Bands popping off in Pōneke: Baldleaf

I am a massive fan of early shoegaze like Slow­dive, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and really any­thing with that eth­er­e­al, dream­like qual­ity that trans­ports you from your bed­room or loc­al ven­ue into the clouds. For this reas­on I was extremely excited to dis­cov­er the music of Baldleaf, self described “5 chip 1 fish”, and their […]

Bands popping off in Pōneke: Debt Club

Debt Club is a band whose sound has gone through a major evol­u­tion since their ori­gins as high school friends in “The Clas­sic”. Under­go­ing some changes in their ori­gin­al lineup, their sound has also moved from more tra­di­tion­al clas­sic rock to an eclect­ic mix of indie, folk rock and altern­at­ive coun­try. In an impress­ive live […]

Bands popping off in Pōneke: Mall Goth

“I’m hav­ing a nervous break­down on stage, if it was any­where else you would think I was crazy. But I’ve some­how man­aged to trick you into think­ing it’s cool. Unless you think we suck, I guess, that’s okay too,” says lead sing­er of Mall Goth on stage at San Fran, where the band is becom­ing […]

Review: Hamlet – One Hour. Three Actors. Denmark Will Never Be the Same

As someone who’s nev­er read or seen a per­form­ance of Ham­let, I might seem like an unlikely review­er for TheJoMarsh’s adapt­a­tion at Bats Theatre. How­ever, if I, with my inex­per­i­ence, can eas­ily fol­low and enjoy ‘Ham­let – One Hour. Three Act­ors. Den­mark Will Nev­er Be the Same,’ then any­one can. In this high-tech, dysto­pi­an take […]

soup and a scone at Arlo

Best of the Week: May 18–25

Our weekly wrap-up of what’s good,  this time fea­tur­ing fea­tur­ing Emma, Joanna and Tom Emma’s bests Best theatre: Farce Onion at BATS – a deeply warm­ing joy­ous non­sense impro­vised time Best vibes: Still­wa­ter – I only had a drink there with some mates so I can­’t speak to the effic­acy of their cof­fee or food […]

Review: Homemade Takeaways

I don’t think any­one will dis­agree with me that it’s been one hell of a year, and Christ­mas is des­cend­ing on us fast.  So it seemed com­pletely appro­pri­ate to be watch­ing a show about people who’ve had a hell of a year, too, drawn togeth­er at Christ­mas. Annie and Will have grav­it­ated back to the […]

Review: Olive Copperbottom

Leav­ing Circa on Wed­nes­day after the open­ing night of Olive Cop­per­bot­tom, one of the many things I was feel­ing was deep regret that it was the very first of Penny Ashton’s shows that I’d seen, and I’d missed so many oth­ers.  Ashton is a bright light.  Her energy, her wit, and her joy were incan­des­cent […]

Review: Macbeth

I went into Macbeth at the St James com­pletely cold – I know Ver­di’s later oper­as, includ­ing his later Shakespeare oper­as; Otello and Fal­staff.  But I’ve some­how missed Macbeth, and decided to keep it that way, I guess because it’s so excit­ing to go into some­thing com­pletely fresh and new, even if it was writ­ten […]

The Weight of a Thousand Oceans – review & giveaway

Wel­ling­ton writers increas­ingly (and entirely jus­ti­fi­ably) are view­ing the ongo­ing cli­mate dis­aster as a rich source of mater­i­al for cre­at­ing intriguing, ima­gin­at­ive spec­u­lat­ive fic­tion. Based in future worlds where human­ity has failed to stop a cata­stroph­ic, civil­­iz­a­­tion-alter­­ing change in the cli­mate sys­tem, these stor­ies of what might be, if we don’t sort our shit out, […]

Review: The Look Of Love

I’ve seen Ali Harp­er before, at Old St Paul’s in 2012, and I was struck by her humour and pro­fes­sion­al­ism then.  It was a fun night out with my Robot Mum and we both enjoyed hear­ing songs we knew, and some we did­n’t, per­formed by someone who knew her craft and was super skilled. On […]