The inimitable St. Vincent helped bring the annual Vivid Festival to an end in Sydney last night, with a special one-off solo show that felt as much an art installation as it did a rock concert. Curtains moved and fell, as though the chronological trip through her catalogue was emblematic of how she’s shown us…
Melbourne’s tram network was doing its job for once and I found myself blazing along Swanston Street. So when I arrived at St Michael’s with an amazing amount of time to kill, I thought I could collect thoughts, do a bit of street press reading, and maybe mull about discovering some wonderful church architecture. But…
Over the past two years, Sydney act Brother Brad have been simmering away, slowly but surely concocting the tracks that, when pieced together, make up their debut EP, Get Around. Celebrating the release of the EP, the now six-piece band played to a full Lansdowne crowd, in front of friends, family and a loyal local…
Running a little late on this rainy night, I tried not get the water on my jacket rubbing up amongst other punters who were for whatever reason all close talkers tonight. Stunning voices on stage within a pub/bar setting has been slightly unusual lately. It’s either gravely voices or a dude behind a computer/decks bobbing…
There’s a certain thrill about catching an act live just before their big breakthrough moment. Maybe it’s a little bit of hype has been building away with rumours about their live show, or you get lucky enough to catch them supporting a bigger act and blow you away in the process. This wasn’t one of…
There’s something slightly bittersweet and admittedly selfish about seeing an artist you already know is going to be embraced by the rest of the world to the point where the intimate venue show would soon be a thing of the past. No doubt this what many of us in Melbourne were thinking when we saw Marlon Williams…
Brisbane venue The Foundry was pitch-black. The only light inside was an exit sign above a door and the red glow of the stage lights. Eyes were fixed to the stage, where Tropical Fuck Storm unleashed chaos upon spectators on the sold-out first stop of their tour in support of their debut album, A Laughing Death…
US quartet Bully are no strangers to Australian shores – though it’s been a while between drinks, over two years in fact since we welcomed them to AU HQ. But hot off the heels of their sophomore record Losing, the Nashville group are currently touring the UK and will be back in Australia for Splendour…
I have two vivid memories of The Killers. The first was when I was twelve years old, and my brother and I were out shopping with mum during the school holidays. We both decided we wanted to buy a CD. We settled on Jack Johnson’s In Between Dreams and The Killers’ Hot Fuss. Me, being…
A band like The Whitlams are a band you can always depend upon to provide you with a good time. The fact that the Sydney band have enjoyed consistent successes and sold out shows on the road with a national tour almost nationally has proven that theirs is a songbook boasting not only longevity, but quality…
The Cribs have been described as the biggest cult band in the UK. 10 years ago at the peak of their popularity it would have been hard to argue, as tunes from the excellent Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever dominated the airwaves. That popularity has waned slightly in the past few years to the point…
I’ve only seen The Killers once before, probably the last time the band toured extensively in Australia – that Big Day Out tour off the back of Battle Born. A lot of fans pooh poohed that album but I embraced the Triple M-ready likes of “Runaways” and “The Way It Was” just as much as I attached…
I first became familiar with Portugal. The Man almost ten years ago, off the back of their fourth LP The Satanic Satanist. Since then, I’ve seen them grow into one of the most in-demand bands in the world. Their latest album, Woodstock – their eighth and first in four years – has easily been their…
It’s hard to believe that it’s been over twenty years since the release of the debut LP from Welsh rockers Stereophonics, Word Gets Around. With hit singles like “Local Boy in the Photograph” and “A Thousand Trees”, the album set the stage for the group to eventually become one of the UK’s biggest act; with almost all…
On Friday night, the art space otherwise known as Oxford Arts Factory in Sydney was busy and buzzing for the Mess album launch tour for The Hard Aches, the two-piece from Adelaide. Forgetting how bad parking was in Darlinghurst but playing it off as being fashionably late, I dragged my two friends along to the…
If you were in dire need of some good vibes on April 19th, The Corner Hotel had an abundance of them. I’m unsure how vibes are measured or if there is even a limit to vibes per square metre, but seriously, it was the epicentre. If we start with the local hip-hop, beat and groove-heavy…
It’s been about six months since Alex Lahey headlined a hometown show and she was apparently missed. Two sold-out nights in a row at 170 Russell confirms that. Enjoying the release of her debut record from last year, I Love You Like A Brother; the crowds had more than enough time to become familiar with…
The Spotted Mallard on Sydney Road was an interesting choice of venue, I initially thought, when Kele Okereke announced a special acoustic show in support of his new album Fatherland. Sitting in the venue on Saturday night, though, it made sense. The shows that had brought Kele to The Old Museum in Brisbane and The Basement in…
It’s been a long five years between drinks for iconic American rockers Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – both in terms of the album releases and visits to our shores. Their tour this month in Australia comes just weeks after the release of their brilliant LP Wrong Creatures, with songs like “All Rise” amongst the best…
The thing puts you off-guard seeing Big Boi isn’t his skill as a lyricist, or the sheer breadth of hit songs are at his disposal. It’s seeing how effortless he makes it all look. 20 years into the game anything could have happened, he easily could have lost interest in the whole hustle of the touring and…
Playing shows six years after breaking up and seven years after releasing an album can be a dangerous move. It can easily be written off as a quick cash grab especially when coming back to play songs almost purely off their biggest records. When you throw a band like Thursday in there in it could…
It’s always going to be tough for a new festival to break into a seemingly saturated market and also have a line up that would rival just about any other festival across the world. Thankfully, the team behind Sydney City Limits know a thing or two about booking, curating and planning a successful festival in…
There’s definitely something enigmatic about The National. They’ve been a band for twenty years, are all seemingly grounded family men, and manage to always find themselves in the upper echelons of festival bills. And yet, they don’t rest on their laurels. They’ve just won their first Grammy, and have returned to the Sydney Opera House…
When you’ve got a performer such as Ben Folds seated at a glistening piano overlooking a sea of thousands, eagerly tuned in to every word? You know you’re in for a great night. The first of two shows at the Melbourne Zoo for Twilights series 2018, Friday night with Ben Folds was a night for nostalgia,…
The charmer of smoking viceroy cigarettes and cooking up something good, Mac DeMarco, settled down on Australian soil for yet another rendition of simplistic love songs and a boogie. After the release of his fourth studio album “This Old Dog”, featuring hit tracks “On The Level” and “My Old Man”, the 27 year old set out on tour…
Melbourne Zoo Twilights has already kicked the 2018 series into high gear, recently hosting The Cat Empire, Sunnyboys and Painters And Dockers. On Friday, the offerings continued with Ali Barter and The Preatures joining the stage to help punters start their weekend the way all weekends should be started- dancing in a park, with a…
If there was anything to take away from The Internet’s Friday night show, it was that Sydney loves The Internet and it’s reciprocal; and it isn’t just because Syd’s name is in the city’s name. The reception was nothing short of euphoric when Syd took the stage to join her bandmates. Every hand across the…
With the recent 15th Anniversary of Get Rich or Die Tryin, it was perfect timing for once-dominant rapper 50 Cent to hit Australia with a brief but welcome tour. Yes, musically 50 is nowhere near as relevant as he used to be, but even non-fans would agree that Curtis Jackson is one of the most indelible…
On “The Strangest Thing” The War on Drugs‘ Adam Granduciel sings, “Am I just living between/ The beauty and the pain” – it’s a strong statement of the War on Drugs and their chief songwriter’s appeal. The six-member band has an innate ability to convey emotion and atmosphere. Lonesome guitars swirl around a steady beat conveying…
Anderson .Paak and The Free Nationals would have been one of the only drawcards of this year’s Laneway Festival for me, with Malibu easily coming in as one of my favourite records of 2016. Thankfully, I was one of the few (well, one of almost 2000) who managed to secure a spot inside Melbourne’s 170 Russell…
