Sparks at Kiri Te Kanawa theatre, Auckland, May 23rd 2026
Review by Jeremy Elwood | Photos by Rachel Matthews
For years, Sparks have sat somewhere between a closely guarded in-joke and a myth, to me. Hovering around the periphery of my own musical tastes, spoken of in hushed tones but with no direct signpost showing a path into their music. The publicity for this tour called Sparks “your favourite band’s favourite band”, and it isn’t an idle boast. The roster of acts who have cited them as an influence runs from Joy Division and Duran Duran to Bjork, Sonic Youth and Franz Ferdinand. In Edgar Wright’s 2021 documentary The Sparks Brothers, fellow art-pop provocateur Beck suggests there are bands now who don’t even realise they’ve been influenced by Sparks, considering their 28-album back catalogue stretches back to 1972.
It’s an excellent film, but neither it nor a refresher dip into that extensive discography could prepare me for the exuberance of the live experience.
It began punctually, no opening act or last-minute delay while the crowd found their seats. 8pm sharp, the lights dim, the backing band take their place, and, for the first time ever in Auckland, the Mael brothers are here. First Ron, the legendarily deadpan keyboardist and songwriter, dressed like a headmaster out of Roald Dahl with his trademark pencil moustache and wire-rimmed glasses. Then Russell, the singer, clad in a polka dot suit accented with shocking pink shirt and sneakers. The briefest of hellos, and they, aptly, launch straight into So May We Start, from the 2021 musical film Annette.
There’s a definite air of musical theatre to the first part of the show, from Ron’s Matilda-Esque attire to Russell’s lengthy appreciation of applause after each song. I’d bet good money that Tim Rice and the boys from ABBA listened to at least a little Sparks before they composed Chess. Then there’s the skewed storytelling inherent in Sparks songs, which balance between the autobiographic (Do Things My Own Way, A Trip Down Memory Lane) and the cinematic (Running Up a Tab at the Hotel for the Fab) without ever leaving you quite sure which side of that line you’re on.
I’m sure it’s coincidental that this show falls on the final full night of the NZ International Comedy Festival, but it’s appropriate. Their humour is both literal and literary – referencing Sherlock Holmes and Mickey Mouse, or Ron’s “dancing” on Let’s Get Funky. Allegedly a record exec once entreated Sparks to try making “music that you can dance to” so in reply they released, well, Music That You Can Dance To. And it’s that song that finally breaks down any hesitation within the audience about whether to sit and enjoy this gig as a piece of theatre, or get up and move.
It’s worth mentioning the crowd here. The venue wasn’t full, by any means, but the bulk of the audience felt as if they’d been waiting for this show their entire lives, and their enthusiasm was infectious. There’s magic in a band with such a deep history, but without that one monster radio hit that attracts the casual fan, coupled with it being their first visit to our shores, and it creates a contagious buzz.
Those fans certainly got a run of favourites from here on. 1994’s When Do I Get to Sing My Way, the pioneering synth-pop of Number 1 Song in Heaven, their unlikely 1974 falsetto breakthrough This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us; the one notable omission was When I’m With You, their biggest selling single, but with nearly 300 songs to choose from, it’s hard to begrudge any single absentee.
Any concerns about how the Sparks sound would maintain interest over an extended set were by now completely dismissed, thanks in part to the precision playing and backing vocals from Darren Weiss (drums), Max Whipple (bass) and Eli Pearl (guitar), in part to the full commitment of Russell and Ron (whose ability to maintain his dour demeanour throughout is a feat unto itself) and largely through the joy being shared between the stage and auditorium.
A three-song encore culminates with All That, as fitting a closer as So May We Start was an opener. Then, it was done. Despite them saying they will be back, the combined facts that it took Sparks 50 years to get here in the first place, Ron and Russell respectively being 80 and 77 years old, and the way they stayed onstage to receive their well-deserved standing ovation for a good 5 minutes after the final notes sounded, suggests otherwise. If so, fans in Auckland and Christchurch were lucky to be there.
As for the myth and the in-joke of Sparks? I’m happy to say, I finally get it.
