This was not a show where clapping would cut it. Even shouting your approval was out of the question.
As SZA - last year's breakout R&B star and recipient of a top 10 TimeOut album of the year accolade - emerged onto Logan Campbell's ageing stage last night, it became clear that only your loudest, trillest shriek would cut through the crowd noise.
It was loud on stage for SZA too. "You guys are electric," she said during one of her chirpy, frequently hilarious, monologues to the crowd. "I can't hear shit."
It wasn't just noise that the New Jersey native had to deal with up there. The 28-year-old struggled with technical difficulties throughout the night, being interrupted by wonky ear pieces, a meddling stage handler, a dodgy audio mix and, at one point near the end of the show, a band that was forced to stall thanks to faulty instruments.
She's not the only one to struggle with Logan Campbell's setup. Along with its awkward location, last night only added to the argument that Auckland desperately needs a new mid-sized inner-city venue - with a capacity somewhere between the Powerstation and Spark Arena - to accommodate the screaming hordes an artist like SZA demands.
