I felt like BENEE’s vocal wasn’t turned up high enough and it was often hard to hear her. Which was a shame because she has such a nice voice! I never had a clue what she was saying when she was talking between songs either. Although I was up the back so maybe the people closer could hear her better?

Venue: 5 SOMETHINGS

The gig was held at San Fran, so one of Wellington’s most well known music venues. Located so centrally it’s just a hop, skip and a jump to town afterwards if that’s your kind of thing. It was a cold night so coming into the warm venue was so nice, and once the room filled up and it got a bit too hot, they put on the air conditioning to cool things down to a comfortable level again.

Bathrooms: 4 SOMETHINGS

If you’ve ever been to San Fran, you’ll know how much of a nightmare it is to try and get to the bathroom once the room has filled up, but once I squeezed my way through the crowd, there was no line for the bathroom and it was nice and clean.

Bar: 5 SOMETHINGS

Bar staff are friendly and there’s a decent range of drinks. Despite the large turn out, I never had to wait long to be served so that was a bonus. Price-wise, they’re basically on par with every other bar in Wellington: expensive, but no more than you’d expect.

Merchandise: 5 SOMETHINGS

BENEE  had a couple of cute t-shirts available and at only $40 they were a pretty good deal! She also had a selection of stickers available too which were being given away with each t-shirt purchased (or for free if you asked really nicely).

Price: 5 SOMETHINGS

Not too bad! Tickets were only $35, which is pretty good for one of NZ’s biggest rising stars. BENEE puts on such a great show that every dollar is worth it and I expect we’ll be unlikely to see ticket prices for her that low again.

Make sure to support your local artists!