Live Reviews

On Wednesday night, award-winning singer/songwriter James Bay achieved a feat new musicians touring Australia all aim to accomplish, selling out the iconic Metro Theatre. The Sydney venue was packed to capacity as a rowdy Australian crowd waited impatiently for James Bay to join his keyboardist/guitarist, bass player, and drummer on stage. The spindly artist took…

Kitty Daisy & Lewis captured by Carl Dziunka. Perth, being the most isolated capital city tends to find itself playing host to a lot touring bands playing their final shows of any given tour; especially if they’re in the country for Splendour. This can generally lead to some pretty interesting shows, in some cases the…

Photo Credit: Stuart Sevastos. Thursday evening saw Death Cab for Cutie play the final show of their Australian tour, their first since 2012, at Perth’s Metro City. An event that saw certain OC memes flood social media in the days and weeks running up to the gig. Bit of a big disclosure right from the…

Photo Credit: Stuart Sevastos It had been 18 years between visits for Blur when they played Perth Arena on Thursday night, or as frontman Damon Albarn aptly put it, “It’s been a while… A generation”. I was mulling this over at the gig and I realised that the last time Blur played Perth in 1997,…

When it’s Splendour In The Grass time of the year we’re often graced with phenomenal sideshows. Or in this case bonus promotional super secret gigs put on by the awesome Channel [v]. And this one was no exception, the dreamy Florence + The Machine were to perform a short set for us at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, right…

Coming all the way from Stockholm, Sweden, openers Urban Cone brought a delightful set that came by surprise. With influences coming from both Two Door Cinema Club and Satellite Stories, the band brought out an infectious set list that was all-too-short-lived. People around the room were tapping their feet to the rhythm of the tunes, connecting with the band’s music…

Every few years, a great rock band emerges from England and comes to our shores around Splendour In the Grass. This time, it’s Wolf Alice. Their no-nonsense set put music at the forefront and a lack of theatrics complements the dysphoria in many of their tracks. In the underground Oxford Art Factory, it felt like…

Cartoons and confetti on a weeknight sound like a child’s dream and Porter Robinson’s Worlds show at the Enmore Theatre was a dream of sorts. He moved through the new record almost seamlessly with striking visuals and festival-sized effects that made it feel like there was more than one young producer up on stage. Porter…

Pictured: Dropkick Murphys. Photo by Mark Horton. Though Friday marked the ninth day (of eleven) of the 21st RBC Bluesfest in Ottawa, it would also mark our last. And with a focus on bands more suited to a traditional Bluesfest – accompanied by the sort of rainy weather that our own Byron Bay Bluesfest is…

Photo: Run The Jewels. Captured by Mark Horton. North American Hip Hop was a dominating force on the 7th day of the RBC Bluesfest in Ottawa, though a last minute cancellation from De La Soul may have disappointed some (this writer included! They always put on a great show). US powerhouse Run The Jewels, Canadian…

It’s not often that a band will introduce a song by ordering the audience to dance more expressively, “not just this bopping up and down” as Phoebe from Alpine did. She momentarily turned the attention away from their colourful stage presence to the night as a whole. Despite joining fellow vocalist Lou in an uninhibited…

Thursday night, with the weather outside bleak and wintery and with drizzle pattering on the tin roof, Perth singer-songwriter Riley Pearce played an intimate show at the Blinco Street Café, the first of a series of shows across Perth with visiting Sydney muso Dylan Wright. In hindsight I don’t think I could have picked a…

Last night, The AU Sessions returned to The Hive Bar in Erskineville for our fifth instalment, featuring local artists Lincoln and Ed Wells. Both talented artists graced us with the accompaniment of a keyboard – while Ed also had a backing guitarist to round out his amazing sound. We may be a bit bias, but…

Hermitude seize the improvised element of a live rock show and run it through their own, and the effect is captivating. All I could think is why aren’t they performing at an overseas festival right now.* Sydney’s Enmore Theatre crowd was rowdy an hour before the duo even took to the stage, thanks to warm-up…

As we reported last night, the lights have come down for the 7th year at Vivid Festival Sydney, but not before one last show helped light up the Sydney Opera House – as its sails glowed with animated lights outside. Brooklyn quartet TV on the Radio held the honours, playing as a six piece in…

Photo Credit: Prudence Upton You wouldn’t think of the Sydney Opera House as a venue for an underground hip-hop party on a Sunday night, but that’s what Elefant Traks brought to the Studio as part of Vivid Festival this weekend. The Sydney-based record label presented a mix of live performances and DJ sets from old…

Photo Credit: Daniel Boud, Sydney Opera House (Used with Permission) Formerly known as Smog, and the brief touring and life companion of the incomparable Joanna Newsom, Bill Callahan is sitting on an impressive catalogue of music that spans some 25 years and 14 albums. This week, he’s touring Australia for the first time in some…

Image Credit: Daniel Boud It’s been reminded to me quite a few times – by the band and others – that I was the first person to ever publish written work about a group formerly known as The Preachers. It’s not something I bring up now because I feel I’m entitled to take some glory…

In one of Sydney’s few remaining small live music pubs on an unseasonably warm Autumn evening, some local talent come out to perform their tunes to a small but appreciative crowd. It’s an eclectic little mix of artists, from a singer-songwriter with some Bob Dylan tendencies, to an indie pop rock outfit and then our…

Photo: Daniel Boud It’s the hardest part of being an artist – letting go of your work – and Sufjan Stevens lets go all the way. In the first of his performances for Vivid 2015, he transformed the Concert Hall into a mesmerising montage of his life’s narrative. First thought when the lights came on…

Pictured: Klo Sunday in London saw the return of The Aussie BBQ – the live initiative of our music export body Sounds Australia. Hundreds of music fans – both locals and expats – came out for the event which saw over twenty Australian artists performing on two stages over ten hours at the Hoxton Bar…

Last week, the tour celebrating the 80th Anniversary of the legendary Count Basie Orchestra reached Perth and the Perth Concert Hall. Now under the leadership of Scotty Barnhart, the 18-piece orchestra played two, hour-long sets to an appreciative and attentive audience of young and old. Now I wouldn’t consider myself a connoisseur of jazz music,…

Saturday marked the third and final day of the 10th annual The Great Escape Festival in Brighton, England. Larry Heath was on ground at the event to discover new talent and witness some of Australia’s finest bands in a unique setting. It is with this in mind that the day started at The Aussie BBQ,…

This year, an epic 35 year run in music is coming to its inevitable end, with Mötley Crüe making their last ever stop in Sydney at the Allphones Arena. The glam four-piece was accompanied by legend in his own right, Alice Cooper. There are few other ways to describe Cooper’s opening act as aptly as…

On Friday night in Brighton, England, dozens – if not hundreds – of bands from the UK and around the world played across dozens of venues around the city for the second day of The Great Escape 2015. Our highlights from the day kicked off early with Plymouth singer/songwriter Jamie Lawson performing an intimate set…

Curious Cartel is a relatively new film experience, and on Saturday I got to see what all the fuss was about surrounding their new event Popcorn Therapy. Here’s the jist of Popcorn Therapy – a secret screening of a secret film is held somewhere in a secret location within Sydney… secretly. You know nothing of the…

As soon as Peace took to the stage in Sydney’s underground Oxford Art Factory, the space took off with an intensity of sound that made it seem like an outdoor festival. I saw Peace play the same venue two years ago and their confidence levels are now even higher, it felt like a seasoned rock…

Backstreet’s back and these five men, well grown from boys, are very much here to put on a show for the largely female 25 to 40 year olds dominating the audience tonight. AJ Maclean, Howie Dorough (aka Howie D), Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell’s collective appeal has hardly waned in 20 years it seems. Appearing silhouetted red on the…

Friday night, Sydney’s iconic Metro Theatre was graced for the first time by Melbourne/Sydney rockers, The Delta Riggs, who were joined by openers, Food Court and Harts, and I was lucky enough to catch it all live. As a person with a need for immediate gratification and a “skip to the main event” personality, admittedly…

The cars were packed, the cow onesies dusted off and the fast food outlet lines were long – Groovin The Moo had arrived. We’d all spent the day in wait, enviously scrolling past the Oakbank highlights flooding our newsfeed, planning out our timetables like tactical masterminds. In true WA form the sun was out for…