NZSO Evening

Due to reasons, we’re being schmoozed by the NZSO. They’re holding an event at Loggy B’s, better known as Logan Brown, and we’re invited along. The two institutions have enjoyed a long association, and we’ve been to some of their events before. 

It was an early start, so we set out to arrive by 5:30pm. In fact, we were little early as we found a park, if not quite Hollywood style, then at least Melrose. We wandered down Cuba Street to Logan Brown, and were greeted by Marc, who is the head honcho of the NZSO. He didn’t know us from Adam, of course, so after a brief hello he moved on to the next group arriving behind us.

We were offered wine, and LB staff walked around with canapés, which, being Logan Brown, were delicious and beautiful. We chatted a while with the NZSO marketing people, then I spotted Steve Logan and had a long talk with him. Then Nicola found the timpanist, Lawrence, who she knows through her other associations and we chatted with him for a while. Marc then tapped on a glass for silence, and delivered a short speech, followed by the lead flautist. Then we had a slightly more substantial food offering, hot-smoked salmon, terrine and other bits and pieces.

All jolly good fun and now that we’re on their list, who know what else we’ll be invited to?

Bill Bailey - Vaudevillian

How many times have we been to see Bill Bailey? Loads. Does this stop us from going to see him again? It does not. Because he’s brilliant. He’s back, this time with a show called Vaudevillian. 

Obviously, dinner first. We booked into perennial favourites Mr. Go’s, at a slightly later time than usual. It was packed! Clearly everyone else had had the same idea, and it took somewhat longer than usual for our food to come out, so we were a bit rushed towards the end. This caused some issues when it came to paying, as I had the Mosaic Passport, but even so it came to more than I was expecting *. We paid and hoofed it up to the road to take our seats with minutes to spare at the Michael Fowler Centre.

On came Bill, to rapturous applause, and he started off with describing how wonderful our country is and how much he enjoys coming here…obviously a crowd-pleaser. He then took issue with one tiny part of our culture, and that was a pie that he’d bought at a roadside café. Not that there was anything wrong with the pie per se, but he likened the temperature of the contents to lava, magma, molten rock in general. At this point he was heckled by an audience member. At first he couldn’t catch what they were saying, so various members of the audience continued to shout it until he understood: “always blow on the pie!” This was something that he’d never heard before, but is familiar to Kiwis. Fortunately, he had a screen cunningly placed on the stage in front of him (presumably operated off-stage) that supplied him with the answer. “Have I walked into a meme?” he asked. Yes, Bill, you have. No doubt he continued to relate this story throughout the rest of his tour.

The rest of the show continued his usual themes of whimsy, musical interludes and general entertainment. He’d warned us at the beginning that he was unwell, and was recovering from a cough that made him swear. He called it the “Fuckough” and he did it every time he coughed. He ranted about a certain orange character in the White House, and complained about the current state of politics in the UK. As usual, he invited audience participation, particularly for song suggestions for the various musical instruments he played, which included a one-stringed lute and a miniature banjo. Ever heard Enter Sandman on a one-stringed lute? Well, now I have!

As always, he gives value for money with a show that lasted over two hours, including encore. Can’t wait for his next one!

* Next morning, I got a call from Mr. Go's. Apparently they had two tables booked for someone called Rory, and they'd charged me the wrong one. Everything got sorted out.

Those shows in full:

Thoughtifier (Nov 2023)

En Route To Normal (Mar 2021)

Larks In Transit (Oct 2016)

Limboland (Nov 2014)

Qualmpeddler (2013)

Dandelion Mind (2011)

 

Monument

Circa Theatre continues to run with thought-provoking content. Monument follows similar themes to other recent productions at Circa such as Burn Her and Prima Facie concerning women in power and the pressures and contradictions that they face. Nicola was, as ever, on ushering duty. 

We decided to dine in-house at ChouChou, the newly-revamped restaurant at Circa. We both had the burgers – the Camembert and the Royale. Mine was, frankly, disappointing. I’m running out of things to choose from their menu so we might be ditching them as an option soon.

The play was in Circa 2, the smaller theatre, with a 100 minute runtime and no interval. The show kicks off in a hotel room, and that’s where all the action takes place. In this case, newly-elected youngest ever woman premiere Edith Aldridge is facing her first live appearance after gaining power. All of her usual support crew are stranded at a fogged-in Auckland airport (the play has been transplanted from its native Australian setting), and a last-minute make-up artist has been drafted in from a local department store. At first Edith is distrustful of Rosie and doubts her abilities, but over the course of the play opens up more, listens to advice from a member of the younger generation, and they change their decisions about dress and make-up accordingly. Rosie’s discourse on how much make-up you need for the “no make-up look” is illuminating in the TikTok and Insta era. Their relationships with the men in their lives, alive and dead, come into play, and these also end up on the chopping block.

There’s a serious message in the sometimes hilarious exchanges, and the positions they find themselves in: about perceptions, media and politics. Go see it if you get a chance.

 

Dave Dobbyn

Or Sir Dave Dobbyn, as he now is…is a kiwi icon and legend. Originally in a band called Th’Dudes, he then went on to form DD Smash before continuing his career as a solo artist. He’s been around since the 70s. 

He keeps cropping up in the Tuesday night quiz at The Old Bailey, and every time he does, we don’t know the song. As he announced his tour we thought this might be a good chance to catch up with some Kiwiana culture, and also be able to answer the questions when they come up at quiz!

We went for dinner at Ombra to complete our set of stamps for the Mosaic passport…as well as the fact that we haven’t been to Ombra in a while, and it’s pretty good. It’s a Venetian-inspired Italian in the same format as their other restaurants – food comes out when they feel like it rather than any of that old-fashioned first-course-then-main-course thing.

A quick trot down Cuba Street landed us at the Opera House, which was sold out to the third level gallery – not often used for concerts. We were up in the nosebleed seats. On came the support act – a chap called Anthonie Tonnon, who as well as being a musician is the operator of Whanganui’s Durie Hill Elevator. He played a set which was part electronic music, part performance, and part repartee.

Then on came Sir Dave and his band, to tumultuous applause. He played through a set which clearly everyone in the crowd (except us) knew, and interspersed the songs with chat about the history of the songs, touring, his previous bands, life, the universe, and everything. Apparently he was thrown out of the Opera House after one particularly rambunctious gig way back in the seventies; on his return this time the stage manager (the same one!) said “you’re back then”. He couldn’t think of anything to reply to that, other than “sorry”. Hopefully he won’t have to stay away for another 40 years this time!

He gave a good long set, followed by two encores of two songs apiece. The full setlist can be found here.

So that’s Dave Dobbyn. Now we know.

 

Tim Freedman

Tim Freedman is coming to New Zealand, and Wellington, for the first time! Who is Tim Freedman? He’s the frontman of Aussie band The Whitlams, who hit fame, fortune and grief in the 90’s. He’s the only survivor of the original threesome, the other two members having killed themselves in 1996 and 2000. He carried on with new musicians, keeping the name The Whitlams for most of his career, but also touring as himself (I saw him in London as Tim Freedman). The band have recently reunited and released new material under the name The Whitlams Black Stump, but for his current tour of New Zealand he is performing just under his name.

He's playing at the San Fran, one of Wellington’s smaller venues with a capacity of 500. As it’s in Cuba Street this gave us an opportunity to gain another stamp on our Mosaic passport by dining at Kisa, where we overordered to the extent that we took some of it home in boxes. We then headed up the street to get there in time to stake a place at one of the few tables at the back of the venue. But wait? What’s this? The whole venue has been set out with tables and chairs! Apparently they’re not expecting the youth crowd for this gig, even though we’ve seen previous performers there who attract a somewhat vintage crowd of punks, goths etc. So we staked a place upon one of the benches near the back. Maybe the fact that the doors opened at 6:00pm was a clue...?

The support act came on about half an hour later: Tyson Smith is a local Wellington musician, and played a set of songs old and new (he released an album in 2014, and another last year) with his acoustic guitar. The songs are very long so he only got through five of them. 

After a bit of clearing up and tuning up, Ollie took the stage, shortly followed by Tim Freedman. Together they make up 40% (he’d done the maths for us, and told us this) of The Whitlams Black Stump, who tour and produce albums under that name. their latest, Kookaburra, is what they’re promoting with this latest tour, which is also visiting some of the main centres in Australia, playing with symphony orchestras rather than the small venues they’re playing in New Zealand. Unfortunately they've yet to make it available in New Zealand in CD format, so I haven't bought it.

He started out with Charlie No. 1 and Charlie No. 2, both familiar tunes to the cognoscenti, before diving in to new material. Tim sat at his keyboard throughout, and Ollie variously played pedal steel guitar and other guitar parts. At no point did he wield “one of those keyboard axes, wanted to get out and dance away from the piano”. They played a mixture of songs, but definitely leaning to those that featured a piano-based arrangement, rather than some of the more guitar-oriented tunes of yesteryear. 

They wrapped up the set by around 8:30pm so us fogies could take ourselves off to bed.

Le Petit Chef

Le Petit Chef is a self-described “immersive dining experience” with “the world’s smallest chef”. It’s available around the world, and in Wellington it’s put on at the Intercontinental hotel.

We’d been enjoined to arrive half an hour early, although this appeared to be for their benefit rather than ours as there wasn’t any additional entertainment of drinks, just their standard hotel choice. We were eventually ushered into what appeared to be a meeting room set up for dining. Above each table was a projector which is the source of the animated show. Tables are set for four people, so we were sharing with a couple from Kapiti.

Before the dinner started the host introduced herself, took us through emergency procedures, and explained what was going to happen. Then the lights went down, and the first of a series of skits was projected onto our table and our plates as the chef, an animated character, sets about preparing the first course from his garden. It’s billed as “3D animation” but is, in fact, decidedly 2D.

 In between each course there’s a similar show, lasting a few minutes each. The food that comes out afterwards does somewhat resemble what is in the animation but isn’t necessarily an exact match. The courses were quite small, but with five of them there was sufficient that we didn’t go hungry. Overall the quality was what you’d expect in a hotel restaurant – good, but not outstanding.

Caprese salad

Bouillabaisse

Chicken with truffle

Chocolate mousse

Was it worth it? It was good, but not brilliant. A bit of a gimmick. Apparently, there’s a whole series of these with further additions to the story, but I don’t think we’ll be going back for more.

Paul Kelly

Veteran Aussie raconteur Paul Kelly is touring Australia and New Zealand. I’ve known about him for many a decade – even saw him playing at Shepherd’s Bush Empire before we moved to New Zealand!  I thought it was high time I saw him again.

As usual we arranged dinner first. The wider restaurant group that operates Mr. Go’s are currently running a promotion whereby you collect stamps each time you visit, with the aim of getting $50 reduction once you’ve collected them all. We’d already registered Parla, and collected a second stamp at Mr Go’s who provided us with their usual high-quality EastAsian inspired nosh. And we’ll be visiting Kisa soon as well.

It's but a short hop, skip, and jump down Cuba Street to the Michael Fowler Centre. We were there in time for the support act Reb Fountain, a kiwi who’s been around a while a has made half a dozen albums in the country/folk style so beloved of New Zealand women. She acquitted herself well, with tunes old and new.

Then it was time for the main act. Paul Kelly is supported by a 6-piece band, and he played a whole bunch of old well-known songs. There was quite a bit of newer material, which I was expecting to be honest, as he’s been busy - releasing 13 albums since I saw him last (he’s done 28 in total in various guises)…but there was enough of the recognisable tunes, and a lot of chat about them in between as well. He finished up the set with three classics: Dumb Things, How To Make Gravy, and From Little Things Big Things Grow, which got everyone singing along. He then returned for a four-song encore including Leaps And Bounds, one of his earliest hits. That set list in full can be found here.

As ever, he gave us solid entertainment with a set that ran well over the allocated two-hour time slot.