Wellington live music venue Underworld Tavern closes after three years
Monday, 2 February 2026
A Wellington live music spot has closed its doors, citing a tough market and an ending lease.
Underworld Tavern has shut, with its last day of service on Friday. The Mt Victoria venue was known for its live music gigs, particularly in the Nu Metal/Pop Punk genres.
Owner Sophia Dainty said she and her partner, Matt Dainty, had felt it was the right time to close the venue as its lease was at an end.
“It’s just a really tough market for Wellington. At the moment, our lease came to an end, and we got to the point where we were not able to renew it. So we had to call it,” she said.
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Sophia said she and Matt opened the venue first as Boneface Tavern in 2022, as a tap room for Matt’s brewery company, Boneface Brewing Co. A year later, the venue transformed into Underworld Tavern when the brewery went into liquidation.
When the public service was slashed last year, Wellington became a very different town, she said.
“We got to a point with the bar where I could see things were taking a bit of a turn in Wellington. We had a new government come into power, and quite soon afterwards, they cut a lot of jobs. Immediately, Wellington hospitality felt the effects of that.”
The bar had a War On Emo gig for its final Friday, as well as an event on Saturday to farewell friends, she said.
The bar’s final gig had been a really great night, she said, with the audience giving fantastic feedback to the show and everyone mentioning how much fun they had.
“It was a great show of love and support from the community, which is really why we set out to do this bar in the first place.”
Underworld Tavern had been a way for Sophia and Matt to focus on the stuff they loved doing, which was live music and the arts, she said.
“There is a really thriving creative scene in Wellington, and we wanted to appeal to people who were like-minded to us”.
Luckily Sophia and Matt both have work outside of hospitality, so they will be continuing with that, she said.
While they were happy to be having a little break from hospitality, Sophia said they would eventually return to the capital’s events and music scene in the future.
“I’ve already started thinking about ideas with Matt that we can do, and ways that we can be involved. Really, Underworld was a love letter to Wellington’s [music] community … Even though I feel pretty heartbroken, I’m determined to get back out there when the time is right.”