Live Reviews

Here at AU review HQ, one Australian band you’ll often hear me rave about are incredible Sydney quartet The Jezabels. They’re just about to embark on a national tour with Tegan & Sara – a band who have a history of taking bands away from us (An Horse). So I beg of you, T&S, please…

On the final day of Bluesfest,you can’t help but feel a combination of sadness and relief. By the fifth day, Bluesfest has become a way of life, something you almost couldn’t imagine being without. But by the fifth day, your body and feet aren’t in agreement on the topic. You’re lucky to get 6 hours…

Growing up, there are several bands who I can distinctly remember singing along to in the back of my parent’s car. One of these bands was Supertramp. So let me be quite blunt here: Roger Hodgson, formerly of said band, was the reason I returned to Byron Bay for the 2010 Bluesfest… and while he…

“Who on earth is that band rocking the socks off the main stage?” I thought to myself as I entered the Bluesfest showgrounds for my third day. “Led Zeppelin? The Mars Volta?” Whoever it was, they sounded absolutely incredible. I would later find out they were Carney, from Los Angeles – one of the surprise…

As I headed into the festival grounds on Friday, I couldn’t help but feel a great deal of excitement as the sun beamed down on me. Today was a ridiculously fantastic line-up. Entering the gates, Old Man River could be heard opening on the main stage – the familiar “Sunshine” wafting through the air, to…

Oh Hark, The Sun Approaches! The Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival (aka Bluesfest) and sun are not two things that necessarily come hand-in-hand – think more along the lines of rain and mud. Like any good festival, really. But this year Mother Nature gave attendants a bit of a treat – amazingly beautiful weather,…

This year saw the West Coast Blues and Roots move to a new home, this move was billed as a move to make the festival more comfortable and to make use of a bigger space to entice a greater audience. Unfortunately the opposite occurred; parts of the festival were incredibly cramped, with bottlenecks turning up…

When I started my final night adventure, there was only one band on my mind: She & Him – the quirky duo that is Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward. They’d been playing all over town throughout SXSW, yet I kept missing their appearances. Well, tonight was my final chance, as they headlined Auditorium Shores –…

While the posters say the music goes until March 21st, it’s on the 20th that 90% of the music in Austin comes to an end, so with that in mind, welcome to my fourth and final day from Austin. SXSW really was something truly amazing – an event that’s quite hard to fathom – let…

As rumours were indeed correct, the UK three-piece and powerhouse that is Muse managed to fit a last minute SXSW appearance into their schedule – an hour long set at Stubbs – an outdoor venue which holds little more than 1,500 people. If that. I arrived during the encore break and found myself surprised when…

Heading next to the Cheapo’s record store for an interview, I caught a bit of Batusis, a tongue-and-cheek rock group who are quite the supergroup, featuring Sylvain Sylvain (New York Dolls) and Cheetah Chrome (Rocket From The Tombs/Dead Boys) they were a guaranteed good time. And with little more than 150 people watching the icons,…

Austin, Texas. Not a place most people outside of North America would attribute to being one of the world’s leading cultural meccas. Not a place I ever expected to visit. But sure enough, stuck in the middle of a state known the world over for is pro-war, pro-death penalty and pro-Bush stance, is a little…

As the afternoon moved along, I next checked out the Canadian Blast BBQ in Brush Park, catching the Montreal electro-hip-hop outfit Radio Radio. Singing in Acadian French, the trio were in town promoting their third LP Belmundo Regal. Their take on hip-hop is modern and inspired, and I found myself connecting with their music through…

At the Warp Records showcase at The Pheonix, I caught the end of Pivot (pictured above and below), their set jam packed with new material. Yes boys and girls, the Sydney/Perth via London three-piece are back, and you better believe they sound better than ever. They ended the night with “O Soundtrack to my Heart”…

I ended my first day at SXSW at Emo’s Main Stage, catching the end of the only hard rock band I’d have the chance to see at the festival – New Jersey’s Dillinger Escape Plan (pictured below). Those who know me will know that they’re not my sort of band, but I felt myself sucked…

It took a great deal of effort to get me out of my bed on my second day of SXSW. After heavy drinking, eating and almost 40 hours of no sleep, I had a good deal of catching up to do. You feel bad when you sleep in at SXSW – there’s always so much…

Next-door to Sounds of Spain, a 42 below sponsored New Zealand party was pumping along, and the one woman machine that is Bachelorette was enjoying the stage. Recently supporting Animal Collective on their Australian tour, I have had the opportunity to witness Annabel Alpers in action, and was wholly impressed in the encounter. As such,…

To have the opportunity to see a great like Ray Davies is not something that comes around too often – let alone in a room with a capacity of around 1,000 people, and supported by the great band The 88. So it was to this showcase I headed to half-way through The Soft Pack’s set…

Friday brought with it one of the craziest days in my role as a journalist. I took care of many of the interviews you’ll soon be reading and watching on the AU review. Thankfully, it also happened to be stunningly beautiful weather. I began the day sitting down with An Horse by the beautiful Austin river, as…

Nestled away in the hippest place in LA – Silverlake – is a little concert hall called The Echo, where on March 14th, 3 days before the start of SXSW, much of the Aussie contingency came together for the LA Aussie BBQ – 9 Hours. 1 Stage. 13 Bands. 10 Minute Changeovers. Now in its…

Future Music Festival. A day synonymous with fluro-wearing hipsters dancing off their drug intakes on a racecourse. But it turns out it’s a pretty fun day, too! Well, that’s once you actually get into the venue. By the time I arrived at Central, lined up for the bus to get to the venue, gotten to…

Very few bands enjoy the luxury of success from first international single – so much success, in fact, that they would find that first single, the still stellar “Take Me Out”, hit the top of the charts and even the number one spot on the Hottest 100. Some 6 years and 3 albums later, Franz…

Following on from many years of supporting local music from afar – showcasing Aussie bands to US audiences in conjunction with SXSW – the Aussie BBQ has made its local debut, first in Melbourne last week, and now, finally, in Sydney. It was an immediate pity that the show couldn’t have been on a non-work/school…

It’s a rare occasion to be greeted to legends of hip hop in one of the smaller clubs in town. Sure, it might happen overseas, but not so much in Australia. Thankfully, thanks to the launch of Bitch Beer at the Trademark Hotel, the rarity occurred, with Naughty By Nature hitting the stage to a…

As I entered ANZ Stadium on this hot summer afternoon with Wolfmother appearing in the breeze, I couldn’t help but feel giddy about the show I was about to witness. When it comes to the legends of Rock n’ Roll, there is none that Australians holds dearer to their hearts. All the while, they’re pretty much…

If there were ever an odd choice for the opening act at a Janes Addiction concert, I think Rolo Tomassi would have to take the crown. It was the sort of “screamo” that I really can’t stand. But the irony is that the music behind the screams was actually quite good. They were a talented…

Folk rock (with an extra injection of country flair) is certainly hot property in Australia. Mumford & Sons took out the Hottest 100, The Proclaimers just dominated Australia, touring alongside the B52s, Dropkick Murphys gain more fans by the day (“I’m Shipping Up to Boston” became an AFL song last year, strangely enough) and locally…

Not since Franz Ferdinand, have a band made such an impact with their first ever single, that they’ve stormed right to the top of the Hottest 100 – and now only Susan Boyle can keep them from the top of the ARIA charts! Yes indeed, the London based lads that are Mumford & Sons have…

Performing up to 150 shows annually, The Beach Boys remain one of the hardest working groups in show business – but tonight was the first time they’d ever played the Sydney Opera House – as they joked – “it may have taken us 50 years to play this beautiful venue – but it hasn’t even…

It’s been a few years since I last attended the Sydney Laneway festival. As impressive as the lineups always are, I’d been content with their sideshows, knowing the negative attributes of the original venue. Having to line up for the Basement, noise restrictions making hearing bands on the main stage difficult (already made much the…