Dungeon #25: Clementine, Warm Leather & The Shelves – Whammy: March 27, 2025
While Tamaki Makaurau may have lost a mighty Totara of live music venues several years ago, The Kings Arms Tavern. We are living in a post-covid time of an abundance of cozy, small and intimate venues: 605 Morningside, Cupid, Goblin, Big Fan, Small Gods, The Button Factory, Audio Foundation, are a few, and the latest in this surfeit is Whammy’s Public Bar.
Tonight, the Dungeon Series continued, number 25, free, three bands, a stalwart of the noisy scene – Warm Leather, a name recognised – Clementine, and a band not heard of – The Shelves. Exquisite! A chance to revisit, put name to music and discover in that wonderous conflation that is Aotearoa Waiata!
Clementine
A few folk are in attendance, and bang on 7.30pm, Clementine singer/
It’s sparse sounding but bespectacled Liam is working their guitar to it’s max, creating an emo-ish vibe, that perhaps also draws on artists like Pavement and Neutral Milk Hotel. They’re a chatty sharer between waiata (and tuning), they’d like another guitar so they didn’t need to tune up. The angst driven vocals are in tune with the ephemeral rhythm created on stage (well floorspace) They korero’s about releasing the next song on bandcamp – Limbs, they’ve just about finished recording it. Yes the chat and banter between songs creates a show, it piques interest in seeing the full Clementine line up. (https://clementinenz.
Warm leather
A particular reason to catch Warm Leather, long time member, bassist MF Joyce had stepped through the out door, and had (with difficulty) been replaced by Katie from local act Community Treatment Order, this is their second show with the new lineup.
It’s a little fuller, Whammy public bar has a rawe vibe to it, a great hang out space with its garden(ing) bar area outback. Bass, in the new capable hands, still has got that driven sound, especially as she turns it up. At their peak, midway in their set, Warm Leather are once again seriously dangerous alt punk, Katie’s stage presence counterpoints Tolley’s as axes act unison momentarily. Her stance is suitably menacing as they mangle a cover of a cover That gets mangled at the start (Alice Cooper’s Clones) A new one has a swing, rhythm for dancing, gets messy and then back to the street vibe. They get punchy, to finish their set on a classic song. The folk flowing in shake a little to Warm Leather’s appeal.
It’s 9pm, the witching hour, a steady ensemble of tangata arriving for the entertainment seems unlikely. Conversations abound, Hives of social (ism) buzzes through the public bar.
The Shelves
A band on hiatus, in existence at least since 2019 (gossip on the interweb is sparse) A toru piece from Pōneke/Wellington, well maybe originally. A fear grips, have we been invaded by their pals from their Christian Youth Group bygone days? No, they are drinking, maybe the dress sense is post-mahi (people with real jobs)
Rumour has it this is their last ever show, well that’s what Warm Leather’s Andrew Tolley muttered at sets end. The Shelves begin, there is an energy, a punk rock ethos, catchy chord progressions, and they are tight. I get a vibe after a handful of songs of competency as musicians, the drummer is tight. The sound is punkish american new wave-ish, slick like The Cars or Talking Heads or Mink DeVille, and the Wire cover, 12XU, which the singer admits has been covered to death, is done with debonairness, 100% effort, it causes shuffles. I enjoyed The Shelves, hopefully they won’t cease, or perhaps, maybe a subset will emerge.
Long may the $10 Gisborne Gold lagers live. Aroha to the Dungeon – Salut!
Simon Coffey
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