Posts Tagged Stubs is an occasional feature here at Off The Tracks – looking back through the ticket-stub box and remembering how the show went down.
Archive
July 30, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Stubs: # 267 – Calexico, Auckland, 2019
I’ve seen Calexico four times now. Which is a lot. Particularly since I don’t own any of their albums. The first time I saw them was super disappointing – and that’s when I had the most invested in it, I’d heard about a great show they did a few years earlier and I didn’t go. […]Archive
July 4, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Stubs: # 264 – Anika Moa: Chop Chop Hiyaa!, Wellington, 2017
Of all the times I saw Anika Moa doing her songs for kiddies I think this was absolutely the best; by which I also mean it was the best time for me and my boy – he was peak age and interest, he knew the songs and cared about them, he’d met Anika briefly so […]Archive
June 29, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Stubs: # 262 – Teju Cole: Photo Lecture, Wellington, 2018
The 2018 Writers-Readers Festival was a busy one for me, I committed to going to about a dozen talks and writing something about each one. This included two talks by the writer, critic and photographer Teju Cole. I’m a big fan and particularly loved his book Blind Spot which was part of the focus for […]Archive
June 25, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Stubs: # 261 – The Monkees, Wellington, 2019
As soon as I saw the advertising for The Monkees I was very keen to see them; sure it was just two of them – but in a way it’s the two that mattered most. And anyway you can’t bring people back from the dead, you either go and see the remaining members and make […]Archive
June 23, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Stubs: # 260 – At The Wake, Wellington, 2018
This play really knocked me for six. The acting was brilliant. The writing was superb. The real hook of it though I think – as a performance – was the role played by Lisa Harrow; both the writing of it and her capturing. I was lucky to get to meet her and chat with her […]Archive
June 17, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Stubs: # 258 – Arabia-Buda-Scott, Wellington, 2018
It’s always a gamble with arts festivals – any festivals – you see some amazing stuff, you see some duds. And its all shapes and sizes – you get to have your mind blown by an act you maybe didn’t think you’d like, you get let down by something you expected would be great, you […]Archive
June 14, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Stubs: # 257 – The Gaps Between, Wellington, 2016
It’s funny with reviewing – how a new gig starts. Just suddenly out of nowhere. And stops in much the same way. I was a theatre reviewer for about a year or so for The Sunday Star Times. Happened on a whim. They needed someone. I was keen. I had reviewed some theatre for the […]Archive
June 11, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Stubs: # 256 – Chucho Valdés & The Afro-Cuban Messengers , Wellington, 2013
So many gigs. I try to remember them all. And I do remember Chucho Valdés – after all it was very, very good. The Jazz Festival has done a mostly brilliant job since around 2012/13 of bringing in 3-4 international headliners doing big showcase gigs and then the small and local shows that light up […]Archive
June 9, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Stubs # 255 – Bill Frisell, Wellington, 2017
I could probably say that I never expected the chance to see Bill Frisell – at least not in New Zealand; so I was super excited to check him out when he appeared here as part of the Jazz Festival a couple of years back. And in support of a very fine album with the […]Archive
June 4, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Stubs # 254 – Grizzly Bear, Wellington, 2018
The first time I saw Grizzly Bear was in 2012 and it was quite good – I liked the band (enough) and in particular the album of the time. And there was a secret thrill about getting in because the newspaper had to pay for me to get in since the promoter had decided on […]Archive
May 25, 2020 by Simon Sweetman