hey mjw666,
J Mascis is doing a solo acoustic tour in Australia and New Zealand this month, so in Wellington it will also be a solo acoustic show (and I also haven’t heard yet about any support act in Wellington).
according to the self-description on the Bodega website it’s a small bar with a big selection of different kinds of beer 
Taking pics (and recordings) at a gig seems to be cool with J – as long as photographing doesn’t go along with irritating flashlights! so it depends on the particular venue, if pics (or recordings) are ok or not. I don’t have any idea about the Bodega policy about pics, maybe some NZ folks have experiences with that 
I hope some other members can help you with the best strategy about asking the club. In doubt I guess it would be worth while to bring the camera with you, don’t really hide it and if they say something, well, they have links of other Bodega gig reviews on their website, so you can maybe promise them to share your pics with them, or promise them to send them a link with FreakScene reviews of the gig 
We would appreciate a lot to see new pics of this tour (as well as new live recordings) so if you manage to get some, it would be lovely if you’d let us know

In many instances, J signed stuff after a show – although he doesn’t seem to get why people want his autograph, he’s polite & signs things 