Live Reviews

You know you’re getting older when the prospect of a punctual show beginning at 8:30pm sharp is actually as endearing as the artist themselves. I could be home by 11pm on a weeknight? Sign me up. Noel Gallagher returned to Adelaide last night with his band, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, for possibly the only Bluesfest…

Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys brought his California charm by way of a 38-song set list to the Sydney Opera House last night. The tour is to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the legendary album “Pet Sounds”, but could it still be a success without the rest of the full band and so many…

Easter weekend in Australia means Bluesfest, and for those of us down in Melbourne it means sideshows. So many sideshows. Personally, I was most keen for Cold War Kids‘ sold out 170 Russell venture off the back of their fifth LP Hold My Home and first ever chart topping single in “First”. Quite often I’m…

If you were to judge the success of a band solely on their name, it would be safe to say a Cold War Kids gig would probably be quite a drawn out, relatively uneventful experience. Luckily you tend to judge a band on their music and live capabilities, so in this case, Cold War Kids…

After a worrying spat of cancelled festivals – Soulfest, Echo Fest and Westfest – it would have been understandable for the majority to approach the inaugural Auckland City Limits with caution. The reputation of Austin City Limits, one of the biggest and most loved music festivals in the history of music festivals, may have been…

My ideal D’Angelo concert would be about four or five hours long; he would perform every single song he has ever recorded, all full versions, he would bring out Erykah Badu for their stunning cover of “Your Precious Love”, The Roots for the OG “Break You Off”, “The ‘Notic” and “Geto Heaven” with Common on…

Maybe I’m just a real music nerd but when I walk into a room, or in this case Sydney’s Metro Theatre, and see a full brass section, I know I’m going to be frothing later on in the night. Walking into the Metro and seeing the full stage set up of St. Paul & The…

Last night marked the very final night of Art vs. Science’s album tour for Off The Edge Of The Earth and Into Forever, Forever. As expected, the three-piecey really gave it all for their closing show, filling the stage and venue with energy, sweat and brighter-than-stars pyrotechnics. With around an hour and a half set…

The physical and emotional hits kept coming for the last two days of WOMADelaide 2016. The heat would not relent, and while watching Quarter Street send the crowd into a salsa frenzy on Monday, sweat accrued in places that it is not natural for sweat to accrue. Thankfully, the crowd didn’t mind. In fact, they…

A festival like WOMADelaide is not for the faint hearted. I suppose no festival is, really. But WOMADelaide is different. Other music festivals take a lot out of you physically, I was prepared for that. What I wasn’t ready for, was the rollercoaster of feels you get moving from soulful dirges into rocking blues into…

I’m ancient enough to have been around when Madonna‘s career was in its infancy.  I can clearly recall Molly Meldrum championing her on Countdown as a huge talent, and I have vivid memories of dancing around the bedroom with my cousins to “Holiday” and “Lucky Star”.  She has featured in my musical consciousness for almost…

Ibeyi kicked off their Australian tour on Friday night, with a performance at Perth’s Chevron Festival Gardens as part of the Perth International Arts Festival. The twin sisters, Lisa-Kainde and Naomi Diaz, gave the crowd a crash course in the Yoruba culture, beguiling and entrancing the gathered audience with their infectious enthusiasm and their soulful…

It’s been a minute or two since Adelaide fans have had an Art vs. Science show roll through town and to be brutally honest, I was a little worried about how it would fare when I arrived at The Gov on Friday night. KLP was a few minutes off emerging for her support set and the amount of…

Seeing a band like the great Sleater-Kinney at a venue as prestigious as the Sydney Opera House is something of a strange experiment; because when the band are at their best, they’re one who make you want to jump up and down, and throw yourself all around. This is something hard to do from a more conservative,…

Sydney electronic dance pop trio Art vs. Science hit up Perth as part of their ‘Off The Edge Of The Earth…’ tour on Saturday night with KLP in tow, returning to Capitol nightclub for a party of a night. Local Catlips appeared for a brief DJ set, packing out the background sound for doors open…

QPAC Concert Hall – seemingly as tall as it is long and with 1800 seats – is a bloody big venue and needs some big noises to make it feel full. It’s clear within seconds that Sydney’s Ngaiire, supporting Sufjan Stevens on this tour, is a singer who is more than up to the task. Diminutive…

Jóhann Jóhannsson wasn’t much of a talker on Monday night; maybe nobody gave him a microphone, but his music and compositions were exquisite. Performing as part of the Perth International Arts Festival, the Oscar nominated composer was accompanied on stage by the Adelaide based Zephyr Quartet, as over the course of seventy minutes he beguiled…

Ultra mellow singer-songwriter Fraser A. Gorman opened proceedings to a building Friday night crowd at The Corner Hotel in Melbourne’s Richmond. With a breezy blend of tunes, including a cover of Wilco’s “Passenger Side”, and some quirky, off-beat story telling (my favourite moment was a tale regarding the evil nature of children, just beating the…

I first met Ecca Vandal at BIGSOUND in 2014. I don’t quite remember the venue we were at, or what label/showcase night it was, but I remember having this girl introduced to me as being one to watch. “White Flag” was teetering on breaking through thanks to coverage on [V] and then once more blogs and radio…

The last thing anyone would have expected was Rob Thomas’ current Australian tour to be steeped in controversy. The man who came up in the 90’s as the voice of Tabitha’s Secret and Matchbox 20 falls into the category of inoffensive pop-rock that some may find inauthentic and fairly ordinary in the 2010’s – a…

For most people here, this isn’t the first time they’ve seen the enigma that is Sufjan Stevens; some – like myself – experienced his soul-crushing live show last year at the Sydney Opera House, others are seasoned veterans, having joined the Sufjan train many moons ago upon his release of highly acclaimed album Seven Swans. Regardless…

Melbourne turned on a perfect summer’s day as a sold out Laneway Festival crowd descended on the banks of the Maribyrnong River for what was nothing less than a spectacular day of music. With a lineup on show sporting the likes of Flume, CHVRCHES, and Purity Ring to name only a few, there was little…

Sydney may be locked out, but we continue to create some of the best music in the country, as proven by the three bands who took to the stage at the Newtown Social Club on Saturday night. The night celebrated the release of Cold Cold Heart, the debut EP from Gideon Bensen, a local artist who is best…

It is one thing to sell out your first headline gig down under and it’s another to play to a room where you have the crowd’s full, phone-free attention. Canadian duo Majical Cloudz brought their Laneway 2016 set to the intimate Newtown Social Club for what proved to be a reflection on sombre emotions dispersed…

A gloriously warm, sunny Melbourne evening saw a sold out crowd descend upon Melbourne Zoo for Birds of Tokyo‘s gig as part of the Zoo Twilights series. The Zoo Twilights run for two weeks, with all proceeds going towards fighting the extinction of the Eastern Barred Bandicoot. As the sun slowly made its way to…

In the country as a part of the touring St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival, Las Vegan Indie Dance Popper Shamir graced the stage of the Oxford Art Factory and rightly showed his Sydney fans a real good time. Opening up the balmy Thursday night was local artist Jess Kent. Having started the year with a debut…

Released mid last year, Vince Staples‘ double-album debut Summertime ‘06 was praised as a clever, vivid, and blunt entry into the long history of reality-rap coming out of L.A, fully delivering on the potential the 22 year old rapper had been showing across four mixtapes and one very well-received EP. That potential shifts well to…

Somehow I’ve managed to miss CHVRCHES every time they’ve come out to Australia, and as they tour with Laneway Festival, I finally found out what I’ve been missing out on. Selling out two weekday shows at The Forum in Melbourne is no mean feat, and if anyone were to deservingly do so, the Scottish trio…

Perched dangerously close to the edge of the stage, Battles‘ signature skyscraping cymbal lingered precariously over the crowd as the New York band’s fans eagerly awaited their long anticipated return to Sydney. Guitarist and bassist Dave Konopka emerged first, busy looping his effects on the ground, a guitar draped over his shoulder. There was a slow build as guitarist/keyboardist Ian Williams came on and then, finally,…

A large part of Purity Ring’s appeal has been their ability to create an atmosphere that is, on the whole, wildly different to any other pop act on the planet. In 2011, when their tracks “Ungirthed” and “Belispeak” first made the rounds on music blogs before piquing the interest of tastemaker Pitchfork, they wisely dubbed…