Concert Review - Greenstone Summer Tour 2026 - Auckland 29th January 2026
Presented by Greenstone Entertainment
Iggy Pop live in Auckland at Spark Arena - Photo Credit Megan Moss
Review By: Faith Hamblyn
Photos By: Megan Moss Photographer
Artist/Band: Iggy Pop, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, ZED
Venue/City: Spark Arena, Auckland, New Zealand
Date of Event: Thursday 29th January 2026“Whose chopper is this?” The Pulp Fiction quote plays over the PA in Spark Arena tonight. “It’s Zed’s. Who’s Zed? Zed’s dead.” And Zed are opening for Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, and they start with I’m Cold and Driver’s Side from their debut album, Silencer. One of the defining local albums of the new millennium, there was something ‘60s about their sound.
That’s true of their cover of Weezer’s Starlight too. They follow this with Oh! Daisy, like a lost hit from the British Invasion era. The stage lights are long orange petals reaching the venue’s far wall. Zed look a little retro – Nathan has a wallet chain – but Andrew Lynch appears to have swapped his blonde dreads for arm muscles.
Face The Rain from new album Future Memory sounds better than their debut hits, which is unusual after such success. Nathan says a fan (“I’ll call him ‘Scott’”) wrote to say he liked their new stuff better than their old stuff, and I agree. The next track is Another You with Boh Runga – I was hoping for a guest vocalist to join them on this date of the tour, but I didn’t expect a Zed and Stellar* crossover! Next up is Bonfires from Future Memory, and again, while Renegade Fighter is fun, Bonfires is proper good.
Penultimate track Glorifilia has the crowd singing along, and the Edge-esque tone of Andrew’s guitar allows them to segue seamlessly into U2’s With Or Without You. OK, that ruled. They’re racking up new fans all the time – I saw a young lady unwrapping her Silencer vinyl in the break – but if they keep on trucking, we may not have heard the best of them yet.
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts crash on to the stage, interrupting Bikini Kill’s Rebel Girl over the PA. Bathed in hot-pink lights, they play Victim Of Circumstance in biker-gang black, all leather and low-slung guitars. Jett is small but volatile, which makes their cover of Cherry Bomb so much better – it just sounds more true when you’re so raven-haired New York cool.
Their cover of Do Ya Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah!) is some reclaimed glitter with one’s garage punk, and the crowd punches the air with every repeated ‘Yeah!’ Next up is You Drive Me Wild, and the male bandmates’ harmonies and sleek hairdos make them like a rock and roll revivalist band. Keeping on theme, Joan evokes Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come when condemning the Trump administration and intro-ing Change The World.
It’s time to get heavier with Sly and the Family Stone’s Everyday People. Then I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll has everyone’s phones out. But it’s time for my personal favourite, her cover of Crimson and Clover. The fact she didn’t change the gender of the girl in the lyrics, even back in 1982, is really everything.
They close the set with I Hate Myself For Loving You, her hard-rock torch anthem, and Bad Reputation. She’s arguably too recent to be the godmother of punk, but she’s its coolest sister, for sure. Long live rock and roll.
Punk’s godfather, Iggy Pop, storms the stage and immediately throws away his shirt and launches into TV Eye with a horn section. Whenever he needs to free his hands, Iggy tucks his microphone into the waistband of his pants, simply because it has to go somewhere. Raw Power follows, which sounds like garage rock giving birth to punk – there’s no way there could have been a Sex Pistols without it.
After gamboling around the stage, waving to everybody with long arms and threatening to stage dive, he falls flat on his back, says ‘fuck’ a few times and launches into Gimme Danger, suddenly baritone, an ominous Brechtian Berlin-style crooner. The Passenger follows with rising inflection making it punk – an incredulous invitation to picking up danger. The whole audience wave upstretched arms on opposing beats, and it looks nuts.
‘La, la, la, la. La-la-la-la,’ they sing, as Iggy holds his erect microphone in front of his crotch. ‘Oh shit,’ he says, as if interrupted by the start of Lust For Life, and the energy of the crowd suddenly has the arena seating shaking on the off beat. His band are tight, the sound is fat, and Iggy is completely captivating.
Back to garage rock with Death Trip. I suspect it’s where Irvine Welsh stole inspiration for the character of Sick Boy. Iggy has a cordless microphone; otherwise, he’d be smothered in self-bondage by now.
He’s barking, he’s whooping; now he wants to be our dog. The stage is flooded in green light, and it’s a simple fact couched in sludgy, heavy riffs and horns. He’s suddenly in the audience – well, he did tell us what he wanted!
Back up on stage, lying with his feet on the monitor; he’s upright and he looks blissfully happy. The crowd is ballistic, and they stay a sea of pogo-ing into the ‘Oi, oi, oi’ of Search And Destroy. I hear this riff in countless punk-indie songs since.
For 1970, the stage lights are teal, and Iggy has a Cloudy Bay Cabernet Sauvignon (actually a Sauvignon Blanc, but it’s impolite to correct guests) – he says he’s too old for whiskey and too young for fentanyl. While he started the song seated, he’s suddenly attacking the sound desk with his microphone and singing about feeling all right. These things might be related.
Unsurprisingly, the microphone is feeding back, and it matches with the chaotic drunken-jazz horn section. He asks the crowd if they’re feeling wild, and it’s time for Real Wild Child. He kicks the microphone stand over, and technical staff are trying to troubleshoot the chaos.
There are topless males and females in the audience – a bare female torso keeps popping up on her male companion’s shoulders. A young lady gets on stage to dance with Iggy, and ‘I don’t need fucking security,’ Iggy instructs. And there are people lighting up smokes in the audience; Iggy is in a Frenzy.
After Apocalypse/Nightclubbing, Iggy throws his microphone away and goes backstage. He’s handed another one for Louie Louie. “This is it, motherfuckers,” he says to preface it.
“Lou-eye, Lou-ee,” another thrown microphone, and it’s time to go now.
He’s been bendy for a while now, but don’t let him fool you – Granny is spry.
Joking/not joking – anyone got room for a passenger for the Wānaka gig?!
Tickets are still available for the Lake Wānaka shows, these can be purchased at greenstoneentertainment.co.nz or at the box office.
Zed setlist
I'm Cold
Driver's Side
Starlight (Weezer cover)
Oh! Daisy
Face the Rain
Another You (with Boh Runga)
Future You
Bonfires (for Scott)
Never Too Late (Nathan King song)
Hard to Find Her
Crawl (Atlas cover, with Boh Runga)
Glorafilia
Renegade Fighter
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts setlist
Victim of Circumstance
Cherry Bomb (The Runaways song)
Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah) (Gary Glitter cover)
You Drive Me Wild (The Runaways song)
Change the World
Light of Day (Bruce Springsteen cover)
Make the Music Go Boom
Fake Friends
Androgynous (The Replacements cover)
Oh Woe Is Me
Lie to Me
Love Is Pain
If You're Blue
Everyday People (Sly & the Family Stone cover)
I Love Rock 'n' Roll (The Arrows cover)
Crimson & Clover (Tommy James & the Shondells cover)
I Hate Myself For Loving You
Bad Reputation
Iggy Pop setlist
TV Eye (The Stooges song)
Raw Power (Iggy and The Stooges song)
I Got a Right (Iggy and The Stooges song)
Gimme Danger (Iggy and The Stooges song)
The Passenger
Lust for Life
Death Trip (Iggy and The Stooges song)
I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges song)
Search and Destroy (Iggy and The Stooges song)
Down on the Street (The Stooges song)
1970 (The Stooges song)
Cock in My Pocket (Iggy and The Stooges song)
Real Wild Child (The Dee Jays cover)
Frenzy
Nightclubbing / Apocalypse
Funtime
Louie Louie (Richard Berry & the Pharaohs cover)
OFFICIAL MEDIA Release - 24th Jan 2026It was another magnificent day of entertainment in Taupō, with music fans filling the lakeside venue.Kiwi band ZED opened the concert with epic hits, ‘Hard To Find Her’, ‘Glorifilia’ and‘Renegade Fighter.’Australian band Hoodoo Gurus, frequent visitors to New Zealand, played a tight set featuring their trademark sing-along pop-rock hits like ‘I Want You Back’, ‘Like, Wow-Wipeout!’. and their classic ‘What’s My Scene?’American Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Joan Jett with her band The Blackhearts wasted no time cracking into their set of anthemic rock hits including ‘I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll’, ’Bad Reputation’, and ‘Crimson and Clover.’The anticipation was over with the arrival of the final act, Iggy Pop. Widely regarded as the ‘Godfather of Punk’, Iggy solidified his reputation as a dynamic stage performer, belting out classic cuts including ‘T.V. Eye’, ‘The Passenger’, and fan favourite ‘Real Wild Child.’As the day ended, fans departed satisfied after another memorable concert.Amanda Calvert, CEO of Greenstone Entertainment, said, “After sixteen years, Taupō has become our premiere event. It is always a pleasure to host the Summer Concert Tour in such an exceptional location, and this year’s line-up of legends of rock was met with an enthusiastic response from audience.”Next stop for the Summer Concert Tour is Spark Arena in Auckland on Thursday, January 29. The show, which is an evening performance will feature ZED, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts and Iggy Pop. The final outdoor concert for 2026 will be held at Three Parks Outdoor Arena in Lake Wānaka. the following weekend, Saturday January 31.Tickets are still available for the Auckland and Lake Wānaka shows, these can be purchased at greenstoneentertainment.co.nz or at the box office.
Greenstone Summer Tour 2026 PR - Iggy Pop, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Hoodoo Gurus, Zed