“Live At The Void” is a DIY concert film, set in the ‘void’ between Mount Albert and Mount Roskill. The gig was planned under the guise of a 21st flat party for local promoter Liam Hansen, but as the idea evolved, the void was filled by the creative ambitions of Tāmaki Makaurau’s thriving DIY music scene. The film features performances from local acts Neither Do I, Park Flyers, CCTV, and 花溪 Flowerstream and will premiere at Dominion Road’s Capitol Cinema on Monday, 27 April. Ahead of the ANZAC Day release, I spoke to producer and promoter Liam Hansen and Director Corey Fuimaono about what it takes to take a living room to the big screen.

Liam Hansen is no stranger to throwing a gig. Between their band ‘Clementine’ and label/promotion project, ‘Misheard’, the last few years have been busy. “This one in particular is about the third or fourth one that we had done,” Liam tells me. Liam had run events at their old place, an apartment above a barbershop, but this was the first time they had hosted a gig at their current place. “My current flat is between Mount Albert and Mount Roskill, kind of in purgatory between the two suburb borderlines, hence the name. I don't think anywhere is necessarily perfect for them, but the kaupapa of putting them on in general is just about making what you have work. We started by putting it on the front deck. But as you will see in the movie, things went wrong, and we had to move inside.”

The gig was initially conceived as Liam’s 21st, and the lineup was a mix of bands they knew or wanted to see. “I searched through as many of the emo bands in Aotearoa as I could find to put them all in one big, massive spreadsheet master list,” Liam recounts. “That included just going through who Carb On Carb had play on their final tour. They had Park Flyers on in Wellington, and I looked through the stuff that they had already and thought it was amazing.” Each of the bands comes from a different corner of the alternative music scene. Neither Do I are one of lineups more established acts, led by Danny Ebdale, who released their debut record ‘We’re Not Known For Anything’ ins 2025. Conversely, Park Flyers are newer to the scene, a part of Glasshead Records and based down in Wellington. Across the board, the soundscape is eclectic. 花溪 Flowerstream are maybe the most well-known act, having been nominated for the 2025 Taite Music Prize. The guzheng and drums duo sit somewhere in the void between punk and dream pop. Closing out the lineup are budding punksters CCTV.

There has been a real resurgence of DIY flat gigging within the Tāmaki alternative music scene, which Liam puts down to their generation’s experience coming in to the live music scene. “My generation had to go through either high school or university during COVID-19, and have arrived in the music scene seeing it in a wonderful state in terms of quality and in a horrific state in terms of support.” But as they say, scorched earth is fertile ground for new growth. “Basically, everyone under the age of 25 can't afford to hire venues very often. So we've just been skirting the risk of noise control.”

The transmutation from flat gig to concert film is no small task. Corey initially got involved just to film snippets of the performances, but it quickly became clear there was too much to leave on the table. “It only took me a couple of minutes just to have a little think about it, and I said to them, you know, if we're going to film parts of these performances, why don't we just film the whole thing. I wrangled Joe Wickins, and Liam wrangled Fernando Bravo, and we just got all of the equipment that we had and put it in a pile. Fernando, who was our sound engineer for the night, I think did a great job with what they had.” The idea of putting it together as a concert film only came about once Cory had gotten a chance to review the footage. “I tested a portion of CCTV's performance where Sean, the singer, joked that he was going to do like a folk song,” Corey recounts, “and it just turned out to sing Happy Birthday to Liam. So I went back to Liam, and I said, ‘Hey, look, you're not going to believe this, but we might have something here to cook with here’.”

The idea of screening the film in a local cinema was a key driving point for both Corey and Liam. We put in that deposit because we were very keen on the idea of being able to screen it at a cinema, especially one like The Capital, or one of the various independent cinemas that we have across Tāmaki Makaurau.” Corey agrees, “Only once we put the deposit in for this cinema, I think that's when I realised, ‘Oh okay, we're doing it’.” For Liam, it helps prove a point that you need to go and make the things you want to see. “It’s been amazing just to be able to highlight the incredible work that Corey had done, as well as test out what we could do with these kinds of, as you said, unattainable forms of media, like concert films that feel kind of like, far off, and it's like, oh, we can't do that.”

The inspiration behind the film doesn’t necessarily come from big, polished works, but more from the people around it. The Beth’s concert film by Sports Team was a reference point for Liam, “I want to credit Sports Team, Annabelle Keen and Callum Devlin not only for just providing us with guidance through this project, but also any time that I've had any film thing, and I think Corey's probably similar, we have gone to Callum to be like, ‘what do you think of this? Please provide me with ideas!” A lot of the influence also comes from just being around live music all the time. Corey specifically has spent a lot of time working in spaces like Radio New Zealand and 95bFM, and that naturally feeds into how something like this is approached. “I’ve learned a lot from my other contemporaries within the video team [at 95bFM] over the last few years. I've just learned how to capture live music performances from them. Like you've got to have a certain attitude where, you know, anything can just happen, and you've only got one chance to film it. So if there's something that interests you or that might interest somebody watching this later on, like it, you’ve got to zoom in on whatever that thing is and get it.” Corey’s answer raised a question for me around how much of what you see on screen is just the performers doing their thing versus manufactured moments. “We didn’t even have the thought to [manufacture a moment], to be honest,” Liam laughs. “There are so many points in this film where you think, like, oh, that's so great, that's fantastic,” says Corey, picking up from Liam. “I mean, for example, the person who came along with the fluorescent tube lighting. I didn't know that they were going to turn up, nor did I know it would provide very bisexual lighting for like 80% of the film. In fact, unlike Liam, I didn't know the music acts, except for maybe CCTV, so what you're seeing is the musicians in their own space; they're just there. And so are the people who are listening to this music as well. It was real people there to celebrate this human [Liam]’s birthday.”

Live At The Void isn’t just about hearing and seeing the music; it’s about shaping how people experience the music, especially if they are hearing it for the first time. “I think it first spawned from maybe watching it through once,” Corey explains, “It was very roughly put together and I don't know if we had the idea that we would play this in a cinema just yet, but I think we definitely wanted some like on-screen commentary and we didn't exactly know what it was going to be just then” Liam wanted the film to be an experiment in active storytelling, with music journalism dispersed throughout. “I've grown up with enough Top of the Pops reruns that I just thought to the captions that would show up on screen, giving fun facts about the recording of the project, about where the band was at that time, and they get a little goofy at some points, but I do think that the idea is really nice, and if nothing else, kind of a way for us to provide context in a way that feels comfortable, at the very least to me.”

At its core, the project captures the magic of a live moment and cements that in a form of media that people can come back to. What people take from the film is ultimately up to them, but Corey and Liam have their own motivators. “I think for me, there are two things that I want people to take away from this,” Corey chimes. “One is from a purely cultural perspective; this is a really neat snapshot of what indie music looks like now in Auckland, it's not like the entirety of the community, but it's certainly one really niche part of it. And secondly, this is something that anyone can do, oddly enough, all you need to do is somehow find 400 bucks”. For Liam, it’s the goal of continuing the perpetual motion machine of alternative music. “I think forming a cycle for people to kind of see Art and create art is what we need. I'm just very tired of every creative in this country fucking off to Melbourne, like I've seen too many of my friends flee the nest, and I'm like, there's just too much good stuff happening here. But I was maybe kind of able to do that through All Ages gigs and BFM, and I want that cycle to continue for as long as it can.”

Live At The Void premieres 27 April at the Capitol Cinema you can get tickets to the show here!

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

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