Salt Water Criminals + Awning – Goblin: April 24, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)
Both Salt Water Criminals and Awning have just released new nga waiata online. I Believe in Dog is by Salt Water Criminals and Rabbit is by Awning. Both bands are imports, Salt Water Criminals from Ōtepoti and Awning from Poneke, Both bands played (and wowed) at the inaugural Junk Festival last year…. And both bands have members intersecting with each other, and other Tamaki Makaurau acts the likes of The Daffodils, Office Dog and Cold Ceiling (who imho are fucking great, check out their just released debut album I Must Be Close).A chance to see both at a not ‘Usual Suspects’ venue, priceless. Goblin, a slightly secret speakeasy, if you knew the legendary Golden Dawn, you know the virtual secret handshake. Up rua sets of stairs and into a gorgeous ruma, is that the old Golden Dawn Serving bar? I see a curtain that likely was a relic from past days. Goblin is not a proper venue, it’s a place, a place to drink (great cocktails), fraternize and dance. The whare soundtrack tonight features The Breeders, Jonathan Richman and other 90s earwigs. There’s no proper stage, a corner, a wretchedly placed pillar to block easy viewing, an underpowered PA. A disco ball (the coolest I’ve ever seen) Perfect!
Awning
Awning has a tekau minute soundcheck, half the band are on the floor, and the crowd (it’s a sell out show tonight) are close by. Vocalist and (tahi of toru) guitarist Christian Dimick, commands the room, Surprisingly, the first song sounds balanced, Awning’s musical nuances aren’t lost, the addition of a percussionist tonight adds another level to the bands complex, rich avante–punk sound. Their version tonight of Gold Star is murderous, seems extended, Dimick’s controlled physical lashings, jagged juts, add visual precariousness to the show, the crowd, the crowd come closer.
Awning managed to keep it together for almost forty minutes in the maddening crowd(ed space), a high is realised, when new waiata Rabbits is played. The slickness falls wayside and its sublime rhythms, drums and vocals create darkness and movement, as Dimick’s vocal range is showcased. The contrast between old and new (Gold Star vs Rabbit) is on show, it a korero to how the members of Awning are lustrously meliorating, in sound(s) and skill.
Salt Water Criminals
Salt Water Criminals, it’s their party, and the latecomers exacerbate the spatial (elbow) room (which is why the photos of SWC are so shit), yet kindness rules amongst the tangata, as the band begin celebrations. Salt Water Criminals seem energized, perhaps it is the impending release of the sophomore album I Believe in Dog next wiki, and the accompanying tour, that provokes.
Certainly I am disaffected of the mild scorn I had after seeing them at Junk Festival in 2024. Sitting in that wide (and abused) genre that is, post-punk, Salt Water Criminals bring a largesse dose of pop to the table, as Reuben Scott sings with poetic license, creating accessible (but not easy-listening) energy embodied as hooky crowd sing-alongs.
Punk gives the band energy and freedom, but the indie-pop elements creates space for the band to (possibly) safely exist within populism. Where bands like The Beths are (now) mired in fashionable, facile fragility, Salt Water Criminals, tonight create a teetering, deliciously danceable balance between the rua elements.
Tonight was a taster, a treat, a clever (social) affair , come the release of I Believe In Dog, their sophomore effort, Salt Water Criminals will have bared all, hopefully, there will be more than just skin and bones on these salty sea kuri.
Simon Coffey
Click on any image to view the photo gallery:
Salt Waters Criminals:
Awning:
