It seemed a good idea to get some culture, the whole family. Music From The Movies was the name of the NZSO’s Summer Pops program for 2018 and, alas, it was a fucking snore-fest. It didn’t fire. Ever. Just some dated, monotonous, lifeless movie scores. No punch. No fire. No fun. All very boring. And so we left. At half time. In recent years, in the pre-Covid landscape, the NZSO was continually outclassed by smaller orchestras running on tiny budgets. Maybe the players weren’t even as good – but something about the way the show was built, the conductor at the helm and the people behind the scenes meant that the other orchestra did it better. I want to support the NZSO – big time. But I’ve been nothing but underwhelmed in recent years. (Readers will now I’m a huge movie score fan too – so that comment was about the selections and the way they were performed on the night rather thatn the overall concept, which should have been a winner).Stubs is an occasional feature here at Off The Tracks – looking back through the ticket-stub box and remembering how the show went down.