Live Nation, in association with Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED), is proud to present Elemental Nightsas part of Elemental AKL.
Unique to Elemental AKL, Elemental Nights is an exclusive curated concert series showcasing an impressive line-up of emerging and high-profile artists.
Enlivening some of Auckland’s most unique venues, music fans will get the opportunity to witness critically acclaimed American singer/songwriter/author Amanda Palmer at the sacred venue of St Mary’s-in-Holy Trinity. The line-up also features artists including dreamy RnB super group LEISURE, King Sweeties (Cass Basil – Tiny Ruins & Bic Runga) and Opossom (Kody Nielson – The Mint Chicks, Unknown Mortal Orchestra) and Tom Scott’s highly-awarded Avantdale Bowling Club. They’ll be performing at venues including Hopetoun Alpha which will see its laneways transformed with an array of rotating food trucks and lighting installations designed by Angus Muir, the Hollywood Avondale and The Civic’s hidden gem, Wintergarden. More acts are still to be announced.
Designed, produced and promoted by Live Nation, whether you care to dance vigorously or sway gently, these one-off special shows should not be missed.
Elemental AKL is back this October with a captivating programme of more than 30 free and ticketed events, celebrating the arts, eats and beats of Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. From October 1-31, the festival will transform eateries and bars, theatres, parks, islands and public spaces into an urban oasis of exciting experiences. Auckland’s newest festival encourages audiences to feast their eyes, feed their
minds and fill their hearts.
Here is the full line-up for Elemental Nights:
ELEMENTAL NIGHTS: HOPETOUN ALPHA SERIES
MAALA with Imugi 이무기 // THURSDAY OCTOBER 15
ELEMENTAL NIGHTS X LANEWAY (acts to be announced) // FRIDAY OCTOBER 16
LEISURE // SATURDAY OCTOBER 17
OPOSSOM & KING SWEETIES // TUESDAY OCTOBER 20
ELEMENTAL NIGHTS X COUP DE MAIN – Paige, Maxwell Young & Josie Moon // WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 21
DAFFODILS // THURSDAY OCTOBER 22
MARLIN’S DREAMING // FRIDAY OCTOBER 23
ELEMENTAL NIGHTS
AN EVENING WITH AMANDA PALMER // FRIDAY OCTOBER 2 // ST MARY’S-IN-HOLY TRINITY***
AVANTDALE BOWLING CLUB // FRIDAY OCTOBER 23 // HOLLYWOOD AVONDALE
TROY KINGI & THE CLUTCH // SATURDAY OCTOBER 24 // HOLLYWOOD AVONDALE
FRIENDLY POTENTIAL : CATACOMBS // FRIDAY OCTOBER 30 // WINTERGARDEN
FRIENDLY POTENTIAL : CATACOMBS // SATURDAY OCTOBER 31 // WINTERGARDEN
GENERAL TICKETS ON SALE FROM 10AM WEDNESDAY AUGUST 5
***AMANDA PALMER ON SALE
Patreon Pre-sale 10am Wednesday, August 5 – 10am Thursday August 6
GP ON SALE: 10AM THURSDAY, AUGUST 6
For complete festival and ticket information, visit: elementalfestival.co.nz & www.livenation.co.nz
Artist bios:
AN EVENING WITH AMANDA PALMER
AMANDA PALMER is a singer, songwriter, playwright, pianist, author, director, and blogger who simultaneously embraces and explodes traditional frameworks of music, theatre, and art. She first came to prominence as part of the punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls, earning global applause for their inventive songcraft and wide-ranging theatricality. Her solo career has proven equally brave and boundless, featuring such ground-breaking works as the fan-funded Theatre Is Evil, which made a top 10 debut on the Billboard 200 in 2012 and remains the top-funded original music project on Kickstarter.
In 2013 she presented “The Art of Asking” at the annual TED conference, which has been viewed over 20 million times worldwide. Palmer expanded her philosophy into the New York Times best-selling memoir, The Art of Asking: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Let People Help. In 2019 Palmer released her solo album, There Will Be No Intermission, with producer/engineer John Congleton at the helm. She then embarked on a 14 month highly acclaimed international tour of the same name. Both the album and the tour had life, death, abortion, and miscarriage among its tentpole themes.
MAALA
Having Beats 1 Radio host Zane Lowe dub his first album, Composure, “a brilliantly produced pop record”, MAALA (Evan Sinton) returns with his latest project Water Overhead. Submerged in the world of Water Overhead, Evan prepares to share a body of work that feels personal, yet intrinsic and familiar to all who have grappled with the ebb and flow of human emotion, this new record is a tribute to healing the heart and mind.
Elemental AKL will see one of MAALA’S first live performances of this new project.
ELEMENTAL NIGHTS x Laneway
New Zealand’s most beloved festival Laneway presents their favourite, curated New Zealand artists of music in an evening of discovery and appreciation at Hopetoun Alpha. Stay tuned for this enthralling line-up announcement.
LEISURE
In a world preoccupied with instant gratification and overnight success, LEISURE is taking the scenic route. The five members formed in 2015 are all award winning songwriters, producers and creatives in their own right. Following two album releases, 130+ million streams, a collaboration with Goldlink, and sold out dates throughout New Zealand, Australia, the UK and Europe, the outlook’s pretty fine.
2020’s Side A marks a new chapter in LEISURE’s journey. Their lyrics explore the nuances of romance and relationships, while their sound pulls from influences as broad as Japanese city pop to Bill Withers.
OPOSSOM & KING SWEETIES
Bic Runga and Cass Basil (Tiny Ruins, Carnivorous Plant Society) have combined their considerable talents to form KING SWEETIES.
With Cass on bass and Bic on drums, King Sweeties songs are built off the duo’s bouncing rhythm section, cooking up a playful post-punk strut. Their first single ʼLetʼs Just Stay in Bedʼ, has made the top 20 list for the APRA Silver Scrolls song competition. It is off their forthcoming EP ‘We are the Bossesʼ. Elemental AKL will be the first opportunity for audiences to see King Sweeties share this project live.
Prodigiously talented multi-instrumentalist, producer & performer Kody Nielson formed infamous noise band The Mint Chicks in 2001 with his brother Ruban, and following their demise in 2010, went on to work with Bic Runga, co-writing and co-production with Ruban’s band Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and his own projects OPOSSOM, SILICON, plus a solo album released under his own name.
Utilising influences ranging from jazz, punk, psychedelica to 60s pop, he wrote and performed most of the OPOSSOM material himself (with occasional contributions from Runga and his father Chris), going on to win Best Alternative Album at the 2012 NZ Music Awards with the album Electric Hawaii. Other notable award wins include the prestigious Silver Scroll for UMO song Multi Love, and the Taite Music Prize for SILICON’s Personal Computer.
Don’t miss OPOSSOM’s first live performance in 8 years this October.
ELEMENTAL NIGHTS x Coup De Main
New Zealand’s leading pop-culture magazine, Coup De Main, is excited to present a special night of some of our favourite local artists – curated by CDM just for you! Headlined by acoustic pop darling Paige, with performances from rising acts Maxwell Young and Josie Moon.
DAFFODILS
Rising indie stars DAFFODILS success continues to escalate, quickly. The Auckland four-piece stepped into the spotlight with the release of their 2017 debut single, “Two Angels”. 2018 saw the group release a trio of tracks – among them fan favourite, “A Leo Underwater” – and were signed by the UK’s Kartel Music Group. In late October 2019 they delivered their debut EP featuring five tracks including title track “Boys” and “Why Don’t You Hold Me?”.
They join the Elemental Nights line-up for a very special show amidst their first nationwide headline tour.
MARLIN’S DREAMING
Seeking inspiration from a dank eerie flat in Dunedin, MARLIN’S DREAMING erupted onto the local scene in late 2017 with their debut album, Lizard Tears.
They took their darker 2018 EP Talk On/Commic on the road with the likes of Kirin J Callinan, The Chills and Ocean Alley, as well as their own sold-out Australian tours.
The band released Quotidian in April during lockdown, an accidentally prescient album about the claustrophobia of feeling stuck; directionless. Musically, it is a shift into more serious song-writing, and an exploration of the genre
that garnered wide-ranging critical praise from mastheads like NME, American Songwriter, Brooklyn Vegan, and Atwood Magazine.
AVANTDALE BOWLING CLUB
Tom Scott brings his AVANTDALE BOWLING CLUB project to Elemental Nights having won the Taite Music Prize, the Album of the Year and Hip-hop Artist awards for 2019.
The genre isn’t easy to pin down – in Tom’s typically irreverent own words, the Spotify profile for the project says “Irrelevant jazz from an island nation off the coast of Antarctica.” It is hip-hop, it is jazz, and it features an enviable cast of musicians – Tonga Vaea (vocals/keys/trumpet), Guy Harrison (keys/trumpet), JY Lee (saxophone), Ben Turua (upright bass/bass guitar) and Julien Dyne (drums).
TROY KINGI & THE CLUTCH
Multi-award-winning, multi-genre-artist TROY KINGI is now set to take us on a deeply personal discovery through an album dedicated to memories, lost souls, and 70s funk.
The Ghost of Freddie Cesar is Troy Kingi’s fourth instalment in his 1O 1O 1O Series (10 albums in 10 years in 10 genres). Brought to life by Troy Kingi & The Clutch, this record is Troy’s most personal work to date; one that invites the listener to share his journey as he combs through recollections of his father who disappeared while driving from Rotorua to Auckland at Christmas time in 2005. Despite search efforts and sporadic reports of sightings, there has been no reliable trace of Troy’s biological father.
FRIENDLY POTENTIAL : CATACOMBS
Friendly Potential return for another two night journey into the CATACOMBS.
For their third edition, they’re presenting the creative vanguard of Aotearoa. Over two nights, witness the work of innovative and visionary musicians, and their biggest foray into the fringes of sonic art. Let’s come together once again in the subterranean Wintergarden to celebrate the best that New Zealand music has to offer.