Let's Talk About Gigs, Baby
Let's Talk About Gigs, Baby!
I can still remember the first gig I ever went to in Wellington. On the roster was Macho Macho, Stink, Daffodils and Yukon Era. I found great comfort in the fact that two bands from my hometown of Auckland would be there. I bought my $10 ticket on UTR and met a couple of friends at JJ’s beforehand to prepare for my first Welly gig experience. It was at Valhalla and I wore a jacket, which was stupid. The place was so packed that I didn’t actually find out Valhalla had a bathroom and a backdoor, until the next show I went to. Within five minutes, our literal course coordinator came through the door (shout out to you, Ben). One of my classmates who had a broken ankle at the time was up the front, waving her crutches in the air. I was getting slapped in the face with a singular dreadlock. In this boiling hot, packed to the brim room, every single person was fascinating and amazing and connected, and I was obsessed.
Despite the fact that I was moving from one big city to another, I experienced a great deal of culture shock in the Wellington music scene. In all fairness, I was suddenly living in the CITY part of the city, less than a ten minute walk away from everything. Previously I had to get dropped off to the nearest train station, to take a 40 minute train ride to get anywhere worth going. Because of the distance back home, I was a lot less inclined to go to gigs in town, when it meant I’d be sitting for over an hour total in a train that smelled faintly of urine. Living out West, there was the odd show at UFO, and Crescendo Trust put on a fair amount of All Ages shows that I was a regular at, but it was a lot of the same high school aged bands.
I’m just gonna stray from the point for a moment. I’ll say it time and time again, I’ll put it in bold and separate it from the paragraph,
YOUNG. MUSICIANS. NEED. GIGS.
YOUNG. MUSIC. FANS. NEED. GIGS.
But like I said, that’s another can of worms that I might open later in the year. Anyway, my point is that I did always have a craving for something different, something that felt a little bigger and better, especially after turning 18.
Cut scene to today. I live a 7 minute walk from Meow, 6 minutes from Valhalla and just 4 minutes from San Fran, just to name a few. Even the 40 minute walk to Moon isn’t that bad. I’m no expert on city planning, but Wellington, I kinda rate what you’ve done with the place. All of these venues and more are hosting something completely different every night. Whenever I feel like it, I can stroll down the road and fall in love with a new act that I’d never even heard of. Being a third year music student also means a lot of my friends are playing these venues now. Remember that story I told you about my first Wellington gig experience? One of the people I went with was Sam from King Fish. That’s right, I knew Sam from King Fish when he was just Sam. The point is, we shared that first Wellington gig together, and now I get to go to Valhalla and see HIM play.
But this piece isn’t all sap and nostalgia. I can’t help but think about events like CubaDupa and Newtown Festival. Once a year, Cuba Street becomes even more of a wonderland. Newtown fills with art and sound and culture. After this simple thought, I wonder why those transformations are so drastic every time. Every year, we get concrete proof that there are so many spaces that can be used to do so much more. So many phenomenal acts that you just don’t see in the usual spots. Dare I say, wasted potential. Doing the math, we have performance spaces that should be used more, plus artists who should be performing more, should this not equal more performances? Let’s colour our city even brighter. Put on less indie gigs. They’re great, I love them, but not everybody needs to throw one every week.
Speaking as a music lover, if I was to choose where I’d rather be right now, my answer would always be Wellington. I don’t love EVERYTHING about this city, and it does have a lot more growing to do. Nothing is ever perfect, and there can never be enough art to fill every space, every hour of every day. But so far, I’ve never danced harder anywhere else.