I was in Auckland last weekend for Sun Kil Moon at The Tuning Fork. It was a great gig.

First things first, since it's an obscure band. They're named after a Korean boxer, Sung-Kil Moon. Essentially the group is songwriter Mark Kozelek's baby. With a bass player, drummer and keyboard supporting, he fronted it like a humorously confrontational performance poet, screeds of lyrics balanced on an iffy music stand, ribbing the crowd and controlling a mood of finely-tuned chaos.

I wasn't going to write about the show, but a couple of things stand out. Neil Finn was there. It's not the biggest venue – it holds more than 300 people but seems cosy. He was standing chatting and you couldn't really miss him if you went to the bar. And nobody thought to slap him on the back or say hello. That's nice.

New Zealand's biggest rock star – yes he is – can still have an undisturbed drink in public.Turns out he is an old mate of Kozelek and halfway through the two and a half hour show (no break) Neil guested on a couple of songs. Firstly he played Kozelek's guitar. Perhaps it's just my peculiar sense of humour but this amuses me. The song was a slow ambient groove called ‘Beautiful You', the entire thing consisting of two repeated chords.

Neil noodled away on the guitar... for 17 minutes! The second song, ‘My Mother's Love', they sang alternating verses and choruses together. There was just one microphone so they shared it, making for a lovely, intimate experience.
But I wasn't going to write about the show, I was going to write about the venue.

A great venue

The Tuning Fork is next to Spark Arena (once Vector).

It functions both as a pre-show drink and nibble stop for the arena and as a venue in its own right. The room has optional seating, though this show was standing only, carpet, and is quite long with the stage at one end. Impressively, even in a room this size – not too large – they have taken real effort with the sound. There are two banks of repeater speakers, set roughly at 20 yard intervals from the stage, meaning sound throughout was pretty much immaculate.

I was seriously impressed. The venue seems ideal for a wide range of music and a list of past gigs reinforces this – Steve Earl and the Dukes, Thurston Moore, Avalanche City, Trinity Roots, Jason Isobel, Pokey LaFarge, and many more.That, of course, got me to thinking about Tauranga and the fact that we are not what you would call well-served in regard to places for bands to perform.

Or at least that's my impression. So I thought we might spend a couple of weeks investigating whether that's true or simply the jaded perception of an old music column hack.

Consulting Colin

I gave local promoter Colin Lunt a bell – someone who has put on a plethora of different-sized shows over the years –and he seems to concur. Like many of us, he waxed nostalgically about the sadly-missed Bureta Trust.

According to Colin 'since the closure of Bureta Park a couple of years, the situation has become pathetic. The ‘Trust' as it was affectionately known was the backstop venue for local and touring bands. Quite simply it had a stage, a bar and the willingness to host small and large bands for around 200 people for a reasonable charge.

'It had its faults but we always had a great gig there.”

I don't want to offend the few current venues. Each has its place. I'll look at them next week and check back with Colin.

In the meantime, you may like to hear Aussie troubadour Tim Guy who's bringing a band to The Incubator at the Historic Village this Saturday, June 3. It's his first NZ tour but Guy has five albums under his belt, the most recent, ‘Chords', receiving a heap of critical acclaim from the likes of Rolling Stone magazine. I guess you'd call him mainstream alt-rock.

Listen online for a better idea.

Local trio Ed Gains and The Human Remains will kick off the evening at 7pm. Tickets are $10.