14/12/2025

Bar Italia – Hollywood Avondale: December 13, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)

Bar Italia, founded in 2020, this UK three-piece (five-piece when touring) were here just 18 months ago, hyped to the max on the back of two not-so-secretly-attractive twin albums: The Twits & Tracey Denim.

On that night, Jezmi Tarik Fehmi alongside Sam Fenton and Nina Cristante created a night of enigmatic UK post-punk, that, while imperfect, sated the enamored, but left the rest thinking, could there be more?

Ngahere Wafer

Opener, Pōneke teenager Ngahere Wafer, became an online sensation in late 2018 with his track Sand Outro, which amassed over three million streams on Spotify alone.

After relocating to London with a couple of mates, Wafer has maintained a steady stream of releases, continuing to refine his distinctive sound. Most recently, he contributed vocals to two tracks on Basspunk 2, the second album by (recent visitors)experimental dance duo Bassvictim (a band he has worked with for a while). And through (a somewhat murky) association with Bar Italia, secured the support slot on their two-date Aotearoa tour.

Alone, but not forsaken on stage, Wafer uses a wired remote to trigger his sound beds off of his laptop. Man and Machine. Through a probable 30 minute set he flicks through selections, talking to himself (yes, no, not that one) sharing subdued commentary into his selections. Looking uninterested, well not really, with hands in and out of jean pockets and the look of emo-youth.

Cleverly, Wafer is bouncing the genres, as he selects songs, many are short-like bursts, others flow like a river. His vocal manner, toned-down, restrained is constant, whilst the beds swing between heavy neo-rap, or breakbeat, rhythms, occasional, mumble-rap, shoegaze sounding ballads, and excitedly post-industrial electronica. He sings in the personal, all seems to be introspective, full of angst and social morbidity, words and lines are repeated for effect, it’s got the punk attitude, a seeming rejection of mainstream meandering. Reckons he’s dropping some of the tunes he played tonight, this week, he’s been a bit remiss recently.

Bar Italia

In the interim between acts, we talk about the band’s new album, Some Like It Hot, I’m a fan, and think it’s got the chops, their best to date. Others feel the band have lost a little of their innocence, I retort, great artists are always sucking up world influences, but maybe it’s the beer, and we are both talking bollocks.

I was at their July 2024 show at Neck of the Woods, and I wasn’t sated. A five-piece again tonight (different bassist?), they’ve got a lot more room onstage this time, The Hollywood is a definite step up. Nina Cristante is wearing vintage Karangahape Road, shall I say a black 70’s style cocktail party dress, that flows and shimmers, it’s a contrast to their down-played image in 2024, tonight’s show is already feeling like a concert experience, rather than a club date.

A long set of songs tonight, that draws across Bar Italia’s five albums and beyond, the crowd tonight, bigger numbers than in 24, is a mix of teenage indie youth and 50s folk, still addicted to live music, music with a bite. Tonight the youth dance and dominate the stage front, further back the wary sip their drinks and sway in that shoegaze way of life.

Onstage Bar Italia are energized, in form and motion. Cristante has the moves of a dancer throughout the night, meanwhile Jezmi Tarik Fehmi and Sam Fenton swing and gyrate themselves, and guitars, the contrast is thespian-like.

21 songs, but Some Like It Hot dominates, with 10 slices appearing tonight. They started off with two from 2023 – My Kiss Era (Tracey Denim) and My Little Tony (The Twits) firm fan favourites, and delivered trustworthily. But truly, it’s when Fundraiser, from Some Like it Hot, that the euphoria is released, and as the contrast between past and present flows into the room, again and again as songs from Some Like it Hot appear, the sound and motion in the room is pushed upwards.

Some songs push higher. Marble Arch, with its post gothic, emo line ‘I dreamt you hung yourself’ is a huge folk-pop-punk ballad, whilst Omni Shambles brings clever post-punk back to the forefront. And then Rooster with its off kilter anarchic harmonizing and guitar, is romance in toto. Occasionally past glories shine, Worlds Greatest Emoter (The Twits) is a singalong favourite, as the front is constantly in motion. As Bar Italia’s show ends, Cowbella, another from Some Like it Hot, sees the crowd moved closer, and stand up for a last thrash, last blast of escapist joy.

There was little spoken tonight, though Cristante, mused about being happy to be back in Aotearoa, tonight’s show was a journey marker of a band achieving a culmination of years past, Some Like it Hot is the physical taonga, and tonight’s performance an ephemeral memory to take home.

Simon Coffey