Concert Review - Sparks - Auckland - 23rd May 2026
Presented by Destroy All Lines
Review By: Faith HamblynArtist/Band: SparksVenue/City: Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland, New ZealandDate of Event: Saturday 23rd May 2026Art-pop punsters Sparks played Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre in Central Auckland tonight, promising sharp wordplay with epic theatricality and a raised eyebrow over a dance beat. They’ve already played Christchurch, and judging by their social media posts, enjoyed L&P and discovered that Auckland’s Spark Arena is, with one more ‘S’, named after them. But is this town big enough for the both of us, or are they just here to Dick Around with Metaphor?
Waiting in the theatre’s foyer, in front of the giant digital artwork, the crowd included ironic music fans, a lady in a fez and beanie-wearing art-school kooks. A lady was dressed like a Mondrian painting, and a guy had a whirly rainbow-coloured propeller cap. It was as if everyone had received a message from Sparks’ music about how to dress up in arty style.
Sparks have long looked like New York, with hipster curls and a Hitler-esque toothbrush moustache, but they’re from California, so are naturally born of movie magic, and that’s where they start – So May We Start, the baroque pop banger from the soundtrack to Annette. That part of their renaissance, along with Edgar Wright’s documentary The Sparks Brothers, means that by now, everyone can have a Sparks album of choice.
Next track Do Things My Own Way is synth-pop, hand claps and tongue-in-cheek; live, it sounds fatter and more industrial. People were already up and dancing, and amazingly, just about actually clapping on the beat. They kept clapping time for glam Reinforcements, which sounds like Grant Lee Buffalo’s The Whole Shebang from Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine.
Next track Sherlock Holmes was a swoony love song with a premise like British dancehall. How does Sherlock Holmes dance?! Elementarily, I assume.
Beat The Clock sounds like Visage’s Fade To Grey, but pre-dates it by four years. It pulses bassily, like a panicky younger brother to Donna Summer’s I Feel Love.
Russell’s hot-pink shirt and shoes looked fluorescent in the strobes of Running up a Tab at a Hotel for the Fab, and the echoing backing vocals and upward lighting on his face made it like a theme to a spooky carnival ride.
After spiky love song Porcupine, a guy yelled out, ‘You're so hot!’ ‘I know,’ replied Russell, without missing a step. Both Mael brothers are pretty cute, but one of them is hiding behind hair gel.
In Music That You Can Dance To, the lead guitarist, Eli, threw shapes while doing backing vocals, and When Do I Get To Sing My Way had the crowd singing along. They cheered until The Number One Song In Heaven, the falsetto Giorgio Moroder earworm – dance like there’s no tomorrow, because there’s no tomorrow. Ron danced in the red lights like he was from hell.
This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us is amazing theatrical glam rock, with Russell as a falsetto gunslinger holding fast to his guns and his nerve in the face of approaching hoofbeats and “heartbeat, increasing heartbeat.” It’s camp, it’s comic; it’s cool. The blinding white spotlights with the drumbeat were gunfire holes in the walls bleeding sunlight, and Eli fired licks his crotch-anchored guitar like Brian Eno from Roxy Music.
The encore included The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte, as danced to by Cate Blancett in the music video. So many people are crying in their latte in the modern world, with good reason and without, which sums up the current era pretty well - something Sparks can be relied on to do. Thanks for Kimono-ing over to our house, Sparks. Such sardonic style, such silly snide side-eye; viva, glam!
Setlist
So May We Start
Do Things My Own Way
Reinforcements
Sherlock Holmes
Beat the Clock
Mickey Mouse
Running Up a Tab at the Hotel for the Fab
Let's Get Funky
Porcupine
A Walk Down Memory Lane
JanSport Backpack
Music That You Can Dance To
When Do I Get to Sing ‘My Way’?
The Number One Song in Heaven
This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us
Whippings and Apologies
My Devotion
Encore
(Baby, Baby) Can I Invade Your Country?
The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte
All That
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Sparks 2026 Tour PR