Last week, I managed to catch the Sound City Players perform what would be their second last show at the Jimmy Kimmel Show, in which I mentioned I was concerned its experience would soil the anticipated SXSW event. Let it be known that it did nothing of the sort. Opening the concert were The Meat…
Over the last 6 years at SXSW, infamous ‘celebrity blogger’ Perez Hilton has run a series of curated concerts on the last night of the festival called “One Night in Austin”. It’s now one of the biggest events of the week and an official SXSW party, attracting both conference attendees and the general public, with…
With Prince a no go, Justin Timberlake a pipe dream and an overload of fantastic rock and roll making up the vast majority of my SXSW Music experience (and how!), it wasn’t the obvious choice to go see The Smashing Pumpkins, either. I also wasn’t overly willing to stand through a pile of pop acts…
Closing out the NPR showcase on Wednesday night at Stubb’s in Austin, Texas, following highly acclaimed performances from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, amongst others, were none other than one of the most loved bands in Australia at the moment, Alt-J. Usually when a band plays the US versus in…
Performing one of their first concerts together since Billy Joe Armstrong’s infamous breakdown at the I Heart Radio concert in Las Vegas, and subsequent rehab stint, there was a solid anticipation from Green Day fans for Friday night’s concert at Austin City Limit’s Moody Theatre. As the room sung along to tracks like “Bohemian Rhapsody”…
It’s a rare treat to see and hear classic Rock bands playing a bunch of songs you thought you might never have the pleasure of witnessing live. There’s been a bit of that going around recently, and Friday night gave me the chance to indulge in some good old Texas Blues played by the bastions…
God bless the singlet-making industry, because it seemed the whole customer base was at The Future Music Festival this past weekend. An insane amount of arms and biceps were on display for everyone to see, and I wouldn’t be too surprised if any other strays from a muscle convention during the week popped on by….
Listening to live music in an air-conditioned space is a great way to spend a hot Sunday afternoon. Even better is when a veritable smorgasbord of up and coming talent is offered up for the auditory palate in a nurturing atmosphere such as the Sydney Songwriter’s Collective. Chelsea Gibson, with her almost neo-classical lilt was…
Ellie Goulding has made a fool of me. Her recent show at The Metro Theatre so exceeded my expectations that I’m actually embarrassed by how much I misjudged her. I had anticipated a rather laid-back night: a tender performance, lighthearted banter with the crowd, maybe some acoustic renditions of her music. What I got was…
New Yorker’s Fun. have a lot to live up to just in their name alone. If you’re going to blatantly deem yourselves an adjective with a full stop you better deliver the goods. The lads were once again gracing Sydney as part of the Future Music Festival circuit, and after graduating from the Metro were now promoted…
I never expected to have the privilege of seeing Garbage live. They were already on hiatus by the time my teenage self found her way to their section in the record store, so the idea of attending a show was only ever a daydream. Skip forward seven years to when it all changed. 2012 brought…
It was by pure coincidence that I found myself arriving in Los Angeles on the same day that Dave Grohl’s Sound City Players shut down part of Hollywood Blvd – a privilege normally reserved for a film shoot or the Oscars – to put on a massive, free concert for competition winners and those lucky…
I’ve been waiting to see The Tallest Man on Earth live for a while now. I missed out on tickets to his sold out show at the Rosemount Hotel on his last Australian tour, so on the news that he would be heading back down to Australia, and playing the Perth Festival I jumped at…
Considering all the maligned reports I had heard of Cat Power’s performances in the past, I wasn’t sure what to expect on this overcast Saturday in Sydney. Reflecting upon my appreciation for her recorded material, I went along regardless, with expectations at a high. Despite the scathing review this lack of fulfillment may have given…
Future Music Festival, we meet again. Although this year, it is on different turf, as I headed over from Adelaide to Perth to spend a hot summer day at Joondalup Arena due to scheduling conflicts I have with the Adelaide Festival, and my determination not to miss seeing both Bloc Party and The Stone Roses….
Lots of pretty young things started queuing up early to make their way into the Enmore Theatre tonight. London dance/pop songstress Rita Ora is currently hopping around our continent as part of the Future Music festival and this was her Sydney debut sideshow.
Tuesday night saw Cat Power stop in at the Perth Festival Gardens for the first of two shows. It was her second show of the tour in Australia, following a run of two shows in New Zealand. I can’t say it was the best performance I have seen from Chan Marshall, but was by no…
For a little while now I’ve found myself falling under the spell of the music coming out of New Orleans. So I jumped at the chance of seeing one of the cities renowned brass bands, The Soul Rebels, when they stopped off in Perth for the arts festival. Expectations were high and exceeded in a…
Last night, the legendary Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds kicked off the first of three nights at the iconic Sydney Opera House, accompanied by members of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra string section and a youth choir from Annandale. The resulting two hour performance was one of such high calibre that this run of shows…
There’s a lot more to Duff McKagan than being an ex-member of Guns and Roses, but I’m sure this status helps when promoting his solo projects. Nonetheless, his very own Loaded lives up to all expectations on record as well as live. In fact, in some ways they outshine the past with an uncompromising sound…
This was big. This was bigger than big. This was without question the biggest rock music festival ever to hit Australia. Over 70,000 rock fans made way to Sydney Olympic Park on Sunday for the annual Soundwave Festival, this year headlined by Metallica and featuring a lineup as impressive as any one day event you’d…
Saturday night saw the Basement do away with its usual setup of catering to the forty plus “dinner and show” audience, and enter into “dance-floor mode” to provide ample room for the predominantly younger audience who had braved the ferocious weather to attend a sold-out performance by New Orleans’ Tuba Skinny. Ragtime, Dixieland, Jazz, and…
Every now and then I like to step outside of my comfort zone when it comes to gigs. The Raah Project’s show at the Perth Festival on Friday proved to me that this can only lead to good things. Theirs was a performance that was entertaining and at times nothing short of exquisite, a captivating…
Draped in light and sounding solid for their first Australian gigs in five years, The Morning After Girls returned to Sydney in fine form, supporting the legendary My Bloody Valentine. The set included the phenomenal “The General Public”, the now classic “Shadows Evolve” and “Part of your Nature”. It was a loud set, fitting for…
Playing to a (fairly adoring) home crowd, Darwin’s Green Stone Garden are back on stage for their first gig of the year, fresh from the studio and channeling a new sound. Most importantly, they come armed with some much anticipated new songs, including ‘The Island’, pegged to be the single when the EP North is…
Friday night saw former Fleet Foxes drummer J Tillman take to the stage of the Perth International Arts Festival, for the first show of his latest Australian tour as Father John Misty. Opening proceedings were local Alt. Country band Ruby Boots, fresh from a month long tour over East in support of new single “Kellie…
When Leonard Cohen launched his revival concerts earlier in the decade, his stature ensured he would tour the world with the finest musicians in the industry; the sort who have instruments named after them. But he’s far from the only legend to accumulate such talent. Since the mid-90s, The Beatles’ drummer Ringo Starr has been…
The St Kilda Festival is a relevant piece of history as well as merriment and pleasure. Each year sparkles newsworthy debates that it will end but these scares disappear in a blink of an eye and any wonder, the festival attracted 400,000 revelers in 2013 alone. Bottle shops no doubt do a roaring trade (although…
Well that’s it. The last Laneway Festival of the year has come and gone. The festivals run of shows came to a sweltering sold-out climax at Perth’s Cultural precinct. Looking at the line-up (Of Monsters and Men & The Reubens in particular) it’s hardly surprising that Perth along with a number of the other dates…
