No concert is 'perfect'. So stop saying they are.

Critics should criticise. We're seeing precious little of that lately.

If you’ve taken a glimpse at a concert review recently, you could be forgiven for thinking you’d missed a series of unmissable out-the-gate performances.

If you relied on those reviews, it would seem that every artist playing in Aotearoa is saving their absolute best just for us, delivering one magnum opus after another.

Foo Fighters’ January show was “a perfectly executed rock assault,” says this review.

Synthony’s Auckland Domain spectacle was “a show that simply must be seen to be believed,” according to this review.

Queens of the Stone Age’s recent tour was full of “supersonic chemistry,” says this review.

Post Malone delivered “banger after thrill-inducing banger,” says this review.

Tash Sultana made this reviewer “forget to breathe”.

Blink-182 made this reviewer “feel like a teenager again”.

Matchbox 20 turned this reviewer into “an over-excited kid at Christmas”.

Then there are the reviews from Pink’s Auckland shows…

Perfect Pink: The pop star at Eden Park. (Photo: Tom Grut)

Spotted the trend?

No one writing a concert review for a major publication for any of these shows has had a single bad word to say about any of them.

Go through them. Go through all of them.

Not. One. Word. Is. Critical.

They give the impression that all of these shows offered an utterly flawless experience – that not a dud note was struck, a bad word was sung, a bad beer was poured, or a single toe was stomped on.

Is that true?

Of course it’s not.

It’s just not possible.