Rolling along with Sydney city’s creativity-bender, Jurassic Lounge is continuing to grow and is still pegged as the place to be for city-dwellers on a Tuesday night. The relatively young concept night delivers something different and fun every week at the gorgeous Australian Museum, and as part of the ‘season finale’ event the organisers have teamed up with Sydney Comedy Festival, giving us our fair share of arts, crafts, and laughs.

The structure of “support-support-headliner” is a common one, so it’s rare for it to produce a well-balanced line up. But Steve Smyth, Gung Ho, and headliners Deap Vally are each as talented as they are stylistically diverse; making their recent show at Oxford Art Factory an unusual delight.

In 2011, Ben Quilty traveled to Afghanistan as the official war artist with the Australian Defence Force. Since the First World War the Australian War Memorial has been commissioning artists to capture the realities of war. Australian troops have been stationed in Afghanistan since 2001 and as part of Operation Slipper, Quilty travelled to Kabul, Kandahar and Tarin Kot to record the experiences of Australian service personnel.

Part of the appeal of seeing Sydney artist Kirin J. Callinan live is that you expect to be challenged; to experience something off-the-wall. Since his days helping propel his first band Mercy Arms to rapid acclaim, Callinan has made a habit of pushing boundaries, some times more unsuccessfully than others, but in an unselfconscious way that not a lot of Australian, let alone Sydney, musicians do.

Cockneys vs. Zombies brings stacks of fun to a genre film festival that always delights – A Night of Horror/Fantastic Planet; where horror meets science fiction meets fantasy film. The festival itself runs annually at Dendy Newtown (Sydney) and this year runs for eleven nights (11 to 21 April), screening over 100 films including features and shorts.

Leichhardt is known as Sydney’s ‘Little Italy’ (and yes, it does share this title with a few neighbouring suburbs) and with original Italian restaurants like La Botte D’oro, it’s not hard to see why.

Poor British India. In recent years it seems like everything that could go wrong for the band has wound up happening. From troubles with their distributor to their old rehearsal space being flooded and then a show at The Metro only being half-full. But these guys are resilient buggers and they don’t let things like that stop them from putting on a great show. They came out with their guns a-blazing and were able to showcase their fine blend of defiant rock.

John Kaldor certainly knows how to draw a crowd. His latest project, 13 Rooms, incorporates work from some of the world’s most famous artists and is curated by two of the best – Hans Ulrich Obrist from the Serpentine in London and Klaus Biesenbach from the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Possibly the most anticipated exhibition so far this year, 13 Rooms incorporates performance and site specific interactive work housed in thirteen separate rooms. Doors must be opened and viewers must be willing participants in the work they are about to walk in on. This seclusion gives a sense of intimacy, creating a silent white cube where you are confronted, amused and bewildered.

At first glance, the work of Michael Moran at Galerie pompom looks like bamboo shoots springing up from the floor and into the ceiling. The three separate metal structures are beautiful in their simplicity and upon closer inspection are covered with miniature penises, effectively morphing the work into possible phallic symbols with heavy suggestions of virility. These are camouflaged and unassuming until it is practically staring you in the face, the reactions of other gallery-goers adding to the sense of spectacle.

Ben Lee's back and he’s become a Holy Roller. He’s no longer content to be just a songwriter, musician or pop star. Instead, he’s gone and grown a beard and is like the late dark horse, George Harrison in that his spiritual beliefs are intersecting with his music with often mixed results.

When one wants to create a truly mesmerising show, they need a venue to back it up, and The Counting Crows couldn’t have picked better than the iconic and stunning Sydney Opera House for Tuesday night’s show.

Around 5000 volunteers traded four hours of their time for a nice initiative called Optus RockCorps. The idea: encourage youth to help around the community and in return, reward them with tickets to a massive concert with four big-name acts. It’s a concept that has been happening in cities around the world, with artists like Snoop Dogg and Lady Gaga getting involved to help promote a community spirit.

The Optus RockCorps concert was held for 5000 volunteers last night at Hordern Pavilion. Acts include The Faders, Guy Sebastian, The Potbelleez, Tinie Tempah and The Script (pictured).

The Counting Crows played to a sold-out crowd at The Sydney Opera House on Tuesday night. Our photographer Jason Li was there to cover the show!

There is no denying the very distinctive sound of The XX and whether or not they put on a good show, the question was always ‘’how are they going to adapt their intimate sound to larger venues.’’ From a couple of hundred at 2010’s Laneway festival, to last year’s dizzying show at Metro Theatre, and now to the Hordern Pavillion where they played to their biggest – and most enthusiastic – Australian crowds to date. There were parts that worked extremely well, but English trio seemed to get too ambitious at times, sacrificing their soft, poignant melodies, for house-influenced re-works that proved hit or miss.