BMA Magazine 460 - 1 April 2015 by BMA Magazine

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ROCKABILLY RELAUNCH: OLD CANBERRA INN NOT SO OLD ANYMORE

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 Graphic Design Marley Film Editor Melissa Wellham NEXT ISSUE 461 OUT April 15 EDITORIAL DEADLINEApril 8 ADVERTISING DEADLINE April 9 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.

The event includes live music from rockers and bluesman including local crew The Fuelers and The King Hits, plus cult Newcastle bands Bad Luck Kitty and The Groove Kings. The event also includes a Canberra leg of the Retro Markets, a market that includes vintage and retro-inspired clothing, jewelry, homewares, posters and men’s grooming products (because a beard needs different stuff to the hair on your head apparently).

The exhibition will have a gala opening on Thursday May 28 at which the winner of the emerging artists’ prize will be announced. CAPO is donating $500 as a winner’s prize from proceeds of the 2014 CAPO Exhibition and Auction Party. CAPO has a long history of supporting emerging artists in the Canberra region, through both the annual CAPO Awards (where specific grants are given) and through the selection of artists for the CAPO Exhibition itself. For some time however, CAPO has felt the need to provide emerging artists with their own space and their own exhibition, while continuing to support the wider arts community. The recent changes at the Australian National University (ANU), combining Art History and Curatorship with the School of Art, have given CAPO the opportunity to highlight and reward outstanding Art History

graduates through the annual ANU Emerging Artists’ Support Scheme (EASS) awards. Thus the CAPO Emerging Artists’ Prize will achieve dual goals, by providing emerging art historians the opportunity to curate a professional exhibition while showcasing the overflowing emerging talent within the Canberra region in an exclusive exhibition.CAPO has presented the CAPO Curatorial Internship Award to two graduates of the Art History and Curatorship degree: Ella Morrison and Hannah Webb. They received the award to curate this exhibition and $1000 each at the 2014 ANU School of Art Graduation Exhibition. With CAPO’s mentoring, both Hannah and Ella are currently assembling the Emerging Artists’ Prize. They have selected a group of Canberra’s emerging artists who will contribute works aligned to the exhibition’s theme of geometric abstraction. All artwork will be for sale during the exhibition period. This free exhibit kicks off on Thursday May 28 and runs until Sunday June 14. M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Crescent Griffith.

New head chef Jeff Hudgin will be cooking up free range pork belly on the spit, there’ll be a kids area and free counselling for you if I get up and relive my karaoke glory. With every Sunday from here on in The Old Canberra Inn will be offering live folk, blues, and chilled out acoustic. The Rockbilly Relaunch is happening on Saturday April 11, The Old Canberra Inn 195 Mouat Street Lyneham from 11am till late.

CELBERATING EXHIBITIONISTS: CAPO EMERGING ARTS PRIZE

Artwork credit: Sanne Koelemij

Sick of jars instead of glasses? Shoes instead of plates? Join SOAR Against Hipsters (sick of other receptacles). # 4 6 0 A p r i l 1

Ahh the Old Canberra Inn. A venue older than our city. I may or may not have once won a bottle of black sambucca for my karaoke efforts to do justice to ‘Black Dog’ by Led Zeppelin. I may or may not have been obscenely underage. You’re not going to tell anyone are you? What I can talk about without upsetting liquor licensing people (or Robert Plant) is that the pub has been open since 1857 and when it came up for sale recently Meem Collective partners, Nick Diver and Ben Johnston, were keen as anything to get stuck in. The team are hoping to breathe new life into the place and are kicking off festivities on Saturday April 11 with the Rockabilly Relaunch.

being held in addition to CAPO’s highly regarded annual auction party and it also highlights a change in direction for the organisation. This exciting CAPO innovation will open at M16 Artspace on May 28 and runs until Sunday June 14.

The Capital Arts Patrons’ Organisation (CAPO) is pleased to announce a new event in CAPO’s calendar for 2015: the inaugural CAPO Emerging Artists’ Prize. This exhibition is

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FROM THE BOSSMAN It is often stated that children are our future. Well I’d bloody well hope so. If children were our past, that means we have entered some hellish time warp from which there would be no hope of escape, smashing the long-held notion that time is linear and delivering unto us the terrifying notion of having to experience puberty backwards. I’m not ready for that, man. No one is. Going through it forwards was painful and awkward enough. Which is all a fruity and somewhat questionable way of bidding you welcome to the National Youth Week edition of BMA Magazine. As well as all our usual high quality guff there is also a bonus eight trembling pages packed with info and activities that you (should you be someone reading this as a person of the Young persuasion) or your kids (should you be reading this as an old person, spirit and soul already crushed by the endless cycle of work, each day but another granule of sand silently clinking into bottom of the hourglass as we continue our inexorable march towards the grave*) can indulge in. Ahhhhh youth. I remember it well. Actually, no I don’t. I can barely recall what happened last weekend. And where are my glasses? What do you mean they’re on my face?

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.] To the mid forties 5ft 3 male troglodyte who decided to soil my afternoon with your presence at our deli cafe. In what alternate dimension would the question ‘would you like to have here, or takeaway’ be offensive and deserve your smarmy attacks? No amount of money affords you the right to speak to me like a puppy who has pissed on the floor. Take your soy latte and shove it up your arse.

To my so-called “mate” who has owed me money for over six months. No, I don’t believe that you don’t have any money right now; I saw on Facebook that you went to Soundwave. Pretty sure that costs money. No, I don’t believe that you’re in between jobs because you’ve been seen driving around in a Jim’s van. And no, I don’t believe you’re waiting on a payment to come through as it’s been SIX FRICKIN MONTHS. Stop being a lying little snake and give me my goddamn money you pathetic twat.

OK, let me have another go at that paragraph. Ahem. You wouldn’t know to look at me but I used to be young once. I seized the editorial helm of this ‘ere rag back when I was but 22 years of this earth and I didn’t know my arsehole from my elbow (some would argue I still don’t… My family being the foremost progenitors of this theory. Or “fact” as they like to call it). My mother has shown me pictured evidence of me as A Young Person; I had a face that was an explosion of teeth and acne all nicely topped off with a fetching bowl haircut and plastic glasses the size of satellite dishes. Upon further research I have discovered that ALL of us - yes, even you, my unbelieving cynic - used to be A Young Person. And look at where you are now. Living the dream in uppermiddle-sideways management. In short (and I really was short) we all start somewhere and while our geographical backgrounds might all vary, each one of us come from being A Young Person (unless you’re Benjamin Button… What the hell was with that guy?) An episode of QI once stated that the ideal - or “best” - age is 17. A virginal acne ridden desperately-tried-to-get-served-atthe-pub-with-the face-of-a-fat-toddler 17-year-old Allan would fervently disagree. I was told by a particularly witty Watford bouncer - upon handing over my appallingly fake looking flimsy ID - that “‘e doesn’t even look old enough to have a wank!” No, 17 was not “the best” year for this little black duck. But it was certainly a formative year. At 17 - or indeed 14 or 15 or 21 or 27 - you’re still moulding Who You Are. Which is equal parts terrifying and exciting. It’s hard being A Young Person. It’s also awesome. So here’s to the Youth and to National Youth Week. May they continue forward in a linear timeline and not destroy the laws of physics on their way to happiness. ALLAN SKO - allan@bmamag.com *I’m available for children’s parties

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WHO: THE STRING CONTINGENT WHAT: ALBUM LAUNCH WHEN: SAT 4 APR; WED APR 15 WHERE: GORMAN ARTS CENTRE

Hitting the town with a new album, Facets, The String Contingent are blessing Canberra with two gigs. The acoustic trio combines diverse musical backgrounds in Celtic folk, classical jazz and contemporary to create melodic and evocative music leaves fans and newcomers alike wanting more. They’ll be at the National Folk festival with guest artists who feature on the album such as the Lucy Wise Trio and The Griffyn Ensemble. Tickets for Sat Apr 4 are available at folkfestival. org.au; tickets for Wed Apr 15 at B Block, Gorman House are $20/$15 or $10 for CMC members at the door.

WHO: TUBULAR BELLS FOR TWO WHAT: LIVE MUSIC WHEN: FRI–SUN APR 10–12 WHERE: THE STREET THEATRE

A show that used to take more than 30 musicians to perform now comes in the form of two massively talented multi-instrumentalists who leap across the stage to play a myriad of both simple and complicated instruments throughout the show. Described as “the musical equivalent of the triathlon” this show is a high-energy, intricate piece that music and theatre lovers alike will undoubtedly enjoy. The show begins at 8pm on Fri–Sat Apr 10–11 and 4pm on Apr 12. Tickets $37/$35/$29 available from thestreet.org.au or call (02) 6247 1223.

WHO: LEO SAYER WHAT: ALBUM LAUNCH WHEN: FRI APR 10 WHERE: CANBERRA THEATRE

International superstar and Grammy award winner, Leo Sayer, is coming back to Australia with new album Restless Years. Sayer has has an unbelievably successful worldwide career with over forty years of recording and touring the globe under his belt. He brings to the stage vigour and worldliness, performing new tunes and classic hits such as ‘The Show Must Go On’, ‘When I Need You’, ‘Long Tall Glasses’, ‘Moonlighting’ and his Grammy Award winning song ‘You Make Me Feel Like Dancing’. Show starts at 8pm. Tickets are $69.90 from ticketek.com.au.

WHO: PINK FLOYD EXPERIENCE WHAT: LIVE MUSIC WHEN: THU APR 16 WHERE: CANBERRA THEATRE

The internationally acclaimed Pink Floyd Experience will be returning to Canberra to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the immensely successful, classic album., Wish You Were Here. Having toured in Australia on five separate occasions, the Pink Floyd Experience have sold over 100,000 tickets, each time presenting the audience with a flawless performance and a perfect experience. With mind-blowing visual effects, amazing theatricality and unsurpassed sound, this is more than homage to one of the most influential rock bands of all time. The show begins at 8pm and tickets are $99 from Canberra Ticketing.

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WHO: SOUTHSIDE EVOLUTION WHAT: LIVE MUSIC WHEN: SAT APR 18 WHERE: PJ O’REILLYS, TUGGERANONG

WHO: THREDBO JAZZ FESTIVAL WHAT: FESTIVAL WHEN: FRI–SUN MAY 1–3 WHERE: THREDBO VILLAGE

Bridging the gap between the north and south sides of Canberra, Southside Evolution is bringing together the best bands from Canberra’s south side to get the music scene down south started. Featuring the last ever performance of well-known Canberrans, Eyes to the Sky (pictured), this gig will undoubtedly rock your socks off.Joining Eyes to the Sky are a myriad of bands including Critcal Monkee, who will be treating the audience to an acoustic set, Owls Hunt Bats, Knights of the Spatchcock and many more. Bands kick off at 6pm, tickets just $10. Thredbo village is set to transform over the course of three days as the Jazz Festival once again rolls into town. For it’s 28th year, the Thredbo Jazz Festival has announced an awesome lineup of iconic performers including Katie Noonan, Ms Murphy (pictured), Billy Burton and many more and on top of the fantastic lineup. Don’t forget to bring along the family, because kids under 14 get in for free and with accommodation options to suit everyone, this festival is not one to miss. Earlybird passes $125/$62.50, full priced tickets TBA.nTickets are available at store thredbo.com.au.

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samuel townsend The Big Merino was a Canberra-to-Sydney road-trip-highlight as a child. Patiently enduring the hour-long journey to Goulburn was always rewarded with a quick stopover at the 50ft horned ram. The monolithic creature was slightly terrifying in its looming stature and I was always equally impressed and unnerved as we stood by the family car gazing up at the once popular tourist spot. Goulburn was an exciting town as a child – huge sheep, old buildings, charming pubs with tiled walls and of course, the jail. It possessed a sense of mystery and danger – a valley dotted with smoky chimneys in winter and sprawling eucalyptus littered hills in the summer. Author and Goulburn resident, Nigel Featherstone, reckons it’s the “best first little town ever,” describing Australia’s original inland city as “accessible and ancient”. Festival organiser of MARMALADE SKIES, Nick Kelly, echoes these sentiments when describing the festival site, which will be staged on one of the original properties of the area. Kelly declares that a major draw card for the festival, aside from the lineup, was the stunning site, a place he describes as, “proper Australian countryside”. Like all good ideas, Marmalade Skies was a concept that hatched between a couple of good mates over a few cold beers. The core team of three met at university in Sydney and each has ties to the Goulburn area. The festival title is an obvious reference to the famous Beatles track ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’, but also a response to the site itself. Kelly describes the landscape as being a huge inspiration to the design and philosophy of the festival. “The phenomenal sunsets we get in the area turn the sky the most incredible orange and it’s these vivid colors that we want to carry through into the overall design of the festival,” says Kelly.

of the ‘boutique festival’ – small scale and intimate, site-specific and non-corporate. Kelly says they have deliberately avoided expensive bars serving overpriced beer and instead are opting for a BYO model within the camping grounds. The crew, all avid festival goers, know too well the pain of inflated prices, long lines and drink tickets. The festival blog illustrated this point in a recent update, ‘because you’re adults and we think you need less Nanny and more Doubtfire’. Ticket sales are limited to 1,200 with a portion of them already snapped up in the Pozible campaign, which assisted in funding and promoting the festival in its early stages. Marmalade Skies promises to be the antithesis to other major festivals that have grown popular over the years. Kelly sites his major inspirations as the Secret Garden Festival which has just wrapped up its seventh year and Bestival, a four day music festival held on the Isle of White which Kelly worked on a couple of years ago. Kelly fondly reminisces about the learning curve he experienced there, as well as the diversity within the lineup. “The wide range on offer at that festival was just huge and fantastic and a real inspiration for the kind of event we hoped to stage here,” he says.

Because you’re adults and we think you need less Nanny and more Doubtfire

The organisers are determined to create an “experience” for festival-goers. The handpicked lineup, which includes Airling, Godwolf, Hockey Dad and Luke Million, have been given purposefully selected set-times – sounds which aim to match the atmosphere of particular times throughout the day and night. “We’ve consciously avoided ‘drops and falls’ throughout the day and instead focused on a natural build,” Kelly says. This deliberate curatorial approach means acoustic and chilled out sounds will feature in the mornings and by sunset bands like Lime Cordial and Suns of the East will be stirring things up. “The escalation means we’ll be dancing to something a bit more electronic as the night goes on,” says Kelly. Saturday will culminate with The Mantra Collective, an underground party movement who have been taking over warehouses in and around Sydney. Their Barn Dance will be a highlight of the weekend as they, “Take over a whole barn from sunset till the wee hours.” Kelly reiterates his ideal notion of a festival experience – “Two days is a long time to solely listen to music. We want people to explore and experience different areas,” he says. “There will be activities, places to chill and other ways to enjoy the festival aside from simply standing and listening.” The organisers, although humble about their reputations, each have broad collective experience in live music events and are now tapping into the on-trend concept

Marmalade Skies is proud to showcase what Kelly refers to as, “An awesome array of upcoming Aussie music.” Kelly’s excitement for the event is infectious as he speaks of the quality of the live shows. “So many of the acts have been picked on the strength of their live performance [and] their ability to hold a crowd,” he says. A must see during the weekend are Lepers and Crooks, says Kelly. “I saw them a couple of months ago at a golf course full of geriatrics and they had everyone off their feet dancing,” he says. “The charisma that comes off those boys on stage is something that needs to be seen to be believed!” Another act featured on the bill is Hockey Dad, a duo from the Wollongong area who were Triple J’s Unearthed 2014 Falls Festival winners. Billy and Zach, who have been playing music together in other bands for a number of years, formed Hockey Dad in 2013. Billy describes The Falls experience in Byron Bay on New Years Eve as, “Insane and surreal! It was so great to be playing on such a massive stage.” The boys have a busy year ahead of them, writing songs for the follow-up to their debut EP, last year’s Dreamin’. The self-described “young pups” are pumped to be part of Marmalade Skies and audiences are in for a treat as the lads play their signature style ‘surf rock’, a genre inspired by the environment the boys grew up in. Billy is keen to explore more hooks and melodies in their songwriting, embracing pop wholeheartedly, “Zach once described us as ‘Katie Perry meets surf rock’” but admits that their style is hard to pin down. After you’ve made the pilgrimage to the Big Merino, follow the path of yellow and green cellophane flowers, walk beyond the tangerine trees and meet the girls and boys with kaleidoscope eyes, all dancing beneath Marmalade Skies. Tickets are selling fast for Marmalade Skies, happening Fri–Sun April 10–12 in Goulburn. Did we mention it’s BYO? For tickets and full festival details visit marmaladeskiesfestival.com.au

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LOCALITY

Tragically, we begin with an end: Smith’s Alternative is no more and I have to say that it really does break my heart a good chunk to write that. Smith’s has played host to so many local bands in various stages of development, squeezing insane numbers of musicians onto that little black stage and the thought that it’s gone really is difficult to process, especially considering how quickly it left us. Mega thanks need to go to Dominic and the rest of the Smith’s crew for giving Canberra such a wonderful gem of a venue for the last few years. It will be sorely missed. If you are looking for some new local recordings to get into your ears to soothe the post-Smith’s sorrow, there’s plenty popping up all over the place, with a whole bunch of bands churning out new tunes and playing album launches to celebrate. Super Best Friends have dropped a new album, christened Status Updates, which they will launch on Friday April 10 at Transit Bar from 8pm. Tickets will be $15 at the door, or you can head to Oztix and grab one for $10 plus booking fee. You can also grab the album at superbestfriends. bandcamp.com. Night Train will be launching their latest album MK-VI at ANU Bar on Saturday April 11 from 8pm. Support will come from TONK and Alex Gibson, with rumours there’ll be some pretty spectacular pyrotechnics on the night. Get ready for some serious rock and grab a ticket – they’re $15 through Moshtix plus booking fee. If you’re in the mood for some hip hop that’s going to do some kinda weird things to your ears and really, really offend anyone of a delicate disposition, you should definitely get stuck into no puls’ Foolish EP. With rhymes from Der Witz that will curl your pigtails (seriously, there’s some pretty full on language and themes), it’s certainly not one to share with Grandma, but there are certainly some really cool sounds and beats that creep in between your temples and dance and tingle. If this description has intrigued you somewhat, you can take a listen for yourself at burnercollective. bandcamp.com/album/foolish-ep. Arguably one of the most anticipated albums of 2015, Brass Knuckle Brass Band’s debut is out in the wild. The little dribs and drabs they’ve been teasing us with have been absolutely delightful, so this is sure to be one worth adding to your collection. If you’ve been around the Canberra music scene at all over the last few years, you’ll be familiar with their incredibly fun sound, but you may still be surprised by the impressive roll call of guests, including locals Citizen Kay, Hayds and Roshambo. Oh, and freakin’ Kira Piru. No biggie. Get your funky little hands on it at bkbb.bandcamp.com. Finally, it’s always nice to see a former Canberran making a return appearance and this time it’s the frontman of Harry Coulson’s Rain Dogs. Now based in Melbourne, Harry and his bandmates will be playing Hippo Co on Wednesday April 1 from 8:30pm. Just $5 will get you entry to see their delightful blend of jazz and rock, with everything from atmospheric scores to groovy noodlings for those looking for a light toe-tapper. And that’s a wrap! NONI DOLL NONIJDOLL@GMAIL.COM/@NONIJDOLL

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very close quarters should you decide to venture over to Belco, which I’m sure you will.

TURNING HEADS SCOTT ADAMS Latter day prince of the punx, FRANK TURNER is a splendid chap. Possessed of the sort of easy, confident charm only the most well-bred and educated seem to be able to pull off – he’s easily the nicest old Etonian I’ve come across and I’ve known a few – he speaks wisely and well on any given subject, but mostly on life as a touring musician. That’s because – and I still can’t quite believe I’m writing this – Britain’s leading DIY rock star is heading this way. Despite being the proud possessor of a slip of paper saying ‘you’ve sold hundreds of thousands of records in your homeland alone!’ he’s on his way to play for us at THE BASEMENT! You read that right. Turner, who cut his teeth in UK Hardcore outfit Million Dead before branching out on his own, playing a form of folk-punk that delights and beguiles without ever becoming twee and annoying like so many of that genre’s other expositors, is playing the Basement. You’ll get the chance to see a real live music industry phenomenon – the man behind such youth rebellion classics as ‘Thatcher Fucked the Kids’ and ‘Heartless Bastard Motherfucker’ – at

I accidentally took three or four months off the road and I hated it

You tour non-stop don’t you? In fact you’ve been touring non-stop for fifteen years. How did that state of affairs arise? “Funnily enough I have just actually taken some significant time off from the road, because I had a reasonably stressful time making my new record,” says Turner. “It’s done now, but the process became quite complicated and so I accidentally took three or four months off the road and I hated it! I’m very pleased to say we’re now back on tour again.” Good news. And with that equilibrium restored, you are heading down under – and specifically to Canberra. What sort of set can we expect when you hit Australia’s Capital? “We’ve just finished a new record, which will be out in the [northern] summer so we will be playing some new stuff, although the album won’t actually be out by the time we get to you which is slightly annoying,” says Turner. “At the end of the day, I’m an entertainer and I know as a punter that when you go to a gig and the band plays ten new songs in a row that you don’t know your patience gets a little stretched… We don’t get down to Australia very often and there are songs that people want to hear and it would be churlish of me not to provide. Hopefully we’ve been able to put together a set that will leave everybody satisfied!” Sounds reasonable enough. Like I say, Turner’s a very engaging man, but a very convincing performer too – we don’t get the chance to see his like at such close quarters that often. Don’t pass this one up. Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls will be playing The Basement Fri Apr 10, 8pm. $41.90 from moshtix. 18+.

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GUS MCCUBBING Best known for their 2013 single ‘Round and Round’, local punk jokers SUPER BEST FRIENDS have just released their debut album Status Updates. In the single, the band poked fun at the relentlessly vacuous 24 hour media cycle and managed to cajole the likes of Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbot, Clive Palmer, Bob Katter and Sarah Hanson-Young into singing and dancing along to the tune. They were ‘in’ on the gag and yet still profoundly awkward. However, as a cabal of journalists chased the pollies around, one could only wonder, are we the patsies, or are they? Catching up with Super Best Friends frontman, John Barrington, it became apparent ‘Round and Round’ actually provided a pretty good insight into the band. As a presenter on triple j’s show Hack until 2012, Barrington reported back from the Federal Press Gallery. This experience would prove a formative one in terms of his worldview and his music. “I’ve still got pretty silly undergraduate kinda views,” he says. “I was gonna do Honours, but just ended up working in journalism and journalism keeps you kind of dumb and idealistic I suppose.”

album, which has “got a mix of social issues and politics.” ‘Out Tonight’, says Barrington, was “Aimed at that violent, macho drinking culture that seems to ruin it for everybody… Like, you go out in Sydney now and it sucks because of the curfews.” “Then you’ve also got ‘Dog Whistling’, which is about the treatment of asylum seekers and how Australia may be perceived overseas because of that,” says Barrington. “And just the irony of how 200 years ago boat people came, but now those same descendants are saying today that boat people aren’t okay.” Fittingly, Barrington lists his favourite bands as NOFX, Frenzal Rhomb, Rage Against the Machine, Refused, The Nation Blue and The Drones. “I love Frenzal Rhomb,” he says. “They’ve been a big influence on me and from time to time people have said that my singing sounds like Jay Wally, with that really Australian Strine.”

I’ve still got pretty silly undergraduate kinda views… journalism keeps you kind of dumb and idealistic I suppose

Having made it his goal to put out a Super Best Friends album by the time he turned 30, Barrington suggested that following the release of the band’s EP Handshake, it was unclear to him whether the band would even stay together. After former band members Matt Roberts and Adam Bridges left, Barrington says Super Best Friends “Could have easily just folded and ended.” However, when current drummer Jesse Sewell turned up, he effectively “saved it.”

“I showed him [Sewell] these new things and he just made them come to life,” says Barrington. “They were a bit more simple. I was maybe trying to make them a bit less shouty, a bit less dance-punk and a bit more straight rocking. His drums really came in there – Adam’s an awesome drummer as well – but the straight vibe that Jesse can produce really worked for the songs.” Super Best Friends began recording Status Updates over a week spent out in Corin Forest. Sewell, who has his own studio gear and experience as a local producer, put together a home recording, which Barrington enjoyed and considered releasing straight off the bat. However, after meeting the members of Melbourne band Calling All Cars on tour, who spoke very highly of Kiwi producer Tom Larkin, Barrington and co approached Larkin with their demo tape. Larkin, a founding member of NZ band Shihad – who has also recorded and produced works by Calling All Cars, The Sinking Teeth, Captives and Hi Tension – told Super Best Friends that he liked their initial work and was keen to work with them. Turning to the newly finished product itself, Barrington says, “We’ve always had that kind of fun, wacky element, but this album has less of that.” According to Barringotn, Status Updates’ two singles, ‘Out Tonight’ and ‘Dog Whistling’ provide a good cross-section of the

“In the recording studio Tom [Larkin] was really trying to bash out of me saying ‘Out Tonoight’ like Kath and Kim,” Barrington says. “I had to lift up my lips and smile and say ‘Out Tonight’. So if you listen carefully you’ll see sometimes it’s nice and crisp and clear and musical theatre quality and other times it’s really ocker.”

Describing Status Updates as more “considered” than Super Best Friends’ previous work, Barrington says, “I hope people can kind of feel that there’s some validity in the fact that working out Parliament House for six years you can bring some sort of depth of experience and knowledge on what’s happening in politics and social issues.” However, in making a link between Facebook’s culture of slacktivism and politically-motivated punk music, Barrington admits that just as one might vent and rant on social media, “Punk music can either be a bit meaningful or a bit futile.” “It’s not a protest album,” he explains, “It’s just an album calling out stuff much the same way a status update on Facebook might be calling out stuff. “But then again if it generates discussion that would be really cool and I’d like to think it’s one of the way better [Australian] political albums that might come out this year…but maybe because it’s the only one!” So with Super Best Friends’ debut album finally under his belt, Barrington says that while a full-time career in journalism remains alluring, his current focus resides solely with the band. “I just really love playing gigs, man,” he says. “Even having a really good job out at Parliament House and rubbing shoulders with the politicians…it’s just not as cool as playing to like ten people at a pub somewhere. I don’t mean other people’s conception of cool, just that it’s my favourite thing in the whole world.” Super Best Friends will be launching Status Updates at Transit Bar on Friday April 10 alongside special guests Pat Chow, FOAM and Release the Hounds. Tickets are $15.

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EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE rory mccartney As BETH N BEN, Canberra funky folk artists Beth Monzo and Ben Drysdale have been tickling our ears since 2010. Apart from heaps of local gigs and interstate festival appearances, they have been busy executing a five year plan, worked out with their label Manga Republic. The grand scheme included three EPs (Boarding Pass, Economy Class and Scenic Roots) and a live album. In 2014, they took the plunge and recorded their live LP Baggage Claim at The Street Theatre. BMA spoke to Ben Drysdale ahead of the album’s launch. Having a live album as a first LP is an unusual move. In Beth n Ben’s case, it revisits all the tracks on their EPs, but done with an expanded ten piece band set-up. “Including the live disk was Manga’s idea,” says Drysdale. “It’s evident from the first EP to the third one how much we’ve progressed. We’ve experimented with band line-ups with different instruments over that time. The idea was that we then redo those songs as big and bad-ass as they can be.”

The idea was that we then redo those songs as big and bad-ass as they can be

There’s almost no such thing as a normal line-up for Beth n Ben. They play as a duo, as a four, five or even an eight piece band. For the album recording gig, they expanded to a ten piece with the addition of horns. There was little in the way of rehearsals for some of the extra members. “I made a last minute decision at two o’clock in the morning at the Sessions Bar at the National Folk Festival to ask one guy from Party Gravy ‘do you want to be on our live recording if you’re in town?’”, says Drysdale. He had always wanted a big band sound. For the show, there was little done to change arrangements, other than adding horn lines. A live show is a lot different for the controlled environment of a recording studio. With a live gig there’s only one take. However, the band played the whole album twice over, with two sets repeated on successive nights. “This gave us more than one take of each song to choose from,” says Drysdale. “We mainly picked takes from the first night, as I think we were a bit fresher.” For the event, The Street Theatre was dressed up with palms, courtesy of April’s Caravan. The live album features the new track ‘Your Gods’ which the band pushed out while they were waiting to finalise the rest of the album. The disk was mixed and mastered by Spencer Lee, who found time to work on the record while doing a project for Disney in the middle of Beth n Ben’s album. Now the Manga package is over, after the big celebration of the album launch the duo intends to slow down the pace, do less live shows, but try to involve the rest of the band in the creative song writing process. Beth n Ben launch Baggage Claim at Turner Rugby Union Club on Friday April 17, support from Beneath Benetta. 8pm. $20/$15 concessions or $10 for CMC members at trybooking.com/HFLL

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DANCE THE DROP

There’s a shift happening in electronic music. For a couple of years, dance music has been the biggest thing in the world, with its records and festivals filling the space that rock and then hip hop used to occupy. However, despite the huge amount of money invested, there’s some issues arising. While there’s still plenty of things happening in the club scene, that weekly clubbing culture has completely changed and the DJs who are playing outside the biggest clubs are rarely the DJs playing at the festivals. Without a sustained culture behind it, the festivals won’t be able to continue as they are. Their audiences will get bored and move on, with less new fans taking their place.

In the realm of the underground, the opposite is happening. For a long while there’s been a definite split in dance music, the music of the artists completely different to anything in the EDM world. However, this is starting to change, with small and boutique festivals springing up everywhere. Some of the more edgy mainstream acts are targeting these boutique festivals and many of the fans who used to attend the larger urban-based festivals are now heading out into the countryside, attracted by the locations, level of production and freedom that a multi-day outdoor festival can bring. No lines for overpriced beer and experiences beyond the dancefloor (large scale art, markets, workshops). As always, the underground becomes the mainstream and the cycle continues – it will be interesting to see what happens… As for the next few weeks closer to home, here’s some gigs to check out. Thank You Ma’am have their Easter Basement Rave Thursday April 2 at The Basement in Belco (which is fast becoming a very cool purveyor of electronic sounds) featuring Sweat It Out’s Go Freek and Melbourne’s Torren Foot. Local support include Skin & Bones, Hello Hallo, Drew’s Lost Boys, Veneris, Mulkmulk, Flynn and Mossi. Entry is $15. A few days later the same venue hosts the Headz are Rolling crew with San Francisco Bay Area drum and bass superstar Indidjinous on Sunday April 5. Support include Pog Ma Thoin, Fourthstate, Kinetic, Hax, Key Seismic, Centaspike and Tidy. Also on Sunday April 5, Hard Envy present a night of local hard dance peeps, at (can you believe it!) Cube. Nomad, Nasty, Cassie Bear, The Soundsmith, Fuentes Brothers, Guerilla Warefare, Clive Warren and Phoenix will bring the noise for this one. Is it a banger? Hopefully you’ll get a definitive answer on Friday April 10 when Mr Wolf brings triple j favourites Odd Mob to Canberra. Deepcuts, Dinah Rose and Exposure in support. And for those who like some heavy bass and glitch-hop, make sure you chuck this one in your diaries – New Zealand’s K-Lab will appear at The Basement presented by those cool cats at Off-tap productions. They put on a phat show and for $15, you can’t go wrong. PETER ‘KAZUKI’ O’ROURKE

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METALISE Last issue we went through the myriad of local delights on offer and I hope you guys got out there and supported the lokills and domestic product that came through. Was great to see a healthy crowd supporting the Spacebong/Horsehunter/Machina Genova show at the Phoenix the other week! There’s been a flurry of announcements and with the busy postSoundwave period it’s time to start working out what shows to invest your hard earned into.

we’ll get a show on their 15 show Australian tour at the Magpies in the City on Thursday May 21. There’s a Canberra connection as the band take High Tension on tour which feature former Young & The Restless’s Karina Utomo on the mic and triple j metal show Lochlan Watt’s new band Colossvs are also along for the whole tour. Last and not least I’m really excited to see one of my album of the year international acts playing here at the Magpies on Wednesday May 6. Iron Reagan put out a phenomenal record in the form of The Tyranny of Will last year and we’re getting a show off the back of that show with a stacked line up of locals - Urge to Kill, Yoko Oh No, Office Jerk and Autonomous Drones. JOSH NIXON doomtildeath@hotmail.com

The classic grind tour featuring pioneers Napalm Death and Carcass is only weeks away now with their show at the Factory down the bottom of Newtown there in Sydney. I’m as amped to see Australia’s power violence maestro’s Extortion back in action as the support for all four dates of that tour, you beauty! A couple weeks later is the death metal double headed delight of Suffocation and Decapitated hitting in early May with that brutal bill touching down at the Manning Bar on Friday May 8. Just announced last week was the return of Swedish melodic death pioneers At The Gates who are touring off the back of last year’s comeback record At War With Reality. They’ve got five dates with the band also playing the Manning Bar on Saturday October 31 for a Halloween delight for fans of the band. I mentioned I had a headacheinducing night out with King Parrot in Melbourne a few weeks ago a couple of issues back and true to Slatz’ word on that alcohol fuelled evening, the boys do not muck around when it comes to getting things done. They had only been back in the country for three days from recording at Philip H Anselmo’s New Orleans studio Nosferatu’s Lair with the former Pantera lung-smith on producer duties and the new KP film clip shows he also got a brief acting role which is well worth YouTubing. The very Australian titled Dead Set is due out on Friday May 15 and true to their tireless work ethic

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Phoenix with New Zealand’s Nowhere. Local support will come from Yoko Oh No,Rather Be Dead and Helena Pop. Entry to this one will cost you just $5 on the door.

Does self-mutilation count as punk if it’s accidental? I only ask because recently sliced my finger open at work and was kind of hoping it made me tough, but it was entirely by accident, so it probably didn’t. Just to clarify, I’m not at all condoning self mutilation. I would definitely recommend against it but I’m also generally recognized as a bit of a square… not that self-mutilation is at all cool…Oh, hey there’s punk shows on… If you’ve picked this bad (naughty, naughty) boy up in time, you can still catch Melbourne’s Laura Palmer this Wednesday April 1, at The

Local ex-pats Super Best Friends are headed back to the homeland on Friday April 10 as part of their Status Updates Tour. They’ll be at Transit Bar with support from WA’s Pat Chow and Foam, along with Queensland’s Release The Hounds. $10 presale tickets are available through Oztix. If you’re in the mood for some hardcore punk, you can head to the Magpies City Club on Monday April 6 to catch the USA’s Iron Reagan at the Magpies City Club. They’ll be supported by locals Urge To Kill, Office Jerk, Yoko Oh No and Autonomous Drones. Tickets will cost you a slick $30+bf through Oztix. On Saturday April 11, Melbourne’s Pit the Elder will be launching their new album At the End of the Day. You can catch them at the Magpies City Club with support from locals Capes, Adventure Sunday and Jack Livingston. Tasmania’s favorites Convict Punk group The Dead Maggies will be hitting up the Magpies City Club on Friday April 17 as part of their ‘Folk ‘til You Punk Tour.’ They’ll have support from Sydney’s The Bottlers and local gems Helena Pop. The second annual Dansonfest is ready to go! Established to remember the life of the Nicholas Sofer-Schreiber- the Ginger Ninja, this years festival which will take place at The Basement on Saturday April 25, will host a great lineup of local and interstate acts including Bagster, Local Resident Failure, Ebolagoldfish, Revellers, Topnovil, Wolfpack, Nerdlinger, Dividers, Words Eye View, Raised As Wolves, No Assumption, Adventure Sunday, Billy Demos, The Brothers Nude, Josh Arentz and Gaffers. Tickets are set at $20+bf through Oztix. That’s all the shows for now. Also, just to clarify on the whole selfmutilation thing, don’t do it. It hurts. Instead try channeling your aggression through harsh, simple, hastily written bursts of musical anger, i.e. a punk song. Hey, maybe your name will end up in this column one day. Maybe. May. Be. M. A. Y. B. E. P.s. Hey Jye. IAN McCARTHY PUNK.BMA@GMAIL.COM

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CODY ATKINSON Four stars. 5 mics. XXL. Two Thumbs Up. 9.3. FRRRRRRRRRREEESH. These are all terms to describe that one person thought an album was pretty damn good. From Adelaide to Zurich, artists serve up albums and reviewers affix a grade based on a relatively arbitrary system. All this and more in this solid Carticle from Cody Atkinson. Why do ratings even matter? They exist as a common shorthand – a way to vaguely describe the quality of something without actually discussing its quality. It’s an attempt to quantify something that is highly subjective and to do so without using any words. But people, both listeners and artists, tend to take them seriously to some degree. Take them seriously? Well, at least semi-seriously. People sometimes complain more about what score an album was given by a prominent reviewer or source than the actual album itself. Which in itself partially kills the point of having a review in the first place. What is the conversion scale to different rating systems?

For example, let’s say that Rolling Stone use a log-10 scale for their 5 star rating system (with half stars in-between). This would mean that a 4 star album would be rated as being 10 times better than a 3 star album, instead of the standard 20% better. Of course none of this matters with respect to Rolling Stone. Because it’s 2015 and no-one cares about Rolling Stone? And no-one has since Nineteen Dickety Two. Rolling Stone is about as relevant these days as a stale fart in a hermetically sealed room. So that was a diversion? Totally away from the rest of the article really. OK, are ratings independent of other albums, or do they exist in a comparable form? Yes and no. Everything in the world is interconnected, wings of a butterfly in Brazil causes a storm over the other side of the world etcetera, but I don’t know how many music reviewers, when listening to an album, suddenly stop and start comparing the score of the current album with past albums. It’s not like they have a searchable database of every single review they’ve ever done, let alone what other people have rated the album.

In this fast paced world of internet toilets and smart fridges, who has time for reading anymore?

Very good question. The General Conference on Weights and Measures have long been silent on what the given conversion rates are between both different rating systems, but also between different publications. I mean, how do you even go about comparing Christagu’s +/ bomb rating systems in the mid-90s to Pitchforks’ 10 point, single-decimal rating system? Obviously, the international community has decided to focus on subjects that they deem more important, such as refugees, nuclear weapons and famine and have ignored the critical issue of not being able to compare what an Alt-Weekly in Seattle thinks of the new SleaterKinney album against what Beat Magazine thinks. The true struggle of our generation. Absolutely. What about those publications that don’t even give a rating system? Ugh, they’re the worst. Imagine having to read the whole review, like actual words and sentences and stuff, to get the opinions of the critics on what they are writing about. In this fast paced world of internet toilets and smart fridges, who has time for reading anymore?

You know, like the internet? The what? Internet? Never heard of it. Is it popular?

Ignoring that bait, what about the biases of reviewers and how generously they hand out ratings? It kinda comes out in the wash. Every reviewer is a little bit different, just like every listener is different. If you actually read the tone of the review, you can usually pick up where the reviewer is coming from. Hopefully. Do you have a personal rating system? Funny you ask that. I was about to unveil my System for Arbitrarily and Definitively Judging Cultural Goods (SADJCG) in a month or so, but this time place seems as good as any. OK. How does SADJCG work?

Huh?

Well, it’s a non-linear scale that contains all known whole numbers and a couple of unknown ones. 3s and 7s are wild, unless a rating of 36 or 91 has been given in the last month, then they revert to the mean of the previous 12 ratings. 12 is the highest an album can score, except for 5324523 and 14. Anything reviewed on a Tuesday is worth triple and Friday of course has the Daily Double in effect. And, I don’t know why I even need to say this, but a rating of 6 given on the third Sunday of the month is Numberwang.

What?

NUMBERWANG!

YEAH!!!!

That, uh, that doesn’t make any sense…

How do rating scales even work? Are rating scales even linear?

Which part?

Who knows? It’s definitely conceivable that a rating scale may in fact be some sort of logarithmic equation, one that dramatically increases in value as the ratings improve.

All of it.

What? Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention...

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NATIONAL YOUTH WEEK EXPO 2015

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Friday 10 April, Garema Place Canberra City, 4–8pm

Free Entry ✦ Celebrating Young People ✦ Bands Performers ✦ Food ✦ Competitions ✦ Fun Activities Information From Youth Organisations & Community Services

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E X H I B I T I O N I S T ARTS | ACT

AS YOU LIKE IT NONI DOLL When you see the poster for Bell Shakespeare’s latest production of AS YOU LIKE IT, it immediately becomes clear that this isn’t just another stuffy piece of theatre about a bunch of old white dudes in crowns with English accents. As soon as you meet the gaze of Zahra Newman, the production’s Rosalind, dressed to the nines in a Janelle Monae-style tux, you know this is going to be a modern, intriguing and fun show. But as director Peter Evans notes, if you’re already familiar with the work of Bell Shakespeare that will come as no surprise. “It’s really in the company’s DNA to find ways in which young people can connect to this work, which we obviously think is so inspiring and so extraordinary,” he says. “The company’s always really been focused on contemporary avenues into the plays, allowing us to reflect contemporary issues and contemporary humans through these plays that are 400 years old.” It’s this idea of bringing new life to the Bard that has cemented Bell Shakespeare’s place as one of the most recognised and highly respected names in Australian theatre. Their 2015 season, headed by As You Like It, marks the end of founder John Bell’s time as artistic director alongside Evans, who is also stepping down at the end of the year. But don’t be fooled: this isn’t a play that rests on its laurels or gets bogged down in nostalgia. A romantic comedy fuelled by love, kind-hearted deception, family quarrels and cross-dressing, Bell Shakespeare’s As You Like It keeps it fresh with arguably one of Shakespeare’s boldest female characters, the witty heroine Rosalind, played by Zahra Newman. Not content to sit by and watch as both her father and her love are exiled from court, she follows them to the Forest of Arden dressed as the boy Ganymede, where various highjinks ensue, including her giving undercover advice on how to woo girls to Orlando, the man she loves. Evans calls it one of Shakespeare’s most warm and open and love-filled plays. “Because we’re celebrating 25 years, I really thought that we wanted to kick off with something that was just kind of unashamedly beautiful,” he says. According to Evans, Rosalind really is the core strength of the piece. “She kind of takes the play by the scruff of the neck and by the second half of the play is almost kind of authoring it herself, so central is she to all the journeys of all the other characters,” he says. “When Shakespeare did women, they tend to be really bright. The women tend to be smarter and a bit wiser than the men and that’s the case

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with Rosalind too. She’s wiser and quicker and wittier than her offsider and in a way kind of has to help her lover catch up.” Inevitably, a character with that much personality needs a strong actress to pull off the role and it seems that Newman was the obvious choice. “I’ve known Zahra for years and we’ve been talking about doing various projects together and I just thought that she would be a great Rosalind,” Evans says. “You don’t really do a production of As You Like It unless you feel really confident that you’ve got the right actress for the role. I was excited by that idea and so was she, so it felt like the time was right.” The aesthetic for the play aims to match Rosalind’s bright, modern character with its set and costume design, full of colour, contemporary and vintage styles that reflect the joy inherent in the play. Evans notes that the costumes are influenced by styles from right across the 20th century. “Some of the suits are kind of based on 1930s suits and some of the dresses are 1950s and then Kelly Paterniti is all sort of Audrey Hepburn-y 1960’s… We’ve applied a really eclectic approach and just had a lot of fun with the costumes,” he says. “Again, I think young and older audiences can really enjoy that and really see the play take off in a different way with these various ways of presenting them.” When asked if this was a decision influenced by the vintage revival of the last few years, Evans laughs. “There are certainly aspects of that!” he says. “We’ve made most of the costumes because it’s quite tricky these days when you go to shops to try and buy some of the stuff, because it’s so popular that it’s all gone!” Given the importance of cross-dressing in the play’s plot, it seems poignant to end by asking what Evans would be out to discover if he ever went “undercover” as the opposite gender. He laughs and admits he’s never thought about it before. “That’s an extraordinary question! And it is funny in a way, because Zahra kept talking about this great thing that she’s undercover and that Orlando keeps asking her/him, ‘Tell me what you know about women!’ Like, there’s a sense of two blokes together trying to work [it] out. So we did talk about that undercover thing, because I’ve never thought about what it would be that I would be trying to find out. I don’t think I can give you an easy answer to that!” Bell Shakespeare’s As You Like It is playing at the Canberra Theatre Centre from Tue-Sat April 7–18. For more details and to buy tickets, visit canberratheatrecentre.com.au

easiest cocktail ever and ‘so refreshing for summer’. Then it was the Indian breakfast treat Masala Dosai – I’d eat one every day of my life if I could. Currently I’m all about bright, overpriced ceramic jewellery from Tasmania. Because. When I’m into something I tell everyone they should be doing/ eating/buying it. But when the shoe’s on the other foot – different story. Only egomaniacs and too-earnest LinkedIn-types like serious photos of themselves. An arty photographer mate was experimenting with portraiture recently. He tells me to close my eyes then takes a photo of me when I open them. He says the portrait is “very strong” but I reckon I look bloated and unhinged. There I am, staring at the camera, one eye bigger than the other, frowning. It’s what my hair stylist mate calls RBF (Resting Bitch Face) and she would know, she’s a professional.

I don’t mind a night under the stars, but if you tell me I should go camping because it’s a real holiday I’m going to hate it on principle. I have friends who say, “Oh, but with the Eurobed you’re not sleeping on the ground and the guys love sitting around the campfire and having a beer and we all cook together and it’s such a great experience for the kids.”

But you can’t always look attractive, happy or even law abiding. And if you can’t admit you’re a bit mental then you really do have something wrong with you, in my book. He just managed to capture it. Most of the time, I do a half decent job of hiding it in public.*

If I’m going to hear someone outside my immediate family fart in the night there had better be a good reason for it, like we’re fleeing the Nazis or I am getting paid lots of money to be here.

I have a lot of flaws but for the sake of this column, I’ll admit to getting culty about things. A few years ago I got into mosaicing – bought all the equipment including four types of tile cutters (there are at least that many types). I spent Saturday afternoons cruising Fyshwick tile warehouses to get cheap tiles. Left plastic bags of tiles all over the house. Made one mosaic picture frame, never touched the stuff again. One summer all I drank was vodka and cloudy apple juice –

You know what that sounds like? Home.

I’m not saying I’m loaded, but if I see cyclists on a highway with their tent and meager rations packed up in saddlebags, riding in the rain, all I can think is mate, you went on holidays about eight years before you could afford to. But do get yourself a serious portrait photo. It might help you reflect on the reasons why you’re as mental as you look. *Debatable. CHRIS RYAN - Chris Ryan is a comedian who gigs in Canberra as part of comedyact.com.au

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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: Daniel Savage

What do you do? I’m primarily a photographer but like a lot of contemporary artists my practice extends to multiple disciplines including video, performance and installation. When, how and why did you get into it? I started taking photos of animals when I was very young as I wanted to one day be a wildlife photographer for national geographic. As I began studying photography that goal shifted to becoming a photojournalist and then eventually a few years later an artists. Who or what influences you as an artist? I tend to pull influence from various places: pop culture, things I observe in public, theory texts and other artists then combine them with elements from my own experience. Of what are you proudest so far? Over the past few years I’ve made a number of works that seem to resonate with a diverse range of people: socially, conceptually and emotionally. My goal has always been to affect change in people through my work and I feel like I’m gradually getting there.

What makes you laugh? It’s always fun to make able-bods feel uncomfortable. What pisses you off? As a wheelchair user the lack of physical accessibility in the community both in the arts and in general is extremely frustrating. I’ve reached a point where I feel it’s no longer good enough to just be sorry, if you’re not actively doing something to change the situation then you are part of the problem. What about the local scene would you change? Making the scene more accessible to people of various abilities is something I’m actively pursuing and would love to see embraced as the standard. Also a serious critical discourse among emerging artists seems to be lacking in the Canberra scene. It tends to be very selfcongratulatory without the necessary feedback to grow past the point of just the ‘cool capital’ – Anja Loughhead’s upcoming online magazine Topical Ointment is a step in the right direction. Upcoming exhibitions? My latest solo exhibition Print by Numbers will be opening at CCAS Manuka on Thu–Sun Apr 2–12 at 6pm. It is an experimental portraiture exhibition featuring universal accessibility including audio descriptions, braille and large print, touch tours and sign interpreters. Contact Info: DanielSavage.com.au, DJSavage31@gmailcom

What are your plans for the future? Canberra is a great place to develop your practice but over the next few years I hope to start exhibit nationally and start breaking into some of our state and national institutions.

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IN REVIEW

Bringing about social change through art is an ambitious goal and one that was at the heart of Art for Our Sake, a workshop run by Belconnen Arts Centre and Big hART Inc. Around two dozen participants of varying ages settled themselves on couches in The Record Store to network, share skills and unpack Community Arts and Cultural Development.

Set against the backdrop of Black Mountain on a rooftop car park, Excavate is full of promise even before it begins. We are invited to remove our shoes and take a place on a strip of cool, soft dirt. Performer and choreographer Gareth Hart is curled up on a small mound of earth with his back turned to us. iPads flicker with black and white images. We see Indigenous people, children playing cowboys, production lines and military marches. They form an anchor to the past and remind us of how far we have (or haven’t) come.

Excavate City West Car Park Thursday March 19

Scale was a problem for this workshop in a number of ways. The most immediately obvious was the size of the venue. The MC, Robyn Frances, had a timid voice that tended to be swallowed up by the large space and ambient noise from the street. A problem less immediately obvious was the scale of the workshop itself. It attempted to fit both a theoretical discussion and a practical approach to the material into two hours. The result didn’t do justice to either element. After the facilitators had introduced themselves, participants were asked to use small pieces of coloured paper to create a “real business card” containing their contact details, roles and skills. Participants exchanged cards as an icebreaker. Afterward, the cards were gathered up by the facilitators. A short discussion was devoted to unpacking the nature of community arts and cultural development, but it was limited due to the time constraints that were already making themselves apparent. Participants were then split into groups based on the interests and skills stated on the business cards created earlier. Each group was asked to identify an issue they would like to engage with that was relevant to the Canberra community. Again, the time pressures worked to the detriment of organisers, whose instructions were ambiguous as to whether the exercise was a purely hypothetical way of learning or something that could be realistically achieved. The large venue proved a benefit for this part of proceedings, as the groups had more than enough space to spread out around picnic blankets and on milk crates. The informal setting made for a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. However, hearing the presenters from each group remained a problem.

Art for Our Sake was an interesting networking opportunity but one that needed more time and focus to meet its other goals. ELIZABETH FITZGERALD

Image credit: Adam Thomas

Once each group had finished sharing their results, more theoretical discussion was skipped in favour of allowing groups enough time to formulate a specific project. While this might have short-changed participants in one respect, it did allow for some exciting brainstorming. Without limitations set for the exercise, the projects varied from practically achievable social media campaigns promoting portrayals of healthy relationships to wildly ambitious designs for hot air balloons. These final presentations were also hampered by a lack of time in which to ask questions and delve into the specifics of each project.

More machine than human, Hart’s limbs form mysterious angles as he looks into the distance, never quite seeing us. Even when twitching, there is an intuitive gracefulness to the way he moves. At one point, Hart cowers and shrinks to the ground, distraught. We don’t need to see his face to feel a sense of loss. Hart is momentarily human then turns mechanical once more. Edward Willoughby’s minimalistic, futuristic compositions add to the unassuming nature of this performance. The electronic gurgles of the music gently complement Hart’s movements, creating an immersive bubble that is soothing and ominous in turn. We never quite forget that we’re in a car park but that is not the point. In the closing scene, Hart makes his way around the audience and down a carpark ramp, eyes closed. A quote appears on the iPads and on looking up again, we see Hart, stationary, beneath a lamp post, arms raised high as if in prayer. The music fades. Transfixed in a respectful silence, the audience claps appreciatively. To the side of the stage, we “excavate” a little scroll tied up with string. Inside is a quote by Joses Gosper: “We have the most valuable of treasures: ‘the knowledge of who we are’. The whole world has crumbled and been rebuilt many times and we remain; we have survived; and when the darkness has been washed away from our lands by the torrential rains, we will still remain.” There is a refreshing lack of pretentiousness and unspoken acceptance in the fact that we are open to interpret Excavate however we wish. For this reviewer at least, it explores what makes us human. Who hasn’t, at some point, mechanically gone through the motions of life? Nature also plays a starring role, from the dirt beneath our feet to a swirl of black birds (real) joining us in the twilight sky. Dance, music and setting work brilliantly together and the performance successfully avoids feeling orchestrated. Instead, it has a raw earthiness which is made all the more impressive by the fact that the choreography is improvised. Hart’s work possesses a quiet humility which does not presume to give answers to the questions it asks. SHU-LING CHUA

Image credit: Adam Thomas

Art For Our Sake Belconnen Arts Centre Thursday March 19

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IN REVIEW

Canberra has a vibrant literary community, as demonstrated by attendance at the Noted and You Are Here festivals. However, opportunities for Indigenous writers are sadly lacking. So argued Dr Jeanine Leane in the second instalment of (I Hate You) For Sentimental Reasons, a series devoted to examining the shortcomings of Canberra’s art scene.

Upon entering The Record Store on Thursday night and sitting down on the comfortable couches facing two microphones, the audience expected nothing more than to watch a live performance of a vintage Australian radio play first created in 1932.Little did they know what was in store for them.

Review: Jillian Carruthers: Girl Reporter The Record Store Thu–Sat 19–21

(I Hate You) For Sentimental Reasons – Dr Jeanine Leane The Record Store Saturday March 21

The audience settled in on the cosy couches of The Record Store for the presentation but the topic was anything but comfortable. Indeed, it seemed that the Canberra art scene didn’t care to hear about its shortcomings, with a disappointing drop-in audience numbers after the previous instalment (Ask Me Anything with publisher Lex Hirst). Dr Leane began with an acknowledgement of the Ngunnawal people – the traditional custodians of the land on which the talk took place. Her Wiradjuri ancestors and the Torres Strait Islanders were present in the audience. She then gave a short history of publications by Indigenous writers, pointing out that it was indeed short. The first Aboriginal writer to be published was David Uniapon in 1925, though some of his work wasn’t correctly attributed to his name until 2006. However, the publication of works by Indigenous writers remained relatively uncommon until a proliferation in the late ‘80s. The talk quite literally became a list of names at this point, as Dr Leane’s speaking notes were projected onto a screen for the duration of the presentation. Although this had the potential to be dull, it proved useful, allowing the audience to gather the correct spelling for author names and helping them to negotiate a dense topic. With activism hitting heights in 1988 in response to the centenary of white settlement, the David Uniapon Award for unpublished Indigenous writers was established in Queensland. This made and continues to make, Queensland Australia’s foremost state in terms of opportunities for Indigenous writers. In contrast, the ACT Literary Awards has no specific category for Indigenous writers. Dr Leane argued this was needed because of the lack of venues for Indigenous writing. Topics concerning Indigenous writers, such as deaths in police custody, are unpalatable to mainstream markets or are filtered to make them so. She concluded by sharing a poem she had written that had been turned down by the Canberra Times and was instead accepted by Antipodes, a well-respected US journal on Australian literary studies.

ELIZABETH FITZGERALD

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Image credit: Adam Thomas

While a broader discussion of Canberra’s lack of opportunities for Indigenous writers and potential solutions may have been beneficial, Dr Leane made excellent use of the brief time available by keeping focused on the issue of literary awards, internships and mentorships. The national and historical context she gave allowed greater insight into why the lack of initiatives supporting Indigenous writers in the ACT is a dire shortcoming of Canberra’s art scene.

Jillian Carruthers: Girl Reporter follows Jillian (Chris Ryan) as she arrives in Canberra to report on its brand new arts festival. Initially arriving in Queanbeyan, she is whisked into the city centre where she learns about the festival and the town itself. She soon comes into some trouble which is typical of the radio play genre. Created by Chris Ryan and Nick Smith, the performance cleverly juxtaposes elements from the early 20th century radio play genre with 21st century issues and humour, along with slapstick and visual jokes which break the fourth wall with amazing results. The production also cleverly blurs the lines between the play’s apparent 1932 setting and the modern day world. The actors’ tweed costumes and the sound of a steam engine establish the play’s 1932 aesthetic. Yet the play also cheekily pokes fun at contemporary issues such as gender inequality. Such lines as “Women will next be demanding library cards and wages” could initially be considered part of the play’s context. Yet, when accompanied by later jabs which suggest that a woman could never be Foreign Minister, it is clear that the play is commenting on our society’s changing values today. One of Jillian Carruther’s key strengths is the way in which it parodies the radio genre. While radio stories must rely on audio alone to tell a story, Thursday’s production allowed for visual humour to enhance the experience. A key example of this was when two characters were walking down the street and being accompanied by a sound clip of people walking. This was visually accompanied with the two actors momentarily checking their iPhones. However, when Jillian demanded that the action be described to her, as if she couldn’t see it, the audience was again reminded of how radio is limited to audio. The play also featured improvised interviews with other performers from the YAH festival. While Ryan stayed in character, those interviewed were their genuine selves. In these interviews, Ryan and interviewees promoted other performances that were happening throughout the festival. The realism of these segments also highlighted the theatrical aspects of the play and provided Ryan with more comedic material. An instance of this was when she reacted prudishly to the band name Finger Your Friends. Jillian Carruthers was an audio-visual delight that paid homage, while also parodying, the old-fashioned radio play genre. This experimental piece’s initial suggestion to “close your eyes if you wish” was, thankfully, ignored. ROSE MAURICE

IN REVIEW

I am going to begin this piece by associating Zak and Reefa’s Bollywood Funeral with an adjective not commonly associated with funerals – enjoyment. Writer Tasnim Hossain and directors Casey Elder and Chris Brain achieved this not only once but twice. The play was split into two parts, each performed on separate nights, in a different and unconventional setting.

Those arriving for Inflorescence at The Street Theatre were greeted with a dimmed room full of delicate, hand-crafted paper flowers. Butterflies on the walls formed the words “breathe” and “care”. The attention to detail – each crinkled petal, the lace-like perforations on draped paper – was exquisite. The audience settled in as the room plunged into darkness.Improvisation musician Reuben Lewis on trumpet, accompanied by double bass, drums and electronic percussion, set the mood but never took over the show. The music smoothly transitioned between warm, playful jazz and a foreboding emptiness, punctuated with Morse-like beeps – insect chirps and the sound of a gentle breeze blowing through a desolate forest. Changes in tempo marked the passage of time, shifting from 1920s-esque jazz to sparse electronic beats (and back again).

Inflorescence The Street Theatre Saturday March 21

The venues for both funerals complied with Dangerous Territory, a challenge that asked various YAH artists to pick strange places in the city and create shows in and around them. The two locations, Landspeed Records and the office hallway of the Citizens Advice Bureau on Barry Drive, added to the overall atmosphere of the performance and went beyond what could have been just a simple quirk of the production. This is because they reflected the interests of both characters; Zak (delightful Vivek Sharma) – who has dropped out of his engineering degree to pursue a career in music – performed on Wednesday night at Landspeed Records, the setting adeptly reflecting his passion and drive for music. On the next night, the funeral for Reefa, played by Hossain, was held in the office hallway of the Citizen Advice Bureau on Barry Drive and reflected her interest in law and community advocacy. While these unconventional settings did limited audience numbers and comfort, they had an overall positive impact. The two performances were compelling as standalone pieces. Zak’s rap (“My name is Zak and I’m on the next level/ something, something, something to the devil”) and Reefa’s association of her Aunt’s obsession with marriage to social media platforms like Facebook and Tinder provided both performances with comedy that didn’t rely on having seen the other half. But the overlap between Zak and Reefa’s perspectives was one of the play’s strongest features. From Reefa’s monologue referencing her catching Zak mid-rap to her part in the confrontation between Zak and his parents, the overlap powerfully highlighted how various people come to and react to situations differently. Similarly, Reefa’s funeral concluded the two pieces. The ending left by Zak’s funeral remained inconclusive. His action of purchasing a CD and walking out of the establishment left the audience questioning what he would do next and whether or not he was serious about no longer pursuing music. It was the conclusion to Reefa’s story that removed the ambiguity left by Zak’s.

ROSE MAURICE

Image credit: Adam Thomas

Zak and Reefa’s Bollywood Funeral is a compelling performance that looks into the common tension between individual ambitions and family pressures, using humour and insight in a way which truly encompasses the You Are Here spirit.

Meanwhile, visual artist Dianne Fogwell moved carefully through the “garden”, gently placing small beads of light in the heart of flowers and making shadows of butterflies dance across the floor. A long strip of perforated paper ran through the room while other pieces draped, rockily. On taking a closer look, the pinpricks of light were laid out in patterns representing pollen forms, language (Braille), insects and a musical score. This suggested a concern not just with the literal pollination of flowers but with inspiration as a result of the creative cross-pollination between music, language, art and nature itself. At the end of the performance, there was a long, expectant silence. Fogwell explained that Inflorescence was a brief sketch designed to make us think about pollination. This was a wise decision and a necessary prompt and reminder. Inflorescence claimed to draw inspiration from “the triangle of pollination: the flower, the pollinator and the pollen” (YAH program) but it was not immediately clear that pollination was the focal point. The dreamy performance washed over the audience and could be enjoyed with minimal effort. It did not necessarily compel one to ponder the significance of pollination. The fact that the flowers and butterflies were but beautiful facsimiles seemed, instead, to question how far we’ve come from nature. Lewis and Fogwell, equal partners in the development and execution of Inflorescence, drew on one another for inspiration. This speaks to the “pollination of new ideas with old,” mentioned in the program. Fogwell mingled with the audience afterwards and was happy to answer questions. This helped to clarify and strengthen her message. It is difficult to fault a performance as thoughtfully put together as this one. A joyous yet meditative celebration of life, Inflorescence was both visually and aurally beautiful. Without Fogwell’s closing comments and willingness to engage with the audience however, its messages about pollination risked being lost. It was the type of performance that will go on to inspire others and this, perhaps, was its true aim. SHU-LING CHUA

Image credit: Adam Thomas

Zak and Reefa’s Bollywood Funeral Landspeed Records Wed–Thu Mar 18–19

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IN REVIEW

When the apocalypse hits there will be no tidal waves in Canberra, no cyclones, probably not even any flooding. Instead, there will be raging fire fronts, brown sludge in water pipes and the gradual, slow decline of the world as we know it. When the apocalypse happens and the ground is baked hard from sun and sap, the countryside will be filled with refugees from the cities and the limits of humanity will become strained and frayed. Only one question remains: can you face it?

A grey Sunday morning couldn’t dampen the warm welcome at Where the Deadly Words Are: Us Mob. Writers of diverse ages and backgrounds gathered at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) for a writing workshop run by Us Mob writers. The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed with participants being greeted at the door. A morning tea provided at one end of the room added to the convivial atmosphere.

This is the premise of Eucapocalypts Now, a poetry performance written and performed by Canberra-based poets Ellie Malbon and Aaron Kirby. Held outside the recently opened Westside Container village on Sunday March 22 as part of You Are Here festival, Eucapocalypts Now painted a picture of the apocalypse as it will most likely be: a very un-apocalyptic, gradual and slow decline that is sometimes dramatic, sometimes mundane, but mostly just is. The performance was split into two parts – a suite of poems performed by Malbon and Kirby followed by a facilitated group discussion. To open, a collection of objects was passed through the audience. Taken from everyday life, the objects had swing tags attached to them. On these tags were handwritten questions designed to provoke thoughts and imagine possibilities. My favourite was a small figurine of a dog accompanied by the dark but humorous question, “How many meals do I have to miss until we are no longer friends?” Following this was a series of poems – beautifully delivered by both artists – which imagined a localized apocalypse narrative. The stories intertwined and bounced off one another, running the gamut of human experience with tales of hardship and horror, beauty and love, hope and despair. I particularly liked the inclusion of small victories and the more mundane aspects of living in a changing environment: tap water running brown and the eager anticipation of germinating seeds. The inclusion of “place” was also well done and the mention of the shipping containers just near the “old Floriade” really brought the tales close to home. The second half of the performance, when Malbon and Kirby invited the audience to reflect on their thoughts of what such a scenario would be like, was slow-moving at first. However, the pace picked up and some interesting and poignant points were raised. Whilst I liked the idea of audience engagement, I’m unsure if a facilitated discussion was the most effective way to do this. I also found the location, whilst effective in a place-making respect, had too many distractions and it was difficult to become fully immersed over the sounds of cars, machinery and scooterriding children.

What would you do? JESS OLIVER

Image credit: Adam Thomas

Eucapocalypts Now was a great performance by two of Canberra’s best poets that provoked thoughts and stoked imaginings of an increasingly foreseeable future.

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Where the Deadly Words Are: Us Mob Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) Sunday March 22

Proceedings took place at ring of conference tables decorated with photos and sprigs of eucalyptus. Dr Jeanine Leane opened with an acknowledgement of the Ngunnawal people –the traditional custodians of the land on which the workshop took place, her Wiradjuri ancestors and the Indigenous Australians present in the audience. Introductions were followed by beautiful ceremony led by Kerry Reed-Gilbert. Participants were invited to close their eyes and have their face daubed with ochre by Us Mob while gentle music played in the background. This then became the first writing prompt of the day, with participants asked to reflect on their experience. Many were clearly moved and the work shared afterwards held common themes of belonging and spirituality. Sharing such raw work can be intimidating for even the most experienced writer and several participants who shared their work expressed doubts regarding the quality. The next writing exercise was designed to help overcome that. A single word served as a prompt for three minutes of continuous writing. The results touched on issues of identity, such as personal experiences of what it is like to be a new migrant to Australia. With the workshop almost half over already (time flies when you’re having fun), there was a quick break for tea, coffee and some delicious lemon myrtle damper that formed part of the morning tea. Then it was back into the writing exercises. Participants were split into two groups, with one group remaining in the conference room while the other relocated to the foyer. Each participant was given a list of half-a-dozen words that were particularly meaningful to Us Mob and asked to write something using those words. More time spent unpacking how those words were meaningful to Us Mob would have made for a more rewarding experience. The final writing exercise involved using photographs as prompts, with the group in the foyer examining the photos AIATSIS had on display and the group in the conference room utilising the photos provided by Kerry Reed-Gilbert. After sharing the results, the groups reunited and the workshop was wrapped up with readings from the Us Mob Writers. The prompt-based approach wasn’t suited to all writers, but the workshop remained a valuable experience for forging connections and grappling with cultural heritage, making Where the Deadly Words Are a highlight of the Noted Festival. ELIZABETH FITZGERALD

Image credit: Yasmin Masri

Eucapocalypts Now Westside Acton Park Sunday March 22

IN REVIEW

LITERATURE IN REVIEW

Renowned for his utterly unique style of mayhem, Jason Byrne was most definitely back and better than ever with his awesome new tour wherein the audience gets to name the show. As part of the Canberra Comedy Festival, Byrne brought the house to near tears of laughter with his cheeky and most definitely adult brand of humour in You Name The Show.

Bittersweet is the last novel written by the late Colleen McCullough, who sadly passed away earlier this year. McCullough says she wrote Bittersweet “to stave off boredom and amuse herself”. It is not quite in the same class as Thorn Birds or her epic Rome series but it is an enjoyable read nonetheless.

Jason Byrne The Playhouse Fri –Sat Mar 20 –21

Bouncing onto stage with the energy of a thousand small children, Byrne had the audience laughing like mad within seconds as he broke down in laughter after being heckled before the show had even really begun. “Never in my entire career have I done a show where the heckles started before the show did!” he quipped. Telling insane stories of his time in Australia, including a story about visiting a crocodile enclosure and being told to “just run” if the crocodiles decided to attack, Byrne crowned Aussies with the title of “mad fuckers” and proceeded to compare the nation to an entire country of school children whose teachers and headmasters had stepped out permanently. He even gave the audience an idea of what Tony Abbott looks like from a foreign perspective – “a bloke, not a leader, a bloke who should have been an electrician or something that accidentally became the leader of a country.” Armed with a myriad of cardboard topical signs, Byrne asked the audience to pick out a topic from his little black box and swore that he would do a piece on whatever topic came up. The audiences’ pick? Handbags and teenagers. The result? A standup challenge that Byrne rose to swiftly and easily, telling stories of his fifteen year old son and borrowing two ladies handbags to question why women use them, in an attempt to ease his confusion over handbags in general. Despite a bunch of hecklers calling out constantly, Byrne managed to take it all in stride and easily managed to incorporate the hecklers into his show, creating a funnier, distinctly original show where not one person was left without their funny bone tickled. Audience participation was mandatory and three audience members were given a small whiteboard and markers to come up with three different potential names for the show, the winning name being Rangas for Free. While handing out the boards to his three chosen audience members, Byrne discovered that one of the members was a former triple jump champion and challenged him to a triple jump contest on stage. The night was a one of hilarious stories, over sharing, strange yet amusing antics and was legitimately one of the funniest live shows to make its way to Canberra. Byrne had a joke for everyone, a story for everything and made it clear that he is definitely not a comedian that you want to miss, leaving the stage with the departing words, “I’m Jason Byrne and you’ve been watching Rangas for Free!” NICOLA SHEVILLE

Bittersweet Colleen McCullough [Harper Collins; 2013]

Set in the fictional NSW town of Corunda, it is the story of two sets of twins, Edda and Grace and Kitty and Tufts, born 20 months apart. Edda and Grace’s mother died in childbirth and after a respectable length of time their father married the housekeeper, Maude. Maude fell pregnant almost immediately and gave birth to Kitty and Tufts. It is now the 1920s and the story starts with an almost unbelievable scene involving a society afternoon tea, a seven foot red bellied black snake and Edda’s nerves of steel. The four girls are preparing to enter the Corunda Base hospital as trainee nurses, arranged with the help of their father, the Rector of St Marks and hospital board member. They have received a suitable education and hopeful grooming from a domineering Maude to prepare them for marriage, preferably to rich men. Kitty, is blessed above the others with extraordinary beauty. Her mother’s insistence on referring to her beauty at every turn is a source of torment for Kitty and she attempts suicide. Her protective sisters see moving to the hospital as trainees as an opportunity to get her away from their over bearing mother. As the story progresses through their first few months as nurse trainees the girls go through their own transformations. They are each outspoken, headstrong and clever in their own way. They share the hardships and challenges of their nursing training and manage their relationships with each other through testing times. Edda eventually marries, for convenience, a very rich man who happily arranges and funds her long desired studies in medicine in return for her keeping his secret. While watching steam trains, Grace meets and marries a travelling salesman, has two children and after a challenging life is widowed. Tufts is the spinster of the family with a curious platonic relationship with a much older man and Kitty, feeling obliged and under pressure from everyone, marries a very rich Englishman with family connections in the district and fierce political ambitions. The author has shown the great value of research by weaving in to the story the expectations of women and their roles in the family and society at that time. The sexual politics and social conditions are used to shape the characters. What binds the story however, is the enduring and uncompromising love between the two sets of twins. Through heartache and triumph it the connectedness between the women that gives the story depth and warmth. ALSEY ANN CONDIE

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There are some human traits whose heft tips their possessor favourably on the scales of worth, adding a dazzling sheen. Other qualities draw derision and are perhaps even to the detriment of the bearer in their self-serving nature. Bravery is one of those qualities held in high esteem, even more so when accompanied by that increasing rarity, modesty. An act of unheralded bravery is instinctively attractive. It augments the hope that an intuitive, selfless consideration lays at the core of us all, which in turn engenders feelings of oneness and justice. As a result, when one senses the narcissistic misappropriation of valour for personal gain, not only is the fog of altruism conjured by the perpetrator immediately dispelled, it is replaced by an overwhelming desire to name, shame, tar, feather and baste. There is one profession particularly adept at this fraudulence: that of the actor. Actors, by nature of their profession, are oftentimes given to intense introspection, with the paradoxical motive not of personal betterment, but of a more favourable regard by the public. When rightly framed against genuine acts of bravery – valour on the battlefield, putting oneself at risk to save another, spending an evening in Mooseheads – the actor’s habit of describing what are essentially self-serving career choices as ‘brave’ are as deplorable and duplicitous as a Frenchman claiming a clean bill of sexual health. The chief intent behind any decision of a high-profile star of the moving image is undeniably to garner the most positive attention for their efforts, perhaps even to acquire some phallic award or other to distract from a sub-standard education and their own lack of originality. For what is an actor? A man (for women can neither be entertained nor entertaining) whom speaks words written by another. A jester adept at convincing himself that he has ‘created’ a character already manifest on the page. A charlatan driven to appropriating the personality of another’s fictitious creation in a futile bid to mask a lack of their own. And to festoon these facets with the baubles of bravery? Outrage! You may consider all of the above to be a largely unsolicited tirade against a profession from which many draw comfort, entertainment and soulful nourishment. I can assure you that it has nothing, nothing to do with my own forays into this area. It is a crying shame that when an entire industry feels suitably threatened by a fresh new talent, it feels compelled to castrate that talent and leave his talented balls swinging in the wind. By way of example, my daring take on Jane Austen’s Mr Darcy at the Pimlico Playhouse was both unexpected and unsurpassed, yet criminally cut short. That Mr Crumplehorn’s stagnant direction failed to utilise my full thespian armoury, even going so far as to veto my chosen monosyllabic delivery and hessian gimp mask, speaks volumes of his common, blinkered approach. My intent was true and my choices valid. They were more than that, they were brave; and if anyone finds themselves in disagreement, they can fuck off. gideon foxington-smythe

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bit PARTS THE LISTIES MAKE YOU LOL! WHAT: Children’s comedy WHEN: Fri–Sat Apr 10–11 WHERE: The Courtyard Studio Featuring alien attacks, toilet paper cannons, spew, the rudest word in the world and the most disgusting pair of undies kids will ever see in their entire lives, The Listies Make You LOL! is an innovative, hilarious performance that takes children’s comedy to another level. Matt Kelly and Richard Higgins have sold out shows around Australia, Europe and Asia, delighting children, parents and critics alike. The show is guaranteed to make parents and children laugh like they have never laughed before. Tickets $20/$15 for one ticket, or $60 for a family of four, at canberratheatrecentre.com.au. JAY SULLIVAN: BUNKER COMEDY WHAT: Comedy WHEN: Sat Apr 11 WHERE: Ginninderra Labor Club Acclaimed comedian and unofficial King of Tumut, Jay Sullivan is kicking off the first Bunker Comedy special of 2015 with his acerbic wit and comedic mastery. Delving into his back catalogue, Sullivan plans to create a one-off show that will generate more noise in Charnwood than when the Raiders won the ’89 grand final. Bunker Comedy begins with Sullivan and has a huge lineup of local, interstate and international comedians every month until Christmas, so make sure you don’t miss out. Doors at 7.30pm, show at 8pm. Tickets are $16.50 at the door.

THE BOOK BINDER WHAT: Theatre WHEN: Fri Apr 17 WHERE: C-Block Theatre, Gorman Arts Centre Teaming up with New Zealand’s award-winning independent company, Trick of the Light Theatre, Canberra Youth Theatre present a stellar performance of The Book Binder. Inspired by the intricate works of Neil Gaiman and Joy Cowley, the production is one of mischief and mayhem and weaves shadow-play, paper, art and music into an incredibly interesting and fun performance for adults and children alike. Dive into the world of The Book Binder, bring your friends and family along for the ride. Tix $17/$21, available from cytc.net.

SANCTUARY TWILIGHT TOUR WHAT: Walking tour WHEN: Fri Apr 17 WHERE: Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary At night is when things really come to life at Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary as the nocturnal animals awaken, hungry and searching for food. Experience the chance to witness the Eastern Bettong, a species that has been extinct from the Australian mainland for 100 years, foraging on native truffles in the wild, see Kangaroos and Wallabies in their natural habitats and listen to the animals communicate with one another in the dark. An awesome experience for animal lovers everywhere. Tour begins at 5.30pm. You can book your tour at bettongs.org for $49.50.

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throughout the album works extremely well, adding extra warmth during moments that could have otherwise turned cold or artificial. The violin and cello counter melodies weave in and over the songs, heightening the dramatic presence. Seb Field’s distinct falsetto acts as another layer to the instrumentation – ranging from vulnerable to a powerful wail, his unique delivery is part of what sets Cracked Actor apart. It would have been nice to hear Field’s vocals given even more precedence on some tracks, as at times the vocals seem to be buried in the mix.

album of the issue Cracked Actor Iconoclast [hellosQuare] Cracked Actor’s long awaited debut album is a showcase of their labours from the past few years. After already releasing several EPs, they have been clearly been refining their sound as regulars on the Canberra live music scene. On Iconoclast, they have applied this experience to create a wistful ambience, which is richly layered in both acoustic and electronic sounds. It may not be an album to dance to; rather it’s an album to intimately experience by strapping on a pair of headphones and allowing yourself to be enveloped within the ever-changing soundscape. Cracked Actor are open about their influences, drawing upon a vast array of musical styles. Elements of experimental EDM and glitch come through with the use of electronic beats, while in contrast, folk-inspired influences gleam through on the softer tracks. A comparison can be drawn between Radiohead and Thom Yorke’s solo work, based on each band’s partiality for experimenting with different styles, time-signatures and chord progressions. What is immediately apparent on Iconoclast is how well Cracked Actor use dynamic to build tension on the album. Songs may start whisper quiet with a hushed vocal line or gently plucked guitar, ushering you to engage with it closely. The addition of strings

‘Funerals’ hits hard and early, showcasing Cracked Actor doing what they do best. A pounding bassline throws you straight into off-kilter beats, as crackled and distorted vocals are assaulted by stabbing buzz-saw guitars. The song builds up to shredding chaos with Field’s tortured scream over the top. It’s an emotive journey, one to which ‘Blue’ provides a contemplative relief. As the most pared-back track on the album, its simplistic beauty shines through. Lush strings and keys enhance the sparse, almost eastern-inspired melody. ‘MYV/Light Year’ is the only track that loses context, appearing like a palette-cleanser, but somewhat disrupting the flow of the previous tension. The laid back shuffle of ‘Lemon On Your Lover’ is probably the closest thing Cracked Actor have to a “pop song”. Which is not to say that’s a bad thing – its uplifting groove is completely addictive and it stands out as a highlight of the album. The glitchy ‘Start As You Mean To Go On’ ends the album a high note, the spaciousness and layered vocals giving it an ethereal quality. As an album, Iconoclast becomes more rewarding upon repeated listens. The melodies weave themselves into the back of your mind as the subtle nuances become more pronounced. The elements of surprise that punctuate the album throughout make it well worth the effort to immerse yourself. Cracked Actor seem to really care about creating different and exciting music, something which invokes mood and feeling. It is refreshing to come across a band that is not only unafraid to experiment, but also has the musical talent to back it up.

Paul Kelly The Merri Soul Sessions [Gawd Aggie Recordings] It may have Paul Kelly on the cover, but this is an LP with a difference. The Merri Soul Sessions (named after the creek by the recording studio) is a vehicle for Kelly to try out mostly new material, he either wrote or co-wrote, with a bespoke band and a bunch of some of the nation’s most powerful singers. The impressive line-up of musos includes Ash Naylor (from Even), Dan Kelly, Peter Luscombe (The Black Sorrows) and Bill McDonald (ex-Frente). Kelly employs an equally brilliant assembly of vocalists to broadcast his wares. Rumbles and stark beats introduce the wailing angel Linda Bull. Her superb voice swoops through electric lyrics from Kelly in a song that conjures 3D visions of storm clouds, complete with the odour and the feel on the skin of an approaching downpour. Kelly fans will recognise the classic ‘Sweet Guy’, given new legs and an increased level of passion from Vika Bull. Dan Sultan’s softer but no less passionate tones smooth the way in ‘Don’t Let a Good Thing Go’, with Sultan weaving in amongst the female backing vocals in the chorus. Kelly reserves only two tracks for his exclusive use, including ‘Righteous Woman’ with its dark, cryptic imagery. The disk highlight is ‘Keep on Coming Back for More’, featuring the uninhibited delivery and guttural cries of Clairey Brown (The Bangin’ Rackettes). Kelly doesn’t shy away from visceral imagery in this song of love enslaved, as Brown wails “Like a sick dog licking its spew, I’m always turning back to you.” Containing a restrained power that never dominates the vocals, the music sets the stage for the depiction of human frailty in an album which can only embellish Kelly’s reputation as a songwriter. RORY McCARTNEY

MEGAN LEAHY

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The Black Ryder The Door Behind The Door [The Anti-Machine Machine] Following their departure from The Morning After Girls in 2007, Aimee Nash and Scott Von Ryper went on to form their distinctly more psychedelic/shoegaze-influenced duo The Black Ryder. Their impressive 2009 debut album Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride attracted significant local acclaim, earning them local support slots to the likes of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, with the duo going on to enjoy continuing collaborations with both bands. While it’s been a long gap between albums, the duo have certainly been occupied in the interim, with the band relocating their base from Sydney to Los Angeles following Nash’s marriage to The Cult’s Ian Astbury. Six years later and this second album The Door Behind The Door doesn’t really see Nash and Von Ryper tearing up the rulebook, though there’s certainly a more polished and expansive feel to the nine tracks collected here. There’s also a noticeably greater presence of electronics and synths, with opener ‘Babylon’ threading in slow industrial-tinged rhythms amongst the jagged guitar echoes and wordless vocal tones, in what’s certainly a foreboding intro. Elsewhere though, the Von Ryperfronted ‘The Going Up Was Worth The Coming Down’ almost calls to mind a more spooky and psychedelic take on Crowded House as soft mellotron shades creep in amongst the feathery acoustic guitars, before the blurred-out ‘All That We Are’ sees the hazy guitar trails blazing out into the distance against vaguely MBV-esque opaque vocals. While there are certainly plenty of impressive sweeping landscapes to be taken in here, unfortunately a lot of this album feels like it’s constantly stuck in a lower gear rather than really opening the throttle. chris downton

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Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti – 2015 Deluxe Edition [Atlantic] The Led Zeppelin reissues keep on coming and now we have the band’s crowning glory, the 1975 double album Physical Graffiti. When The Sex Pistols appeared a few years later there was all this talk about Zeppelin being rightly consigned to the dustbin of history but this was simply too-coolfor-school posturing which no one really believed. Opening track ‘Custard Pie’ is a first rate rocker about stimulation of the oral kind which makes lesser mortals like myself feel a tad inadequate. The best bit in this song is Robert Plant’s coarse harmonica blast at the end which gets the right bits tingling, suggesting there is more to the story than simply ripping off the Chicago blues dudes from times past. This song is followed by a highly charged riff on ‘The Rover’ which lurches and heaves in the emphatic way some people do when they are having a really good time with Robert Plant riding atop with some words about his lover “lying on the dark side of the globe.” A lot of fuss is made about the Eastern psychedelic swirl seeping through ‘Kashmir’ with another killer riff from Jimmy Page driving it forward, but my money is on the slow blues ‘In My Time of Dying’ which aches in the way raw delta blues did many years before. Disc two has always sounded a tad disjointed but superb opening number ‘In the Light’ is beautifully crafted, making it one of the finest tracks in the Zeppelin canon. Attentive remastering rescues the sound from cold digital and enlivens a true classic. DAN BIGNA

Champs Vamala [Play It Again Sam] In 2014 brothers Michael and David Champion from the Isle of Wight in the UK unleashed their debut LP Down Like Gold. Its beguiling indie pop/folk vocal arrangements were enhanced by unusual echo effects, achieved through the use of an old water tank as the recording venue. Following swiftly on its heels comes Vamala, made with the aid of Dimitri Tikovoi (whose production credits include Goldfrapp and Placebo). Like their debut, song themes revolve around tales of romantic failures, dressed up in bright, catchy melodies with dominant keys. While their sophomore effort comes across as more of the same, it does carry darker accessories. Monsters have infiltrated the lyrics of some tracks, with mentions of devils and demons. Slightly more subdued than the debut and with no tracks with the wow factor of ‘My Spirit Is Broken’, there is still a lot to enjoy. Beginning with starry sky vistas, the warm bath melody of opener ‘Desire’ settles you comfortably into the brothers’ trademark melancholy, sleepy edged singing style, before bursting out with a surprising disco strength beat. The cantering tempo of ‘Running’ captures some of the halogen strength brightness of Down Like Gold while ‘Send Me Down’ has the atmosphere of a Western adventure, complete with a heroic quest, romantic longings and demons. Highlight track ‘Forever be Upstanding at the Door’ presents a different eye view of New York, avoiding the gritty bustle in favour of a softer focus. This gentle strummer caries a Simon and Garfunkel shadow to the guitars (think of ‘The Boxer’). The spooky ‘The Devils Carnival’ wraps up the LP, full of ominous, ghostly overtones. While not quite as impressive as the album it follows, Vamala is still full of beautiful vocals and several great tracks. RORY McCARTNEY

Frikstailers En Son De Paz [Valve]

The Painted Hearts Volume 3 [Rolantone]

Parkay Quarts Content Nausea [Rough Trade]

Originally rising out of the Buenos Aires cumbia, dancehall and baile funk scenes and now based in Mexico City, Raifa Caivano and Lisandro Sona forged their production partnership as Frikstailers (‘freakstylers’) in 2008 with the intention of ignoring stylistic boundaries and bending dance genre conventions. The twelve tracks collected together on this debut album En Son De Paz (originally released in South America in 2013 and only just getting local distribution now) certainly mirror this self-described mutant aesthetic. In a similar manner to the likes of Bonde De Role and Major Lazer, Frikstailers use cumbia and dancehall styles as a jumping off point, fusing the rhythms with hefty bass elements and electro influences to create an EDM festival friendly hybrid.

Canberra indie rockers The Painted Hearts, led by P.R. Davis, launched their debut LP in 2007, followed by Volume 2 in 2011 and Volume 3, recorded at the local Cowperson Lounge, in 2014. There was a scratchy, lo fi aura to their first two releases, which imparted a ‘live in your lounge room’ vibe to the material.

Since they emerged back in 2011 with their debut cassette release American Specialities, NYC-based four-piece Parquet Courts have rapidly grown to become darlings of the US indie rock scene, with last year’s third album Sunbathing Animal receiving widespread critical acclaim and even making an appearance on the US Billboard charts. A scant few months on, this latest release Content Nausea offers up the group’s second collection within a single year, but as the name shift hints, this isn’t exactly normal service from Parquet Courts. With their drummer and bassist respectively off completing a mathematics degree and starting a family, the twelve tracks collected here see the band stripped down to just singer / guitarists Andrew Savage and Austin Brown, augmented by Jackie-O Motherf*cker’s Jef Brown on saxaphone and Eaters’ Bob Jones on fiddle.

‘Guacho’ kicks proceedings off on a clattering electro-cumbia trajectory that sees zapping lazer-like effects, cut-up vocal samples and dark moody sub-bass swells interlocking with clattering latin breakbeats in manner that certainly not miles away from the likes of Diplo, albeit given a more sheeny rave edge. ‘Los Originarios’ meanwhile drops the pace slightly in favour of wandering out into swaggering, batucada percussion-laced dubstep that layers floaty ragga-tinged melodies against serrated sub-bass growls. Its ‘Hazlo Tu Mismo’ though that easily offers up this album’s most hard-edged highlights as Boogat’s guest MC vocals echo out over a flexing backdrop of booming dancehall rhythms and surging cut-up punk guitar riffs, While there’s certainly a lot to like about this strong debut album from Frikstailers, unfortunately a lot of it can’t help but feel a bit like soft drink – after the initial fizzy hit there isn’t all that much that really stays with you here. CHRIS DOWNTON

Volume 3 largely maintains the style of the early albums, with the band’s own brand of murky, roots influenced music. Songs drift at a low-tempo pace, while songwriter Davis drops lyrics like ash from a cigarette. At times Davis’ delivery, vocal style and quirky attitude draw comparisons with Dave Graney. Similar in approach to hip hop, the emphasis is on the words rather than the music, which serves more as a backdrop on which Davis can lay down his musings. However, whereas rap can inject humour and chunky beats, there is a more philosophical bent to this material, with themes diving down some unusual rabbit holes. In the opener ‘At Twilight’, Davis contemplates the composition of the solar system and ‘I Used to be a Cowboy’ examines the isolation and loneliness of rural life, with both songs seeking to make a connection between these issues and our inner selves. Highlights come in ‘Dusty Springfield Blues’, with the singer rattling off all the rock stars he never had the good fortune to meet and ‘Pastel, Pink and Golden’ with a brighter melody and a long instrumental tail at the end of the song, providing space for reflection on the words of wisdom. A contemplative, very laid back record, requiring a quiet room and an easy chair, for serious absorption. RORY McCARTNEY

The end result, recorded over two weeks on a 4-track, comes across somewhere between an EP and album, offering up a collection of jams and experiments rather than the next ‘proper’ Parquet Courts record. To be fair though, there’s a bit of material here that wouldn’t feel too out of place on a Parquet Courts album – see ‘Pretty Machines’ collision of Pavementesque slacker rock grooves and skronking jazz horns and title track ‘Content Nausea’s indie jangle and stream of consciousness lyrics. Elsewhere there’s Devo-esque flirtation with nervously rigid new wave (‘Every Day It Starts’), experimental synth interludes (‘Urban Ease’) and even a genderbent cover of Nancy Sinatra’s ‘These Boots Were Made For Walking’. What you’re left with is a deliberately rough-edged collection that should be more than enough to tide you over until the next Parquet Courts album proper. chris downton

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singles in focus by cody atkinson u-ziq ‘XT’

dEUS Selected Songs 1994-2014 [PIAS]

Revolution Saints Revolution Saints [Frontiers Music]

While they’ve only ever really had a small fanbase in Australia, since their formation in 1991 Antwerp-based band dEUS have easily remained one of the most consistently reliable and interesting outfits operating amongst the European indie rock scene. That they’ve accomplished this whilst maintaining just two core members over their twenty-plus year lifespan (vocalist/ guitarist Tom Barman and keyboardist/ violinist Klaas Janzoons) makes the feat all the more impressive. If anything, this retrospective collection Selected Songs 1994-2014 represents the perfect intro primer for those previously unfamiliar with dEUS, drawing from the band’s seven studio albums to gather together a sprawling 30 tracks over two discs.

American hard rock outfit Revolution Saints (and who came up with that terrible name? Hand the man responsible his service revolver and give him some privacy) are that most-maligned of beasts, the supergroup. Featuring singing drummer Deen Castronovo (Journey), Nightranger’s Jack Blades on vocals and bass and Whitesnake/Dio alumnus Doug Aldridge on guitar, RS have created a very pleasing listening experience indeed for this their debut offering.

While the tracks are presented in no particular chronological order, it’s particularly interesting to chart in capsule form just how much dEUS’ approach has shifted and refined over the years. Indeed, the tracks taken from 1994 debut album Worst Case Scenario capture a band wearing its experimental/avant influences such as Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart far more on its sleeve (see ‘Suds & Soda’s jagged collision of megaphone-treated vocals noise guitars and chaotically noodling Hammond keys). While 1999’s The Ideal Crash onwards saw the band paring back their more eccentric tendencies in favour of a more accessible indie pop/rock approach, in truth it’s the looming influence of US indie rock that’s always been the most steady presence throughout all of dEUS’ discography. Indeed, it’s almost baffling as to why tracks like the new wave-kissed and ultra-hooky (almost Franz Ferdinand-esque) likes of ‘The Architect’ weren’t bigger hits outside of Europe. Still, this comprehensive and expertly compiled collection should go a long way towards addressing the situation. chris downton

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Castronovo handles most of the lead vocal duties, and his voice, which at times is a dead ringer for former Journey frontman Steve Perry’s is the undoubted star of this eighties-fixated show. On the likes of ‘Turn Back Time’ – which I’m sure was written entirely to sound as if it’s an outtake from Journey’s 1981 blockbuster Escape – he carries the chorus with a bravura, lung busting performance that’ll have ‘em cheering in the aisles wherever it’s heard live; elsewhere on the inevitable balladic material so beloved of bands like this he sings his heart out too, particularly on the excellent closer ‘In the Name of the Father.’ Current Journey throatsmith Arnel Pineda makes a guest appearance on the stately ‘You’re Not Alone’ (which – you guessed it, sounds like it might have been written by Journey’s Jonathan Cain and Neal Schon), whilst, surprise surprise, that man Schon adds his digital talents to ‘Way to the Sun.’ A bit of a Journey love-in, then, and your enjoyment of this album will be predicated by just how much you enjoy the music of that band. Me? I love ’em, so I’m lapping up every minute of this all-star effort. Great stuff. scott adams

-Ziq, a long term member of the “IDM” (don’t call it that) community, shows off his more playful side on ‘XT’. This track just has a sheer overload of melodies, from the cutting to the cheesy and pretty much every spot in-between. Well worth the six minutes to listen to.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard ‘God Is In The Rhythm’ Sweet ‘60s tinged pop fills the air on ‘God Is In The Rhythm’, with oohs and whoas coming early and often. Bright guitars and breezy licks are why you keep listening here, with everything seemingly coming so easy. King Gizzard may release an album every few months, but it doesn’t seem like they ever run of good songs.

Westkust ‘Swirl’ “A promising young Swedish shoegaze band” sounds like the set-up to an incredibly niche joke from 1995, but there’s no punchline here – just a nice bit of noisy pop. From the first noise-driven guitar hit on, ‘Swirl’ is an assault on the ears, but a pretty endearing one.

Olly Murs feat. Demi Lovato ‘Up’ Pop folk. When I looked up what this song was, the genre of “pop folk” was shot back at me. What I think they really mean is ‘generic dance pop with a couple of acoustic guitars shoved in for good measure’. This song is the sonic embodiment of a sweaty handshake with a bank manager. Not the worst thing, but not remotely enjoyable.

the word

on films

WITH MELISSA WELLHAM

It’s always sad when truly great directors make some not-so-truly-great films. Neill Blomkamp’s (who has proven himself with the brilliant District 9 and the solid Elysium) most recent effort Chappie is disappointing. But he’s not the only one. Ridley Scott made Blade Runner, but he also made Robin Hood. Kevin Smith made Clerks and he also made Jersey Girl. Even Gus Van Sant made Restless. Moral of the story: Be ready for a Neill Blomkamp comeback.

quote of the issue “I’m consciousness. I’m alive. I’m Chappie.” – Chappie (Sharlto Copley), Chappie

Chappie Director Neill Blomkamp kick-started his career with the brilliant, emotional and imaginative sci-fi flick District 9, followed-up with the big-budget but creatively lesser Elysium. And now we have Chappie. In Chappie, you can see Blomkamp trying to return to the cinematic style and enduring ideas that made District 9 so successful. The special effects are limited to the creation of alien (that is, unfamiliar) beings, but the film is set within the real world. We are asked to consider what it means to be human. And we are asked to root for an underdog. Chappie (brought to life underneath the CGI armour by Sharlto Copley) is a droid who gets given new programming – along with the ability to think and feel for himself – by his creator (Dev Patel). Of course there are bad guys out to get Chappie (Die Antwoord) and even badder guys (Hugh Jackman). Chappie is long and unevenly paced, as it tries to deal with a number of unwieldy thematic issues while doing justice to none. The fact that some of its ideas are so derivative could be forgiven if explored satisfyingly – but all are explored as if by rote, robotically. There are moments of brilliance – such as Chappie himself. Chappie the character is wholly sympathetic, with mechanical ears that convey the most human of emotions. But even his emotive ears aren’t enough to save a movie that you can’t help but compare to District 9. MELISSA WELLHAM

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them Writer and director Ned Benson has tried to capture the complete picture of a relationship, by exploring the fading love between a young couple played by James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain. To know any more about the story than that would ruin the emotional impact of each new revelation. There are three versions of this film: Him, Her and Them. The first tells the story from the perspective of James McAvoy’s character, the second from the perspective of Jessica Chastain’s and the third a combination of the two. It’s an ambitious project – and one that for the most part succeeds. Benson has created an original, emotional and haunting movie that captures the essence of love and loss – without ever feeling forced. There are definite notes of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset in this elegant film. McAvoy and Chastain both turn in powerful performances and after watching Them I wanted to see both Him and Her, just so I could see more of each actor at work tackling their meaty roles. The film is, however, slow and long. It also oscillates between moments of beautiful subtlety, where all that needs to be said is communicated in a facial expression; and then moments of melodrama, which seem painfully obvious in comparison. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby never quite surpasses the feeling of being a character study, into being a whole film – but it’s a lingering, melancholic character study that makes for excellent viewing. MELISSA WELLHAM

Big Eyes Tim Burton has made a film not starring Helena Bonham-Carter and Johnny Depp. There is no kooky, tired animation and very few stripy tops. Burton has proven, once again, that he has talent and range. (He wasn’t always so tragic – remember Sleepy Hollow and Ed Wood?) Big Eyes visually captures the prettiness and uncertainty of the 1950s and 1960s. Like the new Megan Trainor film clip ‘Dear Future Boyfriend’ the viewer is reminded of how gorgeous the decors of the time were and how far feminism had to come. Margaret Keane (Amy Adams) walks out on her husband (before these things became fashionable) only to happen upon another equally if not more toxic man, Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz). In this time, men are shown to be more romantic than women as they were able to choose partners based on compatibility. Women of that time relied almost completely on their husbands to put food on their table and therefore couldn’t be picky. Hence, Margaret finds herself in a situation where her husband takes credit for her original and brilliant paintings and slowly becomes enveloped in a controlling and bleak marriage. The mania of Walter is played to crescendo perfectly as Waltz went from charming and bubbly to homicidal in an instant. If you were uninspired by Burton’s offerings over the past few years, see Big Eyes, it will restore your faith. EMMA ROBINSON

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Insurgent

‘71

Oh dear. This was not good. Where was the character development? Believable plot? Okay yes it is a YA novel and sometimes you need to suspend your belief somewhat, but this was ludicrous.

In 1971, Gary Hook (Jack O’Connell) is a young recruit in the British Army who is deployed to Belfast, Northern Ireland, to help keep the peace during the unrest in the region (The Troubles). Hook gets separated from his squad during a riot on their first mission in a volatile area where Catholic Nationalists and Protestant Loyalists live side by side. Unarmed, injured and the target of several factions, Hook must survive on his own. ’71 takes the simple ‘behind enemy lines’ concept and turns it into something that resonates strongly within the historical context of the political instability of The Troubles. Director Yann Demange creates an intense atmosphere on the streets of Belfast and it feels like death and hatred is around every corner. Screenwriter Gregory Burke crafts subplots involving the pursuit of Hook that gives insights into the political machinations of various organisations in their pursuit of dominance – it’s packed tightly with different types of urban warfare and espionage. At times ’71 and its male dominant cast do overplay the gruff ‘hard men during hard times’ element of the situation, but O’Connell’s performance is noteworthy, particularly the physicality he exerts as a man on the run, which then gives way to anguish as the story unfolds.

Tris (Shailene ‘I can’t be a feminist because I love men’ Woodley) is a fugitive in hiding, seeking it other Divergents and plotting to kill Janine (Kate ‘the one saving grace of this film’ Winslet), Erudite faction leader and evil dictator. Other things happen that I think were trying to invoke some emotional pull like Four (Theo ‘dude from The Inbetweeners with poo up his nose’ James) finally reuniting with his mother (Naomi ‘oh yeah, she’s pretty great too but this is beneath her’ Watts) with whom he has serious abandonment issues. Anyway, there’s a box that holds the key to the power of the faction world which everyone wants but doesn’t understand. Tris gets taken hostage and everyone in the film displays little to no character development and behaves ridiculously. In particular, there is a scene that involves a young man horrified that Janine, the ruthless pragmatist who has displayed no compassion or regard for human life, does not care that he is about to die. Hello?! Blind Freddy saw that one coming. YA movies from novels are plentiful and the good ones aren’t that rare. It’s debatable but the Hunger Games films and even the Harry Potter series leaves this for dead. Moving on. EMMA ROBINSON

Like all great cinematic examinations of conflict, ’71 effectively emphasises the pointlessness of the bloodshed in Northern Ireland as countrymen with so much in common, yet little different, tore each other to pieces. CAMERON WILLIAMS

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the word on dvds

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 [Roadshow] It feels like this film series/ event/thing has been going on forever. Strenuous research (wiki) indicates it has only been three years. This either is saying there has been so much gone on in these films that we have lost track of where we are or its taken a very thin premise and stretched it almost to breaking point making it impossible to remember if we’ve actually seen this before or not. You can’t begrudge any studio making commercial decisions to ensure a return on their investment. It’s the way films are made. If they want to stretch it to ten films – go for it. But don’t expect audiences to follow. Mockingjay Part 1 balances very awkwardly on that cliff. Which is frustrating, because this is the film where it actually gets interesting, probably because they have deliberately pulled back the action sequences and focused on the political stuff, propaganda wars – front and centre.

Gallipoli [Roadshow]

The Grandmaster [LABEL]

The 100th anniversary of anything invariably opens the floodgates. The 100th anniversary of Gallipoli – that militarily disastrous campaign that birthed the ANZAC legend – is something else altogether. In the absence of overkill, this seven-part series that aired on the Nine Network was the first cab off the rank. In advance, things looked good. Based on Les Carlyon’s 2003 literary smash-hit of the same name, the fundamentals were there. Deep production talent suggested a polished cableready look. Clocking in at about eight to nine hours, there was plenty of time to delve deep. But wouldn’t you know it, the damn had a less than impressive run on commercial TV and was quickly wrapped up with double episodes. Timing, network commitment, scheduling and expectation all played their part in its ignominious demise. That is to say – everything but the show itself.

There’s no disputing Wong Karwai is a stylish director. Days of Being Wild, In The Mood For Love and Chunking Express sit easily amongst the best films of the last thirty years. Coming out of a scene (Hong Kong) more associated with the freeform aerobatics of wuxia, Wong was more interested in the way the his camera could create moods, set atmosphere and capture troubled relationships. At times his films could be over contemplative, but they were never boring. Not exactly Jackie Chan splitting his nuts on a bamboo trellis. The closest he has come to this genre of film before now would be Ashes of Time, a troubled epic of a film. The Grandmaster is altogether more relaxed with its place in the universe, but it won’t please everyone.

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence, who seems to be tiring of this role but gamely continues playing nice) spends most this film in a push/pull argument with herself about her role as the Mockingjay, the chosen one, the face of the rebellion. The Mockingjay will be the symbol that break President Snow’s evil empire, but she needs to be further radicalised before that happens. Cue – bombing of a hospital. That should do it. Should. Instead she spends most her screen time pining for the annoying blonde guy, Peter. It’s these excruciating moments where The Hunger Games series reveals its source code in technicolour gory detail. It is teen fiction, your are reminded with jarring brutality. So those scenes where they ‘go dark’ and cross into enemy lines are very thrilling, but they smash very hurtfully into scenes of pouty teenagers, crying and emoting. The final forthcoming instalment will possibly be the best, but this is an ungainly placeholder.

Opening with the landing was a gutsy move. Saving Private Ryan set the standard and has yet to be bettered. Young men, boys, being ferried to their death – in this case on a mountainous beach front in Turkey – is an easy shortcut to the emotional terror of pointless death. But the following 100 minutes of the first episode showing conscripts jagging up and down the beach, confused, without clear direction and insufficient map detail captures the whole sordid Gallipoli mess pretty well. The show settles into the well-worn groove of Australian disrespect of authority, useless planning by the Brits and the meddling press (Gaius Balter!) who exposed the campaigns senselessness. That’s not to say its tedious, more closer to meticulous than big-budget bluster. Which probably explains why it never took hold on a commercial network. How it fits into the bigger and longer picture is hard to tell, but you feel like it’ll always be the overlooked gem, burdened by failure. How very appropriate.

justin hook

Yip Man/Ip Man (Tony Leung) is a Chinese martial arts teacher who specialises in wing chun, a style that seems to place more value on balance, precision and holding back than it does on propulsive roundhouse kicks and throat jabs. He has a tumultuous life thanks largely to the antagonism between China and Japan during World War II. But through it all he was dedicated to his art – wing chun. Yip Man falls in love with Gong Er (Zhang Ziyi), the daughter of a rival grandmaster. Their expressive dance/fight/ love scene in the middle of the film is a delight. It’s well choreographed, subtle and supple. It captures the mood of the entire film – stylish and restrained, but also had to grasp. The fight scenes are dazzling, but not in a hold-yourbreath type of way. More than anything the film is about Yip Man’s journey to Hong Kong and the personal loss he accepts to get there. It closes with a young Bruce Lee – one of Yip Man’s real life students – watching the master through a window. That’s how The Grandmaster feels, peering into an alluring but confusing world. justin hook

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the word

on gigs

The Village People The Playhouse Thursday March 12 At exactly 9.01pm, The Village People were already a minute into their opening number at The Playhouse. My date and I were running late and as we were shown to our seats an usher was overheard saying, “They’re not the real Village People! I remember the real ones and that’s not them!” The doors swung open on the tightly packed theatre and there they were, real or not – six costume-clad men chanting, “I gotta be a macho man.” As The Cop, The Native American, The Soldier, The Biker, The Construction Worker and The Cowboy went through the motions and delivered hit after disco hit, I thought, ‘If these guys aren’t the real thing then surely they’d cast younger, more svelte versions of the characters we all know and love.’ In fact, three out of the six have pretty much been permanent fixtures since the ‘70s and ‘80s, which explains the absence of six-packs and slightly labored dance moves. It took the audience a few songs to warm up and embrace the camp spectacle, but we couldn’t be stopped once the group busted out the title track of the motion picture, Can’t Stop the Music. Highlights also included an emotionally charged ‘Go West’, ‘In The Navy’, a surprisingly good track from 2013, ‘Let’s Go Back to the Dance Floor’ and of course the ‘YMCA’, which also included a lesson from the boys on how to spell it ‘properly’. The best part of the evening, hands down, was watching The Native American tell the party-pooping security guards to take a seat – “This isn’t a Marilyn Manson concert, man! This is a party! Let the people dance!” It doesn’t get any more real than that. SAMUEL TOWNSEND

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the word

on gigs

Bare Grillz, Primary Colours, Honey The Phoenix Saturday March 14 Honey, the product of Yether and Raus, slowly evolved from the live shows of Raus into a band on its own. Enigmatic until the last drop, both Yether and Raus seem to have felt out what they want Honey to be. Touches of disco, splashes of IDM, maybe even a hint of Krautrock, occasionally hard hitting drums and Raus’ idiosyncratic voice come through at different times. It’s easy to enjoy music when the people playing it look like they are having a blast doing so, but even that’s for naught if they don’t sound any good. Honey, without a doubt, sounded good. Go see Primary Colours. Don’t pass go, don’t collect $200. They play a lot around Canberra and are pretty easy to catch. They are worth the effort, at least once. Occasionally they play around with the edges of accessibility, but usually they revert to a catchy place inhabiting the borders of punk sensibility and danceability. The interplay between both Jordan and Gus on stage works, alternating between clashing and cohesive.

PHOTO BY MEGAN LEAHY

the word

on gigs

Set up in a small semi-circle on stage, Bare Grillz are a tight band. They seemed to feed off each other, energy swarming like a Tesla coil ready to break loose. They sounded like barely-restrained fury, in a good way, with guitars attacking relentlessly and drums driving perpetually. A couple of songs in a string broke and they had to borrow a baritone guitar from Primary Colours, a temporary yet failed excursion for a set that had very few of them. Playing a mix of older and newer material, Bare Grillz played a brand of punk that was so engaging that I kinda still wish I was there listening to it. CODY ATKINSON

Past, Present Future: Ten Years of HellosQuare Street Theatre Saturday March 21 Arriving to hear the end of Paul Heslin isn’t the greatest of scenarios, but some was better than nothing. Utilising his usual bag of tricks, such as video game controllers and a vintage TV, Heslin manages to coax out an array of sound into the vast theatre. Laurence English works in shades of noise, melodic plays on distortion. It’s intense, glass-rattling, room-shakingly so. Starting off with a series of drones and a sea shell and evolving from there, English provided an experience that’s a little hard to describe but easy to lose yourself in. To be honest, I’m still a little unsure of whether he played for five minutes or five hours, or somewhere in between. What I am sure of, however, is that it was a supremely worthwhile performance from English. Cracked Actor are a local band unlike most others – folk influences mixing with rock and IDM, creating a sound a bit removed from that of a standard power trio. As opposed to their more standard set-up, Cracked Actor fleshed out their live set up for this show, with violin, cello, keys and backing vocals being added to the mix. While it may not sound like much on paper, these additions provided a much needed balance for their more ethereal tenancies. Being their longawaited album launch, Cracked Actor focused on displaying their new album, with highlights ‘Upstructures’ and ‘Lemon On Your Lover’ standing out throughout the night. With the vast expanses of the stage at play, it felt like the band finally had a stage to meet their at times grand sonic ambitions.

PHOTO BY MEGAN LEAHY

CODY ATKINSON

@bmamag

ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Wed Apr 1 - Wed Apr 8

Listings are a free community service. Email editorial@bmamag.com to have your events appear each issue. WEDNESDAY APRIL 1

Heuristic 9pm. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Diplomacy: Translations in Glass

Something Different

CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

The Drill Hall Gallery celebrates Billie Holiday’s 100th Birthday. 12pm. Free.

Art Exhibitions

Wallflower

Opening hours 10am – 4pm. Wed Sun. Free. 11 Feb - 16 Apr.

Seeking Humanity

THE PHOENIX BAR

The Carved Line

18 Mar - 12 Apr. Meet the artist 20 Mar at 4pm. Opening hours 10am-4pm. Tues-Sun. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Groundrush

Opens 6pm Apr 10 - May 16. Tues - Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 10am-4pm. CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

As I See It

Watercolour and photographic exhibition. 19 Mar - 21 Apr.

CORK STREET CAFE & GALLERY

Diplomacy: Translations in Glass

With Mondecreen. 9pm. $5.

Art exhibition. Opens Fri Mar 20 at 5.30pm - Sun Apr 12. Meet the artist 29 Mar 3pm. Workshops Mar 8

EXHIBITION PARK IN CANBERRA (EPIC)

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

On The Town

Live Music

Playtime

National Folk Festival 2015

4some Thursdays

EXHIBITION PARK IN CANBERRA (EPIC)

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Various bands performing covers of Nirvana classics. 8pm. $15.

Top 40, Dance, RnB. 10pm. Free entry. TREEHOUSE BAR

Nirvana Tribute Show

Something Different

THE BASEMENT

The Carved Line

POLIT BAR & LOUNGE

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Live Music Laura Palmer

5pm-7pm. Free entry. Must book. Call Marisol on 0404 364 820

THE PHOENIX BAR

8pm. $10.

FRIDAY APRIL 3 Live Music National Folk Festival 2015

Chicago Charles & Dave

Hands-on exhibits to surprise your senses and challenge your mind. 9am5pm. Until May 2015. Admissio QUESTACON

THURSDAY APRIL 2 Art Exhibitions Impulse

Art by Belle Palmer. Opening 6pm Tues 2 Apr - Sat 2 May. Free. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Sleuth: The Delegation

Art. Opening 6pm Thur Apr 2 - Sat May 2. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Print By Numbers

By Daniel Savage. Opens 6pm Apr 2 Apr 12. Wed - Sun 11am-5pm.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

Arja Valimaki

27 Mar 10am-2pm. 30 Mar-2 Apr 10am-4pm. 13 Apr-16 Mar 10am4pm. 17 Apr 10am. 27 Apr-30 Apr 10am-4pm. EMBASSY OF FINLAND

Live Music Mondecreen 9pm.

THE PHOENIX BAR

10.30pm. Free.

TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Meet the author series. 7pm. Free.

HIPPO BAR

Perception Deception Exhibition

4th Degree

Album launch. 8pm.

Harry Coulson’s Rain Dogs

Something Different

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

The String Contingent

2-6 April. Early Bird tickets closing Jan 31. folkfestival.org.au.

8.30pm. $5.

With Runamark. $10 before 12am.

Lakeside Literary Lounge: Nigel Featherstone

THE PHOENIX BAR

With Yoko Oh No & Rather Be Dead. 9pm. $5.

Love Saturdays

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Talks

With Yoko Oh No & Rather Be Dead. 9pm. $5.

Lara Palmer

2-6 April. Early Bird tickets closing Jan 31. folkfestival.org.au.

Free entry.

Tarot Card Reading

Art exhibition. Opens Fri Mar 20 at 5.30pm - Sun Apr 12. Meet the artist 29 Mar 3pm. Workshops Mar 8

ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY

2-6 April. Early Bird tickets closing Jan 31. folkfestival.org.au.

National Folk Festival 2015

Opening hours 10am – 4pm. Wed Sun. Free. 11 Feb - 16 Apr. CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

Billie Holiday’s 100th Birthday

EXHIBITION PARK IN CANBERRA (EPIC)

9pm. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

On The Town NORM

9pm. Free.

TREEHOUSE BAR

SATURDAY APRIL 4

EXHIBITION PARK IN CANBERRA (EPIC)

The Somedays

MONDAY APRIL 6

2-6 April. Early Bird tickets closing Jan 31. folkfestival.org.au.

TUESDAY APRIL 7 Karaoke Karaoke on Demand

8pm. $5. Info at politbar.co. POLIT BAR & LOUNGE

Karaoke Love

Karaoke. 9pm. Free entry. TRANSIT BAR

Live Music

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

Andrew and Shannon’s Pub Trivia

On The Town

THE PHOENIX BAR

Sneaky: Surgin aka Steve Lising 9pm. Free.

TREEHOUSE BAR

SUNDAY APRIL 5 Live Music National Folk Festival 2015

2-6 April. Early Bird tickets closing Jan 31. folkfestival.org.au. EXHIBITION PARK IN CANBERRA (EPIC)

The Jump Club

Feat. Faders. $15 before 11pm. ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Irish Jam Session

7.30pm.

Theatre Ruby Wax: Sane New World 8pm. $45.

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

As You Like It

Bell Shakespeare Company. 7-18 Apr. Tickets and information at canberratheatrecentre.com.au THE PLAYHOUSE

WEDNESDAY APRIL 8 Art Exhibitions The Carved Line

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Art exhibition. Opens Fri Mar 20 at 5.30pm - Sun Apr 12. Meet the artist 29 Mar 3pm. Workshops Mar 8

Art by Belle Palmer. Opening 6pm Tues 2 Apr - Sat 2 May. Free.

On The Town

The Red And I

Seeking Humanity

7pm. Free before 10pm.

Art Exhibitions Impulse

TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

18 Mar - 12 Apr. Meet the artist 20 Mar at 4pm. Opening hours 10am-4pm. Tues-Sun.

Traditional Irish musicians in the pub from late afternoon. Free.

Indidjinous

THE BASEMENT

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Exhibition opening 7pm. Runs from 8-28 Apr. ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Groundrush

Opens 6pm Apr 10 - May 16. Tues - Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 10am-4pm. CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Sleuth: The Delegation

Art. Opening 6pm Thur Apr 2 - Sat May 2. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Print By Numbers

By Daniel Savage. Opens 6pm Apr 2 Apr 12. Wed - Sun 11am-5pm.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

As I See It

Watercolour and photographic exhibition. 19 Mar - 21 Apr.

CORK STREET CAFE & GALLERY

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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Wed Apr 8 - Sat Apr 11 Impulse

Art by Belle Palmer. Opening 6pm Tues 2 Apr - Sat 2 May. Free. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Seeking Humanity

18 Mar - 12 Apr. Meet the artist 20 Mar at 4pm. Opening hours 10am-4pm. Tues-Sun.

Theatre As You Like It

Bell Shakespeare Company. 7-18 Apr. Tickets and information at canberratheatrecentre.com.au THE PLAYHOUSE

BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

FRIDAY APRIL10

Groundrush

Opens 6pm Apr 10 - May 16. Tues - Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 10am-4pm. CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Sleuth: The Delegation

Art. Opening 6pm Thur Apr 2 - Sat May 2. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Print By Numbers

By Daniel Savage. Opens 6pm Apr 2 Apr 12. Wed - Sun 11am-5pm.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

Art Exhibitions Groundrush

Opens 6pm Apr 10 - May 16. Tues - Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 10am-4pm. CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Return to Anzac Cove “Your Friend the Enemy”

13 artists commemorate Gallipoli. Opening 6pm Apr 10. Runs until 17 May. Open Wed-Sun 12-5pm. ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY

As I See It

Comedy

CORK STREET CAFE & GALLERY

The Listies Make You LOL!

Watercolour and photographic exhibition. 19 Mar - 21 Apr.

Diplomacy: Translations in Glass

Opening hours 10am – 4pm. Wed Sun. Free. 11 Feb - 16 Apr. CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

Live Music Angelique Kidjo

From Byron Bay Bluesfest. Live music. Tickets at canberratheatrecentre.com. au or 6275 2700. CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Something Different Speed Talking

Topic cinema. 12pm.

Comedy for Kids. $15/$20. THE COURTYARD STUDIO

Live Music Lakeside at 5

Live music with As Famous As The Moon. Free. 5pm. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Leo Sayer

The Restless Years Tour. 8pm. $69.90$99. CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Alive Fridays

Presents Tigerlily. $15 before 11pm. ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Mr Wolf Presents

ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE

Odd Mob. $15 before Midnight.

Theatre

Super Best Friends

As You Like It

TRANSIT BAR

Bell Shakespeare Company. 7-18 Apr. Tickets and information at canberratheatrecentre.com.au THE PLAYHOUSE

THURSDAY APRIL 9 Live Music Mavis Staples

Bluesfest solo event. Tickets at thestreet.org.au. THE STREET THEATRE

Day Ravies

MR WOLF

8pm. $13.30.

Matt Dent/Oscar

5pm afternoon session/10pm Band. Free. KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Andy Bull

Too Much Talk tour. 8pm. Tickets $29.92 at ticketek.com.au. ANU BAR AND REFECTORY

On The Town NORM

9pm. Free.

TREEHOUSE BAR

With Black Springs & Mind Blanks. 9pm. $10.

Theatre

Chad Croker Duo

Bell Shakespeare Company. 7-18 Apr. Tickets and information at canberratheatrecentre.com.au

THE PHOENIX BAR

9pm. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

On The Town 4some Thursdays Free entry.

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Playtime

Top 40, Dance, RnB. 10pm. Free entry. TREEHOUSE BAR

As You Like It

THE PLAYHOUSE

SATURDAY APRIL 11 Art Exhibitions Diplomacy: Translations in Glass

Opening hours 10am – 4pm. Wed Sun. Free. 11 Feb - 16 Apr. CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

@bmamag

ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Sat Apr 11- Wed Apr 15 The Carved Line

Art exhibition. Opens Fri Mar 20 at 5.30pm - Sun Apr 12. Meet the artist 29 Mar 3pm. Workshops Mar 8 BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

The Red And I

Exhibition opening 7pm. Runs from 8-28 Apr. ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE

Impulse

Art by Belle Palmer. Opening 6pm Tues 2 Apr - Sat 2 May. Free. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Seeking Humanity

18 Mar - 12 Apr. Meet the artist 20 Mar at 4pm. Opening hours 10am-4pm. Tues-Sun. BELCONNEN ARTS CENTRE

Groundrush

Opens 6pm Apr 10 - May 16. Tues - Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 10am-4pm.

Fash N’ Treasure

10am - 3pm. 7 Feb, 21 Mar, 11 Apr, 9 May, 13 June, 8 Aug, 5 Sep & 7 Nov. Entry $3. EXHIBITION PARK IN CANBERRA (EPIC)

Hustle & Scout

Twilight fashion market. 2pm.

HANGAR #47 (CANBERRA AIRPORT)

Rockabilly Relaunch

Feat. The Fuelers, The King Hits, Bad Lucky Kitty & The Groove Kings. Bands from 2pm. Markets from 1 OLD CANBERRA INN

Theatre As You Like It

Bell Shakespeare Company. 7-18 Apr. Tickets and information at canberratheatrecentre.com.au THE PLAYHOUSE

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Sleuth: The Delegation

Art. Opening 6pm Thur Apr 2 - Sat May 2. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

SUNDAY APRIL 12 Live Music Irish Jam Session

Live Music Music at Midday

11am and 12.30pm. Free.

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Trivia and Beers with Bondy and Kiers 7.30pm.

THE PHOENIX BAR

Theatre As You Like It

Bell Shakespeare Company. 7-18 Apr. Tickets and information at canberratheatrecentre.com.au THE PLAYHOUSE

WEDNESDAY APRIL 15 Art Exhibitions Diplomacy: Translations in Glass

Theatre

ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE

Watercolour and photographic exhibition. 19 Mar - 21 Apr.

CORK STREET CAFE & GALLERY

Comedy The Listies Make You LOL!

Comedy for Kids. $15/$20. THE COURTYARD STUDIO

Live Music Night Train

Tickets via moshtix for $15.

Bell Shakespeare Company. 7-18 Apr. Tickets and information at canberratheatrecentre.com.au THE PLAYHOUSE

HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB

Cult Classics: The Terminator

THE PHOENIX BAR

Canberra Musician’s Club Presents

10.30pm. Free.

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

On The Town Chrome

Resident DJs playing industrial, EBM, alternative, dark electronic. $10/$5. DIGRESS COCKTAIL BAR

International TableTop Day

2pm. Free. Registration and info at http://ttd2015.eventbrite.com.au. RELOAD BAR & GAMES

Sneaky: Surgin aka Steve Lising 9pm. Free.

TREEHOUSE BAR

13 artists commemorate Gallipoli. Opening 6pm Apr 10. Runs until 17 May. Open Wed-Sun 12-5pm. ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY

Live Music Architects

Australian Tour. Metal/Hardcore. 7pm. Tickets at Oztix.

Exhibition opening 7pm. Runs from 8-28 Apr.

Groundrush

Opens 6pm Apr 10 - May 16. Tues - Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 10am-4pm.

The String Contingent 7.30pm.

Something Different BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! 8pm.

THE PHOENIX BAR

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

DENDY CINEMA

Live Music

4th Degree

Return to Anzac Cove “Your Friend the Enemy”

Tickets $12 at dendy.com.au.

Moochers Inc.

With The New Gods of Thunder. 9.30pm. $5.

CORK STREET CAFE & GALLERY

27 Mar 10am-2pm. 30 Mar-2 Apr 10am-4pm. 13 Apr-16 Mar 10am4pm. 17 Apr 10am. 27 Apr-30 Apr 10am-4pm.

Film

ACADEMY NIGHTCLUB

Watercolour and photographic exhibition. 19 Mar - 21 Apr.

Arja Valimaki

EMBASSY OF FINLAND

With Exposure. $10 before 12am.

As I See It

Art Exhibitions

CBS Presents The Shane Pacey Trio Love Saturdays

TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

MONDAY APRIL 13

ANU BAR AND REFECTORY

7pm. $10/$20. To book 0419 607 710.

Art. Opening 6pm Thur Apr 2 - Sat May 2.

GORMAN HOUSE ARTS CENTRE

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ARTS SPACE (MANUKA)

As You Like It

Sleuth: T he Delegation

The Red And I

Print By Numbers

As I See It

TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

ANU BAR AND REFECTORY

CANBERRA GLASSWORKS

KING O’MALLEY’S IRISH PUB

Art by Belle Palmer. Opening 6pm Tues 2 Apr - Sat 2 May. Free.

Opening hours 10am – 4pm. Wed Sun. Free. 11 Feb - 16 Apr.

Traditional Irish musicians in the pub from late afternoon. Free.

By Daniel Savage. Opens 6pm Apr 2 Apr 12. Wed - Sun 11am-5pm.

Impulse

The Bootleg Sessions. 8pm. Free entry. THE PHOENIX BAR

Theatre As You Like It

Bell Shakespeare Company. 7-18 Apr. Tickets and information at canberratheatrecentre.com.au THE PLAYHOUSE

TUESDAY APRIL 14 Karaoke Karaoke on Demand

8pm. $5. Info at politbar.co. POLIT BAR & LOUNGE

Something Different

Karaoke Love

Roller Derby

TRANSIT BAR

Karaoke. 9pm. Free entry.

Maulin’ Rouges. 3pm. $15. SOUTHERN CROSS STADIUM

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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Wed Apr 15 - Wed Apr 29 Theatre As You Like It

Bell Shakespeare Company. 7-18 Apr. Tickets and information at canberratheatrecentre.com.au THE PLAYHOUSE

THURSDAY APRIL 16 Art Exhibitions Arja Valimaki

27 Mar 10am-2pm. 30 Mar-2 Apr 10am-4pm. 13 Apr-16 Mar 10am4pm. 17 Apr 10am. 27 Apr-30 Apr 10am-4pm.

SATURDAY APRIL 18

TUESDAY APRIL 21

Art Exhibitions

As I See It

CORK STREET CAFE & GALLERY

Watercolour and photographic exhibition. 19 Mar - 21 Apr.

Return to Anzac Cove “Your Friend the Enemy”

Watercolour and photographic exhibition. 19 Mar - 21 Apr.

The Red And I

Karaoke Love

ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY

ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE

POLIT BAR & LOUNGE

Karaoke. 9pm. Free entry. TRANSIT BAR

WEDNESDAY APRIL 22

8pm. $15.30.

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Art Exhibitions

Guantanamo Baywatch

Impulse

Return to Anzac Cove “Your Friend the Enemy”

THE PHOENIX BAR

TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

With Bo Loserr and the Night Snakes. 9pm. $5.

Art by Belle Palmer. Opening 6pm Tues 2 Apr - Sat 2 May. Free.

On The Town

Sleuth: The Delegation

Theatre As You Like It

Bell Shakespeare Company. 7-18 Apr. Tickets and information at canberratheatrecentre.com.au THE PLAYHOUSE

FRIDAY APRIL 17 Art Exhibitions Arja Valimaki

27 Mar 10am-2pm. 30 Mar-2 Apr 10am-4pm. 13 Apr-16 Mar 10am4pm. 17 Apr 10am. 27 Apr-30 Apr 10am-4pm. EMBASSY OF FINLAND

Art. Opening 6pm Thur Apr 2 - Sat May 2. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Live Music Boo Seeka

8pm. $13.30. TRANSIT BAR

La Bastard

With The Villenettes & The King Hits. 9.30pm. $5. THE PHOENIX BAR

Southside Evolution

Eyes to the Sky, Owls Hunt Bats, Human, The Feldons, Critical Monkee, Spatchel, Zac Hore & more. 6pm P J O’REILLY’S (TUGGERANONG)

On The Town S.A.M.

13 artists commemorate Gallipoli. Opening 6pm Apr 10. Runs until 17 May. Open Wed-Sun 12-5pm. ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY

The Red And I

Exhibition opening 7pm. Runs from 8-28 Apr. ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE

TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

THURSDAY APRIL 23

TREEHOUSE BAR

FRIDAY APRIL 24

LANDSPEED RECORDS

HELLENIC CLUB (CIVIC)

S.A.M.

9pm. Free.

TREEHOUSE BAR

Theatre As You Like It

On The Town

The Empire Strips Back

Flava R&B

Bell Shakespeare Company. 7-18 Apr. Tickets and information at canberratheatrecentre.com.au THE PLAYHOUSE

The Bookbinder

Canberra Youth Theatre. 1pm & 7pm. GORMAN HOUSE ARTS CENTRE

Bell Shakespeare Company. 7-18 Apr. Tickets and information at canberratheatrecentre.com.au THE PLAYHOUSE

The Bookbinder

Canberra Youth Theatre. 1pm & 7pm. GORMAN HOUSE ARTS CENTRE

Percussive performance. Info at 6281 0899.

Theatre

As You Like It

MONDAY APRIL 20 Film Cult Classics: Zombeavers Tickets $12 at dendy.com.au. DENDY CINEMA

9pm. Free.

TREEHOUSE BAR

SATURDAY APRIL 25 Art Exhibitions Return to Anzac Cove “Your Friend the Enemy”

13 artists commemorate Gallipoli. Opening 6pm Apr 10. Runs until 17 May. Open Wed-Sun 12-5pm. ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY

The Red And I

Exhibition opening 7pm. Runs from 8-28 Apr. ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE

Groundrush

Opens 6pm Apr 10 - May 16. Tues - Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 10am-4pm. CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

5pm. $35/$20 via www. tuggeranongarts.com/events/. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

MONDAY APRIL 27

27 Mar 10am-2pm. 30 Mar-2 Apr 10am-4pm. 13 Apr-16 Mar 10am4pm. 17 Apr 10am. 27 Apr-30 Apr 10am-4pm. EMBASSY OF FINLAND

Cult Classics: Zoolander

Top 40, Dance, RnB. 10pm. Free entry.

Nantes

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Bohemian Serenade Classical Twilight Concerts

Playtime

Drumstruck

On The Town

Live Music

Film

Record Store Day

Burlesque. Tickets at canberratheatrecentre.com.au.

SUNDAY APRIL 26

On The Town

TREEHOUSE BAR

OLD CANBERRA INN

TREEHOUSE BAR

Arja Valimaki

Art by Belle Palmer. Opening 6pm Tues 2 Apr - Sat 2 May. Free.

Album launch. 8pm. $10/$15/$20.

Blues. 7pm.

9pm. Free.

Art Exhibitions

None

Key Grip: Blues That Swings

Sneaky: Surgin aka Steve Lising

Impulse

Something Different

TRANSIT BAR

On The Town

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Beth n Ben

8pm. $15.30.

THE BASEMENT

Opens 6pm Apr 10 - May 16. Tues - Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 10am-4pm.

9pm. Free.

Limited Record Collection on sale. 10am.

With various bands. 3pm. Tickets $20 via oztix.

Groundrush

Live Music

THE RUC (TURNER)

TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Dansonfest

8pm. $5. Info at politbar.co.

Opens 6pm Apr 10 - May 16. Tues - Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 10am-4pm.

TREEHOUSE BAR

Art. Opening 6pm Thur Apr 2 - Sat May 2.

Karaoke on Demand

Groundrush

Top 40, Dance, RnB. 10pm. Free entry.

Sleuth: The Delegation

Live Music

Playtime

TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

13 artists commemorate Gallipoli. Opening 6pm Apr 10. Runs until 17 May. Open Wed-Sun 12-5pm.

EMBASSY OF FINLAND

TRANSIT BAR

Art by Belle Palmer. Opening 6pm Tues 2 Apr - Sat 2 May. Free.

Karaoke

Exhibition opening 7pm. Runs from 8-28 Apr.

Bootleg Rascal

Impulse

Tickets $12 at dendy.com.au. DENDY CINEMA

TUESDAY APRIL 28 Karaoke Karaoke Love

Karaoke. 9pm. Free entry. TRANSIT BAR

WEDNESDAY APRIL 29 Art Exhibitions Return to Anzac Cove “Your Friend the Enemy”

13 artists commemorate Gallipoli. Opening 6pm Apr 10. Runs until 17 May. Open Wed-Sun 12-5pm. ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY

Groundrush

Opens 6pm Apr 10 - May 16. Tues - Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 10am-4pm. CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE (GORMAN HOUSE)

Impulse

Art by Belle Palmer. Opening 6pm Tues 2 Apr - Sat 2 May. Free. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

Sleuth: The Delegation

Art. Opening 6pm Thur Apr 2 - Sat May 2. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

@bmamag

ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Wed Apr 29 - Mon May 25 Live Music Steve Smyth 8pm. $14.30. TRANSIT BAR

THURSDAY APRIL 30 Art Exhibitions Arja Valimaki

27 Mar 10am-2pm. 30 Mar-2 Apr 10am-4pm. 13 Apr-16 Mar 10am4pm. 17 Apr 10am. 27 Apr-30 Apr 10am-4pm. EMBASSY OF FINLAND

Live Music Clint Boge

8pm. $15.30. TRANSIT BAR

On The Town Playtime

Top 40, Dance, RnB. 10pm. Free entry.

SATURDAY MAY 2 Art Exhibitions Sleuth: The Delegation

Art. Opening 6pm Thur Apr 2 - Sat May 2.

Return to Anzac Cove “Your Friend the Enemy”

Live Music Kidgeeridge Festival

The Audreys

Lilve music. $30. 6.30pm. THE ABBEY

Something Different Perception Deception Exhibition

Art by Belle Palmer. Opening 6pm Tues 2 Apr - Sat 2 May. Free. TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY

Live Music

Kidgeeridge Festival

90’s Music Festival

MILTON SHOWGROUND

THE BASEMENT

Music festival. Fri $77. Sat $127. Weekend pass $177. Camping tickets $60. Info at kidgeeridge.com.a

SUNDAY MAY 3 Groovin the Moo

Saskwatch, You Me At Six, Hilltop Hoods and many more. Tickets available at Moshtix. UNIVERSITY OF CANBERRA

MONDAY MAY 4

Theatre

Return to Anzac Cove “Your Friend the Enemy”

Film Cult Classics: Clueless

DENDY CINEMA

WEDNESDAY MAY 6

Return to Anzac Cove “Your Friend the Enemy”

ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY

Theatre Production. 1-16 May. Bookings at canberrarep.org.au or 6257 1950.

FRIDAY MAY 15

Bands perform covers of classic 90’s rock. 6pm. $20 at oztix.com.au or $25 at door.

Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be

The Story of Bon Scott. 8pm. $52 at canberratheatrecentre.com.au. THE PLAYHOUSE

Sleepmakeswaves

Great Northern Tour. Tickets at oztix. com.au or sleepmakeswaves.com.

SATURDAY MAY 16

ANU BAR AND REFECTORY

Art Exhibitions

Something Different

Return to Anzac Cove “Your Friend the Enemy”

Fash N’ Treasure

10am - 3pm. 7 Feb, 21 Mar, 11 Apr, 9 May, 13 June, 8 Aug, 5 Sep & 7 Nov. Entry $3.

Theatre

Tickets $12 at dendy.com.au.

The Crucible

THEATRE 3

EXHIBITION PARK IN CANBERRA (EPIC)

13 artists commemorate Gallipoli. Opening 6pm Apr 10. Runs until 17 May. Open Wed-Sun 12-5pm.

THEATRE 3

ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY

13 artists commemorate Gallipoli. Opening 6pm Apr 10. Runs until 17 May. Open Wed-Sun 12-5pm.

Theatre Theatre Production. 1-16 May. Bookings at canberrarep.org.au or 6257 1950.

13 artists commemorate Gallipoli. Opening 6pm Apr 10. Runs until 17 May. Open Wed-Sun 12-5pm.

SATURDAY MAY 9

Impulse

ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY

Art Exhibitions

The Crucible

Return to Anzac Cove “Your Friend the Enemy”

THEATRE 3

Art Exhibitions

Hands-on exhibits to surprise your senses and challenge your mind. 9am5pm. Until May 2015. Admissio QUESTACON

Art Exhibitions

Theatre Production. 1-16 May. Bookings at canberrarep.org.au or 6257 1950.

13 artists commemorate Gallipoli. Opening 6pm Apr 10. Runs until 17 May. Open Wed-Sun 12-5pm.

Music festival. Fri $77. Sat $127. Weekend pass $177. Camping tickets $60. Info at kidgeeridge.com.a MILTON SHOWGROUND

WEDNESDAY MAY13

The Crucible

TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE

TREEHOUSE BAR

FRIDAY MAY 1

Theatre

The Crucible

Theatre Production. 1-16 May. Bookings at canberrarep.org.au or 6257 1950. THEATRE 3

MONDAY MAY 11

13 artists commemorate Gallipoli. Opening 6pm Apr 10. Runs until 17 May. Open Wed-Sun 12-5pm. ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY

Theatre Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be

The Story of Bon Scott. 8pm. $52 at canberratheatrecentre.com.au. THE PLAYHOUSE

The Crucible

Theatre Production. 1-16 May. Bookings at canberrarep.org.au or 6257 1950. THEATRE 3

Film Cult Classics: The Room

Tickets $12 at dendy.com.au. DENDY CINEMA

Live Music

MONDAY MAY 18 Film Cult Classics: Sharknado

Tickets $12 at dendy.com.au. DENDY CINEMA

Bam Margera as FFU

With guests. 8pm. Tickets $57.15 at oztix.

MONDAY MAY 25 Cult Classics: Commando

ANU BAR AND REFECTORY

Tickets $12 at dendy.com.au. DENDY CINEMA

OUT

apr15

peaches empire strips back barren spinsters you me at six ...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

Novia Scotia Where did your band name come from? Well, Nova Scotia is a place in Canada and also a pretty cool song by Young Legionnaire that we liked. We liked the sound of the “I” in there to make it Novia so we ran with it. Group members? Ewan (vocals and guitar), Dan (bass), Nick (lead guitar) and Wes (drums) Describe your sound: It’s a total mishmash of genres. We play some funk, blues, rock and folk music. We try to keep it high energy and easy to dance to. Who are your influences, musical or otherwise? We are influenced by a bunch of genres and we each bring our own style to the band. Dan and Nick are really into djent and some rap like Childish Gambino and Kanye. Wes and I (Ewan) are into bands like Tame Impala and Arctic Monkeys but also a bunch of jazz stuff as well. We are all influenced by a range of sounds which is great when writing together. What’s the most memorable experience you’ve had whilst performing? We’ve had a bunch of great ones like a Caribbean man crashing a gig and yelling at us to play Reggae but the more memorable was probably playing at the National Convention Centre in front of 500 or so people. It was just completely surreal. Of what are you proudest so far? We are proudest of the release of our EP at the start of last year. We’ve almost broken even on the cost and people have really seemed to dig it. What are your plans for the future? Get writing again, mainly. Two trumpet players have just left to Mt Gambier to study with James Morrison so we need to rethink the set and write some new stuff that compliments the older songs but gets people excited about a new sound or direction for the band. What makes you laugh? I think we laugh the most when we get someone a bit crazy in the crowd who just gets into the show a little bit too much. What pisses you off? Bands who don’t stick around after their set (without a good reason), especially if there is no crowd so you were one for them. What about the local scene would you change? A couple more medium sized venues. Places like the Phoenix and The Front are great but can be a bit squeeze-y. It’d be great to get a few more places What are your upcoming gigs? None at the moment. Just got to get back into writing for a while. Contact info: ewan12mcarthur@gmail.com), facebook.com/ NoviaScotia, noviascotia.bandcamp.com/

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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