
Foals returned to Berlin as part of their current European tour that took in a handful of shows to celebrate the release of What Went Down on Tuesday night, the penultimate gig on the Oxford band's calendar before heading off to South America. Crammed into Kesselhaus were local Berliners, international visitors like myself and people who'd come from elsewhere in Europe to see the boys perform what has definitely shaped up to be some of their heaviest material yet on the new album, not to mention cuts from their impressive catalogue.
Sunday evening saw Joshua Radin kick off his Australian tour with an intimate gig at Perth’s Rosemount Hotel. It might have been a Sunday night and it might have been father’s day but that didn’t stop a sizeable crowd come out for Radin’s first ever gig in Perth; “the chillest place on earth” apparently.
Touring for the release of their latest album Speakerzoid, we caught The Jungle Giants on the first leg in Fremantle and had one heck of a party. With a night full of energy and oozing sincerity from both acts The Jungle Giants brought their long list of popular tracks with them and proved why they are one of the indie darlings of the year.
Gang of Youths, and their debut record The Positions, have been embraced by critics and fans alike over the past year. Back in South Australia, they brought their energetic live show to a sold-out crowd at Adelaide UniBar on Friday night.
They’ve been coined “the next Tame Impala” and aside from sharing a home city of Perth, Methyl Ethyl are experiencing a similar national hype with the former. The three-piece played to a packed room at Sydney’s Newtown Social Club, following a performance at the weekend's Volumes Festival. Despite the crowd, they remained humble and ran their seamless set like a support act, with no encore.
Safia have been absolutely killing it this year. With single after single, they have been getting so much radio play as well as selling out show gigs all across the country. The last time I saw Safia was at Brisbane’s BIGSOUND conference last year, and holy wow, what a difference a year makes. They have really stepped up their game and brought the production of their live show up to a whole new level.
The newly rebranded Maxx Watt’s (formerly known as The Hi-Fi) played host to The Dillinger Escape Plan and newly signed prog-rock locals Caligula’s Horse for the final show of the tour. Julian Panetta was there and brings us these words and photos from the show:
There has been an enthusiastic push of late 90's/early 00's R&B and hip hop nostalgia in Australia as of late. Just recently Ja Rule and Ashanti, two performers who haven't really made any noise for almost a decade now, managed to surprisingly sell out the Enmore Theatre as well as many other venues on their nation-wide tour. Now comes 112, another big part of that period that hasn't been heard from for awhile, and another act selling out shows across the country.
Usually Oxford Street at 4 o’clock in the arvo boasts nothing more than a few old guys having a VB at the local pub, and maybe a couple of loud and obnoxious girls with penis paraphernalia going out for a hens night. You can imagine how shocked they’d have been this past Saturday when Oxford Square was flooded with hundreds of music enthusiasts, transforming the street into the new music festival to keep an eye on, VOLUMES.
Adelaide is coming up with some cool things right now... The Timberwolf show at the UniBar on Friday night was a good example of this – of the three bands on the lineup, two (including the headliner) were very talented local bands. It's a good thing to see.