At 9.05pm, the lights dimmed and giant orange silky moving ‘blob-ject’ made its way up a short set of stairs and onto the stage. Feet jumbling along with just enough skill to remain upright, before ‘woosh!’ the big reveal! Eat your heart out Taylor Swift, no elaborate pully systems required – this is how the…
Last night, Audrey Hobert packed out Melbourne’s Forum for her first of two sold-out headline shows on her first proper Australian tour, Staircase To Stardom. There’s been a recent trend of international acts not having an opener, and while this is definitely disappointing, it felt fitting for a midweek concert on a freezing night. The…
Packing out The Gov on a Thursday night, Ruby Fields took to the stage to celebrate the release of her latest album, Small Achievements. Playing the album in full, Fields’ captivating poetic lyrics, sweet voice, and electric band put on a magnetic show for a room packed with super-fans. First on the line-up was Brisbane…
Few legacy metalcore bands are as consistently good as California’s legendary Of Mice & Men. The beloved quartet have just wrapped up their five-date Australian tour with Japan’s Crystal Lake, and we were there at The Triffid in Brisbane on Sunday night to catch the big sendoff. It was a tight set full of new…
Katy Steele brought the banter along with reworked versions of her solo songs, beloved Little Birdy hits, and covers from her latest album Undressed to an intimate setting at Lefty’s Music Hall in Brisbane on 7th May. The show started with local solo artist Mou. He managed to keep the audience quiet while he played…
Ha’way the lad! For fans, fourteen years is a long time between tours. Judging by the rapturous response inside Liberty Hall on Thursday night, Sydney never stopped saving space for Maxïmo Park. Returning to Australia for the first time since 2012, the Newcastle founded outfit were here celebrating the bands 20th anniversary and 20 years…
The first night of a tour always carries a bit of chaos and curiosity, and for Mumford and Sons kicking off the Prizefighter world tour in Melbourne, you could feel that buzz in the room before anyone even walked on stage. Hudson Freeman opened things solo with just a guitar and a voice that did…
Helmet shredded at The Gov on Wednesday, treating us Adelaide fans to a mid-week gig, for their 2026 Australia tour. Smashing out 9 shows around the country in 10 days, the 90’s heavy alt-rock pioneers flew in from New York for the first time since their Best of Helmet tour in 2023. Opening the show…
If there’s one thing to be said for the Aussie alternative scene, it’s that the sense of community has never been stronger. Canberra mainstays Hands Like Houses are currently in the middle of their highly anticipated Lótus tour for their forthcoming EP, with longtime friends Dream on Dreamer and local supports chosen from each city…
TISM (This Is Serious Mum) are a seven-piece anonymous alternative rock band, formed in Melbourne in 1982. Main members include vocalist/drummer Humphrey B. Flaubert, bassist/vocalist Jock Cheese, keyboard player Eugene de la Hot Croix Bun, and vocalist Ron Hitler-Barassi. Over the years the band has developed somewhat a fanatical following, including the “Victims of TISM”…
There are some bands that don’t just play a show so much as pull the room into their orbit, and The Black Crowes have always sat firmly in that category. From the moment the lights dropped at the Enmore Theatre, there was a sense that this wasn’t going to be a polite run-through of classics,…
It can’t be easy opening for a band as huge as Biffy Clyro, and it certainly must be additionally daunting when your set is filled with technical issues. That said, indie punk/rock duo Teenage Joans took it all in their stride, entertaining the crowd with enthusiastic banter and updates about the inner shambles of their…
Sunday night at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre, Counting Crows brought their Complete Sweets! tour to Sydney for the first of 3 dates, offering a nostalgic trip back to the 90s while mixing in newer material. The songs that defined a generation – about faith and sex and God (IYKYK) – still carry weight, particularly from their…
Surely, if there was any occasion that required all nine core members of the Wu-Tang Clan to be present, it’d be the iconic hip hop collective’s final tour. But that’s not the case as the seminal rap group take Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena for what will allegedly be the last time, bringing with them a…
Central Coast singer-songwriter BOY SODA is one of the most exciting artists to emerge from the local scene in recent years, and he certainly proved why at a sold-out Black Bear Lodge in Brisbane on Saturday night. It was the second show of his three-date Lil Obsession Tour after playing Melbourne last week, supported by…
It’s probably safe to say more than a handful of people heading to the Qudos Bank Arena last night, might have been feeling curious, maybe even sceptical about the gig they were heading to. You can almost hear the conversations playing out. “So, if there is a new lead singer, is it like a tribute…
As a Victorian-based girl with a pretty strong pop music bias, attending WOMADelaide was always going to be an interesting experience. I’d never been to South Australia before, and I’ve never attended anything quite like this. Known for its global music programming, sprawling site and a deeply loyal crowd, WOMADelaide has built quite a reputation-…
It’s not every Tuesday that you get to see a one-man blues band and a captivating soul performance from a few feet away in your hometown, but that’s exactly what a handful of Fantastic Negrito fans were treated to at the Crowbar in Brisbane on Tuesday night. This was the first headline show on his…
Many feel that 2026 has already been a difficult year, with global tensions on the rise. This affected even WOMADelaide with some acts not able to attend this year due to travel disruptions and other issues. However, a feeling of hope and resilience was front and foremost for this year’s event. Celebrating cultural diversity, honouring…
The fact that women are such a big part of the WOMADelaide Festival is no accident. With women on the management team, and as decision makers, artists and presenters, made celebrating International Women’s Day such a natural and beautiful thing. The mood of the day was one of nurturing and celebrating the beauty inside whilst…
It was a glorious autumn day in Adelaide’s Botanic Park for the second day of WOMADelaide, the world’s music, arts and dance festival. Families have set up picnic rugs, whilst roving performers, Born in a Taxi pranced around as zebras and kids exercised their creativity in Studio Ruby Chew‘s pop-up wonderland. The event hosts a…
Despite some last-minute changes with artist travel plans disrupted by the sudden unrest in the Middle East, the show must go on. Inside the Botanic Gardens, it was like a sanctuary, fruit bats overhead and seven stages all playing a variety of world music. Day one of WOMADelaide 2026 kicked off in fine style. As…
What a week for music at the world-famous Sydney Opera House! Complementing the already iconic line-up of Grace Jones, The Streets and Basement Jaxx, was Britpop legends, Pulp. At arguably the best outdoor venue on the circuit, the ‘On the Steps’ series welcomed Cocker and friends for two nights of playing the hits. However, this…
Cries of hip hop being “dead” have been around for over ten years, but they’ve never rang more true than in 2026. Last year, hip hop, for the first time since 1990, had failed to crack the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. That’s not the death-knell some claimed, but it marked a…
On Monday night, American folk artist Sam Beam (better known by his moniker Iron & Wine) arrived in Brisbane to a sold-out Princess Theatre as part of his first Australian tour since 2018. The folk troubadour delivered his inimitable brand of lo-fi acoustic song writing, this time in its most exposed form. Performing completely solo,…
Punk. What is punk? Is it just loud music? Nope. Authenticity? yes! Activism? yes! Self-advocacy? yes! Being labelled as ‘difficult’? well apparently! Think Grace Tame, Eileen Gu, Malala Yousafazi – women supporting women, smashing glass ceilings, expectations, and absolutely the patriarchy. Relentlessly. Tirelessly. One critical, loud message at a time. They are punks, role modelling…
The Sunday rain couldn’t keep eager concertgoers away from 170 Russell in Melbourne, where Broadside, This Wild life, Hot Chelle Rae, Cartel and Anberlin rolled into town for Destroy All Lines’ An Emo Extravaganza. Announced late last year, there was lots of hyper surrounding this event. Still, a last-minute venue downsize for Melbourne hinted that…
There’s nothing like a good Irish pub show to get your evening off to a grand start. The Shamrocks have finally made their way to Adelaide to show how to do exactly that. The six Irish lads, including two sets of brothers have an instantly likeable energy about them. Raymond Walsh created the Shamrocks back…
Enmore Road was full of alfresco diners last night, many of them meeting with friends ahead of seeing Morcheeba at Enmore Theatre. No doubt, their conversations went something like this: “I remember listening to the Big Calm album in my room at Uni!”, “Me too! It reminds me of my first love, job, heartbreak, trip…
There are pop tours that feel like victory laps – and then there are the ones that feel like reclamations. On the opening night of her Australian Tits Out Tour in Brisbane, Kesha’s return to the stage felt firmly like the latter: messy in places, minimal in production, emotionally raw – and undeniably hers. The…
