It’s night time. In an anonymous office building, bass player Matt strides out of a lift, disturbing the all-Asian office staff. They direct him to a bland corner office and he struts over to the window.
We discover that the other two Feelers are also standing at the window of neighbouring buildings, playing their take on the old “love is a battlefield” theme. This high-rise trio doesn’t seem to bother the other people in the offices (all Asian). Perhaps it’s a standing arrangement the band have – an alternative to renting proper rehearsal space.
It’s been filmed by the Vero building on Shortland Street in Auckland, and sometimes we see the band playing outside, evidence that the three-building technique isn’t the result of a feud.
Office buildings are pretty bleak places, bleaker still when they’re empty. The presence of a rock band could either make the building seem more rockin’, or it could make the band members seem more dull. I think the latter happens in this instance. The scenes filmed outside with the band together are far more dynamic than the band in an empty open-plan office space. Even when the song’s tension is building, the dull setting just seems to bring everything down. Maybe they should have got David Brent to do some dancing.
Best bit: the guy happily working while Hamish plays the drums at the other desk.
Next… cube dudes.
This video now makes me think of the section in Pip Adam’s novel I’m Working on a Building in which the characters are squatting in unleased central Auckland office space in the late 80s. Of course that’s out of sync with when this video was released, but there’s something about that generic real estate that collapses time.