Four nights, four gigs, four reasons to love the Auckland Town Hall.
Wednesday: Sir Dave Dobbyn
The last and only other time I saw Dave Dobbyn live was at a craft beer festival in 2017. He came on around three or four in the afternoon and belted out a no-frills-no-fuss set of all the classic hits you’d want and expect Dave Dobbyn to play, then got out of there. It was your typical Festival Dobbyn experience, i.e. a bloody good time.
Wednesday night at the town hall was a different kind of Dobbyn experience, a rare chance for him to tear up the festival setlist and play some deeper cuts from the catalogue. Calling the evening “Selected Songs” should have been a clear signpost to anyone buying a ticket that this was the direction in which we were heading, though some of my fellow standing section punters were vocally less thrilled than I was to be treated to so many songs off Twist and Lament for the Numb in the first hour.
Even those people got what they came for in the end, of course, with a rousing, Tami Nielson and Delaney Davidson-assisted version of ‘Welcome Home’ closing the set before ‘Slice of Heaven’ and ‘Be Mine Tonight’ in the encore. But this was a night for the real Dobbyn heads, and the highlights were plentiful. From the opening chimes of ‘Belltower’ to the ragged glory of ‘Don’t Hold Your Breath’ to the high note at the end of ‘You Oughta Be In Love’, this set served as proof that not only has Sir Dave written some of this country’s finest songs, he still has what it takes to bring the house down with them. / Calum Henderson
Thursday: Teeks
There’s something a little bit terrifying about watching a performance from an artist whose work relies almost entirely on their voice. Of course, all singers rely on their voices, but most will have other things in a live show to entertain audiences – a band, back-up singers, dancing, even themselves playing an instrument. I watch artists all the time and never consider their voices less valuable because they have a band singing with them, but when I watched Teeks perform to a sold-out Town Hall on Thursday, I realised just how much his live performances live and die by his voice.
And the voice delivered. Accompanied by a piano and a string sextet (he has previously performed with the full Auckland Philharmonia), Teeks put on an intimate show, cycling through his EP, album, a few newbies and a few covers of songs you’d expect to hear on a Teeks algorithm playlist – ‘Drive’ by Bic Runga, ‘Landslide’, ‘Make You Feel My Love’ and ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’. His voice never faltered, except once when he teared up singing ‘Never Be Apart’ for his late friend Taryn.
If it weren’t for the surprisingly rowdy and vocal crowd, there were times when it could have fallen into being genuinely awkward. Teeks can sing – we all know this – but he’s not much of a talker. Again, most of the time the banter between songs is barely registered, but when there’s so much silence in the music itself, those moments of crowd interaction felt amplified and intimate, and it took Teeks a good hour before he sounded remotely comfortable speaking rather than singing.
In the end, the show felt more like a studio session than a Town Hall concert – and I suspect Teeks himself would have preferred that setting. It was most amplified by his invitations for the crowd to sing along to his bigger hits. Have you ever sung along to a live song that only has a piano accompaniment? You don’t, is the answer. Because if you did, literally everyone would hear you. It led to some awkward whisper singing from those of us who knew the lyrics but didn’t want to be heard by the whole venue. Despite the awkwardness at times, Teeks managed to pull off something few can manage – a full audience captivated by only his voice.
Ps. Who would have thought the only genuine encore chant I’ve heard in nearly five years would be at a Teeks concert? I eagerly await his second album. / Madeleine Chapman
Friday: Mall Grab
Having had Mall Grab’s sets on heavy rotation for the past year, I wasn’t just excited to see what he would bring to New Zealand – I was curious to see who else made up his Aotearoa fanbase. The crowd skewed older and more refined than other recent electronic events I’ve attended – an upper-middle-class, predominantly male group out for a well-curated night. The ample space to dance at the Auckland Town Hall is a rarity at gigs of this calibre. Christchurch producer and DJ Emilie opened with a confident, composed set. Her selections delivered just enough bounce to keep the energy alive without encroaching on headline territory.
As a thick mist rolled across the stage, conversation on the dance floor faded. Mall Grab had arrived. He kicked things off with the 133 BPM future-nostalgic stunner Love Reigns – a softer side of his catalogue that still hit hard, setting the tone for a dynamic build throughout the night. The lighting and stage design elevated the entire experience, transforming the town hall into something reminiscent of an international warehouse rave. With punters allowed to gather on either side of the DJ, and a lighting technician absolutely dialled in, the visuals matched the sonic journey beautifully.
Moving fluidly between ambient, sample-driven house and modern tech slammers, Mall Grab delivered a sophisticated, deeply textured set. It was a masterclass that spoke not only to his own artistic evolution but to the strength and depth of Melbourne’s thriving electronic scene. / Diaz Grimm
Saturday: Japanese Breakfast
On a weekend where Instagram stories would have you believe every cool indie band in the world was in Barcelona for Primavera, it felt like a huge coup to have Japanese Breakfast in Auckland – especially so soon after the release of their fourth (and for my money best yet) album For Melancholy Brunettes (And Sad Women) (add “Beardy Men” and I reckon you’d have a pretty good chunk of the audience covered).
We had the band Mannequin Pussy to thank for their presence, bandleader Michelle Zauner explained – they came here in 2024 and made her green with envy when they posted pics from Hobbiton (Japanese Breakfast was heading there on Sunday). Thanks also to the show’s organisers for choosing the perfect opening act: I went it having never heard locals Phoebe Rings before and left an evangelical fan (check out their new album).
Japanese Breakfast is touring as a six-piece band and started their set in campfire mode, sitting around a lantern-lit stage for delicate acoustic FMBASW opener ‘Here Is Someone’. But a large gong at the back of the stage suggested the intensity would build, and so it did across a set that balanced the more introspective new album with all the biggest hits of previous albums.
‘Picture Window’ and piano-led ‘Men in Bars’ (the drummer filling in for Jeff Bridges on his verse) were highlights off the new album, before Jubilee favourite ‘Posing in Bondage’ rounded out the main set. Chekhov’s gong finally got a working over during the encore (‘Paprika’), which would normally be the biggest rock move of the night but here was immediately overshadowed by the pick slides in closer ‘Diving Woman’. Good band – I hope they had a really nice time at Hobbiton. / CH
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