Live Reviews

It dropped to 4 degrees both nights of Snowtunes 2018, so what did the organisers do to combat the crowd getting frozen? They assembled a lineup that would be sure to have the audience dancing, rocking and partying for hours on end. With pyro and Co2 cannons for nearly every set and boasting the likes…

Flight Facilities’ Wednesday night set in Melbourne was a mammoth accomplishment of lighting and sound. The duo, Hugo Gruzman and James Lyell, adorned in their now famous flight outfits, encouraged the crowd to join in on one of the biggest parties a mid-week show the city has ever seen. Accompanying them on the opening night of their…

Beginning the evening strongly, Essie Holt had a large role to play in building the atmosphere for the rest of the night, with the Melbourne producer perfectly setting the scene and helping to harness the rooms burgeoning energy with her dance-pop anthems. Her earlier singles “Magnetise” and “Underwater” held their own through her set, and…

Expo Liaison was billed as Client Liaison‘s three date-festival in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane that would follow the flair, colour and spirit of the 1980’s. Headlined by Client Liaison, the festival featured special guest John Farnham, DJ John Howard, Luke Million featuring KLP, No Zu, Alice Ivy, Total Giovanni, Ken Davis, Kon and Rainbow Chan….

The sun was beaming down on the tens of thousands of punters in Glasgow this weekend who descended on the city’s Bellahouston Park park to see North Wales outfit Catfish and the Bottlemen and guests, as part of the city’s Glasgow Summer Sessions series. With the likes of Kings of Leon and Kendrick Lamar with…

2018’s edition of Lollapalooza was very different from the ones that have come before. It was very much a music festival for the days we are in now. The lineup propped itself as a perfect capsule of what music is today with the biggest names in pop music, EDM and the best rock bands of…

Lollapalooza ended just as hot as it began in terms of temperature and excitement. Jack White led the bill competing against three very different options in Odesza, Excision and Playboy Carti. Threats of inclement weather forced some of the acts to begin earlier, but Jack White had his crowd ask God to hold off and…

“Someone passed me a note so damn right I’m going to read it, and if anyone else wants to pass me a note then I’ll read that fucking note too”, shouted Snow Patrol’s affable frontman Gary Lightbody after reading aloud what appeared to be an invitation to a comedy gig in Sydney. A fan had…

“Someone passed me a note so damn right I’m going to read it, and if anyone else wants to pass me a note then I’ll read that fucking note too”, shouted Snow Patrol‘s affable frontman Gary Lightbody after reading aloud what appeared to be an invitation to a comedy gig in Sydney. A fan had…

We got the chance to experience Taylor Swift in Toronto this weekend, and in anticipation of her imminent tour of Australia, we’re counting down the 5 reasons its a show not to be missed… and a look at the songs she played along the way. Indoor fireworks!! Selling out Toronto’s Rogers Centre two nights in…

Drake’s “Hold On We’re Going Home” remains the megastar’s finest pop moment to date, which is saying a lot considering the quality of chart-toppers like “Take Care” and “One Dance”. The smoothed synthpop dipped in retro swagger bought out a side of the forever record-breaking rapper-singer that we’ve never heard before, and have never heard…

“Our gear didn’t get here until 8:30 tonight,” Lauren Mayberry – member of Scottish synth-pop band Chvrches – said during their Splendour sideshow in Melbourne this Monday night. “I’m just going to talk less and we’ll cram in as much as we can before the curfew.” Mayberry stalked, ran, skipped and twirled from one side…

Clad in black with dark lipstick, a curly bob of black hair on lead sing Heather Baron-Gracie. Ian Curtis baggy trousers and plain black shirt on guitarist Hugo Silvani, jet black EP and single covers, morose The Cure inspired lyrics about broken hearts; but bright glistening pop. Pale Waves crave to combine the two distinct…

I’m going to let you in on a little secret here: I was quite late jumping on the City Calm Down train. I’ll happily admit that. My first real exposure to the band was at Splendour In The Grass a few years back, when they covered David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”. At the time, I was…

Irrespective of their time away from the musical spotlight, The Presets will always have a place in the hearts of the Australian dance music community. And despite the best efforts of some members of the crowd to dampen the nights of others in attendance, the two-piece definitely crushed the Sydney leg of their Hi-Viz album…

Friday night served as the perfect backdrop for The Presets’ travelling house party Adelaide visit to put their tools down for a night of sweaty beats and purposeful party anthems. Preceding Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes’ on-stage antics was the eclectic synth-pop duo Kult Kyss, swaying through their set highlighted by a great cover of…

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…