A Tale Of Two Venues: Tami Neilson at Flare & Ha The Unclear at Whammy

With so much happening around town last night, I found myself attempting to be in two places at once. Tami Neilson and her ace band were at a new venue called Flare which is in effect a space in and around the Sky City casino. Meanwhile Ha The Unclear kicked off their Strangers Tour at Whammy up on K Road. The difference couldn’t be more striking.

Tami’s performance came as part of an event announcing the 2020 Aotearoa Music Awards. According to the press release “Flare is a stunning casually elegant bar and live music venue in the heart of SkyCity Auckland, featuring a broad range of live music including acoustic/solo pop, soul/funk, jazz and RnB every Thursday to Sunday night with Wednesday’s dedicated to emerging artists.”

While I heartily agree that we need more venues in Auckland (RIP Kings Arms), I’m not sure this is the answer.

Just to enter the venue, one must walk through the gaming area (I was told by staff I had to remove my hat).

This was an invite-only event populated by various music industry insiders. The drinks were free and so were the snacks. The company was feisty but, ironically the music and the vibe were sorely lacking.

It didn’t take much effort to look beyond the enclosure to see the poor suckers bent over their slot machines pissing away their money. The resulting vibe was that of being in a hospital ICU.

Meanwhile someone was on stage playing cheesy Michael Jackson covers. No one was paying any attention.

The drinks were flowing (I tried at least one of each of the featured cocktails (delish!)

Finally Tami Neilson and band took the stage. Now Tami is one of my favourite vocalists, songwriters and people and Brett Adams is, in my humble opinion, New Zealand’s finest guitar player. With Tom Broome and Chris Matthews rounding out the band, this is one hot unit. Yet, they struggled to get any kind of reaction from the crowd.

Tami was tearing it up…she was clearly itching to perform and sounded great. Her version of This Is A Man’s World should stop anyone in their tracks…but all was in vain.

At one point Tami announced that she considered this a show rather than a showcase, but to no avail. There was applause; there was some cheering but mostly drinking and chatting. Which, in fairness, may be what these folks were expecting to do here.

By the end of the set, there were two people dancing in front of the stage (I was one of them.)

By then it was 9pm and time to head up to K Road.

The energy coming from the packed-out Whammy Bar was palpable. It was hot, it was sweaty, it was loud and it was crowded. No social distancing here.

When Ha The Unclear took the stage it was as if the band, the audience and the music became one… heaving bodies and pulsing rhythm… guitars ringing out and drums pounding.

As a venue Whammy has its “issues”… those notorious poles  get in the way, the lighting can be “questionable”, but the vibe is always super-cool.

The sound was excellent at both venues last night as were the bands… the difference was the vibe. It’s something difficult to get right, but when it is, you know it.

Note: I spoke to Caitlin Smith who has a residency at Flare every Sunday night and she loves the place, saying “the Casino is investing serious “cabbage” to provide musos with much needed work.” And “I’ve sung in hospital foyers before and its fricken’ spiritual!”

~Marty Duda

Veronica McLaughlin was at Whammy and got these shots of Ha the Unclear and opener, Lucky Boy. Click any image to view a full size gallery of each band.

Ha the Unclear

Lucky Boy