Heavy, gritty and sometimes disturbing, Ōtepoti duo Night Lunch blend their gothic-industrial sound with humour and catchy lyrics that worm right into your brain. Their unique sound is a result of their unique structure: two Liam’s – one on drums, and one on vocals and a homemade instrument called a diddly bow, which sounds like the combination of an ultra-distorted guitar and bass. The group have been a mainstay of the Ōtepoti scene for some time, with the success of 2021’s ‘House Full of Shit’ becoming a huge hit on the Student Radio Network charts furthering their local reach.

The group recently completed a whirlwind tour of China, facilitated by Kristen Ng of Kiwese — a huge expansion of their musical force. Liam Hoffman documented their journey, taking us along with them, exploring new cultures and the unique Chinese underground music scene.

“My Home” restaurant in Shanghai. *Photo by Laura Monaghan.*

We did it! We went to China, on tour, just a bit over a month and a half ago. It was a big job, coordinating across 3 different timezones, NZ, UK and China. It feels important to honour the admin involved, 90% of which was done by Kristen Ng, of Kiwese touring. Our translator, navigator, tour mumma. Night Lunch is the 8th NZ band she has taken around China, K providing us with, in her words: “a portal to the Chinese underground scene.”

It was Liam C and me, Kristen and Laura, the quad squad. You need a good team for such a big mission, moving mountains of gear through cities and train stations. I got separated from the pack once in a busy train station to fix my bag zip, and felt a little prickle of terror before turning a corner and seeing the gang waiting by the security bit. The tour started in Shanghai and ended in Chengdu, playing 13 shows in 12 cities over 3 and a half weeks. We zig zagged across China from east to west, from club dance floors to specced out livehouses and various buzzy little DIY venues in between. We used the high speed rail network for inter-city travel, covering the total distance of 2.5 New Zealands (4,850 km!).

Countryside from the train. Photo by Laura Monaghan.

Landing in Shanghai was crazy: out the plane window it was misty, there were fields of cars and crops, pylons, and huge apartment blocks. I was like “Oh snap, I’m definitely in China now, baby!” My jaw was on the floor of the Didi (Uber) on the ride into the city, mega highways and skyscrapers, bridges everywhere. We really don’t have any comparable scale of infrastructure in NZ. I really felt we were in the belly of the hyper-industrial world, alright.

Buildings in Chongqing, city #11 on the tour circuit. *Photo by Laura Monaghan.*

Half the shows were busy, half were pretty quiet. The third show, at Loopy in Hangzhou, was our favourite, attended by like 130 people? In a beaut new concrete dance room with their own lighting guy and big Funktion-One speakers. In China the venues are well kitted out: dream backline amps and drums, GIANT PA systems, and usually 2-5 soundies or stage crew, making for mostly efficient soundchecks. There's just more people and resources compared to back home when it comes to putting on a show! Each gig was a step into the unknown for performers and audiences alike.

For gig #1 in Shanghai, the venue hadn’t sussed a drum kit. Kristen snapped her fingers and they had one organised in a few hours, day of show. Liam C and K were the soundies that night, miking the drums and doing the levels. Between the three musicians in the squad, we had three acts for every show: Kaishandao (K), Crime Hospital (Liam C) and Night Lunch. We all had many hats on, Laura was on merch and tour photos/videos, Kristen making sure we had rides and food and organising activities in the down times.

Liam and Kristen enjoying food on sticks at pearl beach, in Xiamen.

The gig culture was much like anywhere, although no one claps between songs. There’s head banging, dancing and devil horns being thrown up during songs, but no clapping. The odd “woo” here and there. It felt awkward initially but we got used to it. People also love you to sign merch after the show! We had our own merch for sale which most people got signed with our silver paint pens, and got photos with fans. One fan, Gatty, saw us at show #3 in Hangzhou and then caught the final show in Chengdu, 3 weeks later. At least we made one mega fan! She loved Kaishandao and Crime Hospital too.

Signing our new friend Maybe’s pedal board.

Liam C did some stage banter in full on English, like it was a gig in NZ and also in very basic Chinese. A lot of “hello, we are Night Lunch, we love China,” etc. In Wenzhou, the venue owner (his name is Four Zhang) taught us some Wenzhounese swear words at dinner. It was really fun. Liam C shared these with the crowd that night, the crowd laughed. He was kinda just listing them “dumb, idiot, you dumb, fucker, idiot.” I think his accent added to the humour of it for the crowd. Turns out nobody outside Wenzhou speaks Wenzhounese though so that bit of banter was very bespoke and we barely used those words again.

Xi’An, gig #10 Kristen stabilises a shifting kick drum for most the set. *Photo by Laura Monaghan.*

If you’re touring China legit-styles, you have to submit your songs to the Ministry of Culture, to get a performance permit, so you can get your visas. Kristen vetted our material for what songs would likely pass the review process, which ended up a bunch of largely B side material kind of stuff, turns out the authorities don’t like obscenities and we do swear a fair bit in our songs. So I went in thinking we’d have to play this relatively random setlist, only to realize, once you’re in you can kind of play what you like! Our show in Xiamen was the only one with a cop present, just a wee old guy in uniform, sitting at the back, scrolling on his phone the whole show. I suspect if we were famous, or yelling in Chinese it would have been different?

We made friends after every show, and still message some of them (shoutout Berlin, Samantha). It was mostly riffing afterwards. Most of the alty kids spoke English too so it was easy to make friends. After the show in Fuzhou (gig #4), this guy (who said he and I were “drum brothers”) just started full on jazz ripping on the drums and there was a big jam sesh in this odd underground plaza a bit outside the venue with bass and guitar and drums. Everyone having a go, it was super cool.

Wuhan gang! Members from Dog Poop Luck and The Feedback venue. *Photo from someone I can’t remember…*

The crown jewel of the tour was Chun You festival, which Kristen got us on the bill for because she works for them. It’s a two day festival, a massive weekend with approx 5K people? There were amazing cyber punk/ goth/ hippie outfits everywhere, big sole boots, harnesses, piercings and tattoos, it was very alternative. Lots of percussion and traditional music, DJs, dancers and international acts too. We played 1 of 6 stages – the imagination stage – and were probably the heaviest band there I’d say? It’s held just outside of Chengdu, and we were staying at a hotel (ClubMed no less) just down the road from it. I was bedbound with a fever throughout most of my stay at the hotel, and recovered enough on the day to play our set. It was weird! Kristen picked me up, I was kinda woozy and floaty, but I had an orange and powered through the set. I sweated buckets, only to be Didi’d home again! So I barely experienced the festival. The fresh-out-of-a-fever mode made me play drums real well though? So that was kind of cool. People were bopping, I think it was quite a novel act for Chun You. It’s pretty weird, primitive and stark music compared to what else was playing so I think we stood out.

Playing the imagination stage at Chun You 2026. *Photo also from someone I can’t remember…*

China. What a blast, there's so much I could bang on about, but I want to keep it music and trip related. Returning home, in the Shenzhen airport, with Liam and Laura back off to the UK, I felt a combo of achievement and sadness for sure. Like, having nothing to do except get up, hang with your best friends all day in a totally different environment, walk around, catch trains and check into hotels all while talking absolute shit and riffing, is so fun. So free. I felt very engaged and like I was running so clean, far from work pressures and grindy life stuff, in a land where nobody knows who you are.

Brief mention about the affordability of things in China also, as someone coming from one of the most expensive countries in the world. Most things were a quarter of the price in NZ. We ate like 3–4 course lunches every day basically, supermarkets and street food was CHEAP. And travel, CHEAP. Across my high moments over there I had the thought a few times of “dang… should I hard-pivot and come teach English in China?!” I probably won’t, but I’d definitely live there if something lined up. Fall in love there maybe, real language barrier rom-com kind of stuff. We’ll definitely be back anyway, at least to visit K in Chengdu!

New Zealand is so good to return to though holy moly, we are so lucky. That big gulp of cold, Otago air felt great when I stepped out of the airport (although a little cow shitty from the surrounding farms). If you get the chance to take your band over (or just go), DO IT. Get in touch with Kristen (KIWESE contact here) because my god it was a smooth ride for us Westies, you couldn’t do a trip like that without insider knowledge. Many thanks to everyone who hosted us, came to the shows, bought merch, fed us, transported us and befriended us along the way.

Yours truly,
Liam Hoffman.

Check out Night Lunch’s travel-tour doco in the link below too!

NIGHT LUNCH BIG CHINA TOUR – FULL DOCO

“We brought heavy NZ music to the biggest country in the world and it felt really really cool and amazing, amazing places and people everywhere! Cultural fusion was at an all time high. We won't ramble on, just remember ROCKIN' is freedom, people are the answer and tell your people you love them!” – Night Lunch

Little Night Lunch in Big China

“We Could Wrangle Something, Together” — ‘Live at the Void’ Concert Film.