Pearly* & Cruelly + Salt Water Criminals -Whammy Bar: July 24, 2025
The 13th Floor’s Simon Coffey has had a very busy week…Friday night found him at Whammy Bar to catch Pearly*, Salt Water Criminals and Cruelly.
Mānuka Phuel Full Metal Orchestra – Spark Arena: July 26, 2025
In a genre-defying spectacle, Mānuka Phuel Full Metal Orchestra brought the raw energy of rock and metal to Spark Arena—elevated by the grandeur of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. With a 29-piece symphony, a full rock band, and a lineup of New Zealand’s finest vocalists, the night delivered an unforgettable blend of power, precision, and passion. […]
Fazerdaze – Takapuna Winter Lights Festival: July 25, 2025
The 13th Floor’s Azrie Azizi caught his favourite band, Fazerdaze, at the Takapuna Winter Lights Festival last night. Here are his words and photos.
Billy Strings – Spark Arena: July 22, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)
Billy Strings was a pickin’, and we were a grinnin’ as he and his four compadres treated a nearly-full Spark Arena to nearly two and a half hours of primo Bluegrass music.
Awning + For The Girl Who Has Everything – Whammy Bar: July 18, 2025
Since the release of Awning’s debut, My Friend Dog EP, recordings made between 2021 and 2023, singer/songwriter Christian Dimick has made significant strides, and I’m not just talking distance between Te Whanganui-a-Tara and Tamaki Makaurau.
Princess Chelsea’s Midwinter Ball – The Civic/Wintergarden: July 18, 2026
Cold weather be damned! Princess Chelsea invited all of Auckland to celebrate the season with another Midwinter Ball and the response was so great it was expanded to two nights.
10cc and Georgia Lines – Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre: July 12, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)
10cc brought their Ultimate Ultimate Hits Tour to Auckland last night and The 13th Floor’s Robin Kearns took to the ferry to find out if one original member makes a band. Chris Zwaagdyk provides photographic evidence.
Delaney Davidson – Double Whammy: July 11, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)
Delaney Davidson is a well-dressed figure in Noir’ Country Music, as a troubadour he acts in the shadows, alone, in collaboration and as a guiding muse, creating music which reeks of theatre, vaudeville and infective uneasiness.
Ladi6 – Hollywood Avondale: July 5, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)
Last night the party was in Avondale…at the classic Hollywood cinema to be specific…where Ladi6 celebrated her “comeback” album, Le Vā in front of an audience that had, indeed, come to party.
Grapehouse, Groopchat & Castlegarden -Small Gods Taproom: July 4, 2025
Small Gods Taproom: Hidden near the Powerstation. below towering apartments, accessible by steep hills and pathways.
French For Rabbits – Grey Lynn RSC: June 28, 2025
French for Rabbits, a dream-pop indie-folk duo from Wellington that have garnered global touring success played a melodic and ethereal set to open the night, for the tour supporting the release of their latest single, Gold and Blue.
Marlon Williams and KOMMI – Spark Arena: June 21, 2025
It’s old time waiata on the sound system as Spark Arena fills. This wouldn’t be my choice of venue, I mutter within, descending the steep concrete steps, feet sticking to concrete floor from accumulations of beer spillage at past shows. I want to see Marlon Williams, but not here. But by the end, I see […]
Come Together: Live Rust – Civic Theatre: June 20, 2025
Best concert of the year so far? I think so! Come Together: Live Rust hit the ball out of the park with this one.
Matariki with Ria Hall & The Auckland Philharmonia – Auckland Town Hall: June 19, 2025
Ria Hall and the Auckland Philharmonia perform songs of defiance and redemption to celebrate Matariki at the Auckland Town Hall.
Georgia Lines & Friends – Civic Theatre: June 15, 2025
We go Under The Stars with Georgia Lines and her very special friends in what turns out to be a very special concert.
Earth Tongue & Troy Kingi – Double Whammy: June 14, 2025
It was strange stepping into a venue that felt both completely new and intimately familiar – like walking forward and moving backward in time.
Imperial Triumphant + Cold Ceiling, No Exit & Windswept -Mothership: June 13, 2025
Imperial Triumphant. Formed in New York (where they like Jazz) by Zachary Ezrin in 2005, avant garde, experimental, even transcendental in nature, Imperial Triumphant have in their rua decades of existence, edged the Black Metal genre out of the dark ages, into an intellectual realm that the vapid have revilled against, while the valorous have […]
Jessica Pratt & Tiny Ruins – Bruce Mason Centre: June 11, 2025
There’s awkward silence, and then there’s quiet. Somehow Jessica Pratt managed to keep a thousand or so people quiet for just under an hour and there was nothing awkward about it. In fact it was sublime.
Japanese Breakfast – Auckland Town Hall: June 7, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)
Japanese Breakfast made their much-anticipated New Zealand concert debut last night, bringing their Melancholy Tour to a full house at Auckland’s iconic Town Hall.
Mel Parsons – Tuning Fork: June 6, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)
Mel Parsons led a confidently understated band on the Tuning Fork stage, her between song banter in upbeat juxtaposition to the lyrical content’s often somber and melancholy tone.