Features

Each year, Critic conducts a review of OUSA’s O Week - the highlights, the spew-y lowlights, the great bands and the bands that sparked hateful scarfie chants. This year, however, we did things a little differently. For a while now Dunedin bars have been offering up “alternative” OWeeks, often featuring events that involve freshers getting wet, such as jelly wrestling and foam parties. But this year Urban Factory went above and beyond, snapping up big acts that played at O Weeks across the country.

We sent charming first year Charlotte Doyle to review OUSA’s O Week, and talented fifth year Georgi Hampton to Urban Factory’s offering. While we make no claims as to the scientific accuracy of this experiment, the results are fairly interesting. It appears that, MGMT or no MGMT, OUSA’s O Week never fails to keep the freshers happy, while Urban Factory’s impressive bands were not the be-all-and-end-all in the making a great O Week.

 
OUSA O Week
If I were to use one word to describe O Week, it would be ‘intense’. It has been by far one of the most intense weeks that I can remember (or at least remember most of). For a start there’s getting used to the idea that this tiny room with its unfamiliar hard pillow, blank walls and interesting coloured curtains is yours for the rest of the year. Then there’s meeting the people you’re going to be living with – do you wait for your neighbour to make the move or do you go over and do the door knocking, hand shaking and “hey there” thing yourself? These ‘firsts’ were something we fretted over for months before even making it to student-dominated city. How do you start a conversation with someone you’ve never met? With hundreds of people? What are the opening lines? What if there’s no one you’re compatible with? What if the temptation to go and sit in your room by yourself is that overpowering? What if you make no friends? Upon arriving there were, of course, the three questions…What’s your name? Where you from? What are you studying? (That last question shouldn’t even count, there’s a 50% chance your guess of Health Sci is right.) And it turns out everyone was in the same boat. So after people found their temporary niche…the partying began.
As a high school student, O Week is something you’ve heard about for years. Whether it’s snippets from that older sibling who doesn’t tell you the finer details for risk of potentially damaging your delicate high school ears or from that older sibling who only thinks they know what they’re talking about and provides you with biased second-hand information. Of course the toga party was a given, who wouldn’t know about that particular rave?
When the OUSA package arrived in the mail it was a relief to realise that the events ran more along the lines of concerts. Concerts I can handle. Forced orientation rituals maybe not. Pranks – this was exactly why Knox seemed like a bad idea. But every newbie to Dunedin has to admit in their deeper soul that they were nervous about O Week. More than one person expressed their inner concerns about creating the right first impression. Making friends, sitting with someone in the dining hall at dinner, peer pressure to party, not having enough alcohol to party, not having enough money to buy the alcohol to party or purely not being old enough to legally party at all, aka the fateful 17 year olds. Life’s tough for a fresher, huh?
The comedy show was a good way to start off a week like this in terms of building up anticipation. The line for the 9.30 session was, in a word: pissed, in more ways than one. It was also very long until those with passes realised they could jump the queue. Good decision making on their part, and a demonstration of the advantage of reading the fine print of the O Week (that is, paying the little extra makes your week a lot easier). The last session was hilarious. As one comedian put it, the session at 6.00pm earned mild claps, the session at 8.30pm was a little bit more enthusiastic, even with some laughter, but the last session was THE most excitable audience ever, apparently. “You guys would just cheer for anything wouldn’t you? WOOO A ROCK! WAAARHAHAH! A ROCK! WOOO! PUNCTUATION!! SYNTAX! WOO!!!” was Steve Wrigley’s interpretation of the crowd. Note to comedians; use an audience’s drunken state to your advantage. It makes you that much funnier.
The hypnotist show was just as, if not more, hilarious with vibrating seats and ballet dancers. At the time we were convinced it was real but now we’re not so sure. When they were “told” to fall in love with whoever was next to them “guy or girl, gay or straight…just do it”, one of them repeatedly came back to the same girl sitting two rows in front of us, either genuine love or an entertaining flaw in the plan.
And then there was the toga party. At one point during the night somebody said, “if you think about it, this is the most ridiculous gathering of people I’ve ever seen. We’re wearing sheets for fucks sake!” A fair point. Maybe that’s what makes it so crazy - the sheer privilege of wearing a $2 sheet has gone to people’s heads. This is the event that comes to everybody’s mind when O Week is mentioned, alongside couch-burning of course. It’s the night that sells out halfway through the day before and ends with photos in the paper the day after. It was also probably the best event of the week with a hyped-up crazy atmosphere induced by a ridiculous amount of people squashed in one space. It surprising not more togas came off with the amount of moshing that was going on. Note to self; do not mosh in a group of guys that are about twice your size or next to hooking up couples. It’s gross. Past midnight we walked home in our unravelling creations to yells of “hey freshers!!! Take. It. Off!”
By the end of the week the concerts had blurred together and by the time Saturday night rocked on up people favoured town over Ladi 6, Minuit and Dj Rehka. When we arrived less than 100 people were there. Whether it was from a lack of interest or lack of energy it’s hard to tell but they probably just weren’t big enough names…like MGMT. However, as someone put it, at least they came on stage. Kids of 88 did have potential. Sadly, some technical issues and the fact that it took them a little too long to come on stage meant the majority of people left, dragging the atmosphere with them. From that night Computers Want Me Dead were the most interesting despite the booing crowd. “Indie” was an interesting choice of title for the night, though it could be a reflection of how “indie” has become the new “mainstream”.
There was also the rugby about which all I heard was that it was a long walk home. Who won?
The Christchurch earthquake needs to be mentioned. To those who experienced it or have family who experienced it; what a hellish experience and we all hope that it will never happen again. It’s a bit disturbing to think so many people, especially people to whom many of us are very close, were going through a traumatic time while trivial issues such as how to shape a toga and whether or not you were old enough to go to town were on many of our minds. However I don’t think the TVs in hostel common rooms were turned off the news once during that week and the support will keep on mounting.
The morning after O Week, the charred remains of a barbeque (meat included) were stinking up Clyde St. THE most disgusting smell to experience that early in the morning. Just those Dunedin students, right? The night before we’d been offered leftover “chups” in an empty bread packet by a bulky guy in a spaghetti strapped black dress. Too tight and inside out I might add. But it’s the way to meet people during O Week. Crazy, drunken, intense O Week. By the end people were getting tired. Staying out every night doubled with all these new people, tripled with an entirely new environment is exhausting. Let the lectures and study begin…yeah right.
 
At a glance:

Bands: 2/5, needed more crowd pullers
Vibez: 4/5 (at toga party)
Fun factor: 5/5 at beginning of week 3/5 by Saturday
Drinks: I was one of the sad few with an R17 wristband
Fresher presence: high
Spew presence: surprisingly medium but the sheer mass of what we did see was impressive
Popularity: Depends….
Use of scarfie chants: low. The only one I heard was along the lines of “fuck Arana”, very passionately chanted as well
Price: $140-160
Bouncers: there were bouncers?
Critic’s overall rating: 8.95/10
 
Urban Factory
Anyone who has studied in Otago for at least a year is sure to have observed the historic Orientation posters that adorn the walls of Poppa’s Pizza, food for the eyes while you wait for food for the stomach. And it doesn’t take too much looking to come to a realisation about a trend of Orientation over the years. I’ll break it down for you: they’re getting shitter. To start, the posters are less original – gone are the witty “movie” posters, replaced with boring colours and simple block letters. We can continue to bemoan the unoriginality of OUSA’s design staff behind “O’11”, but to quote the old scarfie ads it would be best to just “get over it”. However, when this unoriginality spreads over into the O Week line up, just getting over it no longer remains an option.
 
To say the OUSA O Week line up was uninspiring is being, well, kind. Granted, there are always going be some unhappy folk, but for the first time in five years there was absolutely nothing I wanted to attend. Previous years I’ve seen the likes of the Mint Chicks (twice) and Liam Finn, among others. This year nothing jumped out. With VSM upon us, one might think that the onus would be on OUSA to really show the students what they will miss. Clearly, OUSA disagreed.
 
So then we say hello to the other player on the scene: Urban Factory. The guys at Urban Factory had put together an O-week line up all of their own and a much more satisfactory one at that. There were a couple of excellent nights, and a couple that could’ve been better, but this place has potential if they play their cards right.
 
Monday night was a supreme let down. The event was called “Essential” and featured Dick Johnston, James Ashwin and more. While I am not quite in the know about electro DJs, my accompanying friend is and was extremely disappointed the DJs never actually played. The Facebook event said the night started at 9pm. We turned up at 9.30pm and the bouncer told us we were “a bit early”, which made us feel a bit awkward. In fact, the whole vibe was awkward. We had an awkward drink and the manager asked us if they were made well so I guess it is my duty to report that yes, they were made well. As well made as a glass of Coke can be.
 
Even though the bar was empty – I’m not exaggerating at all, the staff outnumbered us – it is clear that Urban Factory has a lot of potential. For one thing it is giant and has a pretty good set up with the stage and bar being close together but not too close, leaving enough room for both dancing and not dancing, just “appreciating”. There is also a room with couches and tables for those who not that into the music, and an outside area to the front. We left on Monday night after our 9.30pm drink, but came back twice and the DJs still hadn’t started. At 12.30am we gave up, refusing to believe the bouncer who told us they “were definitely gonna play”, and went home.
 
After the devastating earthquake in Christchurch on Tuesday, Critic didn’t feel like partying too much and was unable to attend. However, we heard from the manager of Urban Factory that there were “at least 600 people there” partying to Concord Dawn, State of Mind, Bulletproof and others. Urban Factory was apparently packed until the wee hours. Word on the street is that we missed a pretty epic night!
 
Before you stop reading this article and write off Urban Factory completely, I’ve got to tell you that Wednesday night was awesome. The event on Wednesday, “Blues, Brews and BBQs”, apparently started at 11am. I headed along much later, about 9pm, with a group of ex-flatmates, and we had an excellent night. In the evening Avalanche City played, as well as Knives at Noon. Despite the late start, Avalanche City were awesome. If you don’t recognise the name, an excerpt of their song “Love Love Love” features as the TV2 theme tune. Their set was the perfect mix of songs to dance to and songs to just listen to. It is worth mentioning the multi-talented Romelli Rodriguez, who played the drum, accordion and violin beautifully over the course of the set.  Knives at Noon were a different vibe, but also excellent as always. Urban Factory didn’t have a huge crowd, but that suited the atmosphere and meant everyone had space to dance without, for example, copping a sweaty elbow to the face. There was even a “celebrity” appearance from one of the twins off New Zealand’s Next Top Model (we’re sorry, we still aren’t sure which one). OUSA definitely missed out on Avalanche City.
 
Friday night was most definitely the highlight of weak. Urban Factory hosted the De la Soul is Dead anniversary tour – 20 years since the release of the band’s second studio album. Urban Factory was suitably packed, and as much as Wednesday night hadn’t been hot and sweaty, Friday night was the opposite. You couldn’t help but get involved, with pretty much the entire bar responding to “put your hands up, put your hands up”. It’s the first time I’ve seen De la Soul live, and their innovation and skill really increased my respect for the hip-hop genre. It is also worth mentioning the opening act, the boys from Dudstown Recordings, who did a fantastic job of “warming the crowd up” for De la Soul. The beats were familiar yet interesting and set the scene for an impeccable night!
 
Saturday night was supposed to be the full Salmonella Dub nine-piece line-up, which has been postponed to Saturday March 5. Critic was pretty excited about the gig and appropriately disappointed when one of the bouncers said “oh yeah, they’re moved to next week so we don’t know who’s playing now”. So instead, Critic checked out the fresher population in the Octagon (huge!) and through a series of unfortunate events did not end up at Urban Factory on Saturday. We are pretty damn excited about this coming Saturday though.
 
All in all, O Week at Urban Factory had some fantastic moments, accompanied by some not so fantastic moments. However these not-so-fantastic moments were reasonably minor and didn’t detract from the awesomeness of Wednesday and Friday nights. While I’m not a bar owner myself and probably can’t offer the best advice, I thought that with better organisation and more advertising (some copy editing on their Facebook events wouldn’t go amiss either), Urban Factory O Week could’ve been a lot bigger. To give them some credit, they were competing with OUSA who pre-sells O Week passes to unsuspecting first years before they even arrive in Dunedin, let alone realise that there are other (read: better) options. We didn’t see many first years at the events at Urban Factory, although that might’ve been because the lure of the Monkey Bar or Malbas was too strong. You never do want to grind to “Teenage Dream” on people you don’t know quite as much as when you are first year and born in the ‘90s. We didn’t mind that much. Urban Factory has loads of potential, especially if they keep on hosting such a good range of bands making great music. 
 
At a glance:
 
Bands: 4/5 – an excellent range, and the bands that did play put on fantastic shows. Took one point off for Monday night’s disappointment.
Vibez: 4/5
Fun factor: 5/5 – we definitely had fun. We’re pretty proud to be key instigators of the dancing to Avalanche City.
Drinks: 5/5 – “well made”, a good selection of spirits. A wedge of lemon in a plain glass of Coke is a nice touch.
Fresher presence: Low. Maybe they couldn’t find it.
Spew presence: Low. None actually inside Urban Factory although we did see a girl spewing in a gutter outside on the way home on Friday.
Popularity: 3/5 – De la Soul and Concord Dawn pulled the biggest crowds. Monday night was empty.
Use of scarfie chants: Low
Price: Student prices ranging from $10 to $38 for De la Soul
Bouncers: 5/5 – really friendly!
Total: 7.5/10