BMA Magazine #522 - March/April 2022

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$6 CAPITAL BREWING SCHOONERS

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@bmamag

143 London Circuit website: transit.bar Bangin' new venue Rockin' new menu Wed - Fri 11:30am - late Sat: 4pm - late

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[CONTENTS]

[Canberra’s

#522

Entertainment Guide] march/april

If you’re reading this, you are experiencing the stone cold opposite of an NFT. Well done, you.

VAN GOGH - ALIVE

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Mail: 36/97 Eastern Valley Way Belconnen, ACT 2617 Publisher ABN 76 097 301 730 Pty Ltd General Manager Allan Sko E: advertising@bmamag.com Editor Allan Sko E: allan@bmamag.com Accounts Manager Ashish Doshi E: accounts@bmamag.com Cover Design Juliette Dudley

THE WHITLAMS

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THE GADFLYS

Article Design Juliette Dudley Entertainment Guide Editor Allan Sko Social Media Manager Allan Sko & Ruth O’Brien Columnists Ruth O’Brien, Josh Nixon, Chris Marlton, Alice Worley, Chris Ryan, Kirsty Webeck, Allan Sko Contributors Josh Eckersley, Anthony Plevey, Noni Doll, Vince Leigh, Allan Sko, Rory McCartney

FRANCES MADDEN

NEXT ISSUE #523 OUT Thursday, 7 April

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GABY MORENO

TOM GLEESON

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MR OTT

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EDITORIAL DEADLINE Friday, 18 March ADVERTISING DEADLINE Wednesday, 30 March 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.

CHRIS MARLTON

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CHRIS RYAN

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TIM FERGUSON

ES 199 T 2 PAGE 10

KIRSTY WEBECK

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GIG/EVENTS GUIDE @bmamagp. 42

FROM THE BOSSMAN

BY ALLAN SKO [ALLAN@BMAMAG.COM]

I was in the office the other day and some idiot uttered the tired old phrase, “Time to get our ducks in a row.” This was not on.

Only those severely lacking in a broad vocabulary and solid communication skills rely on such crappy clichés. They are the last bastion of the dimwitted. The vocal pugilist stick of the moron.

Then I realised, to my horror, that I was the one who had said it.

I’m ashamed to say this wasn’t the first time a hackneyed idiom had spewed forth from my mouth. This troubling affliction - which I refer to as “dumbface” - has increased in frequency with age.

On more occasions than I care to mention, I find myself watching perplexed and helpless as tired phrases tumbled into a crowded room against my will.

A sentence will start innocently enough - perhaps a stirring speech to rally the troops at the start of a working day - and before I know it a line about the linear formation of bread-eating aquatic bird life somehow masquerading as a metaphor for orderliness is escaping from my lips.

I hate that phrase. Upper-middle-management suits spout that phrase. So why does my brain decide, ‘Hey, this talk is going pretty well… Time to nail it home with the ol’ ducks-in-a-row mantra’.

I am seemingly powerless to do anything about it. My brain has hijacked my sensibilities.

It never used to be. Perhaps a giddy combination of Covid fatigue and late nights have softened the grey cells and downed the guard to a point where such phrases are sneaking across the border of decency inside the battlefield that is the brain.

And it’s only going to get worse. Before I know it, I’ll be at a Board meeting referring to a budget bottom line as “how the cookie crumbles”, or performing MC duties at a function and extolling the virtues of “cooking with gas”.

At this rate, by the time I’m 40 - which, eeeeep!, is early April - I’ll be describing a weekend away as “a rollercoaster ride of emotion”. At that point you can just lock me in a room.

But this is merely a symptom of a wider ailment known as ageing.

Becoming a cliché-machine is merely a warning signal of what’s to come; it’s the proverbial canary down the mine. I suspect the part of your brain that grows stronger with age and makes you blurt out tired phrases against your will is the same part that quietly suggests that pulling your trouser line up to nipple height is a terrific idea.

It’s the same part that sabotages your pronunciation gland so that you start getting names of popular things slightly wrong, much to the amusement of younger family members.

Give it a few more years and soon my daughters will be cackling hysterically at the fact that I can’t find the darn my-phone to make a twert on my Twatter account.

I am becoming my parents.

Anyway enough of this word foolery. I must take my daughters to Royal’s Show of Canberra. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

ALLAN SKO - allan@bmamag.com facebook.com/bmamagazine

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[HOT TIX]

Gordie Tentrees / Canadian road poet / Fri, 11 March / Smith’s Alternative This authentic road poet has travelled America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, UK & Ireland with 8 records behind him, never repeating himself. From Celtic Connections (Glasgow, Scotland) to our own Folk Festival, his ability to hold an audience, weave melody, and juggle dark truth with comedic light is infectious. 750 concerts in 11 countries in the past four years alone, his foot percussion, harmonica, resonator/ acoustic guitar and masterful storytelling is influenced by touring friends Fred Eaglesmith, Mary Gauthier, Steve Poltz & Kelly Joe Phelps. 8pm-10pm, $15/$20 via smithsalternative.com/events

William Crighton / Leading songsmith & performer / Sat, 19 March / The Street Theatre Acclaimed Australian singer-songwriter William Crighton returns with his new single, This Is Magic; the follow up to the powerful Your Country (feat William Barton & Julieanne Crighton), and the second track from his forthcoming third studio album, Water and Dust.

Since his 2016 critically acclaimed self-titled debut, Crighton has established himself as one of the country’s foremost contemporary songsmiths and performers. He has been reviewed as a highlight at major festivals both in Australia and across the world. And now, for one night, he calls Canberra home. 7:30pm, $35 via venue

Custard / Supported by The Burley Griffin + ARCHIE / Sat, 2 April / The Basement East coast band Custard are preparing to embark on a staggering run of shows to promote their, now rather stale, 2020 album Respect All Lifeforms. “Sure, I admit we have pretty much missed the boat on this one, and it feels like we are pushing our old shit up a rather steep incline,” says lead singer Dave McCormack. “But we hope there’s enough old bastards out there who will be willing to spend their hard earned to see us play a bunch of songs that are 30 years old.” And if that doesn’t work, there’s the superlative talents of Canberra’s The Burley Griffin and ARCHIE to enjoy. 7pm, $45 via Oztix PAGE PAGE12 12

UPCOMING LIVE MUSIC EVENTS

Symphony In The Park / CSO meets Lior / Sun, 13 March / Commonwealth Park The Canberra Symphony Orchestra will take to the stage to perform with this year’s special guest, multi award ARIA winning singer-songwriter Lior. Aside from writing and releasing original albums, Lior has developed a keen interest in collaboration and diversification working with renowned composers and symphony orchestras across Australia and the globe. So bring a picnic and set up a chair under the trees in beautiful Commonwealth Park, and enjoy a free autumn evening event of modern and classical performers.

6:30pm - 9:30pm

Moaning Lisa / Long-awaited debut album launch / Sat, 19 March / Transit Bar With a sound that operates on the edge of the grunge genre - somewhere between composed restraint and fuzzed-out, lifeaffirming alternative rock - Moaning Lisa is all about being grounded and present in life. The Ngunnawal/Canberra raised, Naarm/ Melbourne-based outfit have finally revealed their debut album Something Like This But Not This, a celebration of all that they stand for. It’s an album rooted in reality; a reality with lessons and imperfections, as well as acceptance, with room to fuck up and learn and grow. 8pm, $23.50 via Oztix

Sister Nancy w/ Legal Shot Sound / Queen of The Dancehall / Fri, 25 March / Transit Bar The Original ‘Bam Bam’ female Deejay straight outta Jamaica, the Queen of The Dancehall, known to the world as the first female dancehall DJ and described as a “dominating female voice for over two decades” – Sister Nancy performs in Canberra for the first time in the intimate setting of the shiny new Transit Bar! A veteran of the reggae scene since the ‘70s, Sister Nancy is backed up by France’s rub-a-dub Legal Shot Sound. With supports Shadow Ministers (live dub quartet), Madda Irie, DJ Paulius, and DJHRH. From 8pm, tix $48.94 via Moshtix @bmamag

[SPOTLIGHT]

Public Art Treasure Hunt #11 – Surface Festival / Sat, 5 March / PeopleLab HQ, Mort St, Braddon Have you noticed that weird tree on Mort St? That tree – along with many other pieces of underlooked beauty – is about to be transformed into a piece of valuable art. All thanks to the power of little white gallery labels. And your help... Your mission: Come to Art Hunt Headquarters anytime between 11am and 3pm. Claire and Pablo from PeopleLab will give you a treasure map, and a gallery label to stick somewhere in the local area. Use the treasure map to find the interesting object that matches your label, and attach it. Return to headquarters to claim your prize (a really nice leaf)! And it’s free!

Stephen K Amos / UK Joke Merchant / Saturday, 26 March / Canberra Theatre Two years later than planned – but who cares? How would you feel about joining Stephen for a beautiful night of fun, laughter, and putting the world to rights? Or more importantly, how could you refuse! In 2010 the world was in a sorry state. Fast-forward 12 years and... well.

Stephen has had his own share of highs and lows too. And when the world gives him lemons, he adds gin, tonic, ice, and a healthy dose of humour. So forget division and discord, and immerse yourself in an hour of bridge-building laughter. 7:15pm, tix $49.90 + bf via canberratheatrecentre.com.au/show/stephen-k-amos/

Geek Markets / Pop Culture Event / Sat, 2 April / Fitzroy Pavilion, Exhibition Park Geek Markets Canberra will a host over 80 traders, plus gaming competitions, and guests including LEGO Masters contestants Michael Ryan, Harrison Barnett, and Fleur Watkins, and professional cosplayers Banshee, Thor of Oz, and Canberra Spider-Man. Families can spend the weekend wandering safely around the Fitzroy Pavilion at Exhibition Park (EPIC) checking out original artwork from local artists while also browsing board games, clothing, toys, books, retro video games, collectables, comics, and accessories. Proudly supporting Lifeline.

9am - 5pm, entry is free via canberrageekmarkets.com.au facebook.com/bmamagazine

UPCOMING ARTS EVENTS

ACT Surface Festival / Street Art across Canberra / 4 - 6 Mar / Braddon, Civic, and National Triangle Over the first weekend in March 2022, 35 urban artists will transform the built environment of Braddon, Civic and the National Triangle in Canberra. Presented by the ACT Government and curated by acclaimed graff artist PHIBS, Surface is a festival of urban art in the ACT that celebrates the raw energy and rich diversity of this scene. Artists encompassing street art, graffiti, portraits, stencils, Indigenous art, geometric and abstract art will work across 30 walls and structures. It’s a who’s who of happening art, all of whom can be enjoyed here: https://www.surfacefest.com.au/2022-artists

April Fools Drag Pageant / Hosted by EtceteraEtcetera / Fri, 1 April / Belco Arts Centre Come see the rising stars of Canberra’s drag scene battle it out at the inaugural comp. Hosted by Rupaul’s Drag Race Down Under star Etcetera Etcetera, a night of laughs, gasps, and talent await. Etcetera Etcetera is one of Australia’s most well known and visually striking drag artists, with a rich background in performance, makeup artistry, screen studies, and fashion. A visible non-binary artist, their activism has created a genuine and vocal fanbase. So come and cheer for your favourites – and dress up for a night of pure entertainment! 8pm, tix $35/$45 via belcoarts.com.au/drag-pageant/

Flickerfest 2022 / Long-running short film festival / Thu, 7 April / Palace Electric Celebrating 31 years in 2022, Flickerfest remains Australia’s leading Academy® Qualifying and BAFTA Recognised short film festival, with A-list short films hand-picked from a record 3,200 entries!

Highlights from the Best of Australian Shorts include the quirky black space comedy The Home Team (pictured) starring acclaimed actress Tara Morice (Strictly Ballroom) and Canberra-raised comedy legend Paul McDermott; the moving,insightful and finely crafted The Soft Skinned from Hackett born-and-raised award winning filmmaker Nicky Tyndale-Biscoe; and the Aaron Chen (Fisk) starring Set Times directed by Chifley boy Frazer Bull-Clark. flickerfest.com.au PAGE PAGE13 13

BurntOut Bookings has been put together to discuss the ongoing issues that affect women in music.

The panel will be followed by a networking session, and then a performance by local legends, Box Dye. To register for this FREE event, head to musicact.com.au

LOCALITY

And if you want to hear aforementioned Monica Moore perform, I suggest you head to the IWD 2022 Night at Smith’s on Wednesday, 9 March.

[RUTH@BMAMAG.COM]

The evening will feature an array of female Canberra acts, including Vespertine Lounge, Ana Key & the Underdogs, Matriarch Inclusive, and stand-up comic Isabella McNickle. With so many genres and acts packed into just 4 hours, this night is sure to cover something for everyone. Kicks off at 7pm and goes until 11pm. Tickets can be bought via smithalternative.com for $20/$15.

[THE WORD ON LOCAL MUSIC] WITH RUTH O’BRIEN. SEND YOUR GIGS AND INFO TO:

Ok, holy effing shit, we’re back. Can you believe? Of course, it’s with much trepidation. But these words are in actual ink and you are reading them so, it must be a good sign that events might be a regular thing again.

And hopefully, here to stay?

Anyway, I’ll stop asking annoying questions now and just get the bloody hell on with it. Starting with...

The BOLD Festival 2022! Put together by Canberra’s magnificent and prolific Liz Lea, BOLD is a festival that celebrates dance in all cultures, abilities, and generations.

This three-day festival is on at a variety of locations across Canberra, including the National Portrait Gallery, QL2 Dance, and Dairy Road.

There are some seriously cool performances and events in this 4-day dance bonanza including the rescheduled performances of LESS by Australian Dance Party on 4 - 5 March at Dairy Rd in Fyshwick. For more info head to theboldfestival.com.au International Women’s Day is on Tuesday, 8 March and there are various events happening around town to celebrate and discuss the ideas around this year’s theme, #BreakTheBias.

Little self-promo here, actually! On Sunday, 6 March at Gang Gang, I’ll be joining a panel discussion with Monica Moore and Delali Zevon-Aniakwah, discussing how each of us have progressed in our careers, and the barriers we’ve had to overcome in the industry.

This special edition of MusicChats by MusicACT and PAGE 14

Also at Smith’s, on Sunday, 13 March, there’s a Jazz Singers’ Jam!

If you’ve ever wanted to have a go at crooning with a live band, now’s your bloody chance! Can you tell I’m excited? I do love me a bit o’ jazz. This is an opportunity for newbies to sing with an experienced band in a friendly environment, or perhaps dust off your vocal cords and croon like the jazz veteran you are.

Either way, email Julia Walker (julia.isabel.walker@ gmail.com) to find out more and sign up to sing. Or, if you just wanna go along and watch, the event starts at 7pm and is $15. Find out more via the Smith’s website.

Before you do that, I need to tell you about Punch Joy.

Though it’s been a fair whack of time between performances for the new, self-described “pop/rock/ soul/fun band”, this gig at the Polish Club on Saturday, 19 March is sure to be a good one. @bmamag

Supported by Lady Denman and Alinta Barlow, there’s a lot of positive vibes to be felt and embraced. This gig is, once again, only $15 (can you believe the amazing quality of shows Canberra people get for cheap?).

And knowing that dancing is legal again (never thought I’d write those words), you can bet your arse you’ll be able to shake it at this one. Tix can be obtained via trybooking.com/BXDHK And punching the air for joy is what you can continue to do into the next day for Front Yard Fest!

Yup! On Sunday, 20 March, Capital Brewing Co. are holding a FREE party over at Dairy Rd in Fyshwick.

The stellar line-up is packed with homegrown talent, including Citizen Kay, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers, Endrey, Apricot Ink, and Sophie Edwards. I know! It’s gunna be so good. Bring your buddies and head over from midday to have a boogie, a bevvvie and a barbie, and enjoy Canberra contemporary music at its finest.

facebook.com/bmamagazine

Alrighty, we’ve reached the end and must part ways. But before we do, I MUST tell you about The Gentleman’s Companion presented by Wild Voices Music Theatre.

As part of the recent Good Company grants round distributed by local arts champions, You Are Here, Wild Voices Theatre’s Dianna Nixon (pictured) has teamed up with Louie Louie Bar (on the second floor of Verity Lane Market), to bring you this solo show inspired by Charles Baker’s 1939 tome of the same name. If you want to finish the month of March in style, awe, and artistic inspiration, The Gentleman’s Companion is a must-see! Tickets on sale soon, see the You Are Here facebook page for updates.

Lastly, my usual plug for UPBEAT. If you’re a muso or industry professional in the Canberra music scene, make sure you subscribe to Upbeat. This free resource is full of all the latest professional opportunities, jobs, competitions, and grants that I assemble, all of which ACT-residents are eligible for. To sign up head to eepurl.com/g2T5iz or head to upbeatcbr.com.

Thanks for reading! Hope to catch youse at something soon!

Ruth O’Brien - Singer | Songwriter | Writer | Lover of all things artsy and creative - email: ruth@bmamag.com

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BMA BAND PROFILE Known as the “happiest metal band”, the otherwise ominoussounding Chain Tombstone & The Dead Men play 2010 deathcore meets mid-2000s metalcore. You can enjoy this mirth-filled miasma of sound both via their album - Realm of Pain - and its subsequent launch at The Basement on Friday, 18 March.

But before that, let’s get to know the lads a bit better, eh?

Over to you, lads...

Group members: Rheece Paulissen – Lead Vocals Ben Anthony – Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals Shea Coffey – Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals Lachlan Mullins – Bass, Backing Vocals Sam Angel - Drums Where did the band name come from?

Ben’s old housemate came up with the name by combining two heavy objects and putting them together (Chains & Tombstones sound pretty heavy surely).

We added the whole ‘deadmen’ schtick on the end of our name once more members got onboard with the project.

How did you form?

The band was founded in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic by Ben and Rheece. The band was originally a bedroom project and nothing more, until the two discovered that other people enjoyed the music that much, and wanted more.

Who/What are your influences, musical or otherwise?

Trivium, Killswitch Engage, and Lamb of God. For the comedic side of things, we turn to Dethklok. We never want to take things too seriously, but serious enough at the same time.

What are some of the most memorable experiences you’ve had?

When we all got into the rehearsal space and played our first song as a band, it was magical!

Rheece managed to get the crowd to scream out the ‘F’ word before a breakdown which was funny.

Ben’s personal favourite was when we got to our first show, the sound guy didn’t believe us that we were the headlining act because we didn’t look ‘metal enough’.

What is it that you love about the scene? Your genre’s scene?

What we love is the people, and the support we get despite us being in such a niche scene. It’s overwhelming, and it’s part of why we genuinely keep going.

The people who come up to us after the show, the ones who scream our lyrics and somehow understand them, it’s all just great to see there’s people out there who still support heavy metal.

Tell us about one of your proudest moments?

Having The Basement venue manager approach us and say that we’re the happiest metal band he’s ever seen.

What are your plans for the future?

We got the other members onboard with us after we finished our first album, and when we wanted to take the songs to the stage.

Now that we’re all quite comfortable with playing together, we’d love to play more live shows, and really solidify our title of being the happiest metal band you will see live. Perhaps we might have another album along the way? Stay tuned folks!

Describe your sound:

What makes you laugh?

If 2010s deathcore grew up watching all the mid-2000s metalcore.

Add in a bunch of Kmart dog toy pig sounds into the mix and here we are!

Our lyrics. The irony of being in a comedic metal band is that we can understand our lyrics, but you guys can’t.

So when you watch us live you’ll just think we all have the giggles throughout the show!

What pisses you off?

Seagulls, wasps, Megablox, dogs barking at 6am, and people who lack common sense. We complain about most of these in our songs!

Anything else you’d like to add?

Keep supporting heavy metal, Canberra!

Where can people check you out?

On Facebook, Instagram, and all available streaming services! We have an album launch coming up on the 18th of March so if you’re interested in seeing us, come say hi!

Facebook Page: https://fb.me/ e/1nup3m9Qh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ chaintombstone/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1e 0uNn7SNGGdmQYV8kP56X?si=8BL81XY5S z2wcmYM5sHT8g Album Launch Party: https://fb.me/ e/1nup3m9Qh

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THE WORLD’S MOST VISITED MULTI-SENSORY EXPERIENCE ARRIVES

VAN GOGH ALIVE with Allan Sko “I find the most liberating thing about the pavilion, and this touring exhibition, is that there’s no pressure. It encourages all kinds of behaviour. You can stay as long as you want, and lie down in those rooms and enjoy them the way you want. That’s my favourite part. Because it means that children can run around and be a little bit cray-cray and also so can grown-ups.”

So says the charming Anna Cordingley APDG, an award-winning set and costume designer for theatre, opera, dance, musical theatre and cabaret whose designs have been seen by audiences throughout Australia, Europe, Britain and the United States. She also designs exhibitions and events; and creates public art and installation, including the exciting, colourful spectacular that is Van Gogh Alive.

Contending with both isolation, and a delightfully rambunctious three-year daughter keen to inject her thoughts into the conversation, Anna indulges my unceasing origin curiousity by revealing the initial inspiration for her illustrious, prolific, and award-scoring career.

“I can identify the a-ha moment,” Anna reveals. “But I think a lot of designers can. It’s PAGE 18

such a kind of strange thing to land in. And so there’s quite a deliberate journey, with a memorable moment, for most people.

“For me, it was watching a production of The Magic Flute when I was eight. It was so funny. It was lewd and naughty and funny.

It was memorable enough that everything thereafter was in the service of that dream.

I later discovered, only a few years ago actually, the set had been designed by Stephen Curtis.

“I work at the VCA [Victorian College of The Arts] and have a lot of students in my mix, and they share similar stories.

“We had a student who was a candidate for services in tech who gave the best answer.

In her statement, she explained that she’s so addicted to what’s going on backstage that she even looks through the little flappy doors of the supermarket to see what’s going on.”

From kinder curiosities to carving a canny career, Anna now boasts a CV positively groaning under the weight of its own ink.

It includes a Helpmann Award for Best Set Design for Jasper Jones and two Green Room Awards for Best Design. With such a proven track record, what are the measures of

trepidation versus excitement for something as weighty as taking on Van Gogh?

“Oh, that’s a great question,” Anna says, giving herself time to ponder. “I think the needle flips from, ‘oh, it’s okay. This is going to be lots of fun’ to ‘heavens above the stakes are too high! I’m going to hide!’

“It’s such a strange task to be charged with.

It’s a phenomenon. The exhibition is really a film; you watch the installation. That film has no input from me; that existed before I came on board and has been seen all around the world.

“What’s different for us is the environment, and the foyer, that you enter in order to appreciate that film. So I was able to detect something that existed and dream around it, which was a beautiful invitation.”

It seems us lucky Canberrans will be getting a polished version of the exhibition, which has been metaphorically and literally built upon with each new location.

“When my producer, Andrew Kay, came on board with this touring iteration of Van Gogh Alive, there was a version that was in situ in Sydney - the Royal Hall of Industry being produced by others that we could go @bmamag

along to. We walked around like reviewers, which doesn’t often happen. It was great to be a wallflower and watch the way people behaved in the space and where the foibles were. That installation didn’t have nearly as much latitude as we have.

“We’ve built our own pavilion,” Anna continues brightly. “It’s quite bespoke. But nevertheless, it was fascinating watching how queues formed, and to witness people’s behaviour in these big, spectacular, predicted installations. And people do behave differently to a theatre or gallery. I love that they do.”

our case was Adelaide, but we’ll build it next session, and make adjustments as we see fit.

We did that in between Adelaide and Brisbane.

“We added a bay to the pavilion itself,” Anna continues, “which was a kind of Höcker manufacturer. It was made in Germany, but we made it bigger by about 25 square meters.

Everyone was so surprised at just how inundated it was in Adelaide. It was wonderful.

“So we made it bigger and slightly different again for Canberra.”

The mention of our beloved capital sparked an enthusiasm from Anna for its people.

One uncharacteristic behaviour that Anna experienced, from producer Andrew Kay no less, was one of finances.

“I’m expecting the audience in Canberra is going to have a real keeness. Canberra has just such a healthy arts appetite.”

“Usually, and this never happens, but the producer sat back and said, ‘I won’t give you a budget. I just want to be dazzled’.

Learning more about the installation, the appetite indeed grows to wander through the wonderment. But with such a big and successful project - which Anna is quick to point out is hugely collaborative - I ask if there was any particular point of pride on such an undertaking?

“That is rare and beautiful. And it actually worked. There were things that we cut, for sure. I had a second story. There was a mezzanine. There were leaks. And there was the opportunity for more people. But he didn’t actually say no to those things. He did say, look, not for the first city, which in facebook.com/bmamagazine

“There’s no singular thing,” says Anna, but this answer doesn’t remain for long. “I mean, the various rooms have their own identities.

Because I’m a theatre designer, you don’t want to make some one thing any stronger than any other. Otherwise, it’s not a real, balanced scenography.

“We’ve changed the Sunflowers room every time we’ve done it in a new space, so it becomes more wild and intimate. That’s always a little bit exciting.

“And our Starry Night sky room; it’s the first time it’s come together in such a fashion. I think Melbourne, with a different producer, has repeated version, because of how impressed they were with us. That was made by lighting designer Richard Dineen [sic] and myself and the quality of the premium spirits are known as light boxes. But they kept these rooms so the ceiling is a giant fabulous lightbox print. And to be able to lie down and look at the quality of that print and see the cracking of Vegas paints and brushwork; that’s quite special.”

Quite special, indeed.

Van Gogh Alive features as part of the Enlighten Festival (and beyond). It runs 7 days a week from Saturday, 5 March 2022 at Parkes Place Lawns, National Triangle.

Booking are via vangoghalive.com.au PAGE 19

PUNK & DISORDERLY [THE WORD ON PUNK] WITH ALICE WORLEY Hey kids! How ya been? Been a hot second I know, but we’ve got some exciting stuff coming up that you really should know about…

Biggest news: Canberra’s Transit Bar is back, baby!

After a gruelling absence, the beloved Canberra city venue has reopened at long last. The new space is absolutely huge compared to its old spot under the city YHA. Lots of room for the pool tables, spiffy new bar, and the stage looks excellent.

The finishing touches, like the neon sign crowning the performers and the CDs and vinyls stuck all over the bathroom walls, really please the eyeballs.

For everyone that hasn’t checked it out yet because they can’t find it, it’s relocated to Bailey’s corner. Where Hog’s Breath was. You know, that place that had the terrible food? Yeah, that’s it.

Speaking of the shiny new Transit Bar, they’ll be hosting Canberra’s shooting stars, lovely ex-locals Moaning Lisa!

Moaning Lisa

Finally back in town to flaunt their fab debut album, Something Like This But Not This, the awesome foursome will be joined by local beloveds, Nina Leo and Dog World. Be there on Saturday, 19 March if you want a Kim, a Courtney, a Florence, an Annie, a Sid, an Ellen, and/or a Carrie. Tix $23.50 via Oztix.

Just to mention it again, now that the date is a bit closer, legendary Aussie punk rockers The Meanies are finally going to be hitting The Basement like a ton of bricks on Sunday, 3 April.

Punchin’ air with them will be local rocker darlings, Charlotte and The Harlots! Come celebrate the new Meanies album, Desperate Measures, with your local punk brethren. Tix via Oztix.

If y’all didn’t see my new favourite humans, Fangz, when they hit Canberra last, well now’s your chance. These lovely Sydney boys will be back on Saturday, 26 March at The Basement to show off their new EP, Falling Is Pretty Normal.

These guys kick it so hard. I had the absolute best night when they were here last. They just know how to put on a show. I cannot stress enough how much you need to go to this gig. They are just the most delightful maniacs and you will be completely smitten by their charming energy. Prove me wrong. Tix $29.60 via Oztix.

Local femme punks, Box Dye, will be releasing a new track in midMarch called Best Friend’s Kids, and they’re having a launch at UC Hub to celebrate!

rack h a ir, n e w t w e n r, a e y ew B o x D ye - n

Joining them on the uni stage will be some of my favourite people on the face of this earth, Slagatha Christie, and the up-and-coming group of sentient energy drinks that are st.sinner. Friday, 18 March! Put it in the calendar! This’ll be such a killer night of local punk revelry and shenanigans, ya best believe. $18.07 via Moshtix.

Western Sydney angels Amends are heading out on tour. And they’ll be swinging through Canberra to party with Chasing Ghosts, Sketch Method, and The Burley Griffin at The Polish Club on Sunday 13 March. Absolutely killer line-up, so many stunner bands on one bill! This’ll be a sell out show so I’d be getting my tickets early if I was y’all. Tix $15 via Trybooking.

So many stellar nights on the cards for the coming month! Get your butts to these gigs and support your local venues. They can’t survive without you, and could you really survive without them?

PAGE 20

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@bmamag

If a more traditional metal fare is your speed, The Basement hosts shredders Temtris, also on Friday, 11 March. It’s a 4-band bill that is 20 bucks pre-sale or 25 on the door on the night. Adding value to the proposition are Chariot Arcana, Endless Grin and Taliesin.

METALISE [THE WORD ON METAL] WITH JOSH NIXON [DOOMTILDEATH@HOTMAIL.COM]

Dare we stand and drink? We dare? We have a new venue in Civic too? Serious? Do we have gigs on the horizon that necessitate a shave and perhaps ensuring our jeans have been washed since prior to lockdown? Really? Holy shit, we ARE living with Covid!

The Transit Bar finally got to open their doors on Bailey’s Corner. I’m not sure if it’s the first but among the early heavy shows to offer a structural integrity test will be Kid Presentable who traverse the boards on Friday, 4 March.

KID PRESENTABLE...

...FORMERLY KID GORGEOUS

Their Modern Living Fear tour kicks off locally with Trench Knife, Facecutter and Thantu Thika to help test some of the lower frequencies in the Transit PA. Welcome back Transit.

Friday, 11 March at Transit Bar will build upon the structural integrity test, trusting all worked well prior, as Thy Art is Murder return for their oft delayed regional tour this night.

The lads reissued Hate back in November thinking they were in for a summer tour.

And well… here we are.

To The Grave, Vengeance and The Wandering are down to riff also, so if brutal breakdowns are your raison d’etre you know where you need to be.

TEMTRIS

Temtris are airing out the material from the Ritual Warfare record so be sure to get along from 7pm for that one. It’s nice to be spoilt for choice!

On Friday, 18 March, Chain Tombstone & The Dead Men have a launch party for their Realm of Pain release and have a stellar supporting cast in tow with Wretch and AtrocitA. It’s an early start, doors at 7pm, and only $20.

For something a bit different, and the shot at a helluva opportunity, Saturday, 9 April is the Wacken Metal Battle Australia heat at The Basement.

The winner of this heat will represent Canberra in the national final in Melbourne. The winners of that go on to play at heavy metal valhalla, Wacken Open Air in the European Summer. Not sure if due to Covid the dates for entry etc changed, so check out metal-battle.com for the details.

I know we have a punk column, but I’m excited my bros the Hard-Ons are in town on Thursday, 31 March at The Basement to kick off the live experience for their new album Sorry Sir, That Riffs Been Taken. They’re really happy and have a spring in their step. It’s-a gonna be a good one.

IT’S THE LITERAL THY ART IS MURDER LINE-UP

PAGE 22

CUSTARD FORM PART OF THE 3-BAND BLITZ OF ‘90S ROCK REVIVAL THIS EARLY APRIL WEEKEND

Actually, there’s a bit of an Aussie ’90s feast at The Basement in that week with Custard on Saturday, 2 April and The Meanies on the Sunday, 3 April. But I’m getting into several other columns’ territories now. Blackie and Ray’s other band will be back in town in April as well.

Sunburn will strike landfall on the 29th and 30th of April.

The stoner doom festival features a plethora of the best of the genre in the country.

Alphabetically (or in any other taxonomy) the bill is huge: Amammoth, Astrodeath, Atolah, BØG, Bog Monster, Burn the Hostages, Butterfly, Creep Diets, Dr. Colossus, Droid, Frozen Planet 69, Futility, Ghostsmoker, Golem, Hekate, Holy Serpent, Kitchen Witch, Lucifungus, Master Leonard, Mountain Wizard Death Cult, Mourners, Nunchukka Superfly, Piston Fist, Planet of the 8s, Pod People, Religious Observance, Smoke Witch, The Balls, White Horse and Yanomamo.

That’s a lotta riffs, and The Basement will need both nights to fit them all in.

Pretty sure the Canberra Metal Fest replacement date is looking like the first weekend in July. We shall endeavour to keep you abreast of the movements and any line-up changes as they come to light.

So here we are. Living with Covid. And seeing what that is going to bring to an industry two years into its greatest challenge in recent memory.

I really hope to only have to advertise these shows once this year. And it is great that we have a new centrally located venue to talk about them at.

Let’s see what the year brings!

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AUSTRALIAN IDLE NO MORE Image: Scott Gelston

With Noni Doll You know those kinds of moments, usually encountered during one’s teenage years, when you can see your life flashing before your eyes, but it’s only the really mortifying bits? Your subconscious double checking there hasn’t been anything quite as embarrassing as the moment you’re currently experiencing? Yeah, I had one of those when I realised that a technical hiccup had somehow resulted in me dropping my call with Tim Freedman.

“I’m pretty sure you hung up on me,” he says, when I get back on the line, apologising profusely, certain that I had just made the interview utterly irretrievable.

He’s understandably less than impressed – before we got cut off, he confessed that he’d just got off an interstate flight ahead of the first show of the tour, and the fact that he was still adjusting to the time difference was clear in his voice.

In an attempt to shake off some of the awkwardness, congratulations are issued on the new album. Given it’s been 16 years since the last with the band, and 11 since his solo effort, Australian Idle, what’s it like touring new material again?

“Well, the first show’s tonight,” he says, almost suspiciously. “We spent the week playing the album again and again in rehearsals. The aim is to see how much we can fit and still have a cohesive show.

PAGE 24

THE WHITLAMS “We’ll be playing at least 80% of the new album each night, which is only really about 35 minutes.

So a third to a quarter of each show will be new stuff, which will make it exciting for us, because any band will tell you that they prefer playing their new stuff to their old stuff.”

And it’s been 30 years since The Whitlams began. That means a lot of old stuff for requesters?

His answer is short and brutal. “I won’t be taking requests, so no.”

Ooof. Then again, anyone who’s been a fan of The Whitlams long enough to have a conversation with Freedman knows he does not suffer fools.

To the album itself then. It opens with a gorgeous cover of one of Megan Washington’s most beautiful compositions, Catherine Wheel from her 2019 Batflowers album, before it drops into a collection of songs that seem to spiral out from a range of influences, from ‘60s folk-rock to traditional ballads, almost all the way to the sounds of modern musical theatre.

Did some of his recent dabbles with the theatre – a cabaret show of Harry Nilsson songs, and the creation of a jukebox musical from the band’s hits – influence his creative headspace?

“Well, no.” Another blunt answer. “I did a few theatre projects… so I read that comment in the review of the Sydney Morning Herald about musical theatre, and I

didn’t quite agree. I don’t feel as if I’m doing anything different than I used to do musically.”

I respond with a mixture of pride and confusion that I hadn’t seen the review in question; it was just my impression from multiple intense listens.

“Oh, good. Well, it must be something if two people have come to it independently. Well, I’m going to have to think about it. I don’t understand it… That’s a two edged sword, that one.”

I figure my joke about Lin-Manuel Miranda probably disagreeing isn’t a particularly wise one, thus I bite my tongue.

Then comes the question of youth and its place in the music industry. Did he feel it was a gamble, or even a cheeky metaphorical raised middle finger to the establishment, to make one of the first singles a track called You’re Making Me Feel Like I’m (50 Again)?

“I always talk about myself, and I’m in my fifth decade,” he says matter of factly, before counting out. “No, sixth decade… So there are mature themes, like insurance, and it’s obviously a drug album. I’m on 10 milligrams of a cholesterol inhibiting substance now. So, a lot of drugs involved. We’re just getting older and kookier.”

The time comes when we must acknowledge the infected elephant in the room: this is the third attempt Freedman and

his bandmates have made to do this tour, with the previous two attempts defeated by Covid. How’s that impacted preparations?

“I have been trying to put a little bit of low level anxiety out of my mind,” he says, his tone proving he’s far from joking. “I’m worried that someone in the touring party’s going to test positive and we’ll lose a few weeks. And so we’re being very careful.”

But then, for a moment, he allows himself a little optimism. “I’ve just noticed today, the chatter is we’re coming back. Things are opening up… The dance floor at the Enmore Theatre [when we play] will be a much freer place than it has been in the last six months… there’s a lot of people still being very timid, because plans have been cast asunder so easily in the past.

“But I’m gung-ho. I’m booking, advertising, playing a new album.

I’m putting a country band together and going to Tamworth and Bathurst and touring New South Wales in August.

“I’m a little timid and a little anxious. But if I get 38 dates down the track and I’ve managed to put them all on, I’ll buy a very expensive bottle of champagne.”

And won’t it be well deserved.

The Whitlams play Canberra Theatre on Friday, 4 March at 7:30pm. Tix $69.50 - $79.50 + bf via venue.

FORTY YEARS OF

GADDING ABOUT

With Rory McCartney Very few bands last four decades. But Canberra’s own quirky The Gadflys have reached that significant milestone. BMA spoke to founding member Phil Moriarty ahead of a celebration of ‘Mongrel Jazz’ music, with the band plays its 40th anniversary show at Canberra Theatre.

Asked about the origin of the band name, Moriarty said the moniker appealed because of its meaning of being an outsider, and its literary and musical connotations.

“Besides that, it’s someone who comments on society as well, and Henry Lawson had a journal called The Gadfly,” Phil fills us in.

The band’s journey has been somewhat convoluted. Seminal members Phil and brother Mick went through Canberra punk bands The Slammers and Brainiac Five before the first iteration of The Gadflys was created (including members poached from The Shuffle). Phil remembers their first gig at Manuka Football club well.

“We had a residency at a place there called The Pits. We probably made more money there than we did playing around Sydney.”

Due to job changes and age issues, there was some shuffling in the line-up, which eventually firmed up with Elmo Reid on bass and Pete Velzen on drums (when he was old enough to play in pubs).

“We had a pretty rock ‘n’ rolly electric band playing for three years in inner Sydney, based at the Sandringham Hotel.”

The band split in 1985, before Phil and Mick reformed it in 1989 as a three-piece.

“We got rid of the electrics and my brother went on the acoustic guitar and Andy Lewis played double bass.”

The second iteration of The Gadflys saw the shift in style from punk sensibilities to what Moriarty coined as ‘Mongrel Jazz’.

“It was kind of because I played clarinet which, unlike saxophone, is not really a rock instrument. We were influenced by bands like The Violent Femmes and The Pogues.”

The Gadflys gained their greatest exposure as the house band for fellow Canberran Paul McDermott’s TV show Good News Week.

Getting the gig, it seems, was a fluke.

“The producer and Paul McDermott were at the Edinburgh Festival when we were there.

They saw our show and asked if we’d be

“…I basically died on stage and had to be resuscitated.” interested in doing the pilot for this spinoff of Good News Week, which would have music in it. After hearing nothing for a year, we found out we were in.”

The band also spent considerable time on the road, the biggest tour being 65 gigs in 63 days in 1990/91.

In 2019 the band released Love and Despair, the first LP in 19 years. Members came from cities around Australia to lay down new tracks at Moriarty’s Candelo studio.

Moriarty says it was not hard making new music after all that time, with the family reunited with original members Reid and Velzen. The latest album is Moriarty’s favourite due to the sound quality achieved.

“We dealt better with our voices than other people [producers/engineers] have. I’ve got a foggy voice and Mick has a lower voice. I let the voices be [with no studio alterations] and put the music around it.”

In addition to the band’s original line-up, the Canberra show will see the music swelled by special guests Katherine Brownhill (violin), Gemma Clare (cello), Penny McBride (trumpet), and Nick (trombone). Moriarty found it easy to create the set list, ensuring that fans will enjoy a diversified collection of material, including early songs.

“Our first release was a cover of Petula Clark’s Don’t Sleep in the Subway. We did a rocked-up version that never went out due to a fault on the B side. Festival Records would not reprint it. In retrospect, we could have put it out at half the price.”

The anniversary show (and latest LP) almost didn’t happen, when Moriarty suffered a heart attack mid-show (with another band) in 2017 at the Tathra Pub, and had to be revived.

“I basically died on stage and had to be resuscitated by six medical staff who happened to be there. My girlfriend said that was my one chance to go out with glory, instead of getting old like the rest of us!”

The Gadflys play their 40th Anniversary show at the Canberra Theatre Playhouse at 8pm on Thursday, 17 March. Tix $44 - $49 plus bf via venue.

PAGE 25

Exhibitionist | Comedy in the ACT Lightbulb. “I don’t anticipate any issues, and believe it will attract a number of unregistered voters in the younger age brackets who don’t know a lot about politics, but really love to groove.”

PastaMaster

Election Directions with Chris Marlton The three-year cycle of madness is coming around again for everyone’s favourite cultural milestone: THE FEDERAL ELECTION! This will be the first post-COVID election which, like many pandemic-related firsts, offers the chance for accelerated improvements over the old ways of doing things. Voters will be wary of lining up with thousands in close proximity, sharing pencils, and being confronted by cardwielding party-spruikers.

As a countermeasure, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) have assembled a taskforce of experienced innovators from all over the globe. Known as MagiLect, they have devised a number of strategies to be implemented across Australia this election. MagiLect Director, Prof. Lucy ‘The Lightbulb’ Lawson, has told BMA that: “People might think some of these election ideas are crazy… well, these times are crazy. Maybe crazy is the new normal: Hashtag new normal.”

DanceVote DanceVote was the first MagiLect proposal approved by the AEC. Prior to leaving home on voting day, registered voters can check on www.ddr-election. com/rhythm_nation to see which polling booths are equipped with DanceVote systems. Every electorate will have up to ten modified Dance Dance Revolution machines. Instead of a filthy, COVIDridden pencil, voters will be able to groove their way through a series of levels, with the art of dance deciding the vote.

“Over 1000 test votes came back with the correct response for the morality of the dancer/voter involved,” said The PAGE 26

PastaMasta (or Pasta for your Master) is a cooking class. Much like a drivers’ licence can be attained by attending 7-10 logbook driving lessons, the PasterMasta is a six-week advanced nightly cooking class that results in a vote. Voters will register at www. carbonarafootprint.gov.au for the course, which will be held six nights a week (no Mondays) from 5:30pm - 9:30pm. No money is charged, though sceptics are worried that the cost per person, paid by the Department of Cookery and Fine Arts ($22,650 per person) is a poor use of taxpayer funds.

Lucy The Lightbulb disagrees wholeheartedly: “We’ve got gluten-free voting options, dairy-free, even Vegan… this is open for everyone. Through our patented lottery system, anyone who nominates to vote through cooking will have a great opportunity to take part in the best tasting democratic right in human history.

“Each week expert political chefs (PoliChefs) assess the flavour, texture, and moral fortitude of each dish. At the end of the course, each voter will be placed on the PastaMasta political spectrum and their vote will be cast in alignment with their beliefs. It’s true democratic innovation, and it’s gonna be really yummy.”

Golden Forrest The Golden Forrest is the most esoteric method devised by MagiLect. A small forrest in each electorate will be coated in a thin layer of liquid gold, sprayed on by squadrons of trained giraffes, formerly employed by poet Davy Bluetooth to install streetlights in the Amazon Rainforest.

In the centre of each Golden Forrest is a clearing with a small tunnel, which voters will enter one at a time. At the end of the 600-foot long tunnel is a magic mirror. The voter will ask the magic mirror who they

should vote for. If the mirror guesses correctly the voter will nod once and the vote will be cast. If the mirror is incorrect, the tunnel will be filled almost instantly with a toxic gas that causes memory-loss. A loud female voice will begin counting down from 25 to 1. The voter will have until the end of the countdown to exit the tunnel before it is flooded with Aqua Regia, killing them instantly.

There are several hearings currently scheduled at the High Court to block this implementation.

Battlevote Battlevote is the final, and most fun, MagiLect voting method. When entering the Battlevote arena (one in every electorate), the voter chooses their party. The voter will be pitted against a voter of another political persuasion. The two will compete in a game of Battleship. Instead of the usual grid of A1 - H8 (64 squares) and 5 battleships of varying lengths, the grid is A208-Z208 (43,264 squares) with 1,040 battleships, making the game board several kilometres high and wide.

Battlervoters need to begin games six weeks before election day, and battle for 16 hours each day to reach a conclusion. The winner gets two votes, the loser none, thus repealing their democratic rights for this election.

Normalvote There will also, of course, be traditional voting options for staunch conservatives. Normalvote will include social-distancing, hand-sanitiser, masks, capacity limits, registered hygiene officers, bobbing for apples, and free jelly beans when you return your pencil to the community box.

Chris Marlton is a comedian, writer, painter, and film-maker. His Canberra Comedy Festival show Mephisto Waltz is on 23 March 2022, tix on sale now at www.canberracomedyfestival.com.au/ event/chris-marlton-mephisto-waltz/ Chris will also perform at the Adelaide Fringe from 1-6 March and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival from 11-24 April.

Tix are available at www.linktree. com/3blindmen. You can follow via @threeblindmencomedy on Instagram and @ChrisMarltonComedy on Facebook.

Exhibitionist | Comedy in the ACT The response: “It must be hard.”

COVID has messed with my extrovert status. I was looking forward to seeing people all lockdown, but now that live gigs are back, I’m like: “This is bullshit, I’m exhausted.” Kind of miss turning off the computer and being home. You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.

But it doesn’t mean you want it back.

Chris’s new show Can’t Complain plays at the Courtyard Theatre, Canberra Theatre Centre 24 -25 March at 7pm. It is also touring Adelaide Fringe, Gold Coast Laughs, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Perth, Sydney and Brisbane Comedy Festivals. All details at www.chrisryancomedy.com ----------------------------

Q&A Last year I embraced online gigs.

Embrace is not the right word. I gave online gigs a limp handshake and pointed them to the hors d’oeuvres. I engaged with them in the same way I took up drinking lite milk as an adult. I was not happy about it.

I got used to assembling a comedy club in my bedroom — there’s a sentence I never thought I’d say in my lifetime.

Instead of people, there was my laptop, perched on an assemblage of stools and boxes, and a ring light, balancing awkwardly on my bed to illuminate my face. It was mortifying buying that light. It fundamentally says you think your face is important enough to be well lit, and that’s just unAustralian (not that I fly the flag anywhere on my person or property. In fact, I see that behaviour as a red flag).

I overheard a woman in JB Hifi explaining to her mother: “Oh it’s one of those lights Instagram Influencers use — how embarrassing!” The packaging should have added: This is called a ring light because you’re an asshole. I took it to the counter, hidden under my jacket.

I would use our best clothes pegs (the metal ones) to hang a lime green bedspread as a makeshift green screen. Why anyone has such an ugly bedspread is a good question. It was son’s favourite colour when he was into the Raiders in Year 7.

This represents one occasion when my inability to cull things that don’t spark joy came in handy.

At showtime, a handful of faces would appear, looking confused, fiddling with their phone or laptop, braving the camera as audience members. Some relaxing on the couch, others remaining ghostly figures in mostly darkness, unwilling to sacrifice their privacy but wanting to show some support to the performers by at least leaving the camera on.

My favourite bit was when they didn’t realise we could hear them as they critiqued us in real-time.

A distant acquaintance tuned in to show support, entering the lounge room late, asking: “Is she any good?”

PAGE 28

What got you into comedy, Kirsty?

A sudden lightning bolt moment after my 30th birthday when I suddenly realised that it was something I wanted to have a crack at. After my first 5-minute set, I was hooked and determined to make it a career. Cross stitch’s easier but here we are.

How would you describe your style of comedy to the layman?

Cheerful, upbeat, inclusive, escapist. I’m not solving the world’s problems but you’ll see yourself in it. I’m a storyteller, and I like to take audiences on a little journey with me; a journey peppered with jokes.

How would you describe your style of comedy to a TV Exec looking to sign you to your own TV series?

The best comedy you’ll ever see. Absolutely mindblowing.

Second-to-none and exactly what you’re looking for. Don’t let this opportunity pass your network by!

Nah, probably the same way as I’d explain it to a layman. The accessibility and inclusivity aspect of my comedy is really important to me. It’s also a great selling point. I love seeing how diverse my audiences are over the course of a festival.

A couple of years ago, I had a group of tradies still in their high vis at my show, a family who’d messaged to ask if they could bring their teenaged children, and a big group from Dykes On Bikes Melbourne. I love looking out and seeing that. I want everyone to be able to relate in some way and to feel a part of it.

I never make jokes at anyone else’s expense.

Who are some of your favourite comedians?

I could bang on about this for years but I’ll keep it local. I love Ivan Aristeguieta, Jude Perl, Cal Wilson, Celia Pacquola, Stu Daulman, Daniel Connell, Claire Hooper, Joel Creasey and about one billion more. It is such a wonderful privilege getting to work alongside other comedians. I’ve never had another job where I’ve stayed after my “shift” (in this case, “set”) to watch my colleagues work. @bmamag

Exhibitionist | Comedy in the ACT

[Canberra Comedy Q&As]

What’s one of the funniest/weirdest things that’s happened?

Years ago someone was booking shows at bush doofs. If you’re unfamiliar with a bush doof, they’re out in the...err...bush and feature phat beats and people... umm... having a very good time.

I was in the middle of a one hour set that started at 12:30am (terrible time slot, far too long a set) when a scantily clad person burst through the back of the large marquee, yelling “get off, you suck.” He kept yelling until I invited him onstage.

He took me up on my offer, got onstage, and then proceeded to get really upset about how hard it was. Then he got teary and turned on the crowd, yelling at them to show me some respect, saying how hard it is and how gifted you have to be to do it.

Then he weepily gave me a big hug and left the stage.

The following night, I was relaying the story to the crowd when he burst through the back of the marquee again. He grabbed the mic and started shouting at them all to give me the utmost respect while I performed, then aggressively hugged me and stormed out again wiping his teary face. A real trip!

Tell us of a proud moment in your career/life in general?

I genuinely love this question. One of my favourite things about working in comedy is that there’s always something to aspire to, or some milestone to reach.

One example is I’d always dreamed of being on the Opening Night Comedy Allstars Supershow for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) and last year was the first year I was booked for it. When the festival rang me, I was a bit shocked and then when we hung up I burst into tears.

I’d also always dreamed of playing Town Hall during MICF, and this is my first year playing it. I’d always dreamed of doing a solo show in a theatre, and this year, playing The Street Theatre back on home turf, is my first ever solo show in one.

I always feel honoured whenever anyone asks me to do anything, so every week feels like a little adventure where you don’t know what may come in via your manager. If you keep working hard and giving your all to every performance, the milestones get ticked off.

Here’s a section where you can write anything you’d like!

My immediate thought was to go full confessional. In year 10, we went on school camp and we went on this long beach walk.

It was approximately 250kms long. On dry sand. It felt like hell (later, when I had a short stint as a teacher, I realised they were tiring us out for bedtime).

On that walk, I found a crab claw.

For some reason I brought it back to the tent and left it in there.

It obviously baked in the tent over the next day and the odour was horrifying at best. Having forgotten about my strange souvenir, I decided the tent reeked because my tent mates were smoking under the fly. I moved to a grand palace of a tent filled with more of my mates and had a splendid school camp.

I don’t know when I decided that cigarettes smelled like rotting sea creatures. But here we are.

I never thought of it again until I was living overseas at 25 and woke up in a sweat one night. The penny dropped in a dream that I’d stunk out the tent with the crab claw.

Then I moved on. facebook.com/bmamagazine

Comedians hate being asked “tell us a joke” So... What’s one of your favourite jokes?

It was at St. Jude’s Primary School when I was six. I’d heard a joke on the radio that morning and it absolutely wasn’t acceptable for 1 o’clock on a Wednesday at a Catholic Primary School. It’s on my gala set from MICF last year which you can watch on YouTube.

What exactly is the meaning of life?

To hoon through accepting that there may be no meaning at all but you can at least try to enjoy the journey and make said journey more enjoyable for others around you. Oh, and cheese.

Hecklers… A help or a hindrance? Any particular “come backs/ put downs” for the lippy segment of the great unwashed?

Usually a help now. I’d never encourage it because people go to a show to hear the jokes a comedian has to make, not what Barry from Bonython wants to get off his chest after 12 pints.

The beauty of dealing with a heckler is the spontaneity and the reaction to the situation at hand, so I’ve never had a toolkit and I’m not sure many others do either. We generally react in the moment and once you’ve been a comedian for a while, you can get quite good at turning an interruption into a bit of comedy gold. I keep it nice. Most hecklers aren’t malicious.

The Danish word ‘hygge’ encapsulates a general feeling of warmth, happiness and glow. What creates this for you?

Walking my dog Joan on the beach at sunset with my partner Elle. We’re super lucky to live by the beach and we go every day, even in winter. Sand in the toes, dog having the best time, sun going down over the water. Beautiful!

Your favourite a) film, b) book, c) TV show, d) stand up set?

I’m generally too fickle for favourites but here we go off the top of my head: Film: Parasite. Book: The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein. TV show: Brooklyn 99. Stand up set: The Melbourne International Comedy Festival galas each year. A bunch of short stand up sets from wonderful comedians.

Anything else you’d like to add?

I’m playing The Street Theatre with my brand new show Silver Linings on 24 March. It’s selling quick and attendance is mandatory. I’m also active on Twitter and Instagram and would love to see you there. Finally, a school of clownfish is always built into a hierarchy with a female at the top. When she dies, the most dominant male changes sex and takes her place.

PAGE 29

THANKS FOR PLAYING...

HARD QUIZ

By Anthony Plevey Tom Gleeson, agent provocateur of ABC TV’s Hard Quiz chatted for a quickfire 15 minutes about the show, which he is taking on the road in March – April, with the tour opening in Canberra.

“Tom,” I ask to kick things off. “It’s a show on Aunty ABC, with a Big Brass Mug as the prize. But it’s in its sixth season. Why is Hard Quiz so successful?”

“The secret of its success is that basically we’ve made an opposite quiz show,” Tom says. ”When we shoot it, all the things that others would cut out we leave in. If someone says something inappropriate, we leave it in; if I’m accidentally polite we cut it out.

“The contestants are really keen too,” he continues. “Quiz shows are usually full of benign banter and meaningless pleasantries, whereas Hard Quiz is full on sledging. They regularly disrupt my stand-up shows with ‘Excuse me Tom! How come you haven’t processed my application yet?’”

Agreeing with the suggestion that the real prize is the opportunity to sledge Tom, he went on.

“It’s like a panel show for amateurs. People watch those great English shows and wonder what it would be like to be on TV and just say funny shit. There aren’t many shows where you can have a standing start on broadcast TV and say funny stuff and everyone hears it. On Hard Quiz you get to do it!”

PAGE 30

Tom believes there’s no pressure because the contestants are primarily there to win the quiz.

“It’s their own subject they are working on, so they feel comfortable. Anything else is a bonus,” he says.

Acknowledging that contestants are nerds in their own area, Tom was a bit soft when asked if the Hard Quiz audience was mainly: a) Nerds watching a nerd love-in b) Quiz show enthusiasts c) People laughing at the nerdy contestants d) People wanting see to him get seriously sledged by a contestant “It’s all of the above,” he says, in a very un-quiz like response.

“Some tune in to laugh at the contestants and sometimes they laugh with the contestants.

People just tune in for the irreverence. Nothing ultimately matters; mud gets flung in all directions and people like to see who it lands on.”

We moved on to which element of the show got him going? The quiz, the badinage and sledging, or the opportunity for him to slip a bit into Eddie McGuire, the ABC, or Ita Buttrose etc?

“Well, it’s funny,” Tom chuckles.

“We wanted the quiz as an excuse for all the banter and comedy.

We could have got a quiz off the shelf and done it in an irreverent way. But it was actually cheaper to make up our own quiz and we accidentally made up a bit of a classic format.”

“So I am actually very proud of the quiz because it works really well. The whittling down of 4 people to 3 to 2, throwing up unpredictable results. It’s rare that you know who’s going to win, down to the last second.”

For Tom the solid Hard Quiz format provides a narrative drive throughout the show.

However, he noted that the running time of 30 minutes is a downside to the format.

“If we have a ‘hard off’ tie breaker in the middle and another ‘closest to the pin’ to force a result at the end, you end up losing some of the banter and comedy because the quiz has to remain in the show.

Unfortunately, you start to lose some of the fun,” he laments.

“This flow will be a key difference for us and the audience in the Hard Quiz Live show,” he explained.

“Sometimes we have to stop recording for technical reasons or for defamation concerns and we usually edit 45-50 minutes of recording down to the 30 minutes. I often self-edit the banter on-the-fly because I know it’ll be cut or something else will get dropped.

“With Hard Quiz Live, once I start spinning the plates and they’re all up in the air, I’ll be able to keep them there,” Tom says enthusiastically.

“We can just keep going, let the show breathe and be as long as needed. Once the good times

start happening, I’ll chase every rabbit down every burrow.”

Recovering from a crack-up at being asked, “Is he going to use real Canberra contestants or was he going to bring in some ring-ins?” Tom responded.

“Yeah-nah, they’re going come out of the crowd. I’m going to give people a real broad range of subjects to choose from and people will be able to volunteer.

I’m excited. I’ve only got find a few contestants. There’ll be a lot of people, I’ll probably have to beat them back with a stick.

“The moving parts are great,” he continues. “Every show is different with four new people and four new subjects. The quiz structure is a recognisable form but the way that the four people behave within that framework makes the possibilities endless.

“I mean there’s an episode that’s coming up with an engineer named Darren and his expert subject is bricks!” he chortles.

“I’m like, I gotta know more about Darren!

“The contestants know that they’re ultimately in a safe pair of hands because I do respect intelligence, so I’m never really going to make fun of people for being smart. I only make fun of people for being stupid.”

If you want have a crack at winning the quiz, or see if Ken Behrens can hard sledge Tom Gleeson, Hard Quiz Live is on Saturday, 5 March at the Canberra Theatre Centre. @bmamag

Canberra Theatre Centre 7:30pm canberratheatrecentre.com.au/show/sammy-j/

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PAGE 31 PAGE 33

IT’S A BEAUTIFUL WORLD WITH FRANCES MADDEN

By Joshua Eckersley Frances Madden, the stunning Sydney jazz vocalist and pianist, was classically trained at a young age with the help of a strict Ukrainian teacher (what kid wouldn’t find that fun, right?).

Luckily, she managed to tough it out, taking inspiration from jazz favourites such as Diana Krall and Ella Fitzgerald.

Now in 2022, Frances Madden’s style has uniquely evolved into something exceptional. Lucky for us, she is ready to share her new music with the world.

The origins of the album, according to Madden, began in Nashville, where most of the material was written during an inspiring, watershed experience.

“Nashville is widely considered the songwriting capital of the world, and I think working with writers and producers there, and also just being there in ‘Music City’, really lifted my confidence and pushed me to a new level with my craft.”

When Madden returned home from the trip, the material started to flow, and the album took shape. She explains:

This month, Madden will launch her second studio album, Beautiful World, at The Street Theatre, pulling out all the stops to make this a night to remember. Her all-star band is cooking up something special for everyone to enjoy, with flavours of jazz, blues, soul, Latin and gospel in a variety of styles and tempos.

“I noticed there was quite a variety of musical flavours weaving through the collection. It was a nod to all the different styles I love. There was also an underlying sense of positivity in the music, and so I chose the title Beautiful World to capture those intertwining themes.”

Madden tells us: “The audience can expect to hear songs from Beautiful World and hear a little about the inspiration and stories behind those songs. We’ll also be featuring some new original tunes and our unique take on a few classics.”

Produced by renowned industry heavyweight, Chong Lim (John Farnham, Olivia Newton John), the album has resulted in five nominations for the Australian Songwriters Awards.

Madden continues: “I’m thrilled to have my 7-piece band with me. They are some of Australia’s finest musicians. You’ll hear an energetic horn and rhythm section on the up-tempo numbers, as well as some beautiful three-part harmonies with my two backing vocalists on the ballads.”

The album, released by ABC Music, is an astounding collection of Madden’s upbeat songs, swaying from the jazzy, piano-based pop of the title track, to the swinging, syncopated Latin rhythms of Dancing in the Street. Her smooth vocals soar on tracks like Paris Melody, alongside piercing horns and wild flurries of strings and percussion, sounding like something straight out of a smoky little Parisian club.

The sound is authentic and captivating from start to finish, and with such world-class players backing her, it really is a beautiful world of music that Madden has created.

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Working with Lim as producer was a dream come true for Madden, stating: “We had a lot of fun developing the music together and he has such a wealth of experience to learn from, having worked with some of Australia’s finest… He was great at getting the best out of me and giving a gentle push to try new things.”

With the album set to be released in Japan this year (on Universal Records), Madden will be heading over there to tour in September, followed by the UK, and maybe even a songwriting trip to Nashville Tennessee. Now is the perfect time to catch her live performance before she sets sail.

WHAT: Frances Madden, Beautiful World Album Launch WHERE: The Street Theatre WHEN: Saturday, 12 March, 8pm TIX: For further information, visit, www.thestreet.org.au @bmamag

THE LONG-AWAITED RETURN OF

GABY MORENO

By Joshua Eckersley Guatemalan-born musician, Gaby Moreno, is an incredibly talented and captivating performer who glides effortlessly across genres, singing in both Spanish and English from song to song. She has been charming audiences around the world for well over a decade with her vibrant mix of Latin, jazz, blues, and soul, and this month she is bringing her band to Canberra for an intimate show at The Street Theatre.

Moreno has performed for Australian audiences numerous times, most recently in support of musician/actor Hugh Laurie (yes, that Hugh Laurie, of House fame). In fact, the list of artists that Moreno has shared the stage with is staggering, including Bono, Andrea Boccelli, Tracy Chapman, and Ani DiFranco.

This time around, Moreno and her band will be bringing an extra-special show for us, with songs from her yet-to-bereleased album, titled Alegoría (English translation is Allegory).

Moreno tells us: “I’m bringing drummer Sebastian Aymanns, and bass player Kimon Kirk, so we’ll be playing as a trio. I will be playing some older and newer material that’s on my upcoming album. I’m very excited to play these songs as it will be the first time we do it in front of a live audience.”

Moreno continues: “I’ve had some wonderful visits to Australia.

Performing at the Sydney Opera House was a dream come true… so many unforgettable memories.”

Alegoría is set to be released in April 2022, and features the sultry lead single, Maybe Today, Maybe Tomorrow. The song is an alluring piece of flamenco flavoured pop music, with slices of ‘70s-era lounge and jazz that would give Shirley Bassey a run for her money.

When I make the comparison, Moreno tells me: “I love Shirley Bassey!” She further explains, “I knew I wanted an organic sound, but I also wanted something very cinematic and reminiscent of an old Spaghetti Western and Ennio Morricone.”

The album takes inspiration from Moreno’s Guatemalan roots, as well as her experiences with immigration and from living the last two decades in Los Angeles.

Moreno reveals: “I don’t like it when all songs sound exactly the same. These songs do live in the same universe, but each is its own planet. So there’s a bit of folk, a bit of rock, and even a bit of Latin rhythms, which is something I had to bring into the equation, given my Guatemalan nationality.”

For those who can’t wait for the new album, the best move is to delve into Moreno’s back catalogue, starting with her masterpiece, Spangled (2019), a collaboration with famed arranger/producer Van Dyke Parks. The album, which features facebook.com/bmamagazine

a stunning duet with Jackson Browne, celebrates the enduring spirit of immigrants, alongside the migration and evolution of music across the American continent.

The album, much like the continent, is a melting pot of styles and genres, mixing bossa novas and boleros with country, folk, and pedal-steel guitars. The lyrical content is honest, joyful, and at times satirical and piercing, especially regarding the ephemeral notion of the American Dream.

On working with Van Dyke Parks, Moreno says it was a real pinch-me moment, saying: “We met here in Los Angeles, though a mutual musician friend.

Immediately we had a great connection, talking about all this music from Latin America. He used to play that in the ‘60s with

his brother. They would tour the west coast playing these beautiful older songs (boleros, rancheras, etc).”

She continues: “I remember we talked about making an album together with some of these songs, the night that I met him, and that’s why we say it was really 10 years in the making.

From the moment we met back in 2009 until the album finally came out in 2019.”

A truly gifted artist like Moreno does not come along too often.

Experiencing her live show should certainly be on everyone’s to-do list. Don’t miss out.

WHAT: Gaby Moreno WHERE: The Street Theatre WHEN: Friday, 18 March, 8pm TIX: For further information, visit, www.thestreet.org.au PAGE 33

[BEST OF CANBERRA MUSIC] PARKLANDS EVERYTHING [

]

Canberra based indie-rock band Parklands has been getting a lot of traction from their live shows lately. This will undoubtedly continue with the release of Everything.

Parklands’ soldout headline shows alongside touring slots with OK Hotel, Citizen Kay, Good Lekker, Lucy Sugerman, Sputnik Sweetheart, Sesame Girl, and Hands Like Houses has infused the band with some real pep and heft, it seems.

The new track opens rather unassumingly, with a few scratchy guitar tones and a contemplative low vocal verse approach. But soon distends into an euphorically mournful, spirited rawness.

The following verse utilises the higher octave to prepare us for a superbly simplistic chorus with a mini-killer lyric

PAGE 34

hook attached. It has a power that had me rolling about the place yelling, ‘tell me about it, yes!’

Once the chorus has settled beautifully into your head, the rest of the tune glides along in a subtly uplifting way—‘seeking is never ending’, indeed.

This is semi-glorious work here. There’s mid-paced urgency and suitably dense sonic vistas, with nuances attuned to the slaking. All in throes to the unbearable hereafter.

It’s not so much a memorandum of discontent as one of existential unease—yes, there it is, it’s out there.

But what else do you want the unknowable lunges and stabs of music to do? ‘Wander lonely, float past stars, destination pending’, Parklands states. And don’t we know all that too well?

The arrangement helps keep the pace, with a repeat of the chorus and a guitar outro that’s flutters from jangle into psychedelic, with the rhythmic elements maintaining the support throughout.

Was I satisfied with this turn of events from Parklands? Yes and no. Of course, of course, I wanted another cycle of the chorus.

And you will too. More of that suspended supplication, more of that languid emotional dismemberment.

Whether it’s of the intimate kind or not, Everything evokes and works on a score of levels. It’s worth every second of your time.

VINCE LEIGH / PHOTO BY HARRY CHALKER

@bmamag

ARCHIE CLOSER [

]

ARCHIE’s last single, Greener, was a resplendent slice of indie pop-rock funk with melodic and mesmerising punch. It established a buoyant and entrancing musical style.

The band, formed in late 2018, has since attracted a healthy fan base with soldout headline shows around Canberra. They’ve also shared the stage with the likes of Surf Trash, Neko Pink, and BENEE.

Here, ARCHIE has stepped up, delivering another side to that style—if not an invigorated, more definitive version of it.

Closure kicks off with its governing force, a mix of straight dance time with clean soul guitars, dry drums, and nice popping bass.

But it soon changes, whittling down into a sparsely populated verse, consisting of the vocal, bass, and a halftime kick. This, at least initially, feels somewhat incongruous.

Still, one understands the choice after the sneaky way the pre-chorus creates a natural conduit for the ensuing all-in chorus. An accented groove is deftly utilised to induce a smooth transition. The chorus takes advantage of some falsetto vocals and weds them to the tag of the chorus, balancing, resolving, and generating the track’s main hook.

The structure works, with the verse, pre-chorus, chorus cycle repeated followed by a conga dominated bridge section

MOOD. BLIND EYE

Mood.’s last single, Start Again, was a smooth sounding, restrained slice of contemporary [ ] R&B pop that displayed his selfsufficient talents. This combination is revealed yet again on his new track Blind Eye. The emerging Canberra-based music artist has released a steady flow of solid tracks over the past few years, and this new one efficiently complements his growing catalogue.

Blind Eye continues Mood.’s appropriation of converging styles – pop, low-key R&B – utilising an acoustic guitarlike sound to maintain the track’s dominant pulse while augmenting it with twinkly synths, gentle pads, vocal effects, and a half-time drum groove that mirrors the push and pull quality of the lyric.

The melodic side of things is well catered for. The lines are effective, such as the soft transition from the pre-chorus to the chorus.

And the chorus itself works well, harnessing a series of sustained notes to emphasise the disclosures related to the relationship woes presented.

The blind eye referred to in the chorus sounds at first to be related to the ‘other’ of the dissolving partnership. ‘Turn a blind eye’ is aimed at this other, the following line also pointing to that with the addition of ‘us’.

Yet this second line has attached to it a self-castigating element, inherent in the statement, ‘all because I turned a blind eye on us.’ facebook.com/bmamagazine

that is more of a breather, rest-stop affair; an extension of the chorus, rather than an entirely new part.

The contrast only serves to solidify the remaining elements of the song, which comprise more of the chorus, more of that funk fest groove, yet with some welcome frosting on the cake.

Said sugary treats include swelling synth envelope openings and some luscious high string lines that one could label elegant, ironic, reverential, or merely logical.

Closure sounds like a band doing its own thing. They’re unafraid to plunder pop music history, examining its archives, absorbing and reshaping, taking cues from more recent pop-funk maestros like Daft Punk who undoubtedly indulged in a similar retro rescuing mission.

Closure is refined, assertive funk-pop that would be very difficult to resist if one were the dancing kind. Or even if one were not.

VINCE LEIGH The ambiguity is further enforced by the line in the pre-chorus, ‘it’s you and I from now’. The ‘you and I’, I take it, are the separated figures, and Mood. is setting out the future for both parties because, as an earlier observation tells us: ‘I love you but it’s better for us to just be apart.’

Although the lyric’s direct nature points to the obvious, it is what’s happening in the undercurrent that’s most provoking.

Mood.’s reference to the self. It’s not the one behaving carelessly towards another, which is grievous enough, but the ‘self’ allowing such similarly suffocating acts to go on.

The idiom, ‘turn a blind eye’, is a potent visual. And, of course, the sound of these words together, especially those last two, makes for a harmonious team.

Mood. has used it to its fullest, exploring a theme. The dissolution of the ‘self’ that has been rearranged or lost in the ‘other’.

This not only imbues his melodic know-how with a surprising perspective, but adds a weight and a jagged texture to quite a slick musical experience.

VINCE LEIGH PAGE 35

FILM REVIEWS

DEATH ON THE NILE

UNCHARTED

[

[

]

In 1937, Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) witnesses an extravagant dancing display by Jacqueline de Bellefort (Emma Mackey) and her fiancé Simon Doyle (Armie Hammer) that leave no doubt of their sexual tryst. Jacqueline introduces Simon to her childhood friend, heiress Linnet Ridgeway (Gal Gadot), who is instantly intoxicated.

Six weeks later, Simon has discarded Jacqueline to wed Linnet. Uncomfortably, Jacqueline, unable to accept Simon’s changed affections, is conspicuously following the newlyweds on their honeymoon, and Linnet asks him to join them on their cruise down the Nile.

The stage now set for all kinds of skulduggery, the story moves on, with inevitable murders, multiple suspects — all with motives — and Poirot, the one who must unmask the secrets that will reveal who dun what and why.

The costuming is stunningly lavish, and the cinematography, from bleak WWI battlefields to magnificent vistas of the Nile, moves the viewer from horror to great, tranquil beauty.

Branagh’s Poirot, quite unlike Agatha Christie’s creation, is a sombre character, bearing psychological and emotional scars from fighting in the trenches.

Given this, Poirot’s egotism and perfectionism over minutiae, though beloved characteristics of Christie’s Poirot, seem shoehorned into the Branagh version. That aside, Branagh gives a subtly emotional performance as a man for whom love can never come again.

The remainder of the enticingly stellar cast give very creditable performances, bursting with hidden agendas.

Some casting choices are puzzling, leading us to wait without reward for some display of the actors’ true brilliance.

Nevertheless, Death on the Nile is entertaining enough and beautifully reminiscent of the splendid opulence that displaced the bleakness into which the First World War and later the Great Depression had plunged the world.

MICHELE E HAWKINS Screening at Hoyts, Dendy and Palace Electric Cinemas

PAGE 36

]

When its opening high-octane battle for survival comes to a natural pause, Uncharted takes us back 15 years to the boyhoods of orphaned brothers Sam (Rudy Pankow) and Nate (Tiernan Jones, with Tom Holland playing present-day Nathan) and their preoccupation with the fate of a cargo of gold that Ferdinand Magellan allegedly pirated before dying in the Philippines.

After Sam is forced to leave him behind, Nathan hears from him by postcard for ten years or so — and then hears nothing further, until he meets Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg), a habitual treasure hunter also hoping to find Magellan’s looted gold.

Sully knew Sam, and may be able to offer Nathan some clue to Sam’s fate. Will Nathan team up with Sully? Will they also be rivals? And when a third treasure hunter, Chloe (Sophia Ali), joins forces with them, will it cause regrettable complications?

Yes, yes, and yes.

As well, of course, a treasure hunt would be incomplete without somebody trying to stop you; in this case, the family that sponsored Magellan’s quest for the gold, the Moncadas, in the person of Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas) and his dastardly gang.

Uncharted fulfils the potential in its game progenitor and exceeds the promise of its official trailer (and this is one case in which seeing the trailer beforehand heightens anticipation as the film’s climactic scene opens).

Brilliantly edited; backed by a great score and half a dozen suitable songs; using very expensive props and sets; accelerated by hair-raising chase scenes; featuring intriguing twists and turns and devastating reversals; and culminating in a delightfully unlikely naval engagement, the movie is an absolute hoot.

Don’t miss it.

JOHN P HARVEY Screening at Hoyts, Dendy and Palace Electric Cinemas

@bmamag

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[BEST OF CANBERRA MUSIC] EDEN PLENTY IF I STAY

Eden Plenty got his start appearing at local shows [ ] and busking around Canberra. He has since honed his skills, bolstered his profile, and recently signed to Vacant Room Records. Fans of the incomparable Jeff Buckley, and perhaps to an even greater degree, his father Tim, take heed—If I Stay is sure to please your refined tastes.

With If I Stay, Eden eschews the more commonplace (and, let’s be honest here) overdramatic and exhausting characteristics of any number of contemporary sensitive balladeers of heartbreak. Instead, he presents a more substantially coherent, intense, and rarefied strain of communication.

For starters, Eden’s voice travels at just the right speed throughout. It’s measured, understated, and striving for an emotional temperature that’s not only relatable but disarming.

The rawness that forgoes over-thetop melodic sap cuts deeper and further, reflecting just how intimacy works. That is, in the detail, the nuances, and the exploration of personal cliffs and edges.

But Eden’s voice does rise towards the end, fittingly, creating a subtle crescendo that ends with a muted, almost resigned delusory digestif:

BIRDCAPITAL CURTAINS [

]

Canberra music artist Birdcapital (aka Palimah Panichit) has released second single, curtains, which also features Laura Ingram and Joel Davy (formerly of Lowlands).

The new track is a condensed pop exploration that contains an array of hooks and highlights. By condensed, I refer to the sonic flesh and blood of the track and its duration. At one-minute-48, curtains flashes between your ears like an aftershock.

There’s a lot to like here. The blending of accessible pop characteristics—discernible in the rhythm department, the melodic sections, the layers, and waves of rousing vocal parts; the rather traditional bass and drums formulation and certain guitar/key lines—with more unpredictable attributes, such as the post-chorus (for lack of a better term) stripped down fragment, which engenders the record with a tempered sort of eccentricity.

This is instantly endearing, yet the song’s parts are deceptively engaging also. This is pop, after all.

The song would undoubtedly stand up when neutered of its sonic embellishments. The notes and chords visit some sweet and enervating places and could be appreciated in PAGE 38 configuration. either Page 38

Maybe you’ll call if I stay awake.

It’s not just Eden Plenty’s unthawing and ensnaring performance that pushes this track into a category all its own. It’s the accompanying array of sounds.

An equally sober and unpretentious production manages to blend acoustic and electric guitars, strings, strippedback rhythms, and layered background vocals with firm clarity and a considered sense of dynamics.

If I Stay works for all the reasons above, an aggregate that transfers the realistically untransferable.

It also works for other more technical aspects. This includes the verse’s chord progression and the circular aspect of the chorus with its sustained tag.

Eden Plenty has created a Canberra-bred contemporary record from another time. It merges yesterday’s long-lost sorrows to a new artist’s freshly illumined kind.

The result is worth every listen.

VINCE LEIGH

However, the vocal work on show here is an integral part of the track’s overall appeal. It solidifies the melodies, reinforcing the vigour of the lead vocal. It adds textural dressing to the arsenal of other textures hovering and swooping in the expansive background.

There is almost a dance aspect to the dynamic build, beginning with the straight time kick and pushing groove, and the concurrent instrument parts. As the track increases in intensity, thickening with surging string and synth lines, one becomes aware that it’s as if the song is the build.

There is one statement being made here, and it’s made lightning fast. It’s over in less than two minutes, and the final synth and keyboard section just about helps us catch our breath.

But it also leaves us wanting one more round of something, probably more of the chorus-like lines. However, that is also some of the track’s appeal, leaving the listener waiting, wanting more of the same.

VINCE LEIGH

@bmamag

EP IN

FOCUS

And when we hear ‘Why can’t you tell me what you want from me?’ from the title track Fake It, it leads us to ponder our own affinities, with just as much uninhibited alarm. Just what is the answer to that question?

There is restraint and abandon here in mixed measures, spread across the five songs. But there is perhaps, most clearly of all, a vividly assigned temperament.

Forget the pop hooks, the paintby-numbers affectations. Fake It offers something else, something

more—a glimpse into ripening artistic machinations. No mere figment but the progeny of rock spirit; a continuation, sans the retrograde facades and pretence.

Nina Leo’s debut collection of tracks convinces not only by its focused writing, resolute execution, and raw strikes and swings, but also by an emphatic uniformed coherence.

REVIEW BY VINCE LEIGH PHOTO BY POPPY KONSTANTINOU

NINA LEO FAKE IT Nina Leo’s first two singles, Recover and Break the Renegade, revealed her musical armoury’s two distinct stylistic fire powers. Still, their inclusion here on Fake It helps uncover an even more malleable approach to her chosen genre.

Alongside the garage blues rock energy of Break the Renegade and meditative minimalism of Recover is a broad sweep of guitar-led tracks whose ringing and riotous muscle engender an effective distillation of what is the more prominent, central element. That is, the certitude of Nina Leo’s performance.

Listening to this collection of tracks was akin to sitting at the back of a packed bar, assuaged by the ragged soul of Nina’s tone, entreated by her piqued stance, intrigued and in agreement with her when she proclaims: I can’t be runnin around with you holding hands with the devil That line is from Fool (You’re No Good), a relentless reckoning that utilises a straight-through-the-heart groove and plenty of that fiery, unyielding guitar.

The song follows the EP opener, Spellbound, a languid, blues-based no man’s land soundtrack whose tense attributions seem to preview Nina’s thematic preoccupations, the determined parts of her probing and pleading. facebook.com/bmamagazine

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THE MAGICAL MISTER OTT

By Joshua Eckersley Have you recently found yourself longing for a mind-expanding musical odyssey? Or have you caught yourself pondering the possibilities of partaking in a psychedelic, cosmic, or mystical musical experience (or maybe all of the above)? If that type of musical exploration resonates with you, then you’d best get tickets for Sydney jazz astronauts, Mister Ott, performing at The Street Theatre on Friday, 1 April.

Fronted by Matt Ottignon on tenor and baritone saxophone, Mister Ott was born out of a shared love for jazz and African music, as well as a chance encounter that would set Matt on a musical journey that continues to this day.

After studying jazz at the Sydney Conservatorium, Matt and younger brother Eden were jamming at a bar on King Street one day when the famed Ethiopian vocalist, Dereb Desalegn, walked in and started singing with them. One thing led to another, and Matt joined Dereb’s band, where his musical education truly began. Matt tells us: “I really fell in love with this style (Ethiopian), so much so that after leaving Dereb’s band I started writing my own pieces for the newly formed Mister Ott, using the unusual 5 note scales and 6/8 polyrhythms.”

For those of us not familiar with Ethiopian music (like me, for example), Matt is only too happy to set up a makeshift demountable classroom and school us on the history, characteristics, and main purveyors of PAGE 40

“Ethio-Jazz”, which turns out to be a term coined by Mulatu Astatke, a pianist and vibraphonist from Ethiopia, who studied jazz in London and returned to his homeland to meld the two styles together.

Since then, there has been a world-wide adoption of Ethio-Jazz via bands like Debo Band, Imperial Tiger Orchestra, Black Flower, Anbessa Orchestra, Hoodna Orchestra, Arat Kilo, Black Jesus Experience, as well as the original Ethiopian artists like Alemayehu Eshete and Hailu Mergia who are still touring.

Alongside these exceptional influences, Mister Ott’s music at times features a transcendent, hypnotic landscape of sound that can truly captivate the listener in mind-bending wonderment. There is almost a sense of musical spiritualism that Mister Ott are reaching for, which Matt aligns to his numerous African influences.

He also cites reggae and dub, such as King Tubby and the production of Lee Scratch Perry. And let’s not forget to mention John Coltrane (how did I get this far without mentioning Coltrane?). According to Matt: “In the jazz world, there can be a real focus on virtuosity and technique that I think can overshadow the music, but someone like John Coltrane managed to use his formidable technique to transcend the musical restrictions of the day. The music of Alice Coltrane took the cosmic aspect further still.”

Matt continues: “When my music reaches that magical spot where you can be lost in the groove and the flow, that is when the

music is pure and honest. When the band is really cooking, you can feel the energy build, and then the tension in the melody and harmony become fuel for the fire.”

The energy will be palpable when Mister Ott take to the stage at The Street Theatre, bringing with them a plunder of gems from their two albums, Single Shot (2016) and the recently released In the Flow (2021). Matt has performed here numerous times, with artists such as Baby Et Lulu and Gai Bryant, and now with his own band, Matt cannot hide his excitement as he reveals: “I can’t wait to perform at The Street Theatre with Mister Ott. I know the acoustics are fantastic and the theatre atmosphere is perfect to hear all the detail in the music. There are six of us on stage and each person in the band is a band leader in their own right, so this will be the perfect opportunity for us to make use of the space to really express ourselves and explore the music to the fullest.”

This performance will certainly be an epic journey into the minds of six brilliant jazz musicians, collectively known as Mister Ott. The spectrum of genres, styles and sounds explored on stage will surely be a captivating experience for fans of jazz and world music. Don’t miss out!

WHAT: Mister Ott WHERE: The Street Theatre WHEN: Friday, 1 April, 8pm TIX: For further information, visit, www. thestreet.org.au @bmamag

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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE

FRIDAY 4 MARCH

SATURDAY 5 MARCH

Rob Aspinall Trio As part of the Lunchbox Acoustic program. From 12pm

The Faction Hardest 100 of 2021 Countdown Listening Party Those wishing to celebrate the countdown with other heavy music fans, come join for a listening party that will provide an awesome soundtrack for a few bevvies, burgers, pool and pinball! From 12pm

CITY WALK

Aperitivo at Brunello Wine and music at Brunello, each Friday in March. From 5:30pm

ON THE GRASS AT BRUNELLO

The Whitlams: Gaffage and Clink Tour featuring Ben Lee and Emily Wurramara With their first new songs in 14 years to be released over the winter, and with a fresh spring in their step, a rambunctious show awaits featuring a broad selection of tunes from their five albums. Their storied connection with Canberra stretching back to the ANU Bar in the early ’90s will have a new chapter. 7pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Emo Nite Get ready to scream your favourite emo tunes at the top of your lungs. 7pm, tix via Oztix

THE BASEMENT

7 Shots - Live at The Glen More than anything else, 7 Shots plays fun music. Unashamedly a covers band, they play danceable rock, pop and classic hits for the enjoyment it brings. 7pm

THE BURNS CLUB

The Catholics - In Concert Over three decades, they have formed a body of beautifully crafted music that has African, Caribbean, Latin, and Eastern influences. 7:30pm

THE STREET THEATRE Moondog 8pm

DICKSON TAP HOUSE The Terrys 8pm

UC HUB

Somebody Like You — Keith Urban & Bryan Adams Tribute Show A full production, country rock high energy show, guaranteed to thrill fans of the Canadian icon Bryan Adams and Australia’s own Keith Urban. 8pm

HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB Skandal Mongers The Skandal Mongers are a Canberra-based ska/reggae/ rockasteady band. 8pm

THE BASEMENT

Eden Plenty @ OCI See page 38 this issue for a happy review of Mr Plenty’s If I Stay! Playing from 2pm

OLD CANBERRA INN

Steve Tyson and The Train Rex Byron Bay-based songwriter Steve Tyson and his band The Train Rex are touring their new album, Banjo’s Last Ride. From 4pm, tix via venue

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

Fantasy Lane Feat.

LO’99 + Dave Winnel Fantasy Lane is back with two Sydney house heavyweights joining a huge local line-up.

From 4pm

TOCUMWAL LANE, CIVIC

Hard Quiz Live Hard Quiz is hitting the road in 2022 with an all new stage show and a huge national tour. The Hard Quiz Master, Overlord and Gold Logie Award Winner, Tom Gleeson, is taking the Big Brass Mug out for a spin, swapping the studio for a theatre and adding a third dimension to Australia’s hardest quiz. 5pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

VOXNEON ‘80s New Wave Classics VOXNEON is an electronica band performing classic ’80s synth hits from artists like Depeche Mode, New Order, Gary Numan, Simple Minds, Duran Duran, The Human League and many more. 7pm

Cricket: The Musical Two for Twenty Two Denis Carnahan’s hilarious oneman cult hit musical comedy show. 7:30pm, tix via venue

THE STREET THEATRE

Springtime Gareth Liddiard (Tropical Fuck Storm / The Drones), Jim White (Dirty Three / Xylouris White) and Chris Abrahams (The Necks) are Springtime—a new endeavour that is as much a tonal experiment as it is a meditation on modern-day absurdity. Their debut album uses free jazz, apocalyptic lyricism crafted alongside renowned Irish poet Ian Duhig.

8:30pm, tix via Oztix

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Mic Check 1 Canberra live hip hop is back for 2022! If you are looking to experience poetic lyrics, classic ‘90s hip hop tunes spun by scratch DJ and ACT DMC Champion Chemi-Cal, this show is for you. 9:30pm, tix via venue

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

SUNDAY 6 MARCH Sally Davis 2pm

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

MONDAY 7 MARCH ANUCCME As part of the Lunchbox Acoustic program. From 12pm

CITY WALK

TUESDAY 8 MARCH CSO Ensemble As part of the Lunchbox Acoustic program. From 12pm

CITY WALK

WEDNESDAY 9 MARCH Joni and the King As part of the Lunchbox Acoustic program. From 12pm

QUEENIES (KINGSTON)

CITY WALK

Escapado Sol - Live at The Glen Providing country, soul, Latin, jazz & funk-based solutions since the late Quaternary period! 3pm

The Wider Earth The award-winning drama tells the story of the rebellious young Charles Darwin. Join the twenty-two year old Darwin on HMS Beagle’s daring voyage to the far side of the world and discover the gripping story behind one of the most important discoveries in history.

Runs from 9 - 12 Mar, 7pm + 2pm Sat matinee, tix via venue

THE BURNS CLUB

Kim Yang: Vinyl Record Launch + LIV LI Having successfully launched her 2nd EP in December 2021 with a full band, accomplished Taiwanese-Australian singersongwriter Kim Yang is launching her first vinyl release: Ocean of Mind/Brave. 4pm, tix via venue

THE BASEMENT

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

Hit Parade - Live at The Glen Hit Parade is a sophisticated 4-piece line-up featuring live guitar instrumentation, 2 male and 2 female lead vocals to give the band a strong, rich four-part harmony sound. It’s no wonder that Hit Parade have become one of Canberra’s most sought after acts! 7pm

The Fuelers Sunday Session on the Deck The first name in Char-Grilled Racing Tunes! 4pm

THE BURNS CLUB

AVÉ (Australian Vocal Ensemble) Four of Australia’s finest vocalists come together for the debut national tour of Katie Noonan’s new project, AVÉ (Australian Vocal Ensemble).

The quartet sees Katie joined by three extraordinary, internationally-renowned artists: tenor Andrew Goodwin, mezzo-soprano Fiona Campbell, and bassbaritone Andrew O’Connor. 7pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA IRISH CLUB Johnny Huckle 4pm

DICKSON TAP HOUSE Moondog @ OCI 4pm

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

International Women’s Day 2022 - Let’s Celebrate!

Join us for a night of celebration - with four bands and one stand up comic. 7pm, tix via venue

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

THURSDAY 10 MARCH Leisa Keen & John Mackey As part of the Lunchbox Acoustic program. From 12pm

CITY WALK

OLD CANBERRA INN

CANBERRA IRISH CLUB PAGE 42

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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE

FRIDAY 11 MARCH

SATURDAY 12 MARCH

Monica Moore Trio As part of the Lunchbox Acoustic program. From 12pm

Women Who Rock For Equality #BreakTheBias — Day & Evening Shows Headlined by the Amazing Aya Yves and Lahi & The Randoms, as well as Liv Li, Transista Groove, Miss M, Matriarch Inclusive, Vespertine Lounge, Lady Denman, and Nonbinarycode, you are in for a wonderful show.

Day show 11:30am, Evening show 6pm, tix via Humanitix

CITY WALK

Aperitivo at Brunello Wine and music at Brunello, each Friday in March. From 5:30pm

ON THE GRASS AT BRUNELLO TEMTRIS + Chariot Arcana + Endless Grin + Taliesin TEMTRIS are performing at the peak of their powers; they are returning to celebrate their acclaimed new album Ritual Warfare. 7pm, tix via Oztix

THE BASEMENT

Lyin Cheatin Bastards with Monica Moore - Live at The Glen One of Canberra’s finest blues outfits has teamed up with amazing songstress Monica Moore to get your feet jumping.

Superb musicianship combined with great vocal harmonies and an infectious driving rhythm make this a show not to be missed. 7pm

THE BURNS CLUB

This World Masterfully articulating the struggle, strength and hope of humanity, the music for this concert series imagines the prosaic and profound. 7:30pm, tix via venue

THE STREET THEATRE Moondog 8pm

DICKSON TAP HOUSE Gordie Tentrees Canadian road poet, Gordie Tentrees is coming to Canberra as part of his Mean Old World tour.

8pm, tix via venue

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

Spacey Jane After the release of new single Sitting Up and the announcement of forthcoming new album Here Comes Everybody (out June 10) Spacey Jane are once more taking their live show on the road next month. 8pm, tix via Moshtix

UC REFECTORY

FABBA- The Ultimate ABBA Tribute Show A musical journey when life was as good as an Abba song and the only way to travel was on the Priscilla Bus. 8pm

HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB

HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB Leisa Keen @ OCI 2pm

OLD CANBERRA INN Bliss N Eso Bliss N Eso will take their electric energy and unmatchable flow to the ACT. 7pm, tix via Moshtix

UC REFECTORY

Caramel Gossip Live at The Glen Azlan returns to the Glen, this time adding a percussionist for an even more exciting show.

Azlan is an engaging performer to watch and listen to. 7pm

THE BURNS CLUB

Rental Snake Snake Down Single Launch A newly formed Canberra trio combining elements of grunge, surf & punk rock to create songs worthy of head-banging.

7pm, tix via Oztix

THE BASEMENT

Amplify Music Event Amplify music event is here to support new DJs in starting there careers and for them to get comfortable playing in front of big crowds. 7:30pm

PJ O’REILLY’S, TUGGERANONG

Frances Madden & Band: Beautiful World Album Launch One of Australia’s most talented young singer-songwriters and piano players. 8pm, tix via venue

THE STREET THEATRE

SUNDAY 13 MARCH Grand Final - Celebrate Diversity Band Competition 2022 The heat finalists and potentially a wild card entry will be strutting their stuff as they strive to win the hearts and minds of the Judges Panel. 2:30pm

HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB

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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Andrew Rigo - Live at The Glen Andrew Rigo is a veteran solo performer originally from Melbourne who is now relocating to Canberra permanently.

He presents an engaging full sound and rich vocals across a superb range of classic pub n club favourites that make you wanna dance and keep you enthralled and singing along.

3pm

THE BURNS CLUB Tash-Eloise 4pm

DICKSON TAP HOUSE Inez Hargaden 2pm

QUEENIES (KINGSTON) Sarah Soukieh @ OCI 4pm

OLD CANBERRA INN Mad Kelpie Play Date Sunday Session on the Deck Instrumental Celtic traditional five-piece Mad Kelpie Playdate formed in 2017 through a mutual love of high energy bagpipe music. 4pm

CANBERRA IRISH CLUB

Enlighten Festival: Symphony in the Park George Ellis and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra return to Stage 88 for Symphony in the Park, with award-winning singer-songwriter Lior. A free community event presented by the ACT Government as part of Enlighten Festival. 6:30pm

STAGE 88, COMMONWEALTH PARK

Jazz Singers’ Jam Come on down to the Jazz Singers’ Jam night, a space for jazz singers to jam with an experienced band, and for Canberra to hear and celebrate its home-grown talent. 7pm

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

TUESDAY 15 MARCH Bernard Parker As part of the Lunchbox Acoustic program. From 12pm

CITY WALK

Mark Worthington Open Mic Comedy 7pm, free entry

THE BASEMENT

WEDNESDAY 16 MARCH

FRIDAY 18 MARCH

Koebi Faumui Duo As part of the Lunchbox Acoustic program. From 12pm

Beau Sykes As part of the Lunchbox Acoustic program. From 12pm

Scott Hawkins, Caitlin Maggs & Wen Su: The Snyder Cut With 2020 ACT RAW finalist Scott Hawkins, once described as the funniest person at his family gathering; 2020 RAW National finalist Caitlin Maggs, known as the best and funniest pink haired electrician in Canberra; and Wen Su, the man who holds the record for the most jokes about his name.

7pm, tix via venue

Aperitivo at Brunello Wine and music at Brunello, each Friday in March. From 5:30pm

CITY WALK

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

La Rondine Love, passion, decision.

Giacomo Puccini’s La Rondine is a love story involving Magda, a high society woman kept in a grand style by an older man.

She meets a young and unsophisticated man at a soirée and they fall deeply in love. Magda is forced to decide between love or a life of luxury.

7:30pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

THURSDAY 17 MARCH Lachlan Coventry Duo As part of the Lunchbox Acoustic program. From 12pm

CITY WALK

Hamish Hudson: Long Drink Between Times Hamish Hudson returns to the Canberra Comedy Festival in an all new show, with all new songs. Because it’s an all new show. Hamish’s music is clever, simple, poignant and everything non-pc, leaving audiences wanting more and singing his ridiculously ear worming lyrics for days. 7pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Jeffrey Charles: Failing In Two Cities Canberra comic and middleclass mess Jeffrey Charles is bringing his sellout Sydney Comedy Festival show to town.

Stories and songs of failure as a teacher, parent, spouse, and comedian will have you in stitches. 8:45pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE PAGE 44

CITY WALK

ON THE GRASS AT BRUNELLO

Taylor Coughtrie: Figure It Out In his mid-twenties, he has nothing figured out. Caught between two generations and an old soul that doesn’t fit into either of them, Taylor dives into the real important subjects in life: new relationships, being a ‘new fat guy’ and the questionable personality traits of nurses. 7pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Chain Tombstone & The Dead Men Realm of Pain Album Launch Party After months of hibernating, Canberra’s happiest metal band hits the stage again in celebration of the release of their second album Realm of Pain. 7pm, tix via Oztix

THE BASEMENT

Worlds Collide Global Community Tour 2022 Fun, authentic, energetic, Worlds Collide meld languages and genres to make you think and dance, with seven cultures fusing hip hop rhymes, melodic hooks, African percussion, Latin drums and Silk Road melodies. 7pm

LARRY SITSKY RECITAL ROOM, ANU SCHOOL OF MUSIC

Augie March Released in October 2000, Sunset Studies was the first long player from Augie March.

After two EPs and several years intensive gigging around Australia, the band had built a burgeoning audience primed for a debut album that would earn the respect as one of the most expansive, ambitious, and literate Australian musical releases of all time. In 2022, Augie March is dusting off this classic album and performing it live. 8pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Gaby Moreno Her music is a seamless blend of folk, soul, and blues. 8pm, tix via venue

THE STREET THEATRE Moondog 8pm

DICKSON TAP HOUSE Box Dye You demand, we supply – a new Box Dye track is coming your way. 8pm, tix via Moshtix

UC HUB

Frock n’ Troll Frock ‘n Troll presents an eclectic mix of original songs and tunes, traditional Celtic and Australian music, bluegrass, folk, and an assortment of new and classic pop and rock. 8pm

CANBERRA IRISH CLUB

Luke Bernie: Lukkake Party!

Luke Bernie is performing his show Lukkake Party! and wants to make you come! Bernie has been keeping audiences across the country on their feet with his quick-witted rapid-fire delivery of gags and one-liners. 8:45pm

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

SATURDAY 19 MARCH Leo Joseph’s Blues Piano Sessions Free trip through the history of blues piano, 3rd Saturday each month. 12:30pm

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

The Tuesday Weld Experience The Tuesday Weld Experience have teamed up with good friends The Fuelers to present an afternoon full of country laments along with a heapin’ helpin’ of char-grilled racing tunes. 4pm, tix via venue

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

Emo Parsonson: Lamb Dressed As Mutton Big and small moments shape us. Some we choose, some are chosen by others, and some just happen. This show will delight with loveable shy country lad qualities and a hilarious take on life’s big and small moments.

7pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Jet City Sports Club She Don’t Need No One Tour Presented by Burntout Bookings. 7pm

GANG GANG CAFE

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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE The Importance of Being Earnest 7pm, tix via venue

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE Round The East Tour Deadshowws, Lucid Hoops, and Major Arcana have joined forces to create the Round The East Tour! 7pm, tix via Oztix

THE BASEMENT

William Crighton: This is Magic William Crighton returns with his new single, This Is Magic.

7:30pm, tix via venue

THE STREET THEATRE

Punch Joy Launch Gig Creeping out from the depths of lockdown land, Punch Joy is Canberra’s newest pop/rock/ soul/fun band, ready to crank out the dancey tunez. 8pm, tix via Trybooking

POLISH WHITE EAGLE CLUB The Richards: Family Therapy Three comedians, one family, and a stack of memories that nobody can agree on. From politics to religion, nothing is off-limits: the show is filled with sex, drugs, and other things you would never willingly discuss with your mother. 8:45pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

SUNDAY 20 MARCH CBS March Blues Jam hosted by Sister C & The Bad Habits Sister C & The Bad Habits host Canberra Blues Society March Blues Jam. The host band will be followed by some of the finest musicians in the Canberra region jamming together for a great afternoon of live blues. 1pm

HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB Leisa Keen 4pm

DICKSON TAPHOUSE Waveteller An exploration of musical interplay, Waveteller plays music that draws heavily on rhythmic concepts and the elasticity of time. 4pm, tix via venue

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

Cassidy’s Ceili Sunday Session on the Deck Cassidy’s Ceili play upbeat & energetic Celtic and contemporary folk music. 4pm

CANBERRA IRISH CLUB

The Mara! Big Band: Zashto?

Mara! band, featuring the cream of Australia’s jazz and world music illuminati. 7pm, tix via venue

THE STREET THEATRE

MONDAY 21 MARCH Mina-Siale As part of the Lunchbox Acoustic program. From 12pm

CITY WALK

Koori Comedy Showcase The Koori Comedy Showcase is back and deadlier than ever!

Bring the mob down to the Canberra Comedy Festival for a great night of laughs featuring Benny Eggmolesse, Bill Makin, Cy Fahey, and Jacob Keed. 7pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Dane Simpson Dane is a much-in-demand comedian based in Wagga Wagga! You’ve probably spotted him on the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala for Oxfam, Channel 10s Have You Been Paying Attention, the Opening Night Allstars Supershow or in Aussie feature film The Merger. 8:45pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

TUESDAY 22 MARCH Rowan Phemister As part of the Lunchbox Acoustic program. From 12pm

CITY WALK

Django Jam A monthly Django Reinhardt jazz jam hosted by The Gypsy Project.

5pm, tix via venue

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

Canberra Comedy Festival Gala This two hour showcase event features some of the very best acts from the festival line-up – including the best comedy superstars on the circuit. 7pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

WEDNESDAY 23 MARCH Kim Yang As part of the Lunchbox Acoustic program. From 12pm

CITY WALK

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PAGE 45

ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE Unedjamacated Who needs a proper job when you can disappoint your parents as a comedian? Come and see the next big things in stand up, musical, and sketch show comedy as Canberra’s finest new wave of comedians prove that being Unedjamacated is a full time job in itself. 5pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Anthony Tomic and Nick Schuller Nick hates writing show descriptions more than anything in the world. It’s like writing a personal ad but sadder and more narcissistic.

Who writes about themself in the third person? Prick. Anthony is a 30-something (second 20s but with more heartburn) storyteller who will do his best or close to it, depending on sales. 7pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE Julia Jacklin If her debut album Don’t Let The Kids Win established Julia Jacklin as an artist to watch, her 2019 follow up Crushing solidified her as one of the songwriters of her generation. Feel the full weight of her talents as she distills her craft to its most profound and empowering self. 8pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE Chris Marlton: Mephisto Waltz Mephisto Waltz is a one-man gala. Seven colourful, uniquely hilarious characters, all performed

by Canberra’s own curiously charismatic, chameleon comedian Chris Marlton. Packed full of sharp observations, cleverly performed characters, and surprising conclusions, this is a show you won’t want to miss. 8:45pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

THURSDAY 24 MARCH The Odd Couple As part of the Lunchbox Acoustic program. From 12pm

CITY WALK

Chris Ryan After a stellar debut at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and sold out runs at the Sydney and Perth Comedy Festivals in 2021, Chris is thrilled to bring her new show for 2022 home to Canberra. She just doesn’t know what it is yet. Buy now, check back later! 7pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Irish Mythen One part preacher, one part stand-up, one part diva, and 100% heart - Irish Mythen is a force to be reckoned with and surely one of the most entertaining humans on the planet. 7pm, tix via venue

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

Lizzy Hoo After sell-out performances at Melbourne & Sydney Comedy Festival, Lizzy is bringing the laughs to Canberra! Lizzy from Brissie is the rising star to watch out for, charming audiences all over the country. She managed to perform at the Sydney Opera House three times in 2020 – no small feat given the year it was!

8:45pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

FRIDAY 25 MARCH Calvin Orosa As part of the Lunchbox Acoustic program. From 12pm

CITY WALK

Aperitivo at Brunello Wine and music at Brunello, each Friday in March. From 5:30pm

ON THE GRASS AT BRUNELLO

Tony Martin – Stands Up Perhaps you remember him from The D-Generation, The Late Show, Martin/Molloy or Get This. From his torrid love affair with Sharon on Kath & Kim or his nine-second appearance in The Castle. Or, more recently, his award-winning podcast Sizzletown and his low-scoring appearances on Have You Been Paying Attention?. This is a rare chance to see Tony Martin doing stand-up. 6:30pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Aaron Chen – Sorry Forever Nominee Melbourne Comedy Festival Most Outstanding Show Award 2021, Sydney boy Aaron Chen (Winner of Best Newcomer at the 2017 Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Sydney Comedy Festival, host of Aaron Chen Tonight and hilarious receptionist in comedy TV show Fisk on the ABC) is a stone cold killer with exquisite mic technique. 7pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Tundrel and Grand Duke, Let Out to Play Grand Duke - strange, progressive left turns reminiscent of Baroness followed by the warm, fuzzy, grunge inspired tones of Tundrel. 7pm, tix via venue

THE BASEMENT Great Gable 8pm

UC HUB

Sister Nancy (Jamaica) & Legal Shot Sound (France) The Original ‘Bam Bam’ female Deejay straight outta Jamaica – Sister Nancy returns to perform in Canberra for the first time!

A veteran of the reggae scene since the ‘70s, Sister Nancy will be backed up by France’s rub-adub Legal Shot! 8pm

TRANSIT BAR Moondog

DICKSON TAP HOUSE Elton Out Of The Closet Featuring the worlds most exciting Elton impersonator, Jason Paris. 8pm

HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB Luke Heggie The stern-faced cheer-jerker stacks up line after line of acerbic gold like a sarcastic symphony…A knock-out.

8:45pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

SATURDAY 26 MARCH Bucky’s Budweiser Big Birthday Bash & ALOHA! Blues & Roots Charity Gig Annual Blues & Roots music gig fundraiser for Rise Above Cancer Support Group. Featuring 8 fantastic acts, silent auction & raffle prizes. From 1pm

HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB

Tripod “We’s tellin’ ya, it’s a rush seeing this combo of gorgeous harmonies, musical vision and complete spannerhead-ism. You will come away elated. No bull.

Tripod: the band that made it ok to sing funny songs un-badly.”

7pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Sly Withers - Early Show Sly Withers are leaving their backyard behind, and heading on tour. 7pm, tix via Moshtix

UC HUB

FANGZ Falling Is Pretty Normal Tour Sydney-based punk quartet FANGZ are returning to the stage with a mammoth Australian tour in support of their new single Falling Is Pretty Normal. 7pm, tix via Oztix

THE BASEMENT

Super Rats Folk music hits from the backstreets of Bucharest. 7pm, tix via venue

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

Stephen K Amos – Before and Laughter It may be nearly two years later than planned – but who cares?

How would you feel about joining Stephen for a beautiful night of fun, laughter and putting the world to rights? Or more importantly, how could you refuse!

7:15pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

The Stevenson Experience: Stranger Twins For a decade, the critically acclaimed musical comedy duo have toured their hilarious songs worldwide. They’ve also bickered and badgered each other every step of the way. Hilarious songs – identical twins – classic banter – an hour of non-stop laughs.

8:30pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Sly Withers - Late Show 10pm

UC HUB

SUNDAY 27 MARCH Autumn German Markets The ever popular German markets is coming with a fun Easter twist. From 9am

HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB Andante Andante Choir This concert will have you singing along to some of ABBA’s most popular hits as well as some of their less popular, but still groovy numbers! 7pm, tix via venue

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE Chris Harland Blues Band 8pm

DICKSON TAP HOUSE

MONDAY 28 MARCH An Afternoon of Celloa & Piano Join in for an afternoon of great classical music. 5pm

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE PAGE 46

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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE

WEDNESDAY 30 MARCH Jessica Mauboy - The Boss Lady Tour Multi-ARIA award winning singersongwriter, actress, and voice coach, Jessica Mauboy is making new music, and continuing her role as a leader and disruptor. The Boss Lady tour track listing will read as an anthology of Jessica’s global smash hits since her first solo album in 2008, elevating them to a new era of empowerment. Support by Caiti Baker. 7pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

THURSDAY 31 MARCH Trophy Eyes The Aussie punk rockers come to town. 7pm, tix via Moshtix

UC REFECTORY

FRIDAY 1 APRIL Beerfest 506 Host of fun & games celebrating the 506th anniversary of the oldest known food law! 4pm

Bandaluzia Flamenco Powerful performances, unique sound and explosive displays of dazzling musicianship and virtuosity. 7:30pm, tix via venue

THE STREET THEATRE

Marty Sheargold Don’t miss the opportunity to laugh live with the star of Have You Been Paying Attention? as he delivers a load of jokes and stories he can’t do on national TV. 8pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers Rising/Risen Australian punk stars Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers have unleashed a brand new single Miss Your Birthday, co-written with Alex Lahey and produced by Violent Soho’s James Tidswell.

8pm, tix via Moshtix

UC HUB

Small Town Alien Playing their King of Canberra album launch. 9:30pm, tix via venue

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

HARMONIE GERMAN CLUB

SUNDAY 3 APRIL

Under the Influence Shortis and Simpson return, with special guest Karen Middleton. 7pm, tix via venue

Los Romeos Oxidados Raucous roots, rockabilly and country. 4pm, tix via venue

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

Dags Running 1–9 April. Dags is an excruciatingly funny and compassionate journey through the world of adolescent anguish. 7:30pm + matinee, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

Mister Ott Jazz sextet merging mesmerising eastern sounds, tight jazz funk, hypnotic grooves with melismatic horn lines and high calibre ecstatic solos. 8pm, tix via venue

THE STREET THEATRE

Hockey Dad @ UC Refectory Celebrating the release of their third album Brain Candy. 8pm, tix via Moshtix

UC REFECTORY

SATURDAY 2 APRIL Jack Nolan + Copperline Quay Records presents a double header of Sydney bands. 4pm, tix via venue

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE

Björn Again – Mamma Mia! We Are Back Again Björn Again have performed over 7000 times in over 120 countries world-wide, are endorsed by the members of ABBA, and are regarded as the most successful tribute show of all time. 7:30pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE San Cisco San Cisco are a three-piece indie pop group from Fremantle, Western Australia. Set to an upbeat indie-pop groove on the cusp of innocence and heartbreak, this is where San Cisco lives. 8pm, tix via Moshtix

UC REFECTORY

MONDAY 4 APRIL The Wiggles – Fruit Salad TV Big Show Tour!

The Fruit Salad TV Big Show will feature all your favourite Wiggles songs such as ‘Do the Propeller!’, ‘Hot Potato’ and ‘Rock-a- Bye Your Bear’, as well as new and catchy tunes such as ‘Dippy Do Dinosaur Dance!’ 1pm, tix via venue

CANBERRA THEATRE CENTRE

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