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Ian writes,
CANBERRA COMEDY FESTIVAL: SUBMISSIONS NOW SOUGHT
Joan can now finally donate her body to Tupperware, as was her want. # 4 4 8 S e p 1 0 Fax: (02) 6257 4361 Mail: PO Box 713 Civic Square, ACT 2608 Publisher Scott Layne Allan Sko General Manager Allan Sko T: (02) 6257 4360 E: advertising@bmamag.com
Editor Tatjana Clancy T: (02) 6257 4456 E: editorial@bmamag.com
Accounts Manager Julie Ruttle T: (02) 6247 4816 E: accounts@bmamag.com
Sub-Editor & Social Media Manager Chiara Grassia
Some interstate muppets think that Canberra is a ‘funny’ place for all the wrong reasons. Sure, incorrect indication at roundabouts is laugh-tillyou-cry material but after the success of 2013’s inaugural Canberra Comedy Festival we may now have an alternate reason. In 2015, the CCF will return with a world class line-up of comedians featuring over 50 shows over one chuckleinducing week. Applications are now being sought from artists from all around Australia who wish to present a show as a part of the 2015 festival. Applications are open to everybody and will remain open until the 19th September 2014. For more information, and to submit an application, visit: canberracomedyfestival.com. au. I’m currently workshopping a stand-up show that offers a visual interpretation of all my favourite You Pissed Me Off submissions. You wish you’d thought of that.
WINNERS CORNER: FUNNY SHIT YOU GUYS SAY Any excuse to pop out a bad joke is always welcome in the BMA Mag office. Our recent Matt Okine giveaway yielded the following groaners. Tom offered up this cracker: What type of bees make milk? Boobies.
How do you make a tissue dance ? You put a little boogie in it. While Declan, the thinking woman’s crumpet, had this: What did the farmer say when he lost his tracker? “Where’s my tracker.” Our Italian Film Festival ticket comp had us asking you about your favourite barista (remember when that wasn’t yet a thing?) and what makes he or she so goddamn great. Alex said - “My favourite barista won the international Barista championships a few years ago, has a cafe with no name on the outside of the premises - cause he doesn’t want to attract riff-raff :-) And bitches about customers he doesn’t like the moment they walk out the door. He’s kinda like Dylan Moran in Black Books!“ Cian also loved the no nonsense approach of her guy - “My fave barista refuses to use soy milk or low fat milk in coffee, I just love the expression on his face when someone asks for a skinny soy latte and the answer that they get given”. Claire is a little keen on hers “My favourite barista has blond hair, a small tattoo of the chinese symbol for 7 just at the nape of his neck wears typical hipster glasses, plaid shirt and a 5 day stubble. Oh hang on, were you expecting me to talk about coffee and not the barista I stalk on a daily basis cause I fancy him?”
Couples don’t talk it’s all about the he-said she-said... You might remember the recent production Blokes Don’t Talk, a theatre piece which featured reserved men who don’t open up. To stay with the theme (I have a feeling monosyllabic teenagers will be the next subject) Writer Judith Peterson has teamed up with Blokes Don’t Talk’s Vince Melton to present a thought-provoking look at relationships. The show consists of five plays with different slants on how the audience can see how a relationship is “wrong” and has affected the person in some way. Vince observes human behaviour, demonstrated in his two plays You Are So Beautiful and I’m Sorry that show men struggling to find their way through not understanding what to do in their relationship. Judith has written three of the plays and gives us an in-depth look at the feelings experienced by the people involved. A Moment talks of a couple that are walking down two different paths - both not happy. Regrets is about that relationship we all look at and think “if only” and The Chocolate Game focuses on four women talking about how their relationships have affected them. Couples Don’t Talk is running at Smith’s Alternative on the 26th/27th September and the 3rd/4th October at 7pm. Tickets can be purchased online at trybooking.com/96483 for $15. A percentage of ticket sales will be given to support Menslink.
Graphic Design Chris Halloran Film Editor Melissa Wellham NEXT ISSUE 449 OUT Sep 24 EDITORIAL DEADLINE Sep 20 ADVERTISING DEADLINE Sep 21
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That girl over there has a nicer scarf on
Published by Radar Media Pty Ltd ABN 76 097 301 730 BMA Magazine is independently owned and published. Opinions expressed in BMA Magazine are not necessarily those of the editor, publisher or staff.
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FROM THE BOSSMAN I was in the office the other day and some idiot uttered the tired old phrase, “Time to get our ducks in a row.” This was not on. Only those severely lacking in a broad vocabulary and solid communication skills rely on such crappy clichés. They are the last bastion of the dim-witted. The vocal pugilist stick of the moron. Then I realised, to my horror, that I was the one who had said it. I’m ashamed to say this wasn’t the first time a hackneyed idiom had spewed forth from my mouth. This troubling affliction which I refer to as “dumbface” - has increased in frequency with age. On more occasions than I care to mention I find myself watching perplexed and helpless as worn-out expressions were fired into a crowded room against my better judgement. A sentence will start innocently enough - perhaps a stirring speech to rally the troops at the start of a working day - and before I know it a line about the linear formation of breadeating aquatic bird life somehow masquerading as a metaphor for orderliness is escaping from my lips. I hate that phrase. Upper-middle-management suits spout that phrase. So why, suddenly, does my brain decide, ‘Hey, this talk is going pretty well… Time to bring it home with the ol’ ducks-in-arow mantra to really nail it’.
YOU PISSED ME OFF! Care to immortalise your hatred in print? Send an email to editorial@bmamag.com and see your malicious bile circulated to thousands. [All entries contain original spellings.] People who designe toilets so that the seat doesn’t stay up and instead falls down halfway through talking a piss - smacking me in the bellend on the way down and spraying urine over the bathroom at the same time - should be killed.
To people in apartment buildings that flick their cigarette butts into the central courtyard area, YOU PISS ME OFF! That’s a common area, man, we don’t want to go wading through your filth. Not to mention there are kids that play in the area and go to pick them up thinking they’re a toy. If I catch you doing it I will I will stitch your mouth together and break your fingers so you can’t do it again (actually I’m more likely to write you a firm but friendly note politely asking you to stop and slip it under your door and run away as fast as I can but that doesn’t really have the same impact for a You Pissed Me Off entry)
I am seemingly powerless to do anything about it. My brain has hijacked my sensibilities. It never used to be this bad. Perhaps a giddy combination of having children and extended pub sessions (not at the same time, I stress) have softened the grey cells and let the guard down to the point that such phrases are sneaking across the border of decency inside the battlefield that is the brain. And it’s only going to get worse. Before I know it I’ll be at a Board meeting referring to a budget as “that’s how the cookie crumbles” or performing MC duties at a function and extolling the virtues of the fact that “now we’re cooking with gas”. At this rate by the time I’m 40 I’ll be describing a weekend away with the family as “a rollercoaster ride of emotion” and at that point you can just take me out and shoot me. But this is merely a symptom of a wider disease known as “getting older”. Becoming a cliché-machine is a warning signal of what’s to come; it’s the proverbial canary down the mine. I suspect the part of your brain that grows stronger with age and makes you blurt out tired phrases against your will is the same part that quietly suggests that pulling your trouser-line up to nipple height is a terrific idea. It’s the same part that sabotages your Pronunciation Gland so that you start getting names of popular things slightly wrong, much to the amusement of your family. Give it a few more years and soon my daughters will be cackling hysterically at the fact that I can’t find the darn my-phone to make a twert on my Twatter account. Good lord… I am becoming my parents. Anyway enough of this word foolery. I must take my daughter to the play gym. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree! Oh goddamit, not again. ALLAN SKO - allan@bmamag.com
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WHO: Alturas WHAT: JAZZ QUINTET WHEN: THU SEP 11 WHERE: THE FRONT
WHO: Hating Alice WHAT: ROCK GIG WHEN: Sat Sep 13 WHERE: O’Neills
WHO: Kristy Cox WHAT:Country GIG WHEN: Sat Sep 13 WHERE: The Abbey
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Hailing from the Blue Mountains, tango/jazz five piece Alturas have been lapping up praise nationwide for their unique reworking of traditional pieces. Drawing influence from classical, Latin and tango music, Alturas blend these sounds with passionate jazz-inspired solos. They’ve been performing since 2009, starting out as just a piano and flute duo before slowly expanding to include strings and saxophones. Their debut album, Café con Tango, has had solid spins on the likes of ABC Radio National and ABC Classic FM. They’ll be swinging by The Front on Thursday September 11. Tickets $20/$15 at the door. 7.30-9.30pm. Local three piece Hating Alice have been playing around the traps since 2009, impressing audiences and blasting eardrums with their original tunes and choice covers. The lads all have a solid background in heavy rock and cite Foo Fighters, Muse, Grinspoon and Rage Against Machine as among their many influences. Picked up by Intone Recording Studios, they currently have one album under their belt – 2012’s Broken Glass – and another one in the works. The power trio will be strutting their stuff at O’Neills in Dickson on Saturday September 13. Catch them after 9pm. Australian bluegrass darling, Kristy Cox, is doubling up with fellow Aussie-expat, honky tonk crooner Travis List, for a string of east coast dates. Both currently based in Nashville, Tennessee, the two are returning home to embark on a double-headliner east coast tour together. Since the release of her 2006 debut album, From my Eyes, Cox has had a slew of chart-climbers as well as national and international critical praise from the country music scene, including scoring Female Vocalist of the Year (2013) at the Australian Independent County Awards. Catch Cox and List, with Georgia Fall, at The Abbey. Tickets $25 from theabbey.com.au
WHO: Cat Canteri WHAT: Album launch WHEN: Wed Sep 24 WHERE: Smith’s Alternative
Breaking away from her role as primary singer-songwriter and drummer for alt-country band The Stillsons, Melbourne multiinstrumentalist Cat Canteri has just released her first solo offering, When We Were Young. The country-tinged album showcases Canteri’s warm voice, sweet pop sensibilities as well as her musical chops, playing drums and the majority of guitar and keys throughout the record. A treat for fans of thoughtful pop, the album has so far drawn comparisons to Missy Higgins and Fleetwood Mac. Canteri will be stopping by Smith’s Alternative on Wednesday September 24 to play some new tunes. Tickets $10/$7 available at the door.
WHO: Sandi Thom WHAT: Folk/blues WHEN: Thu Sep 25 WHERE: The Abbey
After scoring a hit 2006’s ubiquitous ‘I Want To Be A Punk Rock (With Flowers in My Hair)’, Scottish singer and multiinstrumentalist Sandi Thom has been busy. Toiling away at her craft, she has since released a string of albums on her own label and has been rigorously touring the globe with her folky blues sound. On her latest album, The Covers Collection, Thom tackles big names such as Fleetwood Mac and Michael Jackson, putting her own spin on some classic tunes. She’ll be in town to play an intimate show at The Abbey. Tickets $20 from theabbey.com.au. 7.30pm.
WHO: Granite Town WHAT: Jazz and funk festival WHEN: Fri–Sun Oct 17–19 WHERE: Granite town
Granite Town – a jazz, food and funk festival – will be taking over the coastal town of Moruya with live music and delicious eats over one weekend in October. Spread out over three days and across four venues, catch the likes of Katie Noonan, Thirsty Merc, Mama Kim, Emma Pask and The Strides. Amongst the music action, there will be pop-up dining district, roving entertainers, workshops, a street parade, late night jams plus stacks more. Camping/ glamping options available. Day tickets start at $40, with full weekend tickets $100 - online only at granitetown.com.au.
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ian mccarthy Most Canberrans are familiar with Floriade. The various stalls, the Ferris Wheel and of course the breathtaking floral arrangements. But what happens to all of it when the sun goes down? Does it become a dark and dormant ghostland? Nope. In fact, it becomes quite the opposite, transforming into the bright, colourful and lively experience that is NIGHTFEST. After it’s most successful year to date in 2013 - in which it attracted over 34,000 visitors this year’s NightFest is set to be an even bigger affair. Floriade’s marketing manager Adelina La Vita spoke to BMA about the upcoming event which should be on every Canberran’s calendar. For those who think that merely visiting Floriade during the day is close enough to the full experience, La Vita explains why they couldn’t be more wrong. “During the day Floriade has a fun, familyfriendly festival atmosphere, while NightFest is really quite a magical, moonlit experience,” she says. “The flowerbeds are bathed in colourful lights and look dramatically different to how they look during the day. The entertainment is also quite different, creating a truly unique atmosphere.” On top of the usual roving performers and scattered demonstrations, La Vita describes this year’s exciting new entertainment feature, The Balloon Arena. “[It’s] a giant weather balloon installation that will take visitors on a journey of discovery with pockets of activity and quirky circus acts.”
The experience seems to have created a positive perception of Canberrans for Gleeson who exclaims, “They’re pretty switched on. What is it, the most educated city in Australia right?… So it’s all pretty good.” Needless to say, Gleeson is even more excited to be taking the stage at NightFest’s Moonlight Lounge. Though his knowledge of Floriade is somewhat limited he seemed keen to find out what all the fuss is about. “I’ve got two sisters who live in Canberra and they’re always telling me to come to Floriade and I’m like ‘yeah, there’s flowers, but I don’t quite see the motivation to fly interstate,’ but I guess I’m gonna learn about it this time,” he says. Gleeson quickly became so consumed with the idea of Floriade that he began to make some hasty demands. “…Maybe when I arrive now Floriade will give me a big bunch of tulips in my greenroom… Actually I wouldn’t mind a few bulbs,” he quips. “I’ve got a rose garden where I live and our bulbs I think accidently got sprayed with some Round-up, so I think they’ve died.”
takes people’s perceptions of a typical flower show and turns them on their head
In keeping up with Floriade’s second-week theme of food and wine, “There will be cooking demonstrations in The Kitchen Company Tasting Plate and fantastic food and wine themed workshops in The Inspiration Hub,” says La Vita.” Visitors will be able to attend The School of Beer to sharpen up their martini-making skills and learn how to match cheese and wine.” And if for some crazy reason none of that is your thing, La Vita advises you to head to the Moonlight Lounge where you can, “chill out with a drink and some entertainment from world-renowned comedians.” Those comedians include rising stars Luke MacGregor, Damien Power and Kate McLennan, as well as Australian favourite Tom Gleeson who also spoke to BMA about his upcoming performance. Though Gleeson admits, “I don’t know how much flower-based material I’ve got,” he is still no stranger to less floral Canberra stages, having visited the capital plenty of times over his career. Speaking of the very first time he says, “They used to have a competition called Green Faces, actually they still do… at the Irish
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Club in Weston…and I came second in that in 1998. I won $500 – I was pretty excited.”
As far as what audiences should expect, even Gleeson is unsure. “I think I’ll decide on the night… I mean if they’re a bit rowdy then I might bring in some punchy material and if they’re pretty laid back than I might tell some longer stories, but I’ll have to wait and see on the night.” La Vita however seems more certain about what audiences should expect from NightFest as a whole – to watch in awe as it “takes people’s perceptions of a typical flower show and turns them on their head.” She also advises to plan ahead. “Saturday night sold out last year and many other nights came close to selling out,” says La Vita. “I recommend you get in early and buy your tickets online to avoid missing out!” NightFest will be lighting up Commonwealth Park every night from the 24th to the 28th of September with tickets set at $25 for adults, $10 for children and concession holders, or $50 for the whole family. Tom Gleeson will be taking the stage at the Moonlight Lounge on Saturday and Sunday the 27th and 28th. More info and tickets are available from floriadeaustralia.com/nightfest. And for a good preview, you can download Gleeson’s full show Good One for just $5 at his website tomgleeson.com.au.
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LOCALITY
I never get time for cute little intros these days, but that’s great! Instead, we get more gigs and news! (And let’s be honest, that’s why we’re all here, right?)There’s a whole range of lovely sounds happening at Alliance Française de Canberra in Turner on Friday September 19 from 7pm, with Marianne Scholem and Burrows playing as part of Café Musique. If you’ve not popped your head into this venue before, it’s a really welcoming space and full of friendly French-speaking folk. Tickets for this cultural and musical delight are $20. Also on the night of Friday September 19, Magpies City Club will be playing host to a rag tag bunch of local musos, with Fricker, Buck Et Al, Capes, Bendrury and Jack Livingston all scoring spots on the bill. Starting times and ticket price are yet to be confirmed, so keep an eye on facebook.com/MagpiesCityUnderGround for details as they arise, because with a line-up like this, it’s sure to be a whole lot of fun. If you’re feeling that political fire in your belly and want to hear a few tunes that aim to stick it to the numbskulls that spend their days sniping in the red and green rooms of Parliament House instead of making this country as awesome as it can be, or you want to rebel against our capitalist overlords, then Smith’s Soap Box is the perfect place for you to spend your time. The stage will be filled with protest songs from plenty of familiar Canberran faces, including Bec Taylor, Karlo, Sanjiva de Silva, Corey Bresnan, Yours Truly, Sheldon Summoogum and Loz Lawrie. Show some solidarity and stick it to the man with them at Smith’s Alternative on Wednesday September 1, with tickets just $10. Having delighted Canberran audiences for a while now, Guyy and the Fox have decided to set their sights on new and intriguing horizons, with plans for a tour of South Africa quickly taking shape. All they need now is a bit of dosh to get them there and back again. To accrue said dollars, they’ll be playing a fundraising gig at The Food Co-Op on Saturday September 13 from 7pm. Tickets are selling online for $10, and while there will be some available at the door, booking ahead is probably a pretty good idea. Head to Guyy’s Facebook page for the relevant details and help this darling pair out on their African adventure: facebook.com/GuyyMusic. And finally, oh my goodness. This is easily the most exciting story of the week – The Chop Shop will finally open for business! After wading through thick seas of bureaucratic nightmares (and mixed metaphors, apparently), they managed to get back on track and plan to hold their opening on Saturday September 13. That means that if you haven’t already, you need to head to their Facebook page to keep track of all the awesome events this hub of skateboarding, live music and art, bar and gallery will be offering over the next few months. Pop facebook.com/chopshopcanberra into your browser and bookmark that baby! That’s all I can squeeze in for this fortnight, but remember, there are plenty of venues out there supporting local music. The least you can do is show them some love back. nonijdoll@gmail.com/@nonidoll
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soiree on Friday 26th September. The line-up includes an array of local and interstate music makers, and you in an animal onesie.
DANCE THE DROP Badly Afro’d ‘entertainer’ Redfoo was recently assaulted while partying in Sydney. While he shuffled the night away in the bowels of a Double Bay taproom with a group of possibly rented friends, unbeknownst to him the pin had been pulled on a translucent grenade. The foamy firkin was hurled into the air, instantly slowing down time all around it (Just like in the movies). An onlooker was allegedly heard to scream ‘Nooooo’ in a ridiculously slow and low tone, but it was already too late. The dickhead propelled grenade exploded right on target. Foo’s ridiculous ornamental lens less glasses did nothing to repel the hail of shrapnel set forth from the improvised ordinance. Just as Oppenheimer ripened into ‘The destroyer of worlds’ once the destructive force of an atomic explosion cemented his legacy, so too did the glassy eyed grenadier become ‘The destroyer of nightlife’ once the blood of a middle aged cartoon man had been spilt. Tens of people crowded around him to make sure he was ok or to take photos to post on Twitter with the literal tag #LMFAO. While I do not condone violence against awful parodies, the real ramification of ‘Glass-gate’ will be the flow on effect to Sydney’s already crippled night life. The NSW Government has been aching for an incident like this to justify their draconian alcohol laws. Who would have thought that a guy who gets paid to flap his balls in your face while wearing shiny underwear would be Barry O’Farrell’s golden ticket?
Sad news for the city, Meche has closed its doors for good. The club has been firing on all cylinders over the past few months under the wing of promoter extraordinaire Franky Tapia, but apparently it just wasn’t to be. Thanks for all the memories! Keep an ear out for future Thank You Ma’am productions at Digress on Akuna Street until a permanent home can be found for the brand. Dave Scotland has teamed up with BMA to present BMA Sessions, a fortnightly foray into deep house, techno, electro and trance. The sessions are set to showcase work from local producers, with guest DJ sets for your aural pleasure. This is an exciting new addition to the BMA family, so exciting in fact that wherever you are right now you should get up and give me a little ‘Whoop!’ TIM GALVIN tim.galvin@live.com.au
Those rascals at Funky Pleasure are back from a long hiatus to tickle your ears with disco. Trinity Bar is the destination and Saturday 20th September is the date for your clubbing calendar. Sam Binga may not be a household name to most, but his mum and thousands of Britons can’t be wrong. The young junglist is fired up for his first trip to Australia in September and La De Da have secured his services. If you are in need of a bass fix, get your bottom down to the Belconnen boudoir on Sunday September 28th. Do you like the jungle? I don’t mean the aforementioned succulent sub-genre of Drum N Bass; I’m talking about densely forested land full of bird eating spiders and naked tribesmen. If your answer is yes, Academy are holding a Jungle themed fancy dress
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RUFFLING FEATHERS rory mccartney Apart from aficionados of the genre, jazz bands in Australia tend to have a low profile with the music consuming public. The one outfit that springs to mind to even non-jazz fans is the evergreen GALAPAGOS DUCK. Starting out as a snow bunny entertainment outfit in the Australian Alps in 1969, they moved to Sydney and became the house band for the nation’s most renowned jazz venue, The Basement near Circular Quay. Made-up of a long running succession of jazz greats, Galapagos Duck became one of Australia’s pre-eminent jazz bands and gained an international reputation. BMA spoke to band leader and bass player John Conley ahead of the Duck’s appearance at the Noosa Jazz Festival in September. Conley is the longest continuous band member, having been with the Duck since 1981. Despite its members being in three locations in two states, the band rehearses regularly and has frequent gigs. Asked if they ever return to their spiritual home of The Basement, Conley says, “We do and we did a show there not so long ago and we’re negotiating for another one coming up. While we do other things and some members work with other bands, we are full time with Galapagos Duck.” While the last album Out Of The Blue came out in 2006, the band is actively composing and may be back in the studio for its next album in September. The Duck is not your straight jazz outfit, having been known to play covers of songs like Cindy Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’. Conley confirms that the band likes taking mainstream songs and jazzing them up. “We do that quite a bit, picking songs we like regardless of whatever genre they come from and giving them the Duck treatment,” he quips. “We do The Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’ with an up-tempo Latin feel and ‘Day Tripper’ as a shuffle.” Galapagos Duck has strong affinities with blues, gospel and funk genres and has also absorbed world music styles into its consciousness, with Richard Booth playing calypso songs on the steel drum. As to whether the band’s style has morphed over the decades Conley proclaims, “The astounding thing is that, even though members have changed periodically (and we’ve even had deaths in the family), the band’s sound has stayed amazingly similar.” Asked about what sets it apart from other jazz bands, he explains, “We don’t really concentrate on one genre of music – we’re happy to play anything and give it a jazz flavour. We just do what we like.” In praise of the Noosa Jazz Festival, Conley says, “It’s just a fantastic place. The organisation is great with the different venues in town and the audiences are really receptive, including die-hard jazz fans and friends from our Basement days. It’s also exciting to be involved with the other musicians – a great couple of days of fantastic music.”
even though members have changed periodically the band’s sound has stayed amazingly similar
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Galapagos Duck is one of many bands playing at the Noosa Jazz Festival, at Noosa Lions Park, Noosa Heads, from Thursday–Sunday September 4–7. For full details, including the lineup and ticket prices, hit up noosajazz.com.au.
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tribulations to enjoy each day…Brand New Day. ‘Stop to smell the roses’ type of thinking. We have all matured but music keeps us young at heart.
SWOLLEN WITH PRIDE JADE FOSBERRY Canadian hip hop crew, SWOLLEN MEMBERS have been making dark, interesting hip hop for decades now. They’re legends in their field, from Canadian shores all the way to Australia and all over the globe. The trio has recently released Brand New Day, a deep, moody mix of the Members sound fans know, with some abstract elements that are surprising, yet soulful. I was able to have a quick chat with MC Madchild, one third of the group, to talk about the new album, their fans and the upcoming Australian tour that’s been ten years in the works.
It’s been ten years since your last Australian tour – why the decade-long hiatus? Four years drug abuse problem for me. A couple years to recover and here I am! I’m not sure it’s been ten years though, has it? Damn. Time flies!
We have all matured but music keeps us young at heart
What can we expect from the upcoming Australian tour? Raw energy and a lot of fun. Catch Swollen Members at the ANU bar on Friday September 19, with support from Troy Flawlezz and Kawpicturless. Tickets $52.30 or $99.50 for meet and greet from ticketek. 8pm.
BMA: Congrats on the release of Brand New Day. It’s experimental, but still gives us plenty of the dark elements your fans know and love. What was your approach to crafting the album? MC Madchild: Thanks. We just had a quick talk about being ourselves and not worrying about the trends or what was considered ‘relevant’ and we just did our thing. We make the best music when it’s free flowing and not overly planned out. How would you define the Swollen sound? The classic Swollen signature sound is dark and poetic with abstract expressionism. At least that’s how I describe it. Raw energy, realness, classic, long lasting. Your style of rapping and general music is known to be quite dark; but has earned you a worldwide following. Why do you think that is? We’re very fortunate to have such a loyal following and fan base. We look at them as family. I think there is a bond between us mostly because we are not trend followers. We touch on real life mixed with mystical themes. It’s also fierce, not bubble-gummy. It’s like a classic rock group that still translates to the next generations. What are some of the themes of the new album and how would you say it differentiates to your earlier releases? I feel like it’s just a continuation of the albums we are proud of. The only difference being we’ve come to a realization from personal trials and
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imprint Battle Axe Records. Support slots by local artist Flawlezz, Nix, KG and introducing Kawpicturless.
THE REALNESS Drop whatever you are doing and please purchase your tickets for possibly the biggest gig to visit the capital this year! Legendary hip hop group Souls of Mischief, have announced a national tour off the back of their recently released album There Is Only Now. The group, who last visited Australia in 2006, will commence their tour in the Canberra on Friday October 31 at Transit Bar. Grab your tickets now to avoid disappointment. Make sure you also save enough pennies to get along and catch Canadian hip hop outfit Swollen Members when they stop by ANU Bar on Friday September 19. Swollen Members are in Canberra to support their recently released album Brand New Day, via their own
Seems Friday nights are the go for gigs at the moment. ANU Bar will host One Day crew on Friday September 26. With the release of contagious new single ‘Love Me Less’, One Day, the crew comprising of Horrorshow, Spit Syndicate, Jackie Onassis and Joyride, have announced their album and tour Mainline. Punters will be treated to each act playing individual sets, followed by a collaborative finale with all seven members on stage together for the first time ever. This is no supergroup, this is a crew who’ve grown up together and share a collective vision to produce some amazing joints. Former Queanbeyan / Canberra native Hau has recently released the Football, Feasts and Funerals’ mixtape. There are two concepts behind the Football, Feasts & Funerals mixtape. Firstly, the title is an acknowledgement of Hau’s heritage and culture with the mixtape loosely reflecting the three important things in a Tongan’s life; rugby union and league are near religions in the islands, food plays a big part in the culture, and attending funerals can happen almost bimonthly. Secondly, the beat selection is all homegrown. Okay so I’ll admit I’ve slept on this next crew, but I’ve now seen the light and need to spread the gospel. Costa Mesa natives SoundSci are made up of 2 producers Jonny Cuba and Ollie Teeba and rounded out with 3 dope MC’s including Audessey, U-George and Oxygen. To get a taste of what they have to offer check out their debut album Soundsational via their bandcamp page. One of the SoundSci MC’s Audessey has teamed up with DJ Nice to drop some heat on Nice’s My Contribution EP. The EP is heavy on the scratches and features some real nice remixes, including a very smooth contribution from producers Cleon and Jazzy Pidjay. Blasphemy, is the latest collaborative album from esteemed Mello Music Group producer Apollo Brown, this time teaming up with West Coast lyrical heavyweight Ras Kass. Many of the top lyricists in the game have fell victim to unwanted criticism regarding their beats selection removing the shine from the heat they spit on the mic. It is safe to say that Ras Kass is amongst that group, however linking with Apollo might quieten the naysayers and allow his verbal ability to shine over Apollo’s trademark soulful production. Watch out for this one when it drops in October. On the beat side of the house check out the latest project BRUUH. from beatmakers Sir Froderick and Adamnt. Some very cool spliced beats and artwork to accompany the project. BERT POLE bertpole@hotmail.com
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IN THEIR HANDS DAN BIGNA The traditional approach for Canberra bands to drum up some promotion is to slog it out in local and interstate venues and if things are going well, enter a studio somewhere, record an EP and hope it gets picked up by radio. Modern alternative (post-hardcore?) band HANDS LIKE HOUSES skipped these first steps and went straight for gold by heading over to the US to record and tour their debut album Ground Dweller for Rise Records in 2012. A growing following in the US ensued, resulting in increased exposure on the lucrative Vans Warped tour in the US and Australia.
There’s no better feeling than hearing someone in the audience sing your song
With overseas attention a done thing, the band has now set about growing its local fan base. An initial offering is the forthcoming release of an EP titled Reimagine which reinterprets a number of tracks from the recent album Unimagine in an acoustic setting. This started out with the band members heading for rustic environs south of Canberra so they could focus more intensely on the music. “A friend’s family owns a really old homestead out in this massive field in the middle of nowhere with no running water or any of the comforts,” explains keyboardist Jamal Sabet. The rural setting enhanced the creative drive resulting in music that turned out to be melodically stripped back. “When you do something acoustically you find that you can’t rely on any one instrument or a heavy guitar riff,” Sabet says. “It kind of breaks the song down to the basics of vocals and chords and then you build it up from there and end up going on a different tangent.” Across two albums, Hands Like Houses have explored numerous musical refractions with immersive textures giving the music a more expansive feel. This approach might be unusual for a band that is part of the Vans Warped fraternity, but fits comfortably into their overall vision. So what’s the deal with glib labels like ‘post-hardcore’? “When we did our first album in America it had a lot more of what could be described as modern punk rock and that’s kind of what post-hardcore is which seems to have stuck with us,” Sabet says. “If I have to describe our sound I guess it would be modern, alternative rock. The music is modern sounding because we are not a rock n roll band in the classic sense. Our music incorporates digital soundscapes and keyboard elements. It’s about taking a lot from modern technology and integrating that into rock music.” This represents a marked departure from earlier influences like Taking Back Sunday, Lagwagon and Strung Out, but the band seems intent on bringing its audience along for the ride. “There’s no better feeling than hearing someone in the audience sing your song, especially when you are somewhere far from your home,” Sabet says. “To do something you love and to do it in new places is always a bonus.” Hands Like Houses play the ANU Bar on Saturday September 27. Tickets $25 +bf from moshtix.
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THE DARK SIDE CARRIE GIBSON
LEVITATE ME CARRIE GIBSON
DARKC3LL have headed back into the studio and have released ‘Hollywood Scars’, the debut single for their impending third album. Vocalist Jesse Dracman fills us in. He mentioned previously that the new Darkc3ll material has a more abrasive edge – was it the plan all along to turn it up a notch? “You learn a great deal as an artist over time and especially on the road, where you experience many highs and lows,” says Dracman. “We’re just sick of seeing so much bullshit out there and once again are here to provide the soundtrack, middle finger style, but essentially provide fuel to this fire. We’re turning it up a huge notch on this new album!”
the Levitation Hex, now in its fourth year, has countless highlights under its belt. These include a spot on the stages of the 2012 Prog Power Festival in Nuremburg, Germany and more close-to-home the Under the Southern Cross Festival played on Australia Day in 2013.
An east coast tour is shortly following the release of ‘Hollywood Scars’ and the enthusiasm is melting off Dracman. “The road can be a lot of fun and there’s never a dull moment in our van,” he boasts. “What I love about the road is the randomness, the sights, the locals. We’re really pumped about this tour – it will be a good test for us and a great chance to reach new fans and friends. We bypass one town a lot, where I forever see the same sign - The Australian Goanna Pulling Championships and think both ‘what the fuck!’ and ‘where do I get tickets!’” Dracman describes the music of Darkc3ll as a monster that people can either dance, mosh, or sing to and once the music gets into your soul, just let go and enjoy the ride. “Music does strange things to people,” he says. “We can’t help but have fun with what we do and create. We pride ourselves on going against the grain of everything else and whilst yes, I write it as I call it and create these songs that are always open to the listener’s interpretation, damn I have fun with it.”
Music that will soon be reaching the ears of fans, according to Agius. “We are currently tracking our second album for High Roller Records, Germany and it’s coming along very nicely. The material is a lot different from our debut and there has been a greater input to song writing from the other lads so we are really forging our own sound now. I’m pretty excited about it actually,” he says. “We anticipate having something solid by October this year.”
We’re just sick of seeing so much bulls**t out there and once again are here to provide the soundtrack
When we broach the subject of the band’s highly anticipated new album, Dracman mentions the gratification of a third album. “It is unfolding excitingly well! I have written enough songs for two albums,” he says with a laugh. “As always, once we get in the studio, we dissect and create and this album is shaping nicely. It’s one for the ages.” Darkc3ll will embark on the Hollywood Scars tour this month as well as a few dates spread throughout the remainder of the year including Mosh for Daniel on Saturday November 8th in Maroochydore, which will be a huge charity event. “Amongst all the dates we will continue to be recording the album also,” says Dracman. “2015 has all kinds of exciting prospects and possibilities. All I know is, we will be ready for it. Are you ready for us?” Catch Darkc3ll at The Basement on Saturday September 27th, with Renegade Peacock, Sewer Slideshow and Origin of Janken. Tickets $18.40 available from oztix.
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Triumphs aside we caught up with Adam Agius to learn about his personal accomplishments with the band. “I’ve gained my sanity back!” laughs Agius. “The best thing I’ve gained is three new mates through band members but after all the turmoil in Alchemist I guess I regained my enthusiasm for writing and performing music purely for the enjoyment of doing so and the thrill of creating music to share with others.”
It’s a great lineup that shows the diversity of metal in Canberra
Agius also mentions that the new material will include “a lot of new elements” comprising more thrash and an overall simpler approach. This simpler approach, however, comes with its own set challenges, as Agius explains. “Sometimes it’s a bit hard to let your mind relax and truly listen to what others have provided,” he notes. “In the end, all things for The Levitation Hex come together very naturally without being forced.” The Levitation Hex admits that they are picky with shows however we get the 411 on what the band have in store. “Well, we’re scheduled to play with Witchskull at the ANU on the 20th of September, which will be great,” says Agius. “We’ve had a lot of input into the show; we’re aiming to make something really special for fans and go back to the old school way of promoting a show by putting your money where your mouth is. It’s a great line-up that shows the diversity of metal in Canberra.” Once the new album is out (release due for early 2015) the band are determined to tour Australia, Europe and hopefully South East Asia. Above all Agius is adamant that there will be as much fun had as possible and we have no cause no doubt the enthusiastic fellow. The Levitation Hex play the ANU Bar with Witchskull and Wretch on Saturday September 20th from 8pm . Tickets $15 at the door.
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METALISE So rad to see the Metal Down Under three part doc hit number four on the ARIA video charts the week of its release. As I chucked in for it through the crowd sourcing site Pozzible, I got an advance copy and finally had a chance to sit down and watch the whole thing uninterrupted last week in one sitting which I hadn’t had a chance to do when I first got it in the mail. Part one covers the days when even I was a wee whipper snapper, so you know that’s some old shit! Part two mostly covers the ‘90s and that’s where the Canberra stuff really gets good.
Summonus as the two local supports for the might of New Zealand’s Beastwars and the first highly anticipated tour of USA lords Windhand. Their 2013 album Soma made up one of mine and many others ‘album of the year’ lists last year and this is going to be an absolute ripper of a fest as 666 Entertainment always produce. The tales and rumours have been around for a while, but I have been a bit negligent in my reporting at the Basement in Belco on Saturday October 25 and the return of another storied Canberra death metal pioneering act, Psychrist. Back in the day, the boys were absolute warriors and it is cool as fuck to see them coming back to do a show alongside Claret, Tortured and another old school treat, Cruciform. Psychrist are also booked in to play the annual Under The Southern Cross show on Saturday January 24 at the Bald Faced Stag in Sydney, get along to see them. JOSH NIXON doomtildeath@hotmail.com
It was so awesome to see Adam Agius and Rod Holder appraising the career of their band Alchemist and their involvement with Metal For The Brain. You can see that the filmmaker Nick Calpakdjian’s really turned in a passionate bit of film making that really could easily have turned into a five to ten part series had he more time and funding. That’s not a slight on the material at all! Probably the funniest bit and the most balanced is in Psycroptic’s bit and Blood Dusters’ Jason Fuller’s interview on them. If you love metal and you are interested in the history of the music in this country, buy it today. Adam Agius and his Levitation Hex band mate Mark Palfreyman both feature heavily in the doco and you will also see some hearty props and some of Australian metal’s most brutal wearing of German trench coats go out to the vision and sounds of Armoured Angel’s classic Enigmatise clip. Joel Green sang and drummed on that video and his new band Witchskull with Marcus Looking Glass make their debut this fortnight. All these legends share a stage at the ANU bar on Saturday September 20 with another long serving Canberra metal warrior Nathan Youngberg and his bunch of grind savages Wretch. I can’t say enough how all three of these bands are worthy of your $15, there is something for all heavy tastes, so bloody well go and see this show. Check out the interview with Levitation Hex in this issue too. Also great news is following on from this show for Witchskull is that the band has officially been added to the lineup for the Doomsday festival at Hermanns Bar in Sydney on Friday October 3. They will join Sydney band
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They will be supported by locals Wives, who will be celebrating the release of their new single ‘Buried’, along with the newly formed Agency which features members from Spartak, Hoodlum Shouts and A Drone Coda.
I’m far too tired to think of a witty introduction right now, but I’ve lucked out this time because there’s so much going on I wouldn’t have room for one anyway. Here’s shows: If you like to spend the Sabbath partying really hard, then you should probably get to The Bennies at the Magpies City Club on Sunday September 21. They’ll be there with New York’s Morning Glory, Sydney/Newcastle band Mucho Sonar, Melbourne’s Wolfpack and local favourites Revellers. You can grab tickets to this all ages party for $18.40 through Oztix. Super Best Friends will be making a triumphant return to Canberra on Wednesday September 17 when they play support to Western Australia’s The Love Junkies at Transit Bar. Tickets are set at $13.30 and are available through Oztix. On Thursday September 18, Sydney/Newcastle band DesXparo will be stopping by The Phoenix along with locals Office Jerk and Cockbelch. This one will only cost you $5 at the door. On Thursday September 25, Oxen will be releasing their highly anticipated 12” record at The Phoenix. They will be joined on the night by two other local bands, Ecruteak and Mind Blanks for a mere $5 door charge. To celebrate the release of their new album Your Town through Poison City Records, Sydney’s Mere Women will be tearing through The Phoenix on Saturday September 28.
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If you enjoy not paying for shit, then stop by The Basement on Sunday September 28 to celebrate some birthdays and catch a solid lineup of punk bands including Teen Skank Parade, Cockbelch and Critical Monkee. It’s free of course! The 2014 Zombie Invasion is coming on Saturday November 1. In order to help raise funds for the Brain Foundation, the following stack of sick bands will be playing at the Magpies City Club: Melbourne’s Littlefoot and Inedia, Sydney’s Nerdlinger, KANG and The Great Awake and locals Revellers and No Assumption. More details for this one are coming soon. In some really exciting news, the lineup has just been announced for the first annual Gingerfest in loving memory of the Ginger Ninja. The festival will take place at The Factory Theatre in Sydney on Saturday December 6 and will see sets from 28 Days, Bagster, Totally Unicorn, Born Lion, Clowns, Super Best Friends, Hightime, The Punk Rock Hillbilly, Revellers, Lindsay ‘The Doctor’ McDougal and Lincoln Le Ferve with even more acts to be announced! Tickets go on sale Sunday September 7 and will go for just $27.50 +bf through factorytheatre.com.au, with all proceeds going toward Vision Australia. Running out of words. Haircuts & T-shirts. Mondays. 9:30pm. 2XX.Mosh. Drink. Bye. IAN McCARTHY PUNK.BMA@GMAIL.COM
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CODY ATKINSON Over the last fortnight the official hipster record of cool, Pitchfork, released a series of lists denoting the best albums, songs and music videos of the decade thus far. A solid four years into the decade. We have hit peak lists. Cody Atkinson questions lists and they respond with a series of ordered points. Name? Lists. Age? Too old. Location? On every website and newspaper from here to Alpha Centuri. Lists? Really? You couldn’t find anything better to write about than stupid lists? Sometimes you need to take a stand. The fact that Pitchfork’s Best of the Decade list is a solid 2/5ths of the way into the decade - served seemingly to promote a major sponsor/ partner - seems as good a reason as any to make one. Not the endless lists that pop up on your Facebook or twitter feed? OH MY GOD I FUCKING HATE THEM. “12 Jokes That You Have To Be Nerdy To Find Funny”. “9 Reasons Why Cats Are Better Than Dogs”. “The 16 Best Songs Written By Left Handed Bass Players In The ‘80s...” ENOUGH ALREADY. We get it. You can rank things. Congratulations. I’ve sent a medal to you in the post.
I dunno, somewhere between coffee and cigarettes? Yeah, about there. You see a list about the “14 Greatest One Note Guitar Solos Of All Time” and of course you’re going to click on it. And you’ll subsequently feel used after, in critical need of a shower and about 5 IQ points worse off. What’s with all the hate? To be honest, lists by themselves aren’t a bad thing. It’s when they start to replace all critical thought that they start to turn. It’s when you can just list a bunch of things out, for no rhyme or reason, just to create content that either provokes people or reinforces their opinions #notalllists Could you perhaps note some of the reasons that lists are bad? Hmmm, I may be able to, but I might have to list them out. Weren’t expecting that, were you? 1. Lists are lazy; both to read and to write. 2. Lists are often taken as the definitive statement on a subject, when often they are anything but. 3. Lists exist to provoke you into getting angry. 4. Lists are usually clickbait, drawing you in to reading something that’s really not worth reading.
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So, are there any good things about lists? If done well, lists can be a creative way to break down a subject and to break away from other consistent tropes of article writing. But pieces like Spod’s list of the ten saddest things ever (which ran on FasterLouder last week) make you realise that lists can be just creative ways for delivering good content. Even those Pitchfork lists were wellwritten in the most part and tried to explain their point of view rather than just endlessly list song and artists. Speaking about lists of just songs and artists, what about the Hottest 100? While the Hottest 100 is a list, it’s more accurately described as an exercise in documenting the collective listening preferences of the nation. Think of it as a Census of the moderately alternative. But at the risk of being deported for being un-Australian, the Hottest 100 isn’t always worth following or right in any sense of the word. I mean, who the hell is defending ‘Pretty Fly For A White Guy’ as the best song of 1998?
insinuating that you haven’t lived life unless you’ve seen a stupid movie is kinda stupid
How do you know about those lists? Did you read them or something? OF COURSE I CLICKED ON THEM. Do you know how addictive reading lists are?
5. Lists often include a bunch of filler.
6. Just to make them last a little bit longer.
Just hang on while I call Scott Morrison. Where did you say you were from? Very funny. Speaking of depressing things, how about those “100 Things You Must xxxx Before You Die” Lists? It’s both hilarious and morbid to think of someone on their deathbed, fighting for their right to live, just so they can finish The Lord of The Rings, or listen to Daydream Nation. Yeah, it’s cool to have aspirational targets in life and often these types of things collate some cool pieces of art but insinuating that you haven’t lived life unless you’ve seen a stupid movie is kinda stupid.
OK, what about shopping lists then? They’re not stupid internet lists, are they? I don’t know, write a shopping short story instead. Write a shopping monologue, a shopping one-act play that will have a brief off-off Broadway run. Or, as I’ve said above, think about the purpose and need for the list and treat it accordingly. You need a shopping list, otherwise you’re going to forget the milk. Lists can serve real purposes too. Maybe we just need to ban lists from the internet? Perhaps, or maybe we just need less of them. Instead of ‘definitive’ lists about every topic under the sun how about we get to a point of humanity where we don’t have to rank every single thing that could possibly exist or occur in the known universe. HAHAHAHAHA nice try. Lists aren’t going anywhere, and you know it. OK, how about when we read lists, we realise what they’re trying to do. Lists are designed to rapidly affirm your point of view/life choices or provoke a response for disagreeing with said list. So... So, if you have to read lists, try to read good, well thought-out lists. Or read a real article, or whatever. But if you find yourselves in the deep clutches of the internet, or god forbid a tabloid newspaper, and come across another stupid list, stop reading. It’s that easy. You can stop the cycle.
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E X H I B I T I O N I S T ARTS | ACT
MASTER OF PUPPETS rory mccartney Puppet shows have an uncanny ability to immerse audiences in a range of emotions, from the comedy/tragedy of Alvin Sputnik, Deep Sea Explorer to the menacing It’s Dark Outside about the creeping tide of dementia. Now the Dead Puppets Society (DPS) aims to take you away from real world worries to THE HARBINGER, a magical fairy story meant for grown-ups. BMA spoke to Barb Lowing from the cast, after her sound check in Cairns. While Brisbane based, the company has links with New York, through a residency with the New Victory Theatre, the city’s only full time theatre for kids and their families. DPS is not your average puppetry company, as Lowing explains. “We train people to be puppeteers and also go into schools to run workshop with students of all ages and teachers. The workshops are therapeutic as they teach kids to focus on what they are doing and how to bring inanimate objects to life,” she says. “However, DPS is also different as it does not concentrate on children, but creates fantastical stories with themes suited to adults.” While the latest show is OK for children, it is aimed at an understanding level of 12 years of age or over. In The Harbinger, an old man works in a rundown old bookshop, where he has lived for centuries, due to a pact that has allowed him to cheat death. During his long life, Big Albert has watched the world around him change, for the worse. With his city declining (ravaged by war), he is hidden away, nursing cherished memories. Then one day a little girl seeks shelter in his shop. The old man revisits his past, taking her through worlds of story and memory where the lines between reality and make believe are blurred. He then uncovers a chance to change the city forever. Created by writer/director David Morton, this is a complex production, combining a giant puppet with much smaller ones and live action. It has developed over time, starting with collaboration between DPS and La Boite Theatre, through the latter’s independent theatre season. “DPS was chosen to be part of the indie season,” says Lowing. “That was so successful that La Boite commissioned DPS to bring The Harbinger into the main house season.” The show has changed a lot to get it to where it is now. Originally performed with no spoken words, script writer Mathew Ryan created a narrative to enable the puppets to speak, while the actress remains silent. “Out of the different versions, this one has been distilled to its purest form,” notes Lowing. “It’s just beautiful.” A lot of effort is involved in bringing giant Big Albert to life, with four puppeteers involved. “I operate his head, eyes, mouth and breathing and do his voice,” Lowing explains.
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“Two other girls do each arm and hand and we have a fourth to move his wheelchair around. We have to work together to bring him to life.” It’s challenging for Kathleen the actress, who has to ignore the puppeteers and completely and utterly focus on the puppet. “It’s just gorgeous – breaks my heart every night,” admits Lowing. She has learnt puppetry after 30 years on stage as an actress, with DPS opening a new world for her. “Standing behind it and bringing this beautiful creature to life, it’s just so exciting.” There’s a certain magic about puppets that borders on the spooky. “When puppets come to life they develop a personality of their own,” says Lowing. “It’s quite odd and I can’t explain it. Big Albert is an odd one – he’s got a sense of humour and he can be angry or naughty and throw things.” Lowing attributes this to the feature of childhood where toys are so alive, that we focus strongly on them. She finds operating the huge puppet a bit like childlike play, but also incredibly technical, including the use of her voice to animate him. This kind of show also requires a special restraint on the part of the players, where they must not show any emotion. “The audience can see us, but we must not ever ‘pull focus’, so we can’t have expression on our face,” she says. “We must concentrate purely on the puppet and use our voices to betray emotion.” The Harbinger also involves animation and stage trickery to create the show’s unique aura. There’s a special soundscape that runs constantly through the production, very low so as not to intrude on the action on stage. “There’s also a special technique of shadow storytelling, with light shone through the carved pages of a book,” notes Lowing. “But I can’t tell you any more about that as it would give away too many secrets.” Apart from Big Albert, there are smaller puppets under a metre, based on the Japanese Banraku puppet design. “The Japanese form relates to the method of moving the puppets and the fact they do not have a working jaw. There is a special way of ‘voicing them’ that requires a specific skill,” Lowing explains. As to her favourite part of the show, she has a ready answer. “When he wakes up and comes to life. Albert is asleep and breathing when the audience comes in. When his eyes open and myself and the three girls start moving him, you can hear the audience take a breath and just gasp.” As to whether Albert saves the city, you will just have to come along and see the show. Dead Puppets Society presents The Harbinger at The Street Theatre, Wednesday–Saturday October 1–4. Tickets $27/$30, with special discounts for students, those under fifteen and families, available from thestreet.org.au.
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THE CREATURE RETURNS baz ruddick Have you ever been walking in the deep dark forest and had to deter the attack of predators with tales of your big bad friend? Maybe you were walking the mean streets of our capital one night and had to spin tales of your bouncer mate ‘Rico’ from Academy and his giant fists in order to get away from three street smart bullies? Written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Sceffler, the Gold Award winning Children’s book THE GRUFFALO has been adapted into a full blown stage production. Amidst fanfare, The Gruffalo returns to the capital city for two days at the Canberra Theatre following a national tour. I spoke to the Gruff himself, actor Graeme McRae, about the story of the Gruffalo, the audience reception and how the backbone of the production stems from the cultural saturation of the Gruffalo. As McRae soaked up the sun in Cairns, the wind and rain pounded my house and I fittingly felt that I was the Mouse venturing through the deep dark forest.
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The story of the Gruffalo follows the journey of a hungry mouse (Chandel Brandimarti) as he walks into the forest, oblivious to the dangers that lurk, in search of delectable nuts to eat. Along the way, the quick thinking Mouse must outsmart three predators (all played by Stephen Anderson). The wheeling dealing sly Fox, the retired Woodland Air Force Owl and the Maraca shaking party Snake are all fooled by the ‘imaginary idea’ of the Gruffalo and leave the mouse be. However the real trouble starts when the mouse comes across the Gruff himself. Having been hailed a ‘modern classic’, by the Observer and after a successful run on London’s West End, the reimagined production by Tall Stories and CDP has made its way across Australia on several tours. McRae’s first tour as the Gruff has bought the actor many surprises. “It was a bit daunting at first because we went from quite a small rehearsal space to then suddenly having a six or seven hundred seater that was sold out,” he states. “And you go ‘whoa alright!’, but then you step up to it and as soon as you have a couple of shows under your belt, it’s wonderful to work with it.” The success of the production was in part hinged on the ingrained knowledge of the story. “It is lovely to see how wide this story is known and how nuts these kids go over it all over Australia,” McRae shares with me. “They talk along with the sentences from the book! There is a whole lot of hype behind [the story] and the amount of energy they give you is awesome.” This knowledge of the story gives the production its overall flow. “They don’t know the songs or anything but they know the outline of the story,” adds McRae. “Because of how the show works you have all these lines from the book. They are sporadic as they come up. When they are being said the kids will pick up on that and they will come on board with it and say it with you!” The Gruffalo returns to the Canberra Theatre Centre on Saturday–Sunday September 26–27. Tickets $22 +bf, family of four $80 +bf, available from the venue.
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LITERATURE IN REVIEW The Heist Daniel Silva [Harper; 2014]
Daniel Silva’s novel The Heist is the fourteenth in his Gabriel Allon series. Gabriel Allon is an artist, art restorer and legendary Israeli intelligence officer and assassin. Undertaking the painstaking restoration of an altar piece in the Church of San Sebastiano in Venice he is interrupted by General Ferrari of the Carabinieri who is in charge of the Art Squad. There begins the hunt for the murderer of a British subject in Italy with connections to London’s art world. A clue Allon finds at the murder scene at a villa in Como is revealed as also a clue to the whereabouts of the Art Squads number one target, a stolen Caravaggio – The Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence. The story gives a glimpse into a world where stolen paintings are a strange currency and the reader is provided with just enough of an art history lesson to get the gist of why they are so valuable to the less scrupulous of the mega powerful and wealthy. Allon taps in to old acquaintances for help and as the investigation progresses He is seemingly side-tracked to chasing down a stolen fortune belonging to the people of Syria. Combining his artistic talents, his skills as a formidable intelligence officer and with the help of his unique network and friends in high places, he sets a trap by stealing Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in the hope it will lead him to the murderer, the money and the stolen Caravaggio. It is evident that Silva spends a lot of time researching his novels to give them an authenticity that makes you question whether you are reading fiction or an account of something that has actually happened. He skilfully blends factual events into the twists and turns of the plot but without his skill for knitting multiple threads together the story could easily feel disjointed and a lot less believable. Allon as a character is intriguing. His humanity is revealed through his concerns for his pregnant wife, his guilt when visiting his psychiatrically damaged ex-wife and his concern for a young woman he has blatantly used to get what he wants. When faced with the prospect of having her blood on his hands he uses the full extent of the resources at his disposal. His actions that bring the story to a climax are both extraordinary and confusing. Readers of previous novels in the series who know Allon may find the back stories a little tedious. As a standalone novel, it is an easy and compelling read with just enough back stories to orientate the reader to the relationships between the characters and events that have bound them together. ALSEY ANN CONDIE
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UNINHIBITED The room was positively buzzing. A line of eager folk at the door. At the catering table they organised a quick cuppa and grabbed a sandwich before taking a seat. With ten minutes to go before the official start, most were more than ready for proceedings to begin. The whole thing had the feeling of a wedding to it, but there was also the sense that someone was about to perform. There wouldn’t be a performance, nor would there be any kind of knot-tying. The 100 or so ACT-region arts workers at this year’s Childers Group forum – a co-presentation with the Cultural Facilities Corporation – were simply keen to get talking about arts leadership: what is it, why is it important, what are the challenges? Without a doubt it’s a broad topic, one that could easily splinter into a million directions. But it’s s also a vital topic. How do all those in the arts, either as artists or as arts workers, keep moving things forward? No matter what the sector, there are always a handful of individuals who make things happen. In the arts there are those who, with little or no funding, put on festivals or events, start record labels or small presses, connect this person to that person, raise issues with the powers-that-be and put forward solutions. I would suggest that the ACT region’s arts community is rich with people who, no matter what position they are in or what barriers they might face, keep artistic lives flourishing and audiences enlivened. A number of key issues emerged at the Arts Leadership Forum. The ability of effective leaders to energise their teams. The need for effective leaders to connect with communities. The absolute imperative for effective leaders to take programming risks while diversifying funding. It’s an exhausting list already, especially for a sector that, in the main, is appallingly remunerated, which is, regrettably, a situation that isn’t going to be resolved overnight. Other topics included facilitating change at an organisational level, finding more productive ways for staff to work with boards whose members are volunteers but are often insanely busy, and the importance of fostering the development of younger arts workers because, of course, they will be the arts leaders of the future. As the talk continued over drinks, and as I listened to a fine slab of Sonic Youth’s Goo on the hour-long drive home back up the Hume Highway, my mind turned to the artists themselves. Are they okay? Most artists I know are working two or more jobs on top of their practice, which is – and I’m going to use caps here – A LEGITIMATE AND VALUABLE FORM OF LABOUR IN AND OF ITSELF. Increasingly artists are not only responsible for the making of their work but also its marketing (a crap word in this context) and audience development. Arts organisations can’t be all things to all people, so there will always be artists who are going to fall through the cracks, some willingly, but some unwillingly. The workload and the isolation can be crippling. I don’t wish to promote the ‘poor struggling artists – what would we do without them’ argument, but I do wonder if the arts ‘ecology’ (as they say) is in a healthy condition. I’m not sure that it is. Arts leaders engage. For more information about the Arts Leadership Forum visit childersgroup.com.au. Note: Nigel is a member of the Childers Group but was not involved with the organisation of this forum. These views are his own. nigel featherstone
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A R T | C O M E DY | D A N C E | L I T E R AT U R E | T H E AT R E
ARTISTPROFILE: Dan Lorrimer
What do you do? I am an emerging sculptor and designer living and working in Canberra. I make a range of sculptural objects using heavy industrial processes. At the heart of my practice is a deep understanding of materials and processes with an emphasis on creating new ways to utilise these technologies in the fields of art and design. When, how and why did you get into it? I’ve always had a passion for making things and understanding how they work. From a young age I experimented the usual backyard materials making billy karts, skateboards and the weapons. This developed into a fascination for metal and different ways of working with it. I studied Sculpture at the ANU Art School and have since continued to develop and build my practice, building up my workshop to be a fully equipped fabrication workshop.
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Who or what influences you as an artist? Old industrial buildings, places that have had a productive past but now sit idle. Of what are you proudest so far? Establishing a fully equipped workshop and doing what I love for a job What are your plans for the future? Continue to explore larger scale sculptures, making and learning What makes you laugh? My friend Mitch and Old Greg What pisses you off? Lazy people. What about the local scene would you change? Not much, Canberra has a great art and design scene that is only getting bigger. Upcoming exhibitions? My upcoming solo exhibition opens at ANCA Gallery on Wednesday 10th September. It is a new collection of large scale sculptures, the largest to date. Contact Info: danlorrimer.com
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IN REVIEW
Bloody Lips Monster Kitchen and Bar, New Acton Tue 26 Aug Bloody Lips is a regular event that celebrates performance poetry and presents it to new and existing audiences. Lauding itself as bringing together “world class spoken word artists with Canberra’s most expressive poets and musicians”, the most recent Bloody Lips most certainly delivered on this promise. The line-up included Anis Mojgani, Catherina Behan and Raphael Kabo with interspersing performances from the Dorothy-Jane Band. Hosting the event and also performing in his own right with the Dorothy-Jane Band, was Canberra favourite, CJ Bowerbird. Emerging Canberra based poet Raph Kabo kicked off the afternoon with a clever piece exalting poetry and the art of spoken word. Kabo is an engaging poet with an oratory style, neat articulation and a taste for the theatrical. His poems had an intensely personal focus, telling stories and sharing observations which were sometimes funny, sometimes sad but always well-written and performed with confidence and panache. Following Kabo, CJ Bowerbird, the Australian Poetry Slam champion of 2013, performed a bittersweet piece about winter. Musical backing from Dorothy-Jane gave the performance a moody, transportive quality, reminiscent of Nick Cave’s work with The Dirty Three. As host, CJ Bowerbird performed intermittently throughout the afternoon and each performance, backed by the Dorothy-Jane Band, was poignant, moody and absolutely immersive. Moments of heartfelt tragedy combined with raw humour to quietly tug at heartstrings in a way that cannot quite be explained. The thoughtfulness and poignancy of CJ Bowerbird contrasted well with Sydney based poet Catherina Behan who delighted the audience with her direct, conversational approach and gin-drinking ways (it was actually water, but who’s counting?) There was much honesty in Behan’s poems as she recounted tales of lost loves, self-identity and being the ‘other woman’. With a friendly and relaxed style, Behan’s performance held great warmth and clever comedic timing that at times belied the serious and emotive subject matter. Headlining was Anis Mojgani, two-time US National Poetry Slam Champion and winner of the International World Cup Poetry Slam. Introduced by CJ Bowerbird as a ‘marvelous weaver of stories’, Mojgani is a seasoned performer, demanding enthusiasm to match his own. His poems veered between personal experiences and shared human truths, tackling the big questions of life, death and love. With an expressive use of gesture, Mojgani mastered both the visual and aural elements of storytelling resulting in performance poetry that was finely crafted, humorous and utterly engaging. Watching Mogjani spin words was watching a master at work – his presence exuded the kind of dynamic charisma that is impossible to look away from. If you haven’t been to Bloody Lips before, it is highly recommended. Even if you’re not sure about performance poetry, go anyway. If you hate it (unlikely) wine makes everything more enjoyable. The next Bloody Lips is on Sunday 16 September and features Buddy Wakefield (USA), Andrew Galan (CBR), Amelia Filmer-Sankey (CBR) and Moochers Inc. Entry is free.
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JESS OLIVER
@bmamag
A R T | C O M E DY | D A N C E | L I T E R AT U R E | T H E AT R E
The few literates among you may have noticed my absence from these absorbent pages these last few weeks. This no doubt led to the curious inquisition of just what were the reasons for my absenteeism? Those reasons are my own and certainly none of your concern, you voyeuristic pervert. While engaged in eclectic activities whose only common thread is that none of them are any of your filthy business, I caught wind of several international incidents which have formed in large part the current global consciousness. As was ever the case, war and conflict continue to frame our concerns, with the seemingly inexorable decline towards new lows in civility beneficial only to politicians keen to divert attention from their own domestic shortcomings. What struck me most was not the particulars surrounding the bubbling tensions which so often spill over into avoidable confrontation, but the ceaseless reportage provided by a new phenomenon I believe to be termed ‘the 24-hour news cycle’. Much like I imagine would be the case for some unfortunate conjoined penguin, the 24-hour news cycle is able to sustain itself through the continual regurgitation and consumption of its own vomit. It is not enough to convey sparse, succinct facts for private deliberation; coverage must be embellished with conjecture, however wild, and the whole pukefest repeated every half hour.
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The chief motivation of this new format is not a desire to relay incidents and their origins to an ill-informed audience, but to keep that audience captive so that they may ultimately be flogged the latest must-have, ergonomic, environmentally-friendly, fuel injection, 4G, surround sound piece of needless filler that now comes with 40 minutes of never-before-seen footage. The maintenance of your attention supercedes the obligation for concise, balanced accuracy. I am not against these practices per se (I myself own several billion shares in News Limited), I am merely here to highlight that in order for advertisers to thrust the latest piece of slurry into your face, the news stories which precede the roll call of refuse must themselves be so spectacular and unresolvable that you dare not amend the transmission. It is under these circumstances of dramatised repetition that an impression is engendered of the world going to hell in a hand basket as never before, that everything is doomed and that forces of unparalleled evil cannot be prevented from sweeping the Earth - unless you stay tuned, and then get yourself down to Harvey Norman while stocks last. Conversely, you may take heart that these reports of inescapable Armageddon are delivered in the same breath as a leavening item on an adorable puppy whose cuteness scored its owner two tickets to the latest cinematic triumph, which itself is incidentally produced by the same corporation responsible for the newscast. That all this is delivered by a broadcaster who up until very recently was staring earnestly into the middle distance while their sponsored apparel, sculpted hair and airbrushed pout were gently caressed by the commercially savvy immediacy of a nearby zephyr, should give some indication as to the authenticity of it all. gideon foxington-smythe
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bit PARTS BELL SHAKESPEARE’S THE DREAM WHAT: Theatre WHEN: Sat Aug-Sep 30-13 WHERE: Canberra Theatre It’s been over ten years since the prestigious Bell Shakespeare has tackled The Bard’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and now lucky Canberra audiences will get a chance to catch their latest interpretation. Richard Piper and Julie Forsyth lead a cast of eight in the magical romantic comedy that deals with love, lust and confusion. “I want to remind people how funny this play is and how dark it is; Shakespeare’s observation on the fickleness of love and the irrationality of love is really dark,” says Co-Artistic Director Peter Evans. Tickets $35-$79 and details available from canberratheatrecentre.com.au HOUSE ON FIRE WHAT: Live music WHEN: Sat –Sun Sep 13–14 WHERE: The National Gallery of Australia As part of their Griffyn Fairy Tales concert series, local chamber music group The Griffyn Ensemble have embarked on wild collaborations and their latest foray, House On Fire, is no exception. Teaming up with local troubadours, loveable pop-folk duo The Cashews, House on Fire is a response to artist Arthur Boyd. Surreal and sweet, House On Fire explores place, belonging and identity through new tunes composed by The Cashews and reinterpreted by The Griffyn Ensemble. Two special performances will be held at the National Gallery of Australia, including inside the gallery’s Skyspace. Tickets range from $11.73 to $42.35, available at griffynensemble.com CANBERRA SHORT FILM FESTIVAL WHAT: Film festival WHEN: Fri–Sun Sep 19–21 WHERE: Dendy Cinemas Time to think big, film short. The Canberra Short Film Festival is on again, this time with an extra sweet bonus - ice cream! Over three days, see the best in local, national and international short films as well as the best flicks made by young folk (under 18). Every night of the festival will be capped off with a fabulous after party featuring live music, free nibbles and drinks as well as an ice cream float. Aussie director David Caesar (Mullet, Dirty Deeds) opens the festival on Friday at 6pm. Tickets from dendy.com.au LAVAZZA ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL WHAT: Film festival WHEN: Tue–Wed Sep–Oct 23–15 WHERE: Palace Electric Cinema Caffeine and fine cinema your thing? Get in line. Things are gonna heat up at Palace Electric Cinemas when the Lavazza Italian Film Festival rolls through in late September. Over the course of a few weeks, Palace will screen 33 new featured and documentaries, plus the restored Sophia Loren stone-cold classic, Marriage Italian Style. Guzzle some coffee and kick back with films featuring some of Italy’s most charismatic actors and top talent, including from Kim Rossi Stuart, Raoul Bova, Monica Bellucci, Claudio Santamaria and Sergio Rubini. For full details and tickets available from italianfilmfestival.com.au
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the word
on albums
album of the issue The New Pornographers Brill Bruisers [Matador]
There is something magnetic about The New Pornographers. On a logistical level, the band’s members live on practically every corner of North America, from New York to Vancouver, so there’s got to be some creative tug that pulls them back to each other every few years. Figuratively, however, there’s something more – and nowhere is this more evident than in their latest record, Brill Bruisers. Thirteen tracks of the New Pornographers’ classic, inimitable sound is galvanised by new innovations and superbly merciless pacing. An immediate, mesmeric stand-out is ‘Champions of Red Wine.’ Adhering strictly to frontman Carl Newman’s self-imposed ‘ballad-ban,’ it nonetheless manages to tell an oddly melancholic love story, even among the fast beat and ruthless rhythm. Another formidable track is the effervescent ‘Dancehall Domine.’ Domine, of course, being Latin for ‘master,’ it’s scarcely surprising that this song makes the rules. It’s peculiarly light melody is neatly offset by a sneaky undertone – here is a tune meant for the Good Old Bedroom Dance Party, but with a sweetly mocking strength. “Just like every idea/want to be like no other” is one such nugget of Domine Wisdom that, like several stomach-punching lines, hits as hard and fast as the beat. The following track, ‘Spidyr,’ would be a standout anyway, but the magnificent harmonica solo halfway through seals the deal. Again, it’s one of those
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curiously displacing moments – you think you’ve got the album pinned, until it goes and upends your expectations again. Brill Bruisers has got you fast by the ears and it’s never letting go. As with almost every offering The New Pornographers have presented, the album is filled with the trademark repetitions of ‘la,’ ‘ooh’ and ‘ah’. Instead of jarring the listener though, these half-words stand tall on their own, another pillar for the album to rest on. These syllables, so often nonsensical tokens clumsily inserted to show so-called ‘vocal range’ (ahem Top 40, I look directly at you) are here given a coherency, a cogency that says ‘hello, yes, we are just part of the whole. Keep listening, you’ll hear it. We’re just the magnets.’ The album is named for the Brill Building in New York, where the band will be performing in early September. Famous for its prominence in the musical history of New York, the Brill Building was once the home of many an iconic tune. Everything needed to produce a classic hit was housed inside the Brill – a musician could walk in early in the morning, find a song, a producer, jump in the recording studio and leave by five. So here again is the magnetism of The New Pornographers. The eponymous House of American Music cannot give up its name easily, but fortunately, Brill Bruisers wears its title like a crown. It is an homage to Brill’s big-band sound of the early 20th century, while also injecting it with an eclectic blend of innovation. Clearly, this album’s tugging appeal has many different faces. Another strength of Brill Bruisers are the magpie-like musical influences. This album is a kaleidoscope of sounds – here, quite peacefully nestled among one another, rests The Pixies, Neutral Milk Hotel, U2 – the list goes on and on. There’s even something of Sigue Sigue Sputnick’s infamous ‘Love Missile F1-11’ hidden inside the middle of the album. This kind of magnetism takes a great deal of skill, patience and insight to balance; yet here, it seems effortless, as though the genres and eras and icons are just casually rolling over one another, occasionally stopping to swap new tricks. Brill Bruisers is The New Pornographers at their best. Fast, free and formidable, their brand of hypnotic magic is certainly unique – but more than that, it’s irresistible.
Stephen Cummings Nothing to be Frightened Of [Head Records] Novelist, ex-frontman of Aussie pop-rockers The Sports and one time compatriot of Joe Camilleri in The Pelaco Brothers, Stephen Cummings has pushed out a massive 22 albums in his post-band era. His latest work brings back memories of his last show here in Smith’s Alternative Bookshop (as it was then). An enthralled audience listened to this man whose favourite mode of travel down form Sydney was the train, as he gifted us with his solo works and even an occasional Sports song. Cummings was unperturbed when he occasionally struggled with a song – just dropping it and carrying on regardless. Made with longtime collaborator Shane O’Mara in the latter’s studio, the low key percussion and keys (also provided by O’Mara) allow the spotlight to be firmly thrown on Cummings’ deeply etched vocals. These are well matched by his similarly scarred guitar strokes, in a masterful display of musicianship. It’s not that it’s very fast or very fancy – it’s the casual manner in which so much expression is put into the music. Cummings’ voice is a cross between a Mick Jagger drawl and the sharpness of James Reyne. There’s even a Dylan style annunciation to the title track, as he winds the words out and ties them in knots. The delivery to this mix of bluesy rock is generally very laid back, with room between lyrics, focusing on the timeless theme of good love gone bad. ‘Honeybee’, a rockabilly album highlight and one of the few up-tempo tracks, was so relaxed that Cummings even had time to make reference to a mouse crossing the studio floor, mid-track, without missing a beat. There are some great rhythms in Cummings’ slow guitar, with the man giving weight to every syllable. rory mccartney
indigo trail
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Lower Seek Warmer Climes [Matador]
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Only Run [Xtra Mile Records]
DIE!DIE!DIE! SWIM [RISH RECORDS]
Copenhagen-based post-punk band Lower first emerged onto the radar back in 2012 with their blistering Walk On Heads EP, and two years on this debut album Seek Warmer Climes sees the four piece signing to Matador whilst also refining their sound somewhat. While that aforementioned EP saw the band descending into chaotic noisy fury at points, the ten tracks collected here come across as far more focused, with frontman Adrian Toubro actually ‘singing’ here a lot more as opposed to screaming. Indeed, his vocals are often the most compelling focus here, shifting adeptly from a feral roar to a smooth croon more reminiscent of Scott Walker or even Brian Ferry.
Since releasing their third album Hysterical in 2011, indie rockers Clap Your Hands Say Yeah from Philadelphia have gifted us with the 2013 EP Little Moments and mislaid three of their members. This left only the core member and musical inspiration Alec Ounsworth and drummer Sean Greenhalgh. Only Run takes off where the generously applied synths and stratospherical vocals of Little Moments left off, with more of the same multi-faceted songs, but with even more twists. The simpler, more rock orientated sounds of Hysterical have been left far behind in a search for cyber glory, with Ounsworth at the helm of everything except the skins.
With their new album, Swim, New Zealanders, Die! Die! Die! have produced a raw, gritty punk album that that easily could have been pulled out of the 70s, when bands like the Sex Pistols and The Clash were the voices of punk.
Throughout this album the intensity levels pretty much don’t let up, with the sort of tribal post-punk drumming you’d associate with the likes of Killing Joke or Joy Division powering beneath a densely layered landscape of atonal guitar textures on the expansively filmic seven minute long centrepiece ‘Expanding Horizons (Dar Es Salaam)’, one of this collection’s most spectacular highlights. ‘Soft Option’ meanwhile wanders out into a doomy PiLesque funk bass groove that allows plenty of space for Toubro’s gothy reverb-heavy vocals to stretch out against shimmering layers of guitar strokes straight out of ‘Disintegration’, offering up one of the few more delicate moments on offer here. Elsewhere, thundering and propulsive offerings such as the urgent and bassloaded ‘Another Life’ and ‘Daft Persuasion’ see Lower going straight for the throat and a pogo-ing dancefloor at the same time, arguably marrying together the band’s greatest strengths. While it occasionally feels like Lower are still finding the right balance of elements here, this is an ambitious and impressive debut album chris downton
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Opener ‘As Always’ sets the complex scene, building the suspense with a long, modulated tone, before being sequentially boosted by robust drumming, gentled by swooping synths, gilded with echoing vocals and frosted with guitar licks. The track fades out with ranks of marching keys in this multi-tiered electro tiramisu of a song, before fuzzy vocals reappear at the end, accompanied only by a simple acoustic guitar tune. So has Ounsworth over stretched himself, trying to fit too much into one song? Almost, but not quite. ‘Beyond Illusion’ is tick-tock Krautrock, with its sideshow mirror warped vocals while ‘Cover Up’ surprises with its antique radio beginning (“Last chance to dance with your girl, or someone else’s girl”) before reveling in Gary Numan-esque thrumming synths, set off against Freddie Mercury pitch vocals. Supremely arty in construct, Only Run explores the fluro alleyways of your dance hungry mind, with tracks that build their own momentum, creating crescendos before slamming into surprising turns or dead ends, like the sudden collapse from frenzy to spoken word in ‘Coming Down’. rory mccartney
This is a punk band that genuinely sounds like a punk band – something of a rarity these days and although some may find that there are differences in this album to some of their previous ones, the meaty bass line, barking vocals, sharp guitars and take no shit attitude still remain true. There are moments when Swim becomes slightly repetitive, with tracks such as ‘Jealousy’ sounding typical and slightly overdone and sometimes it seems as if the band are reaching for a more mature sound, but struggling to find it. Regardless, the majority of Swim is a refreshing addition to the genre. For long-time fans, the album sticks to their basement origins and for newcomers the track ‘Crystal’, although slower than their usual tracks, is the perfect introductory song. Swim is an album that sucks you in with a sound that leaves you with the impression that you’re in a buzzing underground bar watching the band play their hearts out in front of a crowd of sweaty punk fans. It shows that the band are capable of an incredible instrumental sound that will hopefully continue to appear in any upcoming music from the guys. All in all, it’s a damn fine addition to punk as we know it. nicola sheville
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Gusgus mexico [Kompakt]
Eaten By Dogs Eaten By Dogs [Black Hat Records]
Milwaukee Banks Rose Water [Inertia]
When Icelandic electronic outfit Gusgus first made ripples in international waters with their 1997 album Polydistortion they were a sprawling 13 member audiovisual collective comprised of musicians, actors and film-makers, with their downbeat tunes more readily associated with the then-peaking triphop scene. From 2002’s Attention album onwards though (and its accompanying breakout single ‘David’) they’ve increasingly been inclined more towards peaktime club dancefloors, whilst also slimming down their ranks to a current lineup of just four core members.
There’s a healthy horror-country following in Australia, with outfits like Graveyard Train, Graveyard Sons and Graveyard (anything else you care to mention). These bands are renowned for material that is boisterous and either a combination of horror and humour, or just plain menacing. With a moniker like Eaten By Dogs, you’d expect lashings of edgy, dark material. However, this is a false signpost as this alt-country outfit from Melbourne is more sad than scary.
While the name at first suggests some new up and coming US rapper, Milwaukee Banks is actually a Melbourne-based duo comprised of former Polo Club MC Dylan Thomas and beatmaker/producer Edo Rafter (aka Flight Tonight). That said, there’s a distinctly future-US feel to the six tracks collected on this debut EP Rose Water, which sees the duo marrying a sleek and minimal synth aesthetic with elements of footwork, leftfield electronics and bass music influences. There’s certainly a woozy sense of crawl to these tracks, aided by Thomas’ pitched down chopped n’ screwed style vocal delivery at points here, but in this case the darker edges remain balanced out by bright synth atmospheres that occasionally veer towards future-soul and RnB. ‘Pluto Bounce’ opens proceedings with a lazy slide out into airy washed out synth pads and spidery footwork snare programming, the edgy twitching rhythms nicely counterpointing Thomas’ lazy lyrical flow, which manages to take in both Stone Temple Pilots and “jellybean coloured socks” in one surrealist haze.
This ninth album Mexico continues this increasingly house / techno-oriented trajectory, with the nine sheeny dancefloor excursions collected here smoothly merging with Kompakt’s established glossy tech aesthetic. Opening track ‘Obnoxiously Sexual’ gives a pretty good indication of the predominant mood being explored here, blending Haraldsson’s smooth New Wave soul vocals with shimmering electronics and fluttering electro-house rhythms, the end result coming across like a contemporary take on Heaven 17’s crisp synth-pop. Elsewhere, ‘Another Life’ offers up a moody electro-disco wander through vampy Moroder-esque bass synths that sees Urour Hakonadottir’s RNB-tinged lead vocal being nicely counterpointed by Haraldsson’s dark vocoder-treated background mutterings. While Mexico comes across as easily one of the most polished offerings in Gusgus’ discography, there’s the occasional sense that this increasing dancefloor sheeny-ness has been at the expense of some of the more eccentric edges that made them so interesting in the first place. Still, there are few dance-oriented acts out there who can boast about having a ninth album as strong as this. chris downton
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Darkness there is a plenty, but it’s more the gloom of a melancholy overcast or depression, than a rabid fearsomeness. An unusual choice for an opener, ‘The Longest Shadow’ is an elegant, gentle strummer, with a long lead in. While its more a contemplative tune than an attention grabber, it is an accurate forecast of the feel of the album with its haunting lap steel casting an aura of loneliness and distance and talk of “shades of grey”. ‘If It Ain’t Killing You, It’s Sure Killing Me’ picks up the pace, with a cheeky melody, twangy guitar and group vocals on the chorus. Song titles like ‘Gallows in Disguise’ and references to digging your own grave or a ‘jumper’ splattering on the ground, fit in with the horror-country brand, but they don’t have the impact you’d expect. There are plenty of catchy notes from the capable fingers of Mick Hansby on guitar, glimpses of humour so dry it would make you cough and vocalist Chris Lichti is easy to listen to, sounding like Johnny Cash in ‘Ain’t a Bad Man’. When he and Hansby join together in singing, it lifts up the album. However, in spite of plenty of perky notes, the overall vibe is a mournful, beer-soaked one. rory mCcartney
‘Sweater Made Of Gold’ gets more spacious and laidback, sending a headnodding woodblock groove rolling against gently swelling synths, before the pitched-down vocal midsection takes things into grittier West Coast hip-hop territory against shimmering electro arpeggios. Elsewhere, ‘Rose Water’ sees fellow Melbourne beatmaker Kira sliding into the co-producer chair as layers of vocoder treatment on Thomas’s RnB chorus harmonies add a warm glossy edge to the finely detailed layers of fluttering snares and thudding kicks that power beneath. While there’s an occasional sense of lack of variation to the six tracks collected here, on the whole this is a strong debut from Milwaukee Banks. chris downton
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singles in focus by cody atkinson I Heart Hiroshima ‘Washed Up’
#1 Dads about face [Pieater/Inertia]
David Gray mutineers [label]
Before I get stuck into praising #1 Dads’ – aka Tom Lansek’s - sophomore album, I must first tackle the inevitable comparison Lansek’s lead project, alt-rock two-piece Big Scary. Though Lansek’s vocals will be recognisable for the seasoned fan, the sound is not parallel between the two. About Face is an album that can be respected as a sibling to Big Scary’s work, or as an only child regarded alone. The heavy sonic soundscapes of Not Art – BS’ second album - do not make an appearance, nor does its characteristic bursts of urgency. However, the emotional frequency is similar. Lansek extracts from the everyday and makes magic from the mundane, breaking hearts whilst crooning about grocery shopping. The man has a gift.
UK folk-rocker David Gray has released eleven albums in his 21 year career, with a style that has drifted from straight folk to embrace a more electronically enhanced style of music. He’s come a long way from the simple ‘boy and a guitar’ acoustic delivery of ‘Shine’ in his debut album, to the layered electronic folktronica of the 1998 LP White Ladder which spelled career success. Mutineers, mixed and produced by ex-Lamb member Andy Barlow (who also co-wrote several tracks), sees an album that makes clever use of modest effects and layers.
The pace across About Face’s nine tracks isn’t exhaustive enough to consume the listener, yet is firm enough to be lulled into with very little desire to leave. Drawing away from the organic core heard on #1 Dads debut, Man of Leisure, artificial beats form a backbone for the record. They have been padded out with acoustic strumming like the dreamy washes of ‘Nominal’, bathed in eighties euphoria such as the glorious guitar tone heard on ‘Soldier’ featuring Ainslie Wills, or slid under piano riffs to form a sultry undercurrent like ‘Return To’ with Tom Snowden. Collaboration is a new area for Iansek, a way of being interesting without overcomplicating. The musicians heard, whilst complimentary to Iansek’s style, are remarkable in their own right. Simple instrumentation is used throughout the album – see the softly memorising duet ‘God Can Promise’ with Airling – and complexity avoided. Because, at the heart of it, About Face is about doing the simple things well. ANGELA CHRISTIAN-WILKES
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Gray’s voice has folk-country tonal qualities you’ve got to love, laden with subtle emotion. The trouble is, his vocal talents are not shown off to best advantage in an album in which the results are only middling. It’s not that the album doesn’t try hard. It’s a happy LP with lyrics which draw strong links with nature as part of the album’s positive vibe. Tracks are either upbeat like the opener or warm and comfy, as in ‘As the Crow Flies’ which follows it. Best tunes pop up in ‘Back in the World’ which combines two lighthearted melodies and ‘Girl Like You’ with its pleasing mix of cadences. Then there’s the title track whose arresting rhythm comes closer to something really striking than anything else in this LP. There’s added depth in the call and response vocal support in tracks like ‘Cake and Eat It’. Compositions are elegant too, as seen in the enfolding strings in ‘Last Summer’. Despite all these factors, it’s the combination of being too pretty and too cozy which results in an unexciting product, that fails to strike sparks. Strictly in the adult contemporary camp, it makes for easy listening.
In the pantheon of underrated Brisbane/ Australian bands, I Heart Hiroshima sit somewhere near the top. After a couple of years on the sidelines, ‘Washed Up’ sees them return with angular guitars, free flowing drums and boy/girl vocal interplay. A great mix of restraint and aggression.
Deerhoof ‘Exit Only’ Deerhoof go heavy and hard on ‘Exit Only’, with little being held back. Satomi’s sometimes cloying vocals struggle for attention with the sheer sonic assault laid on by those over-driven, fuzzed out guitars. A bit heavier than the recent Deerhoof output, but certainly no worse.
Taylor Swift ‘Shake It Off’ Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you and I’mma let you finish, but this isn’t good. This feels like it’s dance pop from 2004, with token sass and severely limited vocabulary. ‘Shake It Off’ reminds me of both everything and nothing at the same time – a Schrödinger’s cat of Top 40 pop music
Wives ‘Buried’ The first single from the newly rechristened Wives sees all the fancy guitar interplay on show. Make no mistake, the shrill guitars are the hero here and the cold beat behind just serves to drive the action. The hardest part here is the polarising vocals, but if you buy in it’s well worth it.
rory mccartney
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the word
on films
WITH MELISSA WELLHAM
Joel Edgerton is one of those Australian actors that has successfully crossed over to Hollywood, and managed to cement his star power. He played Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby, starred in Zero Dark Thirty, and almost ten years ago was in films like King Arthur and Ned Kelly. But his recent scriptwriting effort with Felony, and developing the story behind The Rover, suggests that Edgerton might have a career as a scriptwriter in front of him, that’s just as strong as his acting career. It’ll be interesting to see what he does next.
quote of the issue “Time and the world swallows events. And one day the world is going to swallow us up.” – Carl Summer (Tom Wilkinson), Felony
Magic in the Moonlight
Felony
The Inbetweeners 2
Woody Allen proved he could write compelling characters, especially female ones, with Blue Jasmine. So why make films that are all ogle, no substance? Colin Firth plays magician Wei Ling Soo (that’s another thing – I doubt directors would ask their actors to dress up in blackface, but making fun of Asians is apparently okay) a thoroughly miserable man convinced of his own intellectual superiority, and certain that reason and science always trump mysticism and spirituality. Enter Emma Stone as Sophie Baker, a beautiful young clairvoyant whom Wei Ling Soo, aka Stanley Taplinger, is determined to expose as a fraud. Yawn. We’ve seen this before. An older man, seasoned with experience and knowledge meeting his match in a significantly younger woman who lacks education and worldliness. Add a supposedly cute battle of logic versus spiritualism that doesn’t really go anywhere – along with two very talented actors that try as they might can’t save this film – and you have Magic in the Moonlight. Try as I might to ignore the media furore regarding Woody Allen’s personal life, watching a film about a young, inexperienced woman being brought under the wing and ‘educated’ by a much older man made me a little queasy.
Written by and starring Joel Edgerton (Animal Kingdom, Wish You Were Here), and directed by Matthew Saville (Noise), Felony is yet more proof that Australians can make some pretty darn good genre films.
This one is for the fans. Had you never seen the award winning TV show before watching this film I doubt it would entice you to go and check it out (but you should if you enjoy dirty one-liners and dick and fart jokes, it’s unmatched by anything except maybe South Park). People who enjoyed the show will enjoy watching these feckless twats comically lurch from one self-induced disaster to the next.
The setting (the south of France during the 1920s) is gorgeous and the costumes are lovely. Unfortunately that is not enough to sustain 98 minutes of film. Watch the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice instead.
Felony is a film that leaves you genuinely questioning what you would do, if placed in any one of the characters’ shoes – and you might not like the answers you end up with.
emma robinson
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In Felony, three detectives become embroiled in a dangerous and tense struggle, when one of them commits a crime. Mal (Joel Edgerton) accidentally runs over a boy while driving drunk, leaving him in a critical condition. Carl (Tom Wilkinson), a detective at the end of his career, tries to help Mal cover it up. Jim (Jai Courtney), Carl’s partner, can sense that something is up – and he won’t stop digging. It’s a tightly directed and well-acted film, but what really makes Felony stand out from other cop thrillers are the many shades of grey. Edgerton and Saville have created a film that refuses to write any character off as all good, or all bad. Even the most morally upright character can be a bit of a prick; and the most morally bereft, sympathetic. This isn’t a film about police corruption, per se – which would make the good guys and the bad guys so much more obvious – but about how the justice system works in practice. A film about how real life ruins ideals.
melissa wellham
Will (Simon Bird), Simon (Joe Thomas) and Neil (Blake Harrison) find themselves at a loose end and decide to bugger of to Australia to visit Jay (James Buckley) who is on a ‘mental’ gap year in Australia. Unsurprisingly they arrive to find Jay’s claims of DJ-ing at an insanely popular nightclub and living in a mansion surrounded by ridiculously gorgeous women to be exaggerated (i.e., total bulls***t). Undeterred they set of on an adventure that takes them to Byron Bay and beyond. It’s basically a long episode – the characters haven’t really evolved. Will is still crippled by is awkwardness, Simon is completely clueless about women, Jay wildly compensates for everything with horny bravado and Neil is completely stupid. Having said all that, there are some moments of comic gold (Will’s rant to a selfimportant back-packer should be given to every wanker that comes back from India thinking they’re so much better than everyone else). A fun movie but watch the TV show first. EMMA ROBINSON
@bmamag
Locke
20,000 Days on Earth
The last time someone made a one-man-show film quite like Locke, was Buried with Ryan Reynolds in 2010.
What’s more Nick Cave than Nick Cave? How about Nick Cave acting Nick Cave in a kind-of documentary about Nick Cave’s life, with voiceovers and meditations on the nature of art, creativity and humanity from Nick Cave. You’ve just been Nick Caved.
In Locke, Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises) plays a construction foreman named Ivan Locke – and the entire film is set inside his car, as he makes phone calls to the outside world. Locke is a calm, well-considered man who speaks with clipped vowels; he has dedicated his life to his job working with concrete and his family. But one phone call changes all that, and as he drives across the country his perfectly constructed life begins to crumble. Directed by Steven Knight (Eastern Promises), Locke is a thriller – but a thriller in which no one’s life is at stake, and there aren’t millions of dollars on the line. It’s a thriller made up of daily mundanities, and the small decisions we make each day that can define our lives. Ivan Locke is the personification of existentialism. Tom Hardy delivers – and there’s really no other way to describe it – a tour de force performance. His subtle intensity means that the film is engaging from beginning to end – which is no mean feat. Hardy and Steven Knight have managed to make even concrete interesting.
Nick Cave is certainly one of the most interesting and enigmatic figures in music alive today, and this new film – a blend of fiction and documentary that charts his 20,000th day alive on the planet – allows the audience into his world, and into his head. Nick Cave is both the subject and co-creator of this film, which weaves together staged (but not scripted) scenes, musical performances and monologues. The film is perhaps strongest during the immersive, spinetingling concert scenes, but the interview segments are also illuminating. Questions that pry into Cave’s relationship with his deceased father and former life as a junkie, provide insight into the man behind the music. It’s a messy, patchwork piece of film – but still a bit brilliant. Clever and comic, sensational and understated by turns, it’s sometimes a tad melodramatic (especially when those monologues, that might as well be music lyrics, start).
This film feels more like an experiment than anything else – it’s not exactly an enjoyable film, and the format’s challenges are difficult to overcome – but it is an extraordinary experiment.
It’s not really a documentary; and not just because of the staged, artistically shot interviews. The film is more of a memory, spun onto celluloid. And it’s probably the closest we’ll ever get into Nick Cave’s head.
MELISSA WELLHAM
MELISSA WELLHAM
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43
the word on dvds
Justified:season five [Universal Sony Entertainment]
Noah [Paramount]
Generation Iron [Madman]
When it was announced the next season of Justified will be its last it created a sense of relief. Don’t get me wrong, it is a brilliant show, one of the best in the past decade but it feels like it’s losing its tautness; like Ava Crowder’s (Joelle Carter) stint in prison which was way too Orange is the New Black for comfort. A good, transitional season.
First up, anyone making a major studio, big budget religious epic in an era where some agitators are trying to whip up a modern day Crusades is gutsy. Secondly, interlacing it with some of the most esoteric and eye melting cinematography in recent memory deserves hearty applause. And thirdly, as if to taunt all the bloviating middle age sceptics out there, to then construct the film around a theme of man-made environmental catastrophe thereby consciously subverting the scriptures is an insane cherry on an already targetready cake. If ever there was a film that was built for instant failure, Noah looks like it. Darren Aronofksy is no stranger to dazzling cinematic style and difficult themes; one of his most famous films Requiem for a Dream combined both in a truly gut-churning experience. Noah isn’t quite so harsh but the patina of oversaturation, sped-up time lapse and dense colouring throughout the film is more than atmosphere setting – it noticeably increases tension. When you add the (suitably) epic views of a great big arc taking shape, the journey of animals to said arc and the overwhelming and paradoxical sense of claustrophobia/space inside the arc…well, it’s probably the most visually arresting pieces of filmmaking in a few years. Russell Crowe’s Noah is part Biblical tradition, part action hero. He seems to be adopting the Jack Thompson school of robust masculine oratory more and more and more with every role. All jibes aside, he’s pretty bloody good and one of the few actors who fills the screen with sheer ineffable, sometimes insufferable, charisma. Jennifer Connelly is even better; her multilayered performance of someone dealing with a spouse more concerned with divine mystery than earthly rationality is simply stunning. Like the arc in the centre of it all, Noah holds together against all odds.
justin hook
justin hook
Bodybuilding has been at the forefront of body modification for decades. The granddaddy of modern bodybuilding, Charles Atlas, was a tiny (44 kgs) Italian immigrant obsessed with overcoming his physical deficiencies after being bullied as a child. By steeling his mind and modifying his body through rigorous training, Atlas became a superstar. The modern day Atlas’s in Generation Iron are also looking to become flex superstars. There’s little doubt they take modifying the shape of the human body to its absolute extremes in their quest to become Mr Olympia. Tellingly in a short aside a previous multiple Mr Olympia winner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, makes his disdain for the new breed of over pumped mutants quite clear, suggesting there’s nothing natural or proportional about it. And for a doco about the bodybuilding scene the elephant in the weight room – steroids – is broached for a mere four minutes, max. And when performance enhancing drugs to get a guernsey the negative impacts are ‘scientifically’ disputed. Still, maybe that was a point they were trying to make; that even the industry itself refuses to acknowledge how much they are used. Generation Iron comes from the same filmmaker (Vlad Yudin) who made the legendary 80’s doco Pumping Iron, a film that lifted the veil on the bodybuilding subculture. In the process it made the aforementioned Austrian a megastar. It’s unlikely there’ll be any crossover stars from this one – the inclusion of a bumbling screen test from Russian/German competitor Dennis Wolf seems to be saying “Don’t bother, guys”. The other competitors the film follows open up their training and personal lives, but you never get any sense of who they are or what really drives them beyond winning. For a doco about a niche subject and one that intertwines the mental with the physical this is a major flaw.
For a show that rests comfortably on its loquacious Southern charm, the first episode of Justified’s fifth season sure is hectic. There’s a shootout with some drug deal dodging out-of-towners that eventually finds Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins in a career-defining role) in Detroit negotiating with a pair of Canadian mobsters. Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), the ying to Boyd’s yang is also out of town, in Florida chasing down the extended Crowe clan over sugar smuggling. On the way he chats with a friendly alligator farmer who plays up the mystical voodoo man for full effect and possibly just walked off the True Detective set. Raylan ends up shooting a Cuban called Elvis escaping to Cuba in a dinghy. Like I said, hectic. There is no such thing as a bad episode of Justified. Even the ones that go nowhere are never boring; with a cast so settled into their Dixie Mafia environs they could probably ad lib an entire 45 minutes and it’d still be utterly quotable and thoroughly watchable. This time around the stakes rise a bit in Harlan County – Raylan finds there are limits to his personal and professional charm and Crowder makes good on five years of hinting at something bigger to devastating effect. The show is obviously closing in on Boyd and Raylan, setting up a final season where two of the best characters/actors will go head to head. Quips and bullets will flow.
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justin hook
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45
the word
on gigs
Courtney Love, The Mercy Kills UC Refectory Saturday August 23 The Mercy Kills mounted the stage to a music box lullaby tune. They warmed up the huge bank of speakers with their trashy-glam rock set. The Melbourne four piece seemed formulaic at first, with similar songs presented in the same style. However, things picked up with the heavier, measured pace of ‘Save’ and ‘No Mercy’, with its strong backing harmonies from the female guitarist and bass player. They also gained variety in the vocals when bassist Jennifer joined front man Mark in songs. The band wrapped-up with their signature drummer’s trick of finishing the closing song with flaming sticks. For the main event, it was important to view Courtney Love as a musician and not be swayed by her larger than life celebrity status as an ex-exotic dancer, feminist, actress, ex-wife of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain or general wild woman about town. She’s had enough dramas for three lifetimes. A couple of tiara-wearing fans breasted the stage, hoping the star of the night would also be wearing one in keeping with previous Australian shows. However, they were disappointed. After ‘Bolero’ as a musical intro, Love appeared in a short, lacy black outfit and tights, but with no headgear. She appeared tired and distracted at first, but that impression faded as the show rolled on. If some people wear their sexuality like a badge, this woman wears it like banner, playing guitar with one leg raised high on a box by the mic. Beginning with ‘Wedding Day’, the show contained everything fans could have hoped for. The long set list appeared to be more of a menu than a fixed path. Love orchestrated the show, casting a pensive eye over the song sheet and then consulting another guitarist, before they’d leap into the next song. Fans were enthralled when she perched on the stage edge, casting a smoldering glare over them through narrowed eyes. A couple of times Love asked if there was a qualified chiropractor in the house. However, an offer from a woman with dyed green hair was rejected as lacking professional credibility. Compliments from the crowd were met with, “Yes, I am still hot and I haven’t even been to a plastic surgeon for a decade.” Love periodically threw guitar picks into the mosh pit, like a queen distributing bread to her subjects. Apart from songs from her solo career, including of course the tour theme ‘You Know My Name’, there were plenty of favourites for Hole fans. Its 25 years since Hole first lashed concert goers, but Love has not changed or softened her tone, screaming full throttle the lyrics to ‘Violet’ – “Go on take everything/Take everything/I want you to”. Awesome! ‘Make Me Over’ and ‘Malibu’ went down well with the punters, the latter song having an extended finish, with Love folding the mic out over the crowd so they could sing along. Covers included Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Gold Dust Woman’ and some of the chorus from ‘Hey Jude’. Back for an encore in a long white dress, Love enjoyed a quick smoke before launching into a slow acoustic version of The Crystals ‘He Hit Me (And it Felt Like a Kiss)’, before rocking back and forth on stage in a contemplative pose. The run of slower songs continued with ‘Petals’, before she gifted us with ‘Doll Parts’. When it was all over, there was a curtsey to the crowd, followed by the finger (softened with a big smile). There had been none of the negative interaction with the crowd which distracted from her Adelaide concert and Love appeared to enjoy the night as much as we did.
PHOTOS BY MARK TURNER
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RORY MCCARTNEY
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the word
on gigs
Bob Dylan Royal Theatre - Friday August 29 Let me start this review on a note of honesty – I’m far out of my depth here. From where I stand, there doesn’t seem to be much need for another Bob Dylan review in this world. I think most people have made up their minds by now. Nevertheless, I wasn’t not going to say no to free Bob Dylan tickets, so here we are. Dylan’s band was tight and he was more vocally consistent than one might normally expect. There were great moments but also some confusing ones. The setlist was what one would expect from a performer who has been touring virtually non-stop for two-anda-half decades and has reached a point in his life and career where he can literally do whatever he wants. It contained big portions of his latest album Tempest, while many of his more iconic works were given a miss and the ones which were included were heavily altered, incorporating new arrangements, melodies and/or lyrics. At the end of the show, after his encore which consisted of only vaguely recognisable versions of ‘All Along the Watchtower’ and ‘Blowin’ in the Wind,’ Dylan spent a good minute standing still under the light at the front of the stage; a gesture which for me highlighted the most disappointing aspect of the show. Though probably not the fault of Dylan, I got the impression that he was not being viewed as a musician or performer, but merely as an exhibition; a wax sculpture of himself. As he sat in front of thousands of seated viewers who at times seemed more worried about snapping a picture (despite the countless number of ‘no photography’ signs) than enjoying the company of Bob-fucking-Dylan, I couldn’t help but find the experience somewhat hollow. And a sidenote to a lady who was sitting near me – if no one else is clapping along with you, it’s probably time to stop. Ian Mccarthy
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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Wed Sep 10 - Fri Sep 12
Listings are a free community service. Email editorial@bmamag.com to have your events appear each issue. wednesday september 10
Art Exhibitions Action Stations
Work by Louise Paramor & Peter Maloney. Tue-Fri 11am-5pm. Sat 10am-4pm. Until Sep 27. Free.
Wednesday Night Gigs
Showcasing local talented musicians. 8pm. Free. LITTLE BROOKLYN
Acoustic Soup
Organic food and local music. 7pm. $8/$10. ANU FOOD CO-OP
CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)
Something Different
Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award
Rock School
Screen based portraiture finalists. 10am-5pm daily. Free. NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
The Italian Connection
Art exhibition. 9-4pm Mon - Fri. 9-3pm Sat. 9-27 Sept. Opening night 5.30, Wed 10th Sept. THE Q - QUEANBEYAN ARTS CENTRE
Salvaged
Sculptures by Adele Cameron. Until Sep 15. THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ
Transitions
Art exhibition. 10am-4pm. Tues-Sat. Free. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE
On Men
Louise Paramor & Peter Maloney. Until Sep 27. Tue-Fri 11am-5pm. Sat 10am4pm. Free. CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)
Start a band, jam all week, then perform at Floriade. 7-11 Oct. 1.30pm5.30pm. Floriade Oct 12. 4pm. AINSLIE ARTS CENTRE
Theatre The Dream
Bell Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Magic and mayhem. Aug 30-Sep 13. Info and bookings onl
Tranny Trivia
Questions with Glamour. 8pm. Free. POLIT BAR & LOUNGE
thursday september 11 Art Exhibitions An exploration of the Canberra region. Sep 11-28. Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free.
Arcadia: Sound of the Sea
Ice Floes and Growlers
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
M16 ARTSPACE
TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE
Floored
By Susan Buret. Sep 4-14. Wed-Sun 1-am-5pm. Free.
CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)
Masters of Modern Indonesian Portraiture Art exhibition. 13 Sept-15 Oct. 10am5pm. Free. NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
Dry Your Tears
New work by Ray Leggott. Opening 5th Sept at 6pm. Runs until 12 Oct. STUR GALLERY
Exhibition French Australian Preschool
Bell Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Magic and mayhem. Aug 30-Sep 13. Info and bookings onl THE PLAYHOUSE
friday september 12
The Cub Callaway Band. Live music. 8pm. $10.
With City Lit Skies, Obey the Lifeless, Harley Quinn & more. Live music. Time TBA. Price TBA. MAGPIES CITY CLUB
The Night Cafe
Live music. 6pm. Free. POLIT BAR & LOUNGE
Castlecomer
8pm. Presale via Moshtix. TRANSIT BAR
Live Music
Acoustic local & interstate musicians. 9.30pm. Free. LITTLE BROOKLYN
UP Friday
Live music. Free. 9pm. ELEVATED NIGHTCLUB
Heuristic
10pm. Free.
DURHAM CASTLE ARMS
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
On The Town
Live Music
Alive Fridays
DJ Rawson
9.30pm. Free.
HELLENIC CLUB (WODEN)
Presenting Slice N Dice. $10 entry before 11pm. ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB
House Concert
With Tobias Hengeveld and Alex & Joel. 8pm. $5-$10. NIGEL & BETH’S PLACE
Live Music Hard Cover
Live music. 9pm. Free.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Alturas
Traditional & modern jazz & tango. Time TBA. $15/$20. THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ
The King Hits & The Kingstons Live music. 9pm. Free. THE PHOENIX BAR
Andy Bull
Supporting his ‘Sea of Approval’. 8pm. Presale via Moshtix. TRANSIT BAR
With In2Deep. 7.30pm. $10-$15. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
Live music. Free entry. 10pm. ELEVATED NIGHTCLUB
BILK GALLERY
Live duo
Live Music
DURHAM CASTLE ARMS
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
The Dream
Double Chamber
M16 ARTSPACE
Shake Dat Thursday
Smiths Soapbox. An evening of political song writing. 7.30pm. $5-$10.
Theatre
THE BASEMENT
By Ngaio Fitzpatrick. Sep 11-28. WedSun 12-5pm. Free.
On the Horizon
The CMC presents Wednesday Nights
POLIT BAR & LOUNGE
With Darker Half, Self is a Seed, Renegade Peacock, Diamond Noir, Tundrel, Loud so Clear, Clinical F
A Lightness of Being
Thursday Jazz
Solo exhibition of glassworks by Lisa Cahill. Until Sep 20.
3 girls read aloud from various books. 7.30pm. $15. Book at: politbar.co.
A Night of Rock and Metal
An exploration of Antarctica. Sep 1128. Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free.
Art exhibition. Creative workshop. MonThurs. 8am-5pm. ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE
Naked Girls Reading
The Feldons & The Crossbones
M16 ARTSPACE
Arts by students of Lake Tuggeranong College. Mon-Fri 10am-7pm. Sat 10am-4pm. Until Sep 13. Free.
AINSLIE ARTS CENTRE
Trivia
ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY
Tone, Colour and Space
Start a band, jam all week, then perform at Floriade. 7-11 Oct. 1.30pm5.30pm. Floriade Oct 12. 4pm.
None
In Translation
Expression of the 70s. Aug 14 - Oct 19. 10am-5pm daily. Free.
Rock School
THE PLAYHOUSE
Colour Music
The rapport between music & visuals. Until Sep 28. Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free.
Something Different
8pm. Free.
On The Town 4some Thursdays Free entry.
ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB
Open Mic Feature Act : Sam Carmichael
Sassy & unsuspected covers. 6pm. Free. OJO CAFE AND BAR
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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Fri Sep 12 - Wed Sep 17 Something Different Rock School
Start a band, jam all week, then perform at Floriade. 7-11 Oct. 1.30pm5.30pm. Floriade Oct 12. 4pm. AINSLIE ARTS CENTRE
Art Underground Open Mic Night
Share your short stories, poetry, music or general verbal art. 7pm. Free. BEYOND Q
Theatre The Dream
Bell Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Magic and mayhem. Aug 30-Sep 13. Info and bookings onl THE PLAYHOUSE
saturday september 13 Art Exhibitions Action Stations
Work by Louise Paramor & Peter Maloney. Tue-Fri 11am-5pm. Sat 10am-4pm. Until Sep 27. Free.
CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)
Salvaged
Sculptures by Adele Cameron. Until Sep 15. THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ
In Translation
An exploration of the Canberra region. Sep 11-28. Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE
On Men
Louise Paramor & Peter Maloney. Until Sep 27. Tue-Fri 11am-5pm. Sat 10am4pm. Free. CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)
Live Music
The Acoustic Sessions
Angus and Julia Stone
IRON BAR
With special guests. Live music. 8pm. Tickets $54.90 from Ticketek. LLEWELLYN HALL
Colour Music
Elevated Saturday
ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY
ELEVATED NIGHTCLUB
The rapport between music & visuals. Until Sep 28. Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free.
Arcadia: Sound of the Sea
Expression of the 70s. Aug 14 - Oct 19. 10am-5pm daily. Free. NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
Tone, Colour and Space
Arts by students of Lake Tuggeranong College. Mon-Fri 10am-7pm. Sat 10am-4pm. Until Sep 13. Free. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE
Floored
By Susan Buret. Sep 4-14. Wed-Sun 1-am-5pm. Free.
CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)
Ice Floes and Growlers
An exploration of Antarctica. Sep 1128. Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE
Exhibition French Australian Preschool
Art exhibition. Creative workshop. MonThurs. 8am-5pm. ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE
On the Horizon
Solo exhibition of glassworks by Lisa Cahill. Until Sep 20.
Live music. Free entry before 10pm, $5 after.
Heuristic
9.30pm. Free.
HELLENIC CLUB (WODEN)
Derek Ryan
Irish country music. Time TBA. Tickets $30 at 6288 5088. CANBERRA IRISH CLUB
The Mighty Yak
Live music. 10.30pm. Free.
CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
monday september 15 Ripple Tank Presents The Bootleg Sessions
With Primary Colours, New Age Group & P A R K S. 8pm. Free. THE PHOENIX BAR
tuesday september 16 Karaoke Karaoke Madness
THE PHOENIX BAR
POLIT BAR & LOUNGE
Live music. 9.30pm. Free.
Client Liaison
Dance, electric & pop. 8pm. Presale via Moshtix. TRANSIT BAR
Sun Rai + Ben Vanderwal
58,000 songs to choose from. 8pm late. Free.
Karaoke Love
Croon and wail your heart out on the Transit stage. 9pm. Free. TRANSIT BAR
Live music. 8pm, $20. trybooking.com.
Live Music
Live Music
Ari & Mia & Lucy Wise Trio
LITTLE BROOKLYN
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
Acoustic local & interstate musicians. 9.30pm. Free.
A Lightness of Being
O’NEILL’S IRISH PUB
Live music. 8pm. Tickets at trybookings. com.
Live music. 9pm.
Trivia
Special K
Paddy and Frank’s Hacks & Headlines Trivia
10pm. Free.
DURHAM CASTLE ARMS
On The Town Love Saturdays
Trivia. 7.30pm. Price TBA. THE PHOENIX BAR
wednesday september 17
With Jake Raven. $10 entry all night.
Art Exhibitions
Something Different
Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award
ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB
Red Bull Flying Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach, with Breakdance crew, Flying Steps. 8pm. $70-$96. CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
Theatre
Screen based portraiture finalists. 10am-5pm daily. Free. NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
Action Stations
Work by Louise Paramor & Peter Maloney. Tue-Fri 11am-5pm. Sat 10am-4pm. Until Sep 27. Free.
The Dream
CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)
THE PLAYHOUSE
Art exhibition. 9-4pm Mon - Fri. 9-3pm Sat. 9-27 Sept. Opening night 5.30, Wed 10th Sept.
Bell Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Magic and mayhem. Aug 30-Sep 13. Info and bookings onl
sunday september 14 Live Music Irish Jam Session
Traditional Irish music. From late afternoon. Free. KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Staunch
With Alpha Wolf, Failure, Bankrupt & Rivals. Live music. Time TBA. Price TBA. MAGPIES CITY CLUB
The Italian Connection
THE Q - QUEANBEYAN ARTS CENTRE
Transitions
Art exhibition. 10am-4pm. Tues-Sat. Free. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE
In Translation
An exploration of the Canberra region. Sep 11-28. Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE
On Men
Louise Paramor & Peter Maloney. Until Sep 27. Tue-Fri 11am-5pm. Sat 10am4pm. Free.
Sunday Sangria Sounds
CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
Masters of Modern Indonesian Portraiture
With Jo Cresswell. 3pm. $20.
Sunday Sessions
Acoustic local & interstate musicians. 4pm. Free. LITTLE BROOKLYN
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A theatrical creation of the best of Queen. 7.30pm. $70-$90.
The Shaking Ceiling & Sweet Noise
Hating Alice
M16 ARTSPACE
Queen – It’s A Kinda Magic
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
BILK GALLERY
By Ngaio Fitzpatrick. Sep 11-28. WedSun 12-5pm. Free.
With Matt Dent. 2pm. Free.
Art exhibition. 13 Sept-15 Oct. 10am5pm. Free. NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
@bmamag
ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Wed Sep 17 - Sat Sep 20 CMC Presents Devon Sproule
Patrick James
Café Musique
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
TRANSIT BAR
ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE
Expression of the 70s. Aug 14 - Oct 19. 10am-5pm daily. Free.
Something Different
Live music. Free entry. 10pm.
Through a Glass Clearly
Poetry at the pub. Sign up to judge or be judged. 7pm. Free.
Colour Music
The rapport between music & visuals. Until Sep 28. Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free. ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY
Arcadia: Sound of the Sea NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
Works by acclaimed Canberra-based photographer Geoffrey Dunn. 16-29 Sept. Opening Friday 19th Sept.
With The Burley Griffin & Dirt Baby. 7.30pm. $5-$10.
BAD! SLAM! NO! BISCUIT!
Launching his new EP ’Broken Lines’. 8pm. Presale via Moshtix.
Shake Dat Thursday
With Raucous Fracas & Sleeping with Glaciers. 8pm. $8-$15.
On The Town
UP Friday
4some Thursdays
THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ
Trivia
ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB
Ice Floes and Growlers
Tranny Trivia
M16 ARTSPACE
Dry Your Tears
New work by Ray Leggott. Opening 5th Sept at 6pm. Runs until 12 Oct. STUR GALLERY
Exhibition French Australian Preschool
Art exhibition. Creative workshop. MonThurs. 8am-5pm. ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE
Questions with Glamour. 8pm. Free. POLIT BAR & LOUNGE
thursday september 18
BILK GALLERY
By Kate Smith. Art exhibition. September 18 - 28. Wed - Sun 11am5pm, free.
By Ngaio Fitzpatrick. Sep 11-28. WedSun 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE
Dance Ausdance ACT’s Youth Dance Festival
Dance
Live Music
Ausdance ACT’s Youth Dance Festival
Wednesday Night Gigs
Stories. 7.30pm. $19.95-$30.
Showcasing local talented musicians. 8pm. Free.
CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
LITTLE BROOKLYN
Live Music
The CMC presents Wednesday Nights
Kenny P
With Devon Sproule, The Burley Griffin, Dirt Baby feat. The Blue Angel. 7.30pm. $5-$10. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
Lacklustre Presents
Lineup TBA. Live music. Time TBA. Price TBA. MAGPIES CITY CLUB
The Love Junkies
Rock from Perth. 8pm. Presale via Oztix. TRANSIT BAR
Ausdance ACT’s Youth Dance Festival Stories. 7.30pm. $19.95-$30. CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
Live Music
HELLENIC CLUB (WODEN)
Stories. 7.30pm. $19.95-$30. CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE
TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE
Comedy
POLIT BAR & LOUNGE
8pm. Free.
DURHAM CASTLE ARMS
9.30pm. Free.
Buck Et Al
With Fricker, Capes, Bendrury & Jack Livingston. Live music. Tickets TBA. MAGPIES CITY CLUB
Live Music
Acoustic local & interstate musicians. 9.30pm. Free. LITTLE BROOKLYN
Ice Breaker - Winter’s End
The Gaps, Positive Feedback Loop, Sleeping with Glaciers & Raucous Fracas. 8pm. $8-$15. THE RUC (TURNER)
Perci Randal & Heuristic
5pm afternoon session/10pm Band. Free.
Chicago Charles & Dave
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Sisters Doll, Tonk, Chalasar, Sinnamon. Door from 8pm.
Live music. 9pm. Free.
Johnny Roadkill Album Launch
Sisters Doll
THE BASEMENT
Live music. Plus guests. 8pm. THE BASEMENT
Bellagroove
Disparo, Office Jerk & Cockbelch
Live music. 6-8pm. Tickets TBA. POLIT BAR & LOUNGE
THE PHOENIX BAR
10pm. Free.
Live music. 9pm. Free.
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Diesel
Lit up: The Singles tour. 8pm. $55. Book at: thestreet.org.au THE STREET THEATRE
Alive Fridays
DJ Rawson
Headliner TBA. 8pm. $5.
ELEVATED NIGHTCLUB
Hip Hop LA and NY Showcase
CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)
LOL Pol Stand Up Comedy
Live music. Free. 9pm.
On The Town
Dance
Headspace
TUNER BOWLS CLUB
Art Exhibitions
Capital Chemist Art Award Exhibition TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE
A Lightness of Being
friday september 19
Art Exhibitions
On the Horizon
Solo exhibition of glassworks by Lisa Cahill. Until Sep 20.
Free entry.
A showcase by the Fresh Funk crew. 8pm. Gold coin entry.
Entries close Sep 15. Exhibition Sep 18-27. Info at: tuggeranongarts.com.
The Gaps
ELEVATED NIGHTCLUB
THE PHOENIX BAR
An exploration of Antarctica. Sep 1128. Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free.
Live music. M. Scholem, and Burrows feat. E. Kelly. 7pm. $20.
Something Like This DURHAM CASTLE ARMS
Presenting Helena. $10 entry all night. ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB
Something Different Canb Shrt Film Fest
Film Festival. 19-21 Sept. Prices TBA. DENDY CINEMA
saturday september 20 Art Exhibitions Action Stations
Work by Louise Paramor & Peter Maloney. Tue-Fri 11am-5pm. Sat 10am-4pm. Until Sep 27. Free.
CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)
In Translation
An exploration of the Canberra region. Sep 11-28. Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE
On Men
Louise Paramor & Peter Maloney. Until Sep 27. Tue-Fri 11am-5pm. Sat 10am4pm. Free. CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)
Colour Music
The rapport between music & visuals. Until Sep 28. Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free. ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY
Arcadia: Sound of the Sea
Expression of the 70s. Aug 14 - Oct 19. 10am-5pm daily. Free. NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
Capital Chemist Art Award Exhibition
Entries close Sep 15. Exhibition Sep 18-27. Info at: tuggeranongarts.com. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE
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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Sat Sep 20 - Wed Sep 24 Ice Floes and Growlers
An exploration of Antarctica. Sep 1128. Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE
Hip Hop LA and NY Showcase
Something Different Canberra Roller Derby League
tuesday september 23 Karaoke
M16 ARTSPACE
Canb Shrt Film Fest
Karaoke Madness
58,000 songs to choose from. 8pm late. Free.
Louise Paramor & Peter Maloney. Until Sep 27. Tue-Fri 11am-5pm. Sat 10am4pm. Free.
SOUTHERN CROSS STADIUM
Exhibition French Australian Preschool
DENDY CINEMA
POLIT BAR & LOUNGE
Art exhibition. Creative workshop. MonThurs. 8am-5pm.
Theatre
ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE
Handel’s Alexander Balus
Croon and wail your heart out on the Transit stage. 9pm. Free.
On the Horizon
7.30pm. $34-$64. THE PLAYHOUSE
Solo exhibition of glassworks by Lisa Cahill. Until Sep 20. BILK GALLERY
A Lightness of Being
By Ngaio Fitzpatrick. Sep 11-28. WedSun 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE
Live Music Cheese on Toast DJ 10pm. Free.
DURHAM CASTLE ARMS
Elevated Saturday
Live music. Free entry before 10pm, $5 after. ELEVATED NIGHTCLUB
Groovalicious 9.30pm. Free.
HELLENIC CLUB (WODEN)
Kevin Borich
Live music. 2pm. Tickets $20 at 6288 5088. CANBERRA IRISH CLUB
Live Music
Acoustic local & interstate musicians. 9.30pm. Free. LITTLE BROOKLYN
Film Festival. 19-21 Sept. Prices TBA.
sunday september 21 Live Music
With Judi Pearce & The Arrangement. 2–5:30pm. $3 members/$5 nonmembers. HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB
The Bennies
With Morning Glory, Mucho Sonar, Wolfpack & Revellers. Live music. Time TBA. Tickets TBA. MAGPIES CITY CLUB
Sunday Sessions
Acoustic local & interstate musicians. 4pm. Free. LITTLE BROOKLYN
The Acoustic Sessions
With Cherie & Raz. 2pm. Free. IRON BAR
Live music. 9.30pm. Free. THE PHOENIX BAR
On The Town Love Saturdays
With Jared de Veer - $10 all night. ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB
A Strength Within
With Reactions, Purity & Silver Lining. Live music. Time TBA. Tickets TBA. MAGPIES CITY CLUB
Trivia. 7.30pm. Price TBA. THE PHOENIX BAR
wednesday september 24 Art Exhibitions A Lightness of Being
By Ngaio Fitzpatrick. Sep 11-28. WedSun 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE
Macquarie Digital Portraiture Award
Expression of the 70s. Aug 14 - Oct 19. 10am-5pm daily. Free. NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
Headspace
By Kate Smith. Art exhibition. September 18 - 28. Wed - Sun 11am5pm, free.
CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)
Capital Chemist Art Award Exhibition
Entries close Sep 15. Exhibition Sep 18-27. Info at: tuggeranongarts.com. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE
Through a Glass Clearly
Works by acclaimed Canberra-based photographer Geoffrey Dunn. 16-29 Sept. Opening Friday 19th Sept. THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ
Ice Floes and Growlers
An exploration of Antarctica. Sep 1128. Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE
Screen based portraiture finalists. 10am-5pm daily. Free.
Dry Your Tears
The Italian Connection
STUR GALLERY
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
New work by Ray Leggott. Opening 5th Sept at 6pm. Runs until 12 Oct.
Live Music
Canb Shrt Film Fest DENDY CINEMA
Action Stations
Showcasing local talented musicians. 8pm. Free.
Film Festival. 19-21 Sept. Prices TBA.
THE BASEMENT
Mesa Cosa & BLT
Arcadia: Sound of the Sea
ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY
Art exhibition. 9-4pm Mon - Fri. 9-3pm Sat. 9-27 Sept. Opening night 5.30, Wed 10th Sept.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Live music. 8pm.
Colour Music
Live Music
Christo and Raph’s No Fun Trivia
Canberra Blues Society Jam
CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)
The rapport between music & visuals. Until Sep 28. Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free.
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Traditional Irish music. From late afternoon. Free.
On Men
TRANSIT BAR
Trivia
Something Different
JOVA
Karaoke Love
Irish Jam Session
Special K
Live music. 10.30pm. Free.
An exploration of the Canberra region. Sep 11-28. Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free.
Double Header Bouts. Info and Tickets: www.crdl.com.au.
A showcase by the Fresh Funk crew. 8pm. Gold coin entry. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE
In Translation
monday september 22 Live Music The Bootleg Sessions
With The Sticky Bandits, PJ Michael & Konrad Lenz. 8pm. Free. THE PHOENIX BAR
THE Q - QUEANBEYAN ARTS CENTRE
Work by Louise Paramor & Peter Maloney. Tue-Fri 11am-5pm. Sat 10am-4pm. Until Sep 27. Free.
CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)
Transitions
Art exhibition. 10am-4pm. Tues-Sat. Free. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE
Masters of Modern Indonesian Portraiture
Wednesday Night Gigs LITTLE BROOKLYN
The CMC presents Wednesday Nights The Stilsons, David Knight, Tessa Devine. 7.30pm. $5-$10. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
King of the North
A two piece rock machine. 8pm, presale via Moshtix. TRANSIT BAR
Art exhibition. 13 Sept-15 Oct. 10am5pm. Free. NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Wed Sep 24 - Tues Sep 30 Trivia
Theatre
Mere Woman, Wives & Agency
The Acoustic Sessions
Tranny Trivia
Couples Don’t Talk
THE PHOENIX BAR
IRON BAR
Questions with Glamour. 8pm. Free. POLIT BAR & LOUNGE
thursday september 25 Live Music
A series of plays about the complexity of relationships. 7pm. Tickets via trybooking.com. $15. SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
saturday september 27
Shake Dat Thursday
Art Exhibitions
ELEVATED NIGHTCLUB
A Lightness of Being
Live music. Free entry. 10pm.
Oxen
Album launch with guests, Ecruteak & Mind Blanks. 9pm. Free. THE PHOENIX BAR
Sarah McLeod
8pm, presale via Moshtix. TRANSIT BAR
Something Different Shaken & Stirred
Burlesque. 7.30pm. Tickets $20. POLIT BAR & LOUNGE
friday september 26 Live Music DJ Rawson
9.30pm. Free.
HELLENIC CLUB (WODEN)
The Escalators
Live music. 6-8pm. $5. POLIT BAR & LOUNGE
Vamp
Punk & Industrial Electronica DJ’s. Live music. Time TBA. Tickets TBA. MAGPIES CITY CLUB
Live Music
Acoustic local & interstate musicians. 9.30pm. Free. LITTLE BROOKLYN
The Rufus/Sheridan Duologues A Celebration of Jazz Dialogue. 7.30pm. $10/$15. AINSLIE ARTS CENTRE
Canberra Massacre
With Chud, In Death, Na Maza, Tensions Arise, Internal Nightmare, Hence The Testbed. 8pm. THE BASEMENT
Anklepants
By Ngaio Fitzpatrick. Sep 11-28. WedSun 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE
Action Stations
THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ
An exploration of the Canberra region. Sep 11-28. Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free.
Irish Jam Session
TRANSIT BAR
KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB
Louise Paramor & Peter Maloney. Until Sep 27. Tue-Fri 11am-5pm. Sat 10am4pm. Free. CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)
Colour Music
Traditional Irish music. From late afternoon. Free.
Canberra trio of girl power & glitter madness. 8pm. Tix on the door.
The Gaps
With Tundrel, Cherie Kotek, Critical Monkee & Raucous Fracas. Time TBA. $10. P J O’REILLY’S (TUGGERANONG)
Theatre
sunday september 28 Live Music Tall Black Guy
Sunday Sessions
Acoustic local & interstate musicians. 4pm. Free. LITTLE BROOKLYN
CIT Presents The Bootleg Sessions
Hearing Voices, Duck Duck Ghost, Oak and Treacle & Maggie Jeffs. 8pm. Free.
A series of plays about the complexity of relationships. 7pm. Tickets via trybooking.com. $15.
M16 ARTSPACE
On Men
Live music. 6pm. $10.
#GRLPWR
In Translation
THE PHOENIX BAR
tuesday september 30 Trivia Impact Comics Present Nerd Trivia With Joel and Ali. 7.30pm. Free. THE PHOENIX BAR
The US producer dishes out some smooth beats. 8pm. Free. TRANSIT BAR
The rapport between music & visuals. Until Sep 28. Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free. ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY
Arcadia: Sound of the Sea
Expression of the 70s. Aug 14 - Oct 19. 10am-5pm daily. Free. NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
Capital Chemist Art Award Exhibition
Entries close Sep 15. Exhibition Sep 18-27. Info at: tuggeranongarts.com. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE
Ice Floes and Growlers
An exploration of Antarctica. Sep 1128. Wed-Sun 12-5pm. Free. M16 ARTSPACE
Live Music Elevated Saturday
Live music. Free entry before 10pm, $5 after. ELEVATED NIGHTCLUB
UP Friday
Live Music
ELEVATED NIGHTCLUB
THE BASEMENT
SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE
The Socialites
Live music. Free. 9pm.
Jenn Pacor & Christine Jauncey
Rock/garage/punk. Time TBA. $TBA.
Couples Don’t Talk
CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)
With Derryth Nash. 2pm. Free.
Several Devils
Work by Louise Paramor & Peter Maloney. Tue-Fri 11am-5pm. Sat 10am-4pm. Until Sep 27. Free.
The masked man of madness. 8pm. Free. TRANSIT BAR
Live music. 9.30pm. Free.
9.30pm. Free.
HELLENIC CLUB (WODEN)
Acoustic local & interstate musicians. 9.30pm. Free. LITTLE BROOKLYN
OUT
Sep 24
bill bailey fred smith witchskull kingswood ...and more!
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FIRST CONTACT SIDE A: BMA band profile
Aaron Peacey 0410381306 band.afternoon.shift@ gmail.com.au Adam Hole 0421023226
Afternoon Shift 0402055314 Amphibian Sound PA Clare 0410308288 Annie & The Armadillos Annie (02) 61611078/ 0422076313 Aria Stone sax/flute/lute/ harmonica, singer-songwriter Aria 0411803343
Guyy & The Fox Where did your band name come from?It came about after a brain storming session over a bowl of spaghetti at the LilleyPad (my family’s home in Canberra). Group members? Guyy aka Guy Lilleyman (vocals, 12 string guitar), Amelia aka The Fox (vocals, violin) Describe your sound: I seem to answer this question differently every time but I would say it’s a mix of alternative folk rock with a splash of 60/70s psychedelic. Who are your influences, musical or otherwise? I tend to find myself always listening to older music from the 60’s and 70’s. However, I’ve been discovering a passion for Japanese drumming lately so that is really starting to creep into a lot of new songs. What’s the most memorable experience you’ve had whilst performing? Playing at the National Folk Festival this year and having Amelia and Richard Perso jump up on stage for ‘United’. Guitar, violin, didgeridoo and a thumping stomp box was pretty special. Of what are you proudest so far? I’m very proud of our live sound – I think people underestimate the amount of sound that the two of us make together. What are your plans for the future? Next year I want to start playing with a drummer as well as Amelia – I’ve wanted to add more percussion for a while now. What makes you laugh? Amelia’s rage face when we’re on tour and she’s frantically submitting assignments for her full time uni course – and then her laptop dying without warning. What pisses you off? The exploitation of musicians in the early stages of their careers and people who throw maccas bags out their car windows. What about the local scene would you change? I would encourage more people to get out and check out new live music – you never know when you might have your mind blown by a band you’ve never heard of. What are your upcoming gigs? ANU Food Co-op on Saturday September 13. Doors open at 7pm, tickets from eventbrite. Contact info: guyy.com.au, Guyy@guyy.com.au, Facebook. com/guyymusic, Soundcloud.com/guyymusic, Youtube.com/ guyymusic
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Australian Songwriters Association Keiran (02) 62310433 Back to the Eighties Ty Emerson 0418 544 014 Backbeat Drivers Steve 0422733974 backbeatdrivers.com Bat Country Communion, The Mel 0400405537 Birds Love Fighting Gangbusters/DIY shows-bookings@ birdslovefighting.com Black Label Photography Kingsley 0438351007 blacklabelphotography.net Bridge Between, The Cam 0431550005 Capital Dub Style Reggae/dub events Rafa 0406647296 Chris Harland Blues Band, The Chris 0418 490 649 chrisharlandbluesband @gmail.com Cole Bennetts Photography 0415982662 Danny V Danny 0413502428 Dawn Theory Nathan 0402845132 Danny 0413502428 Dorothy Jane Band, The Dorothy Jane 0411065189 dorothy-jane@dorothyjane.com Drumassault Dan 0406 375 997 Feldons, The 0407 213 701 FeralBlu Danny 0413502428 Fire on the Hill Aaron 0410381306 Lachlan 0400038388 Fourth Degree Vic 0408477020 Gareth Dailey DJ/Electronica Gareth 0414215885 Groovalicious Corporate/ weddings/private functions 0448995158
In The Flesh Scott 0410475703 Itchy Triggers Alex 0414838480 Jenn Pacor Singer-songwriter avail. for originals/covers 0405618630 Johnny Roadkill Paulie 0408287672 paulie_mcmillan@live.com.au Kayo Marbilus facebook.com/kayomarbilus1 Kurt’s Metalworx (PA) 0417025792 Los Chavos Latin/ska/reggae Rafa 0406647296 Andy 0401572150 Missing Zero Hadrian 0424721907 hadrian.brand@live.com.au Moots Huck 0419630721 Morning After, The Covers band Anthony 0402500843 Mornings Jordan 0439907853 MuShu Jack 0414292567 mushu_band@hotmail.com Obsessions 0450 960 750 obsessions@grapevine.com.au Painted Hearts, The Peter (02) 62486027 Polka Pigs Ian (02) 62315974 Rafe Morris 0416322763 Redletter Ben 0421414472 Redsun Rehearsal Studio Ralph 0404178996/ (02) 61621527 Rug, The Jol 0417273041 Sewer Sideshow Huck 0419630721 Simone & The Soothsayers Singing teacher Simone 62304828 Sorgonian Twins, The Mark 0428650549 Soundcity Rehearsal Studio Andrew 0401588884 STonKA Jamie 0422764482 stonka2615@gmail.com Strange Hour Events Dan 0411112075 Super Best Friends Greg greg@gunfever.com.au System Addict Jamie 0418398556 Tegan Northwood (Singing Teacher) 0410 769 144
Guy The Sound Guy Live & Studio Sound Engineer 0400585369 guy@guythesoundguy.com
Top Shelf Colin 0408631514
Haunted Attics band@hauntedatticsmusic.com
Zoopagoo zoopagoo@gmail.com
Undersided, The Baz 0408468041
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