Titty Bar Ha Ha
Basement Theatre
8 May 2013

Down on luck and low on morals, Hope and Gloria find themselves working in a strip club in wartime England. As planes fly overhead and police bang on the door the duo perform to their audience of desperados and bond over their shared love of gin, sexual innuendo and the dead guy Johnny under the floorboards.

Read the full review on Theatreview.

Guy Williams Has Won An Award
NZ International Comedy Festival
Auckland Old Folks Association
2 May 2013
Number 8 Gundry Street holds a certain fascination for many Aucklanders. The building is serious, seriously retro, and emblazoned with ‘Auckland Old Folks Ass' on the side. This evening the steamy Ass is filled to the gills with people eager to experience the comedy of Guy Williams, who has won an award.
Click here to read the full review on Theatreview.

The 5 Star International Comedy Tour
NZ International Comedy Festival
Bruce Mason Theatre
4 May 2013
Seven Days regular Tom Gleeson gets a bit of a groan when the crowd hears his broad Aussie accent, but he soon wins them over with his sad but true stories of what passes for entertainment in middle age. He ruins sex for everyone in the audience by threatening to appear like a chanting, floppy-faced apparition in the bedroom tonight, and finishes with a hysterical re-enactment of the emotions he faced when his baby girl was immunized that sees him running down the street screaming like a deranged kid on K2.
Click here to read the full review on Theatreview.

Just Above The Clouds
Written and directed by Ben Anderson
Presented by The People Who Play With Theatre
Q Theatre Vault

If you only have time to see one Fringe Festival show this season, Just Above The Clouds by Ben Anderson might be the one. The endearing show is everything fringe theatre should be. Sometimes poignant, sometimes confusing, always whimsical, Just Above The Clouds explores the wasteland of love lost with a talented ensemble cast.

Click here to read the full review on Theatreview.

Cat Power
Bruce Mason Theatre
22 February 2013

Taking the stage at 9.45pm after cranking Dylan’s 'Shelter from The Storm' through the speakers, she and her band dive straight into a spine-tingling rendition of The Greatest. Her husky, lived-in voice is at once earthy and ethereal as she howls about thwarted ambition and ruined dreams.

Next up is Cherokee from new album Sun. When Chan says she’s in pain you best believe she’s in pain and she sings the word with raw emotion. She takes a quick pause to tell us all how much she loves us before bursting into a rousing version of Silent Machine which features two drummers pounding in unison on two kits, and a ferocious guitar duel.

Click here to read the full review on The 13th Floor.

Sisterly Love
By M.E. Macdonald
Still Life Fast Moving Productions Ltd
Q, The Vault, Auckland

With a few nips and tucks Sisterly Love could be a firecracker of a show simmering with Presbyterian denial, misguided lust and selfish intent.
Read the full review on Theatreview here.

Crystal Castles
The Studio
January 15, 2013
The Studio is carpeted with ecstatic, pulsating bodies – a mosh pit of devotees worshipping at the temple of Alice. She jumps into their welcoming arms and continues singing as she’s passed around the crowd. But despite the joy of the audience and the fast pace of the songs, a touch of despair infuses most of the set.
Click here to read the full review on The 13th Floor.

Morrissey
Vector Arena
16 December 2012
Searchlights pierce the darkness as a voice comes over the loud speakers. “Massive, massive oil spill,” it intones. “Cancer… hunger… greed… gut-wrenching disappointment… evil gossip… tasteless A&R wanker…” At the end of this stream of insults and negativity Morrissey and his band storm the stage. Morrissey wears a shirt unbuttoned to Simon Cowell-like lows and his band wear All Blacks shirts. There are silver ferns on the double-kick drum kit, which is also adorned with strings of lights.
Click here for the full review on The 13th Floor.

Grimes
Powerstation
15 December 2012
Grimes is a small, pixie-like electronic musician whose sound has been compared to Bjork, Mariah Cary and Aphex Twin. After tickets to her Kings Arms show sold out the show was moved to The Powerstation where it sold out again. And with good reason – Grimes delivered a spell-binding and original performance that left her audience shaking with ecstasy.
Click here for the full review on The 13th Floor.

Blondie and The Stranglers
Trusts Stadium
30 N0vember 2012
There are certain things you might expect to find in Henderson on a Thursday evening, but punk icon and former Playboy bunny Debbie Harry is not one of them.
To read the full review on The 13th Floor click here.

An Awkward Family Christmas
Herald Theatre
22 November 2012
This script is tantalizingly close to becoming a classic. But as it stands, the talented cast and production team have created a jolly good Christmas romp.
To read the full review on Theatreview click here.

Grizzly Bear
Bruce Mason Centre
21 November 2012
Grizzly Bear are much more than five guys on a stage. Dramatic lighting by Michael Brown and clever use of looped and live sound make the Grizzly Bear stage show an experience.
To read the full review on The 13th Floor click here.

Brel
Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber
2 November 2012
The crowd whoops when the singers remove their coats, and Toogood and Deans clearly enjoy themselves as they bop around the set. The duo have the fantastic easy chemistry you’d expect from bandmates, and they take to the cabaret-style performance  like, well, like two rock stars who are having a jolly great time strutting their stuff.
To read the full review on The 13th Floor click here.

In the lead-up to their Auckland show I interviewed Satchel from Steel Panther.  In this recording Satchel reveals what Kiwi ladies can do to score some Steel Panther action for themselves.

Listen to the full interview here.

Click on the link to read the full review.

Iva Lamkum
Black Eagle
Sony
Initially sounding like the ghost of Amy Winehouse jamming with a Wellington reggae band, the much-hyped debut album from Kiwi songstress Iva Lamkum is part thriller, part fizzer.

Little Hurricane
Homewrecker
Shock
While it may be laid on a bed of rock and blues and liberally sprinkled with seasoning a la Kings of Leon, Jeff Buckley, The White Stripes, Cold War Kids and The Black Keys, the meat in the middle of this sonic sandwich isn’t your usual processed ham.

Sunken Seas
Null Hour
Muzai
Like cyber jazz, postmodern psychedelic rock is sometimes dismissed as music made for musicians and/or stoners. But following on from homegrown pioneers The Dead C and HDU, Wellington band Sunken Seas and their brand of dense, evocative rock could be a new entry in the canon of New Zealand music.