Atomic! – Auckland Town Hall, 15 August 2026: Review & Photo Gallery

16th August 2026

Atomic! is more than a covers show. It is a celebration of the women whose songs shaped generations, reinterpreted by performers with the confidence, humour and musicianship to make those songs feel alive again. The show was loud, warm, funny and gloriously communal, a night where friends could sing, couples could dance and everyone could briefly forget the outside world.

A first date with Through The Looking Glass

The evening began with Through The Looking Glass, a newly formed string quartet featuring Rachel Wells, Sarah Spence, Jess Hindin and Peau Halapua. In the era of Bridgerton, string quartets have become unexpectedly fashionable, but this quartet made it clear that they are not simply borrowing somebody else’s formula as every arrangement they played was their own.

With only a handful of spotlights illuminating the musicians and their instruments, the atmosphere was intimate and quietly cinematic. Some audience members were still finding their seats, but the late arrivals did little to disturb the mood.

They opened with Madonna’s Material Girl, transforming the familiar pop hit into something more elegant and atmospheric. Zombie by The Cranberries followed, before they moved through Ladyhawke’s Paris Is Burning and Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams. They closed with two Britney Spears classics, Baby One More Time and Toxic.

The quartet were open about being at the beginning of their journey, and their warmth made the performance feel less like a formal introduction and more like a genuine invitation. They told the audience they were enjoying hanging out with us, even though we had never met before and that it was “a bit like a first date”, they suggested that If we wanted a second date, they had more gigs coming up.

Judging by the response, the invitation was accepted. They were visibly enjoying themselves, and that pleasure in performing travelled easily through the room.

Atomic! arrive with a wink and a roar

When Atomic! Took to the stage, Julia Deans made an immediate connection with the audience. A wrong note or two became part of the evening’s charm rather than a problem. Deans joked that we should forget it, reaching for a Men in Black-style memory stick to wipe the evidence from our minds. It was a small moment, but it established the tone: polished musicianship without the stiffness, and enough self-awareness to laugh when things did not go exactly to plan.

Then Atomic! launched into a passionate Roam by The B-52s, flowing smoothly into Madonna’s Material Girl. By the second song, people were on their feet, spilling into the aisles and gathering directly in front of the stage. The room had stopped behaving like a seated concert hall and started behaving like a party.

Pearl Runga then joined the band for Girls Just Want to Have Fun. The song was exactly the kind of joyful release its title promised, with the audience singing along and the performers clearly having as much fun as everyone watching them.

When Deans introduced the band, she also shared the sadness of Dianne Swann‘s absence after a knee injury. She asked us to make enough noise for Swann to hear us in Kumeū. The response was heartfelt and an enormous reminder that Atomic! is built not only on individual talent but on genuine musical community.

The next run of songs brought even more people to their feet.

Vera Ellen delivered Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill with precision and emotional force. Julia Deans was perfectly matched to Blondie’s Call Me, performing it with the confidence of someone entirely at home in the rock-star tradition. Jazmine Mary brought a darker, more hypnotic intensity to Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit, singing it with a passion that pulled the room into the song’s strange, psychedelic world, with Julia even suggesting that it was suitable for someone who had been to a mushroom festival this afternoon, quickly adding, “not those kind of mushrooms!”.

Cannonball by The Breeders kept the momentum moving, before Rebel Reid stepped forward for Mazzy Star’s Fade Into You. Assisted by the superb Louisa Nicklin, Reid gave the song a beautifully understated performance.

Then came Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain, which turned the entire Town Hall into one enormous karaoke room. Every generation seemed to know the words. The audience did not merely watch Atomic! perform the song; they claimed it for themselves.

Before the interval came a powerful final sequence: Treat Me Like Dirt, Edge of Seventeen and The Cranberries’ Zombie. The last of these was performed with such power and passion that, had you closed your eyes, you might have wondered whether Dolores O’Riordan herself had somehow returned to the microphone.

From rock boots to singing in socks

After the break came a costume change and a shift in mood. Deans introduced Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights by removing her “rock boots”, explaining that “it’s amazing how singing in your socks makes you feel safer”.

It was quintessentially Julia Deans: Her performance of the song was a highlight, showing that Atomic! could move from full-throttle rock to something more theatrical and vulnerable without losing its grip on the audience.

PJ Harvey’s This Is Love and Blondie’s Dreaming followed, before Jazmine Mary delivered a beautiful version of Hole’s Violet. Mary’s performance carried both ferocity and fragility, finding the emotional centre of the song rather than simply reproducing its volume.

Vera Ellen then unleashed Ladyhawke’s Delirium with such energy that she appeared to acquire at least a thousand backing singers in the Great Hall. The audience sang at full volume, and the building seemed to give the sound back twice as loudly.

The band gave everyone (including themselves) a breather with PJ Harvey’s Down by the River before turning the energy back up with Here Comes the Rain Again, Walk Like an Egyptian, Atomic and No Doubt’s Just a Girl. It was an irresistible run of songs, performed by musicians who understood that nostalgia works best when it is refreshed rather than embalmed.

A perfect dance-floor ending

The main set ended with Madonna’s Like a Prayer, although not before another blooper prompted the threat of a second appearance from the Men in Black memory stick. By then, the joke had become part of the shared language between stage and audience.

After the encore came Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart, performed as a moving tribute to the legendary singer, who had passed away recently. The song’s huge emotional sweep suited the Town Hall perfectly. It was dramatic, unapologetic and made for thousands of people to sing together.

Then came Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out of My Head, the ideal final burst of dance-floor euphoria. Atomic! thanked the audience, told us they loved us and hoped to see us next time.

They will.

The verdict

Auckland Town Hall did not need elaborate visuals. It had Atomic!, an audience ready to participate and a catalogue of songs that still know exactly how to move a room.