bReview: Cigarettes After Sex
Wednesday 19 March 2025 at Spark Arena
Words by Sofia Kent
Photography by Nico Rose Penny
A rainy day set the tone for the bashful crowd who swarmed slowly around the hive we call Spark Arena. We gathered with leisure in layers of dark velvet, leather, lace, heavy liner, and thick rimmed lenses upon faces. If there ever was a conspiracy to attract and capture the witches and warlocks of the 21st century, it was here. Baited by the dreamy El Paso band that is Cigarettes After Sex.
The pre-performance excitement murmur reached a decibel level that contented with a mildly busy street, unusual for a venue of such enormity yet telling of us, the crowd who sought out a night with the slow-burn music makers. The vast space contended with the idea of Cigarettes After Sex: where one might hope for red wine and scents of incense, it was instead hot chips and vapour. Going on 7 years since their last visit to New Zealand, where they played at The Powerstation, the packed arena testified that their fan presence outgrew intimate venues as days long gone.
Seated and ready, the stadium’s screens shuffled through abstract, vignette photographs. In lieu of an opening act, as is standard for Cigarettes After Sex, a mysterious short film was set to fill in. And who else, but Selena! Como La Flor plays with the music video ahead of us, lending to my personal bias and the band’s too, having cited her as an inspiration for their album X’s. I began to feel the full Americana experience as Chris Isaak came on. Wicked Game’s music video on the big screen amongst us on a Wednesday night almost works, if not for being overlaid with a jarring sound check occurring simultaneously, dampening any illusion of a short film experience. We are affirmed of an absence of live open acts as the video ends to be followed by a Britney Spears, Ginuwine Toxic/ Pony mix that blares instead.
(Crowd at Spark Arena / Photo: Nico Rose Penny)
Clock striking 9, the overhead mixtape ends momentarily, and the crowd holds their breath. A collective groan is heard when the mixtape continues as excitement tempers on impatience. The groan is soon rectified by darkness, silence, and faint spotlights on stage, as ⅔ of the band, drummer Jacob Tomsky and bassist Christian Celaya, gently pad into place on opposing sides of the stage. The first noise: the crack of a fresh beer can.
A blinding spotlight hits the center of the stage and the audience screams, really screams, as frontman Greg Gonzales shimmers ahead of it. He walks like Jesus on water: with a gliding coolness and assuredness amidst the beaming light. A gentle guitar melody breaks into the band's full ensemble of bass and drums as they begin their first song, ‘X’s. Gonzales' voice joins: the 4th and final instrument, its ambiguity and softness is euphony above dictation.
(Cigarettes After Sex at Spark Arena / Photo: Nico Rose Penny)
The crowd is pacified and entranced by the rawness of melodies that ask for your full attention to give in to the smutty sounds. Gonzales speaks for the first time, a greeting and introduction to the third song, ‘Dark Vacay’. A welcome, almost expected, haze of contraband mosh smoke washes over the arena. The smoke is the final piece of the cinematic atmosphere that Cigarettes After Sex curates through their black and white visuals and mellow movements.
The lighting adheres to the strict black and white dress code by using only bright white spotlights, creating an animated architectural frame for the three on stage. The upbeat (by their terms) track 'Tejano Blue' is led by flickering lights that play humorously with absolute darkness to fleeting spotlights on each member. It is a simple tactic, yet effective, as the crowd gets frantic with anticipation, gratified as the lights frame the whole band like triangular mountains, and they all join in playing as Gonzales sings “We wanted to fuck with real love, wanted it sweet, so pure and warm”. The simplicity on stage lends to the lulling nature of the music played, allowing for the absorption of the space and sound, rather than the band members themselves.
(Cigarettes After Sex at Spark Arena / Photo: Nico Rose Penny)
Though tracks may be teased for their familiarity to each other, Cigarettes After Sex excel in taking this simplicity and melding it with raw emotion in that we can each overlay our current love, heartbreak, or nostalgia. Deeply intimate and their refusal to shy away from confronting ‘want’ is heard in the crowd singing “Think I like you best when you’re just with me and no else”. As is in love, Cigarettes After Sex play with crescendos sonically and visually, with waterfalls crashing down in the swells of the song ‘Cry’. Tension and release are subtle, yet crucial to the emotional invoking of the crowd of thousands that sway before them.
Apocalypse ignites a fire in the crowd who responds roaringly to the faint pendulate opening bars from Gonzales’ guitar. Tomsky and Celaya smile knowingly of the tracks' sweeping success as they join in, bringing the sound to its fullness. Celaya’s bass is a spine for the track: its simplicity leaves us grasping on to what he dares to give. An ocean of phone flashlights rise, swaying in cathartic appreciation. These too, melt into the black and white visual curation of Cigarettes After Sex and the engulfment of light is touchingly picturesque.
(Cigarettes After Sex at Spark Arena / Photo: Nico Rose Penny)
Nearing the end of the night, the crowd is easy and well-fed with looks of satisfaction upon every face. Sweet plays. An unassuming track that sweeps the crowd as the lines “It’s so sweet, knowing that you love me” beckon two disco balls reflecting light into every corner of the venue. The fluid croonings with wavering light is buoyant in the space, like the immeasurable flickering of light passing through a body of water.
(Cigarettes After Sex at Spark Arena / Photo: Nico Rose Penny)
Gonzales passes on little mementos to the ones pressing against the rail, such as the set list and a guitar pick. With coy farewells, the night closes without an encore. Satisfaction is heavy in the air, mulling from sonic memories of love past, present, and future. Cigarettes After Sex are gone quickly into the night, leaving their newly anointed prophets to go out into the harsh world willing, and ready to love once again.
(Cigarettes After Sex at Spark Arena / Photo: Nico Rose Penny)
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