PHOX - Auckland Arts Festival

Last updated on 8 January 2025

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My friend managed to score free tickets to go and see a show during Auckland Arts Festival in 2015, and so I jumped on the bus in the evening and headed to Aotea Square here in Auckland. We went to see/hear PHOX, a group of 6 very talented friends from Wisconsin, which didn’t start until 10:30pm. Yes, PM. Late show, but it was really cool.

I hadn’t actually heard of them before I saw them in the Auckland Arts Festival booklet several weeks prior, but I listened to some of their songs on YouTube, and really liked their style. They were performing in the Paradiso Spegieltent, which is a pop-up building in the Square, which looks like a circus tent on the inside. So super cool. I managed to get a couple of photos inside too.

Monica Martin was the front-woman and lead singer, and she was just the cutest thing ever. The way she performed was really simple, but sweet, and her little comments between songs…seriously. Super cute. Also she had this awesome outfit on that was looking at and wondering how I could get away with stealing it. Alas, I thought better of it.

At one point, she picked up a ukulele and realised (whether on purpose or not I’m not sure) she didn’t have a capo, so one of the other band members came and held the ukulele like he was a capo, which is this following photo: