Harper Finn takes to Auckland’s Whammy Bar to perform his first headline show since the release of his debut album.
Rescheduled from November, Harper Finn brings his debut album ‘Silo Park’ to his hometown of Auckland in a live setting. The album comes following the release of his EP and several singles, as well as winning the award for best upcoming artist at the Aotearoa Music Awards in 2021. Having seen him just days ago with my friends, and then immediately convincing more of our friends that they also needed to see him, we were definitely excited. This would be our first time seeing Harper Finn play a full set. The tiny dive bar that is ‘Whammy’ was packed out, and given that he’d just opened up for the Lumineers when they were in New Zealand and played a very well received set at Nostalgia Fest in Christchurch, it wasn’t surprising at all.
I’ve never been to a dive bar before. I’ve attended plenty of small, intimate gigs but nothing on this scale. The stage was barely a step, and the venue itself fit barely 150 people. It was very much jam-packed. I liked the aesthetics and the lighting, and what that meant when taking photos and editing. LED lights border the stage and a pillar stood central upon it. Again, this place is tiny! The fact this stage was to fit Harper Finn’s backup band and his own dynamic stage presence was something I was struggling to fathom.
Opening up for him was Jude Kelly, a singer/ songwriter from Dunedin. Her sound reminded me of Alice Phoebe Lou or even Lana Del Rey’s earlier work, soft vocals overlaid over pretty melodies. During her set Kelly switched between keys and guitar, showing her versatility as a musician. It was far more somber than Harper Finn’s music but that didn’t make it any less enjoyable.
What I enjoyed most about the smaller venue, and the fact it was a bar, was the freedom to come and go from your spot as you pleased. I’m used to spending hours stuck at barricade or squished between strangers in a mosh pit; it was so nice to be able to breathe and to grab a drink and not have to shove back through a sea of people.
Harper Finn opened his set with ‘Man or Machine’, the first song and my personal favourite from his recent album, ‘Silo Park’. Accompanying Harper was his backing band made up of his longtime friend, Jake Skellern, bassist Kyle Svensen and on drums Elijah Whyte. Skellern helped out on harmonies, adding a really nice layer to the live performance. Finn shared an anecdote about how he and Jake Skellern had been playing together since they were teens and how he used to feel like an outsider. During the bridge of ‘Winter Sky’ Finn and his band did a little two step dance number on stage and without instruction the crowd followed along. His face split open in a massive grin. “That’s the first time we’ve ever been in sync with the crowd like that, thank you!” he remarked after finishing the song, which was met with cheers from the crowd.
The setlist flowed well moving through upbeat more danceable tracks to the slower, heavier ballads as well as slotting in his older material amongst the tracklist of ‘Silo Park’. In the middle of the set Harper Finn took a moment to step away from his band and to perform his song ‘Good For Me’ alone. Everyone was so attentive during this moment, giving him the room as he performed this deep cut. To close out the night he played his biggest songs back to back, showing off his dance moves in ‘Dance Away These Days’ and ‘Conversations (With the Moon)’. His energy seemed to shift with these songs, becoming more confident with what he was familiar with, almost coming into the crowd with ‘Teenage Queen.’
In contrast to his festival set, I felt as though he was more abashed. There’s a humility that comes with being an opener that I feel gives you more confidence. The crowd is not there for you, and therefore they have no expectations. At a headline show there is a pressure and an expectation to deliver, far more familiar faces in the crowd than at a festival. When you are nobody you can be anybody. This nervousness was most noticeable when speaking to the crowd, retreating quickly from the mic and hiding in his music where he felt comfortable. At Harper Finn’s set at Nostalgia Fest there were moments of technical difficulties, from an outside perspective, he seemed less phased by that than he did the crowd at Whammy Bar. Though, when he was performing and had an instrument in hand, it really felt like he belonged up there. All his nerves seemed to fade away when he was doing what he loved, and I didn’t feel as if those anxieties impacted the show or his performance in any way.
After the show had finished and the stage was clear, Harper Finn and his band came back out to mingle with the crowd. Despite the early nerves, Finn really came into his own, really finding his footing once he realised the crowd was on his side. It was so nice to be able to congratulate and thank Harper Finn and his band for the amazing show they delivered, they really deserved it.
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