Over lockdown, a small team of music industry professionals have become emergency response workers. Josie Adams visited Spark Arena to meet them. Behind Spark Arena is a line of shipping containers filled with food and hygiene products. “Only a few months ago this was filled with Tool’s stuff,” said Tom Anderson, a coordinator of Auckland … Read more
Last night, Billie Eilish kicked off her world tour at Spark Arena. Tamsyn Merchant reviews the show (alongside her nine year old daughter, Ruby). When I was 9 years old, I was given a double cassette tape – Mellon Colie And The Infinite Sadness by The Smashing Pumpkins. It was a revelation. I can remember … Read more
Simon Day was at the last night of the tumultuous 20th anniversary tour of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. She was meant to be late. She was supposed to be sick. She’s meant to be a “diva”. Lauryn Hill’s relationship with her live audiences has been complicated for a long time. When you’re the last … Read more
Bob Dylan played Spark Arena in Auckland last night. Ol’ buds Henry Oliver and Harry Cundy were there and emailed back-and-forth about it afterwards. Henry Oliver: We’ve been to many of the same Dylan shows over the years, sometimes together. This one was like many of them but also like no Dylan show I’ve seen … Read more
The performance of Kendrick Lamar’s hip-hop carries special meaning for New Zealand’s minorities, Tamsyn Matchett writes. Kendrick Lamar has been on his DAMN. tour for more than a year. He will finish the 12 month marathon next week in Australia. Such a gruelling, brutal schedule is warranted given the huge mainstream success of DAMN., and its … Read more
Here’s everything you need to know about the very chilled-out, extremely popular tropical house DJ. Hang on a minute – I thought ‘tropical house’ was something they have at the botanical gardens. What is it? You know that Ed Sheeran song that goes “I’m in love with your body / I’m in love with the … Read more
Cher is coming to town! Sam Brooks runs through the many facets of Cher’s near-60 year career – and what makes her so special. Cher as pop star Look, Cher has been a pop star longer than most of us have been alive. She’s had more hits than I have had glasses of wine. She … Read more
On Friday, fans of The Killers turned out for a packed show at Spark Arena – the band’s first in New Zealand since 2009. Jihee Junn sat down with drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr before the show. When Hot Fuss came out in 2004, I was instantly in love. I loved the sparkly synth rock, the … Read more
Last night, Halsey played an intimate performance to a hundred or so people before her Spark Arena show. The Spinoff was there. Last night, to celebrate the opening of S @ Spark Arena – a new bar and performance space in Spark Arena where Spark customers can hang out and have a drink or two … Read more
Kate Robertson has, on occasion, soundtracked her life entirely with Shania Twain. Here’s how you can too. GIVEAWAY ALERT: Looks like we made it… closer to Shania’s New Zealand tour! And Spark is giving away 20 double-passes to her Auckland and Dunedin shows. Entries close 27 July 2018. Stop everything you’re doing – the OG … Read more
Kate Robertson’s seven reasons why you should stop underestimating Halsey. Halsey hasn’t had the easiest run of things since first appearing on our radars in 2015. Sceptics have called her a manufactured popstar, Pitchfork slaughtered her debut album BADLANDS, and people of a certain age like to write about how they don’t get the hype. … Read more
Globe-trotting superfan Sacha Judd reviews her third Harry Styles show in less than three months. And she might already have tickets to two more. A friend texts me: “Wait. This is your third Harry Styles concert?” I try to explain that, actually, I had only ever intended to see him in Auckland. And then New … Read more
Preeminent One Direction scholar Millie Lovelock reviews the Harry Styles concert at Spark Arena. I’ll start at the beginning because concerts like this don’t just start when the band take the stage. For at least a thousand Harry Styles fans, the show started long before I was even conscious on Saturday morning. Fans were camping overnight, … Read more
Kate Robertson reviews Shawn Mendes, the ever-so-pure former Vine star who performed at Spark Arena on Saturday. Saturday night saw 19-year-old Shawn Mendes, a star so clean-cut Disney could only dream of stamping their brand on him, grace us with his pristine presence for the first time. It’s a gig I’ve not stopped yapping on … Read more
Stevie Nicks played at Auckland’s Spark Arena last night, with The Pretenders as special guests. Sam Brooks was there. I saw Blondie and Cyndi Lauper early this year, and there’s something special about seeing these vanguards of music do a victory lap. All the things that made them unique, made them famous, made them successes … Read more
Alex Casey reviews Khalid’s show at Auckland’s Spark Arena on Sunday night. Just like a very primitive prototype for an iPod shuffle, I have the capacity for a little over two albums a year. In 2017, my brain is completely full with Lorde’s Melodrama, and Khalid’s American Teen. By some kind of cosmic collision of … Read more
Henry Oliver reviews Drake’s show at Spark Arena on Friday 3 November 2017. Drake and I have always had an ambivalent (one-way) relationship. When he appeared, seemingly out of nowhere but actually with a few years worth of unremarkable mixtapes, the Canadian actor-turned-rapper was part of a wave of post-808s and Heartbreak rappers making sing-songy, … Read more
Avid Chainsmokers defender Joseph Moore went to see the Chainsmokers play Auckland’s Spark Arena on Tuesday night and survived the drop to tell us all about it. I paid my own money to see The Chainsmokers. The Spinoff offered me free ones to review it but I had already paid seventy actual New Zealand Dollars … Read more
Migos performed in New Zealand for the first time at Spark Arena last night. Old soul Madeleine Chapman went along to see what the youths have been raving about. Walking towards Spark Arena for the Migos concert, my cousin Shanee and I ducked into a dimly lit doorway to prepare for the security checks that … Read more