This week the Australian leg of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Old Ideas World Tour’ arrived in Western Australia with a packed show at the Perth Arena. At 79 years old, Cohen doesn’t look to be slowing down any, treating his Perth fans to a three-hour set, that featured, a good twenty songs and not one, but two…
Electronic music isn’t what it used to be – where there once were clear lines between house, dance and rock, Australian music has openly taken on all technology so that there is a fusion of the best parts of each genre. Melbourne’s World’s End Press and Sydney trio Movement take on big sound for a…
A little more than a month after Neutral Milk Hotel kicked off their reunion tour – their first run of shows since 1998* – in Baltimore, Maryland, the iconic group have made the journey down to Australia for their first ever shows in our country. To be considered so early in this reunion cycle, or…
For a band that has never headlined a tour in Australia to date, the guys from OneRepublic managed to nearly sell out the enormous Event Centre room and bring a thunderous show to the crowd filled with epic pop rock tunes and flashy production.
The last day is here. I write this in a state of both sadness and joy, because I have seen so many great bands perform in front of pretty enthusiastic crowds. NYC really likes to cheer and woo for their entertainment, and it’ll be something I really miss from this city. Then again, I’m sitting…
The final night of CMJ at the Music Hall of Williamsburg opened with the comedy of Kate Berlant – whose reasonable clever shtick involved making a series of confessions and observations in lieu of ever playing a song, while a guitar was draped around her shoulders – ultimately unused. An odd choice for an opening…
With the evening upon us, it was time for Culture Collide to bring out the big guns on what was the final night of the three day event. King Kahn and his seven piece troupe The Shrines – featuring no less than three members making up a brass section – were the first band to…
Thursday night saw Canadian singer-songwriter Tim Chaisson, who is currently touring the country with Diesel in support of their joint EP Last Shower, stop in at Perth’s Ellington Jazz Club for an intimate solo performance. Unfortunately, being mid-week, the night never really threatened to sell out. Even by the time Chaisson took to the stage…
Though there wasn’t a Saturday afternoon block party to close things out this year, they retained an outdoor stage and made that the centrepiece of a day of fantastic music and comedy over eight stages. I kicked off the final day of Culture Collide with Japanese solo artist SiMoN, who accompanied lyrics in his native…
Sometimes you forget that Ricky Martin has been a stalwart of the entertainment industry for the last near 30 years. He’s an accomplished and successful singer, songwriter, actor and even an author. Tonight he’d be showcasing his greatest hits which have put him on the map as an entertainer and I don’t think there was a single…
It was a day of redemption today. I am not going to stay up any later than 1am. I am not going to fall asleep during gigs. I’m not going to be that insane bottle of a person who lies in the corner writing tour diaries in the press centre corner for two hours fixing…
Let’s get to the serious stuff first though. The conference part of the CMJ conference starts us off – a cavalcade of talking heads and absorbing insight talking about a wide array of issues plaguing the music industry today. The first of these panels was “Music Journalism in the New World”. We at The AU…
Considering that your dear writer was up until 1:25am last night, it would be good to assume that grogginess would take over on day two. But never fear! There is a feeling of invincibility in me at the moment. But it should be noted that there should be emphasis on the words ‘at the moment’….
Staying up until 3am last night broke the record of staying up until 1am on the 16th October for me. The range of places that I went to varied insanely – too much probably. Going from living-room sized tiled rooms underneath restaurants to larger rooms that could fill hundreds of people was an experience and…
Having enjoyed the five bands making themselves known on the outdoor World Stage, it was time to head indoors. First up, I caught Perth’s The Novocaines at the festival’s newest venue addition, the Lot 1 Cafe. The band are proving themselves louder and harder than ever, focusing on strengthening their sound in a big way…
The second night of festivities at Culture Collide proved to be a massive one, with the event introducing an outdoor stage as part of the weekend showcases. This in turn replaced what used to be a free all-day “block party” for the general public. The result is something more intimate, though capturing the great vibes…
Following another day of insightful panels – covering everything from aligning brands with bands to the spirits of the world – the music of day two of Filter Magazine’s Cuture Collide festival kicked off with a couple of regional focused parties. First up were the Swedes, who brought with them some traditional Swedish herring and…
Tonight would be a night of indie-folk music galore, but it would also be a night of thousands of screaming teenage fangirls. I was bracing myself to work out which of the two would be more overwhelming.
Following on from the late afternoon parties, the rest of the day saw me jump from venue to venue trying to catch as much music as possible. First up, I caught the end of Wooster, a solid rock band from Santa Cruz, California. That’s about six hours North of LA for those playing at home….
And in the blink of an eye, Austin City Limits came to an end for yours truly for another year. But not before one more day of some incredible music, with Atoms for Peace (pictured) and Lionel Richie closing out the festival. Things kicked off with Vancouver based four piece Bear Mountain. They’re a band…
For those unfamiliar with Filter Magazine’s Culture Collide Festival, now in its fourth year (and third year of exclusive Australian coverage on the AU) the best way to describe it is as a smaller version of BIGSOUND. Two days of talks as part of the Creative Summit, introduced last year, and three days of live…
Having moved past the jetlag that delayed my first day of the annual Austin City Limits event, I kicked into the festival grounds early to catch Parquet Courts opening the second day, well ahead of the anticipated headline performances from The Cure and Kings of Leon. Parquet Courts deliver interesting fast paced, high energy, punk…
Having missed them at Austin City Limits over the weekend, and witnessing way too little of their set at Splendour earlier this year, I was pretty excited to get the chance to see Irish up-and-comers Little Green Cars at the intimate Echo in Silverlake, California. In what is the band’s second US jaunt since they…
Following their four WAM nominations, Perth’s Rainy Day Women returned home from a national tour to launch their latest single “Ain’t It Time?” at Perth’s Amplifier Bar. Completing the bill were fellow locals PUMBA, Our Man In Berlin and 44th Sunset. Opening proceedings were PUMBA, playing only their second ever show. Not that you would…
Papa vs Pretty have been smashing live music venues around the country with their exceptional performances since 2006. Despite the fact that they’ve been knuckling down on recording with few live appearances if any recently, they’ve managed to come out of their cave to launch their new single ‘My Life Is Yours’ from their forthcoming second…
It’s not always easy to make electronic music an enjoyable live experience. Once you get to the stage of Daft Punk, you can make up for a robotic stage presence with the greatest pyramid of production you’ve ever seen. If you’re Flume, you get away with it just because the music is so, ridiculously fucking…
Between these two loud live acts, Oxford Art seemed such a tight space on Saturday night. Loud in their sound but also with a high performance energy that seemed almost too intense to watch from the bar. Brisbane band Millions kicked off the show, keeping fairly quiet in between songs but gathering a big crowd….
How many rock stars can you say you know? How many rock stars do you think really tell you the truth? I can think of one: Amanda Palmer. Now I am not claiming that me and Ms Palmer hang out at the pub, nor that I have read her diary – but when I listen…
Amanda Palmer has an intensity that colours her musical career as much as it does the relationship with her fans. We love it. Standing outside the Enmore Theatre, it was clear we’d been touched by it too: the floor length black coats, shirts from last tour, lacy corsets, and various piercings earn us weird looks…
High expectations come with buying a ticket to a live DJ set. Unlike a live band, they can’t often interrupt the music to speak to the crowd or ask for an encore. But that’s how Alison Wonderland has gathered a band of followers – with a live show that interweaves top songs of the moment…
