Ponsonby Social Club

A few weeks ago a friend of mine invited me to his gig at Ponsonby Social Club. He was playing with Jennifer Zea, who is one of my favourite musicians (latino music performer with a solo career and a member of Latinaotearoa), so spending a Wednesday night with them sounded like a good plan.

“Where is the gig?”

“At Ponsonby Social Club. It starts at 9pm sharp.”

“9pm sharp? I’d like to see that (I’ve never met a latino who would actually be on time 🙂 ). But Ponsonby Social Club?  Who are you playing for (I thought this was some place where grannies would come to socialise and play bridge)?”

I was wrong, big time! The bar is cute as, with an amazing atmosphere, a nice little place for a small band or DJ, a good music, and very friendly bartenders. It instantly became my favourite place in Ponsonby. And for the audience, there were no grannies and no one played bridge :).

PS: The gig didn’t start till 10.15pm. So much for being punctual, ha ha.

Let’s boogie tonight!

Winter time is perfect for exploring Auckland’s nightlife. It is not too cold (like Europe cold) to be walking around at night, and the weather is often crap (or at least too cold to surf 🙂 ), so you can easily spend a lazy day at home the morning after. So, I’ve been dancing my nights away lately :).

I would recommend Bungalow 8 if you don’t mind partying with 16-year olds. The place is too light, but I really like the ‘balcony’ area on the side of the room opposite of DJ, as it gives you a bit of privacy and some extra space to dance (I hate dancing in the middle of crowds, I need some space around, so I can breathe and show off my best moves 🙂 ). To enjoy Bungalow you have to love the latest dancing hits as the repertoire (at least on the particular Saturday night) is very commercial.

I prefer the Ponsonby clubs to Bungalow 8. Revelry plays more R’n’B tunes, while Longroom plays more of those dance ones. The visitors seem to be more grown up :). I like the layout of Longroom a bit more. I think it is more spacious and it has some ‘separated’ (seating) areas where you can have your very own dance floor (if you move the little tables on a side 🙂 ). I prefer the lighting in Longroom as well, as Revelry seems quite dark to me.

One thing that I am impressed with are bouncers in New Zealand. They are all very friendly, but they take their jobs very seriously. It’s not an easy job watching people having fun, stopping someone ‘having fun’ if necessary, and dealing with mostly drunk people. They have certain power but I haven’t come across anyone who would be taking advantage of it. They have all my respect!

Bogie Down – Unit Three – Let’s Boogie Tonight

Ponsonby by night

I think I have discovered my favourite area to go out on a Friday night – Ponsonby! It was a beautiful and warm summer night so the place was very vibrant. The bars, restaurants and clubs were full, the music could be heard from every corner, people seemed to have lots of fun which contributed to a very positive atmosphere. I preferred the mix of people in Ponsonby to the people you meet at K Road (is he/she wearing a fancy costume or is this just a way they normally dress?) or Viaduct (no one older than 16). I loved the fact that everything is so close so you could really do a ‘tour de bar’, get some food and drinks on the way, enjoy good music, meet interesting people and end up dancing wild in one of the night clubs. The place brought back memories of endless summer nights in Biarritz (France) and San Sebastian (Spain).

We started (and ended unfortunately) the night in Chapel Bar & Bistro. “How come you have chosen this place?” my friends would ask. “Hm, I don’t know, I was trying to choose where to go and I liked Chapel’s Friday afternoon/evening programme with a female DJ (Erika Amore). I thought it was something different. And that’s what made me choose the bar :). ” Well, we missed Erika, but the DJ who followed (Dean Campbell) totally made our night – Fresh Prince remix as we entered the place and Ace of Base just before we left :).

The plan was to go check out Longroom and other night clubs, but we were a bit too late so there were already massive cues outside these places. Ah well, we’ll save it then for next time. We have to wake up for a morning surf anyway 🙂

 

What do punk, striptease & drag queens have in common?

Not much. At first sight…

I took my “job” of a blogger very seriously, maybe a bit too seriously… :). So I had a very detailed plan what am I going to do over the weekend, starting on Friday afternoon with a surf at Muriwai. My friend suggested me to visit The Kings Arms, a heritage pub with live music performances. It might help if I would study a programme in advance, but I guess my life would not be as interesting as it is now. We would probably have missed a punk & alternative funk concert.

The last time I was at a punk concert was when I was about 16 and a school band played in our school’s gym on one Friday night. So I could say that punk is not really my cup of tea, although I might change my mind after the Friday’s concert 🙂 .

The Kings Arms hosted the Glocks, a New Zealand band who describes themselves as a cross between The Clash, The Sex Pistols and Nirvana. I quite enjoyed their concert. They played their songs and a few really good covers. I really liked the female vocal, which I though is quite unusual for a punk band (but I can’t really call myself a punk band and music expert). And I really liked the lead male singer and guitar player – a super skinny guy in leather pants with unproportionally big jaws looking like he was heavily abusing drugs in his youth but with an I-would-say-Scottish-but-I-might-be-wrong accent and a pretty good voice. The performance was very entertaining! And it got even better (well, at least for the male audience) as Bambi the streaper walked on the stage and join the group during one of the songs.

I would expect a bunch of 16-year-olds at a punk concert but the audience here was (very) mature. Maybe there was not that much slamming going on (apart from two ladies who were having a blast in the front 5 (empty) rows), but people seemed to have enjoyed the show. And if you wanted/needed a break from the noise, the Kings Arms has a beautiful garden where you can still hear the music well but are able to talk to each other as well.

After the Glock’s show was over, most of the people left. However, the night was not over yet. The lead singer’s (the guy in the leather pants) son and his punk band took over the stage. These kids have a future, I would say (but again, I’m not a punk music expert). And it was great to see the father (the guy in the leather pants, remember?) to join his son and others on the stage and perform one of the songs with them.

I drove my friends back to the city centre where they live. Since we were right by the K Road and felt like the night is still “young” (and because I needed a material for this blog 🙂 ), we decided to explore further. We passed by Family Bar & Club where a huge “lady” stopped us and kindly invited us to the club. “Let’s go, I have never been to a gay club, this should be fun!”. And it was! The place is huge. The top floor is rather long, with a little stage where there was a performance of drag queens shortly after we arrived (they could practice a bit more though). At the back of the club there are narrow dark steps that lead you to the bottom floor. The whole new world opens there! Different music, different lighting, different staging, but similar people. People seemed to really enjoy the night. And we certainly had a lot of fun too!

Latin rhythms with Latin Projection Band

I have come across Latin Projection Band (LPB) on quite a few occasions. I guess I like musica latina and these guys are across everything – salsa, charanga, timba, bachata, merengue, cumbia & chacha. Coming from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Chile, well and New Zealand, they have the music and the rhythm in their blood. And they certainly make sure that the audience can feel that!

They come in a few different versions, depending on the occasion and moreover the size of the stage :). I had an opportunity to see them in a dancing version (they were playing on the stage and the audience was dancing) as well as in a more quiet dinner-like version. I have to say they never disappoint!

I believe they regularly play in Dos Amigos, a Mexican restaurant in Mission Bay. If you are looking for an idea what to do on a Friday night, here is one: invite your family, your partner, or a friend (or two), book a table at Dos Amigos (make sure it is an outside table), hope for a nice and warm evening  and enjoy good food (Mexican flavours) and an ambiental live performance of LPB. How does that sound?

It’s salsa time!

If you are into salsa (and related dances), Auckland is not a bad place to be. For beginners and improvers, there are plenty of dancing schools and classes available (The Cuban Groove or Viva Latino for instance). If you think you are ready for some social dancing (and even if you think you are not), don’t be shy and join any of the numerous social dancing occasions or salsa parties. They are happening almost every night of the week, so if you are busy on Thursday, tired on Friday, you should make no excuses on Saturday!

If salsa is not quite your style, there is plenty of opportunities to learn and dance bachata, zouk, kizumba or something else. Most of the people I’ve seen dancing are actually quite good across most of these styles.

What I like about Auckland when it comes to salsa? The city is big enough to have a wide salsa community. But at the same time Auckland is small enough so that one keeps seeing and bumping into the same old faces. I really like this as I am comfortable to go to Frankies, Mexican Cafe or The Paddington by myself – I will always meet familiar faces and won’t feel like a weirdo going out on Friday night on my own :).

 

The Powerstation, Auckland’s music mecca

Last Friday I visited a concert of Milky Chance at the Powerstation in Grafton. It was my first visit of this venue and I have to say that I absolutely love it! It is not too small but not to big either, so wherever you are you see the stage really well. You could be going crazy among “younger” population in front of the stage, or enjoy the views from the balcony above. The two bars are of a good size and there was never really a queue to get a drink. The sound was great and so was the atmosphere. I am really looking forward to visit the Powerstation again and by the look of it, they have some really good events lined up!

However, I was disappointed by one thing. After the concert finished, I felt pretty hyped up and ready to party further. Instead of bringing on a DJ and slightly changing the lightshow so that everyone in the room could get “crazy” they pretty much kicked us out. Why would you do that when you have a venue full of people not really frothing over an idea of going to bed just yet? To me, this seems as a lost opportunity.