If any band was threatening to disappear completely up their own bums, it was Alt-J.

Anyone who reads a newspaper should see this play. And anyone who writes one. And anyone who doesn't. This one-man show is a delight, full of perfectly pitched comedy, clever crossword solutions, and poignant considerations of information and isolation.

In search of clues, as you do in times of national crisis, this one brought to near breaking point by the looming election and elimination round of My Kitchen Rules NZ.

NZTrio's Loft concerts have become something of a signature for the group; Aucklanders now know this is where you can experience chamber music up close and personal.

You wait for an album by a prolific Americana/alt-country figurehead with colourful back stories and past wayward lifestyles, and what do you know? Two come along at once.

Remember those heady days when Garden State came out?

Bonamassa - Grammy-nominated, with a back catalogue of at least a dozen albums but hardly a household name - found blues loyalists turned out for him in their legions last Friday.

Although singing a generous number of highly reconfigured Led Zeppelin songs at his 2013 Vector show with this band, Plant continues to distance himself from Led Zep's hard rock-cum-folk catalogue.

A little like Wish I Was Here, also reviewed today, The Skeleton Twins is a film featuring siblings affected by their upbringing and who discover, as adults, the only person who can really help them deal with their issues is each other.

The moment USB (which stands for Unique Sonic Broadcast, not a piece of office equipment) opens with Modern Love, you hear a flicker of Swedish electro-pop diva Robyn, a touch of David Bowie, a flash of Kylie Minogue, and also something distinctly Kiwi, w

Italian tenor delivers a crowd-pleasing recital of opera arias and popular love songs.

I felt happy in a sad sort of way on hearing that experiments had once again started to bring back to life that great dinosaur of the television age, the variety show.

Four months ago, the New Zealand String Quartet enthralled a town hall audience playing Mozart and Brahms quintets with Canadian clarinetist James Campbell.

The fraudulent world of high finance has furnished plenty of high-stakes drama in recent years.

It was a quartet with a difference at Chamber Music New Zealand's Rhythm & Resonance concert - two pianists and two percussionists in a programme roving from Mozart to Lutoslawski.

A knock at the door sounds like hammering with an anvil in this Silo Theatre production, but clever, compelling Belleville is really only playing dress-up as a thriller.