In a historic moment for Ōtautahi Christchurch, the brand-new One NZ Stadium at Te Kaha held its first concert last night.
Rolling Stone was there to see Six60, Synthony, Kaylee Bell, Cassie Henderson, and more Aotearoa music stars put on a dazzling spectacle.
Read our full review of the Once in a Lifetime concert here.
Check out 5 takeaways from the special event below!
View this post on InstagramLove Music?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in Australian/New Zealand music and globally.
World-Class Service
Any new venue lives and dies by its amenities, so it’s lucky that Te Kaha is stacked on this front.
“As we strolled through the E entrance, one of the vendors literally yelled ‘hotdogs hotdogs, come get your hotdogs,’ while someone else handed me a free sample of fancy muesli, just the beginning of an evening of confidence and abundance,” our reviewer wrote.
Later, during a trip to the toilets before co-headliner Six60 arrived on stage, they found the loo-going experience to be “function and surprisingly chill.” That’s all you can really ask for, isn’t it?
From MC to PM?
Radio star Sarah Gandy handled MC duties for the night, and she had the packed crowd in the palm of her hand from the very start.
“Are you ready for the night of your lives?” she asked near the beginning of the concert, receiving thousands of screams in reply.
When Gandy later boldly asked more than 30,000 people to turn off their green light-up bracelets so they didn’t interfere with Synthony’s production, 99% of the crowd duly followed her request, turning off their bracelets en masse. Which begged the question from our reviewer: “Sarah Gandy for Prime Minister, anyone?”
Image: Six60’s Matiu Walters Credit: @greghaver
Just Another Day at the Office
If any Aotearoa act was capable of handling the immensity of this historic occasion, it was Six60.
“Six60 strode onto the stage, comfortable with an audience in the tens of thousands, and stood shoulder-to-shoulder to greet the wall of cheers before finding their places and playing the unmistakable bassline of their breakout hit ‘Don’t Forget Your Roots,” our reviewer wrote.
A mash-up of “Don’t Forget Your Roots” and “Ka Mate”, featuring a kapa haka group, came in for particular praise, with a sea of piupiu and synchronised poi leaving our reviewer “totally hypnotised.”
Bassist Chris Mac was so chill that he casually carried his glass of red wine from one stage to another at one point during their set, before Six60 played several stripped-back songs, “with the performances elevated by the accompaniment and Walters’ velvety vocals.”
Epic Acoustics
It was always going to be a case of trial and error with regard to the acoustics at One New Zealand Stadium’s first-ever concert.
According to our reviewer, though, the sound travelled well throughout the massive venue.
“Kudos to the production team behind the show, because the only time I thought I heard anything even close to an audio error was when I mistook the voices of 35,000 people singing along to Six60 as some sort of echoing delay in Matiu Walters’ unfaltering vocals,” they observed.
View this post on Instagram
Ecstasy and Synthony
Synthony, or “the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra in rave mode,” as our reviewer called them, closed out the concert in spectacular fashion.
Legendary Aotearoa rapper Savage? Check. A stacked lineup of guests including PRINS and Shapeshifter’s P Digsss? Check. Insane mash-ups featuring songs by Darude and Avicii? Also check. A hearty rendition of “Up the Wahs”, in tribute to the New Zealand Warriors? Naturally.
“It was epic — everyone lost their shit,” as our review concluded.
