Gregory Alan Isakov – The Opera House/ Wellington: February 12, 2026 (13th Floor Concert Review)

Gregory Alan Isakov’s stripped-down show at The Opera House revealed an assured craftsman at the top of his game and, perhaps more surprising, the rapture of his millennial fandom.

The indie-folk singer-songwriter from Boulder, Colorado, brought a cool calm to an otherwise sticky Wellington evening as his seated silhouette commanded the attention and, very swiftly, the adoration of what must have been a near sellout crowd. On a mostly bare stage, under one of the dimmest lighting set-ups I’ve experienced at a mid-size venue, and with no opening act, Isakov efficiently explored his back catalogue, paring down songs to their bare essentials, with the occasional musing full of Midwestern charm. Every studio album was dutifully represented, and suitable attention was given to his most recent LP, 2023’s impressive Appaloosa Bones. Accompaniment on several songs from brother Ilan Isakov on keys and long-time friend collaborator Steve Varney on banjo and guitar only deepened the close, personal atmosphere.

In many ways this was what one expects from an acoustic concert billed as “an evening with”, but it was not commonplace. Isakov’s penchant for rumbling, brooding verses and soaring chorus howls – best evidenced on Miles To Go and the sublime San Luis – were enough to dispel any risk of that. But aside from a disguised arrangement of Big Black Car, nothing from the stage was surprising or unexpected. What did stun me was the level of fervor among the audience; the absence of muttering or distracting cellphones amid songs, and the ecstatic reception to songs I knew but couldn’t tell you the names of.

I usually walk into a gig with a reasonable understanding of an artist’s cultural impact. I know what size crowd they’ll pull, who that audience will look like – usually bearded and plaid-clan versions of my Gen-X self for folk singers prone to old hats and harmonica racks –  and what songs are certainties to be the closer or the encore. It’s par for course of being a fan, and I have been an admirer of Isakov’s music since tracks from That Sea, The Gambler (2007) and This Empty Northern Hemisphere (2009) were repeatedly pushed my way by the Pandora app back when Pandora was actually a thing. But I never saw these albums, or any Isakov record, in NZ shops, and nobody I knew who I mentioned him too had ever heard of him – not until my teenage son earlier this year.

This should have aroused my curiosity, as should the fact the Australian leg of this tour has sold out theatres in Sydney and Perth, with additional dates added. But it was only after Thursday night’s show, and watching the standing ovation led by the younger faces in the house that I began to grasp how big and beloved Isakov has become. “What’s the deal with that Sweet Heat Lighting song? I asked one of my 16-year-old companions, after it came and went, bookended by thunderous applause. It was a song I knew and liked, but not this much. “It was a thing on TikTok,” I am told. A quick check on Spotify, finding he has 8.5 million monthly listeners, is further evidence to my old arse that Isakov has amassed a level of appeal and relevance that far outstrips that of musicians I would have considered his contemporaries; Jason Isbell, Waxahatchee, or even Joe Pug and Blind Pilot.

Isakov has become something of a folkie megastar, and his late show quip, “I didn’t think we had any hits”, before launching into enduring staple The Stable Song doesn’t quite ring true once witnessing Sweet Heat Lightening be received as if it were an anthem. Up from his stool, and backed by his brother and Varney, it is the fullest sounding arrangement of the night and a hint of what a full-band Isakov show might be like. As someone who favours his 2016 record with the Colorado Symphony over all his others, I did begin to crave those soundscapes midway through the gig. But The Opera House, which has a capacity of nearly 1400, is a formidable space for any musician to rule from a stool, with just a guitar in hand. Isakov held sway with comfort and grace, and I left impressed by the high lonesome vibes and devotion he conjured.

Matthew Dallas

Photos are courtesy Brenna Jo Gotje and were taken at the Auckland show on Feb 10th:

Opener Ocie Elliott:

And here is headliner Gregory Alan Isakov: