Brag#653

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ISSUE NO. 653 MARCH 9, 2016

FREE Now picked up at over 1,600 places across Sydney and surrounds. thebrag.com

MUSIC, FILM, THEATRE + MORE

INSIDE This Week

REFUSAL TO COMPROMISE

RUB Y BOO T S

Giving up the bottle has lent her a new lease on life.

JOHN GR A N T

He's relocated to Iceland in search of the truth.

K IL L S W I T CH ENG A GE

The metal giants are back with a big new album.

S A N T IGOL D

A record label employee turned musician with a massive drive.

Plus

T ONIGH T A L I V E T OM GR EEN JEFF T W EEDY

MATT CORBY SANTIGOLD

NEW ALBUM 99C FEATURING CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF MYSELF SHOP NOW

MJR BY ARRANGEMENT WITH SOLO PRESENTS

AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2016 FRIDAY 11TH MARCH - MAX WATTS, SYDNEY SATURDAY 12TH MARCH - MAX WATTS, BRISBANE SUNDAY 13TH MARCH - 170 RUSSELL, MELBOURNE TUESDAY 15TH MARCH - THE GOV, ADELAIDE WEDNESDAY 16TH MARCH - CAPITOL, PERTH

THE NEW ALBUM MODERN NATURE OUT NOW For tickets and info head to thecharlatans.net or mjrpresents.com

thebrag.com

BRAG :: 653 :: 09:03:16 :: 3

rock music news

the BRAG presents LUCKY PETERSON The Basement Tuesday March 22

songwriters’ secrets WITH

MISS QUINCY

that make us all human. It’s about living, breathing and loving in current times. We recorded the song in Vancouver in the former Mushroom Studios (Led Zeppelin, Diana Ross). As you can imagine, there’s a lot of mojo in that room. The song has a bit of a throwback vibe that sounds great on tape. You can hear the live version of it on March 17 at Lazybones Lounge.

then. My first attempts at songs were lessons in how to say a lot in a few lines, and I defi nitely borrowed heavily from the styles of music I grew up on. I listened to Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris – the great ladies of country music, so I wrote a few things about heartbreak before I knew anything about it. The Last Song I Released 2. I’m about to release a brand new single on April 1! ‘Remind Me Of Myself’ is a song I wrote about the emotions

often for me that I write the chords, lyrics and melody in one day, but it has a few times and it feels like magic. Most of the time I think of snippets of melody and lyrics and save them for later. I construct songs out of those snippets when I set aside the space specifi cally for songwriting. The Song That Makes Me Proud 4. I’m really proud of a series of songs I wrote for a side project of mine called My Peace River. It’s a multimedia project created to bring awareness to Canada’s most endangered river valley – which happens to be where I grew up. They were

Oxford Art Factory Wednesday March 23

ELLE KING Metro Theatre Thursday March 24

5.

The Song That Changed My Life I’ll have to go with ‘When The Levee Breaks’ by Led Zeppelin. There are a few different reasons for this. It is one of my favourite grooves of all time, and I love heavy grooves. Zeppelin has taught me a lot about rock’n’roll. Another reason is that it is an adaptation of a Memphis Minnie song. She was was an amazing guitar player, the first woman to record electric guitar and a huge inspiration to me. And fi nally, the reason that the Peace River is endangered is because a hydroelectric dam is scheduled to be built and fl ood 107 kilometres of pristine river valley. I would love nothing more than for that levee to break.

NATIONAL FOLK FESTIVAL Exhibition Park, Canberra Thursday March 24 – Monday March 28

SHAKEY GRAVES The Basement Thursday March 31

Where: Lazybones Lounge When: Thursday March 17

MANAGING EDITOR: Chris Martin chris@thebrag.com 02 9212 4322 ONLINE EDITOR: Tyson Wray SUB-EDITOR: Sam Caldwell STAFF WRITERS: Adam Norris, Augustus Welby NEWS: Anita Connors, James Di Fabrizio, Joseph Earp, Anna Wilson ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant PHOTOGRAPHERS: Katrina Clarke, Ashley Mar, D. A. Carter ADVERTISING: Les White - 0405 581 125 / (02) 9212 4322 les@thebrag.com Tony Pecotic - (02) 9212 4322 tony@thebrag.com PUBLISHER: Furst Media MANAGING DIRECTOR, FURST MEDIA: Patrick Carr - patrick@furstmedia.com.au, (03) 9428 3600 / 0402 821 122 DIGITAL DIRECTOR/ADVERTISING: Kris Furst kris@furstmedia.com.au, (03) 9428 3600

Marking her retirement from touring, seminal Irish vocalist Mary Black is coming Down Under one last time to farewell fans. Last here four years ago, Black has graced stages for over 25 years, releasing 11 platinum-accredited studio albums. This time around, she’ll be playing songs from her most recent album Down The Crooked Road – the soundtrack to her autobiography of the same name. The tour kicked off in Perth this week, and sees her passing through the Enmore Theatre on Thursday March 10 before she hits up Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne as well as Port Fairy Folk Fest and Blue Mountains Music Fest. Don’t miss this opportunity to say goodbye to one of Ireland’s truly great voices.

HAWTHORNE MEST UP

Jaron Freeman-Fox

REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Nat Amat, Prudence Clark, Tom Clift, James Di Fabrizio, Christie Eliezer, Emily Gibb, Tegan Jones, Lachlan Kanoniuk, Emily Meller, David Molloy, Annie Murney, Adam Norris, George Nott, Daniel Prior, Tegan Reeves, Natalie Rogers, Erin Rooney, Spencer Scott, Natalie Salvo, Leonardo Silvestrini, Jade Smith, Lucy Watson, Rod Whitfield, Harry Windsor, Tyson Wray, Stephanie Yip, David James Young

bands completed a 50-date world tour across the US, Europe and Japan. Coming along for the nostalgia-heavy tour are London Falling, alongside MC Jackel and Hey Reckless. They’ll play The Bald Faced Stag on Sunday April 17.

UNRULY MESSENGERS

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FREE THE FOX

Canadian Folk Music Award winners Jaron Freeman-Fox and The Opposite Of Everything are gearing up for a new album release with an Australian tour. Redefining the capabilities of the violin, FreemanFox will play an eccentric show in Sydney with his band The Opposite Of Everything, a diverse cast of Toronto’s finest and most adventurous musicians who transform the frontman’s intricate compositions into something limitlessly creative and playful. The group toured Australia for the first time last year and return again this month, performing 15 shows across the country including Blue Mountains Music Fest and bringing with them a brand new album – an exclusive release for Aussie audiences. Be dazzled with world music fusion at The Factory Floor on Thursday March 24.

Hip hop/pop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis will hit Australian shores off the back of their largest world tour to date. The news follows the release their latest hit ‘Downtown’, the single lifted from last month’s This Unruly Mess I’ve Made, which features the likes of Kool Moe Dee, Grandmaster Caz and Melle Mel. The duo rose to prominence after the success of 2012’s watershed record The Heist, which scored a Grammy and a slew of chart-topping singles. See Macklemore and Lewis play Allphones Arena on Saturday August 6.

JESUS PUNK’D YOU, THIS I KNOW

Looking for something to do instead of hitting your local church on Easter weekend? Celebrate the death and rebirth of Jesus – the world’s first zombie – with a weekend of punk rock madness, as Valve Bar hosts a minifestival of raucous tunes. With acts ranging from Wasters and Dividers to Jason Guy Smiley, it’s sure to be an incendiary evening of raw talent. And let’s face it, if you’re not religious, there’s nothing else to do on Easter weekend, so why not embrace your inner heretic and get down and dirty with the help of some musical devils? The Easter mini-fest hits Valve on Saturday March 26.

METHYLATED MUSIC

Following a string of international success, Perth trio Methyl Ethel will hit Sydney

as part of a national tour. Having just announced their signing to the 4AD roster, they’ll be joined by Melbourne’s Jaala. The group have gone from strength to strength in recent times, being shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize and rising to acclaim with their album, Oh Inhuman Spectacle. See them when they hit up Plan B Small Club on Saturday April 30.

LET’S DANCE

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra has announced a pair of massive concerts to celebrate the life and music of the late David Bowie. In yet another illustration of the enormous breadth of Bowie’s influence and musical catalogue, the SSO will share the stage with Aussie music all-stars including iOTA, Tim Rogers, Steve Kilbey, Deborah Conway, Adalita and Jack Ladder to pay tribute to the British icon. David Bowie: Nothing Has Changed will run over two nights at the Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House, and feature around 30 of his most famous songs. Experience the magic of Bowie once more at the Opera House on Thursday May 19 and Saturday May 21.

LIKE SOHO, LIKE SODA

Violent Soho are heading out on tour in support of their highly anticipated forthcoming album, hitting Sydney along the way. Before WACO is released next Friday March 18, Soho have announced they’ll jump up to their biggest ever headline rooms with support from their mates DZ Deathrays and Dune Rats. Soho have been touring relentlessly since their watershed LP Hungry Ghost took the band to a new level of international and local acclaim. They’ll show why at the Enmore Theatre on Thursday May 26 and Friday May 27. thebrag.com

Steel Panther photo by David Jackson

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STEELING THE SHOW

Crack out the hairspray and leotards, because glam metal revivalists Steel Panther are making their way to Australia. They’ll be in town following the release of their acoustic record, Live From Lexxi’s Mom’s Garage. Last in Australia for Soundwave 2014, the group have amassed a cult following for their brand of metal, which has seen them take the stage for sell-out shows at Wembley Stadium and across the world. They’ll rock Luna Park’s Big Top on Friday June 17.

AWESOME INTERNS: Elias Kwiet, Joseph Earp, Anna Wilson, Anita Connors

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Steel Panther

Emo icons Hawthorne Heights will join forces with pop-punk stalwarts Mest for a Sydney show. The news comes after the

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xx

BACK IN BLACK

Shakey Graves photo by Jarred Gastriech

The First Song I Wrote 1. When I was young I sang pretty much all the time, so I guess I started practising

Songwriting Secrets 3. I always consider it a gift when a song comes fully formed. It doesn’t happen

LORD HURON

the most difficult and personal songs I’ve written. The mandate of My Peace River is to spread awareness through making art inspired by the Peace River. You can hear a song, which we recorded live on the banks of the Peace River, at mypeaceriver.ca.

Lucky Peterson photo © JM Lubrano

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Joseph Earp, James Di Fabrizio and Anna Wilson

COMING UP

Two fantastic concerts this March with your SSO CLASSICAL

CROSSING THE THRESHOLD SUN 13 MAR | 5PM BAY 17, CARRIAGEWORKS

TICKETS FROM $35*

AN EXPLORATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT, TRANSITION, LIFE & DEATH. In a brand new partnership between Carriageworks and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Chief Conductor David Robertson leads a concert of music by Pierre Boulez, Gérard Grisey and Australian composers Lisa Illean and Brett Dean. DAVID ROBERTSON conductor • JESSICA ASZODI soprano • PIERRE-LAURENT AIMARD piano

BOOK NOW CALL 8215 4600

LERIDA’S PLAYLIST TUE 15 MAR | 6.30PM CITY RECITAL HALL, ANGEL PLACE

ALL TICKETS $49*

Our new Playlist concerts are perfect for newcomers to classical music, or those who love an inspiring musical story. Violinist Lerida Delbridge, and your SSO, brings you The Lark Ascending, Mendelssohn’s Sinfonia No.9, Mahler’s Adagietto from Symphony No. 5, and more. Get to know music and musicians with this one hour informal concert. Afterwards, stick around and say hi at the cash bar. ANDREW HAVERON violin-director • LERIDA DELBRIDGE violin • KATE AMOS soprano

NO FEES WHEN YOU BOOK THESE CONCERTS ONLINE AT

Tickets for Crossing the Threshold also available at

TICKETMASTER.COM.AU 1300 135 915 Tickets for Lerida’s Playlist also available at

CITYRECITALHALL.COM 8256 2222 Mon–Fri 9am–5pm^

MON–FRI 9AM–5PM

*Selected performances. Prices correct at time of publication and subject to change. Booking fees of $5–$8.95 may apply depending on method of booking. ^Additional fees may apply.

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL PRESENTS

NATIONAL OPEN MIC COMEDY COMPETITION MAT MC: T OK INE

AVAILABLE AT ALL GOOD BOOKSHOPS

NSW STATE FINAL

COMEDY STORE • 8PM TUE 15 MAR RAWCOMEDY.COM.AU thebrag.com

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live & local

free stuff

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Anita Connors, Joseph Earp and Anna Wilson

head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

songwriters’ secrets WITH

WILLIAM CRIGHTON The Last Song I Released 2. The last song I released was the first single from my selftitled debut album. It’s called ‘Priest’ – the lyrics explain it best, so if you have four minutes and 25 seconds to spare, please check it out. I recorded it with some friends and family down at Burrinjuck Dam. Songwriting Secrets 3. I don’t really have any songwriting secrets. I find songs easier to write when I’m being 100 per cent honest with myself, but those ones are harder to sing when your mum’s in the crowd.

The First Song I Wrote 1. The first song I remember writing down was when I was about seven or eight. I listed a bunch of native Australian animals, put them to a bouncy tune with the words ‘we’ve got’ – i.e. “We’ve got wombats, kangaroos, bilbies and

koalas / We’ve got numbats, fruit bats, magpies and galahs…” and on it went. I didn’t miss out many, I sung it out proudly in front of the class – I was a fat kid and a smart arse from an older grade yelled out, “We don’t got ’em anymore cause you ate ’em.”

The Song That Makes Me 4. Most Proud The last song on my record is a song called ‘Beautiful Night For A Dream’. My daughter Olive asks me to sing it to her before bed sometimes. Song That Changed 5. The My Life

There are a few songs that have stuck with me since my first time hearing them and it’s still happening. I’m not sure if any one song changed my life, but I know many are shaping it. My nan used to sing ‘Amazing Grace’ to me and my mum used to sing ‘Where Have All The Flowers Gone?’ – they are both real special songs to me. Hearing Neil Young and Crazy Horse for the first time blew my mind. ‘Beds Are Burning’ always has a big effect on me. Frank Zappa’s ‘Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow’ opened my ears; ‘Killing In The Name’, ‘The Band Played Waltzing Matilda’, ‘Everybody Knows’ (Cohen), ‘Desolation Row’ (Dylan) – I could go on and on.

TONIGHT ALIVE

Sydney pop-punk rockers Tonight Alive have a brand spanking new record. Their third album Limitless, of which the first taste was the single ‘Drive’, was recorded at The House Of Loud in New Jersey and produced by David Bendeth (Paramore, Bring Me The Horizon). The new tunes follow up 2011’s What Are You So Scared Of? and 2013’s The Other Side. We have five Tonight Alive prize packs to give away, including a signed CD copy of Limitless as well as a Limitless tank top. To enter the draw, head to thebrag. com/freeshit.

What: Courtyard Sessions 2016 Where: Seymour Centre When: Friday March 11 And: William Crighton out Friday March 18 through ABC/Universal xxx

GASOLINE IN YOUR HEART

Francesca De Valence

Marrickville’s intimate live music den, the Gasoline Pony, has revealed a bunch of great names on its lineup for the remainder of March. D Henry Fenton will be in this Wednesday March 9, ahead of Tori Forsyth and The Wayward Henrys on Thursday March 10. Forsyth is a stunning performer, currently making a splash on the radio airwaves via latest single ‘Johnny And June’. These are but a couple of highlights on the Gasoline Pony calendar for March, and you can check out the full program at gasolinepony.com.

The East Pointers

THE RANDY HANSEN EXPERIENCE DE VALENCE’S VALUE

Emotive Brisbane performer Francesca De Valence will host a songwriting workshop in Marrickville this month. An independent artist, De Valence has won several awards both at home and overseas, including a Los Angeles Music Award and an Australian Songwriting Award. Hosting a songwriting workshop with her musical partner Helen Perris, you’ll get a chance to learn about De Valence’s songwriting process, tips for getting started and tools to improve your songwriting skills. The two women will perform a concert immediately after the workshop, featuring titles from De Valence’s new album Own Self, which is currently enjoying top ten positions on the iTunes charts and the AMRAP radio charts. See it all go down on Friday March 11 at Marrickville’s The Newsagency.

GO WITH WILKINSON

In support of his latest EP, Come With Me Tonight, Sydney’s Mark Wilkinson will kick things off with a hometown show. It will be one of the last chances to catch Wilkinson before he jets off to tour overseas. Sydney can look forward to a show at The Basement on Friday May 13.

Randy Hansen has devoted his life to emulating the great Jimi Hendrix, and is now set to pay tribute to the legendary guitarist on his upcoming tour. The Seattleborn musician is one of the few tribute guitarists in the world to have been officially recognised by the Hendrix family and has an impressive career spanning over 40 years. Having released more than a dozen albums including the acclaimed Hendrix By Hansen, Hansen has also shared stages with the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Paul Rodgers and Bob Seger. He’ll play the Enmore Theatre on Wednesday May 18.

SAY ’ALLO TO ALU

The king of ‘hammock music’, the fi nest of all furniture-related musical genres, is set to return to Sydney. Xavier Rudd alumni and veritable ukulele master Bobby Alu has announced the date for his one-off Sydney show. The master of chill will be well known to any fan of contemporary Polynesian music, and the announcement will undoubtedly be well received by his legion of adoring fans. Supported as ever by his charismatic and hand-picked band of troubadours, Palm Royale, Alu is ready to seduce and serenade his way into your heart at the Factory Theatre on Saturday March 19.

POINTING EAST

Already playing over 25 festivals and venues across the country, The East Pointers will appear for additional shows in Sydney to meet high demand. Following the huge success of their appearances at Woodford Folk Festival, The East Pointers have added two more Sydney dates to their already colossal Australian tour to fit in around previously announced performances at Cobargo Folk Festival and National Folk Festival 2016. Making traditional music appear ridiculously hip, Secret Victory – the debut album from the Canadian threepiece jigs-and-reels band – was penned mostly in Australia in early 2015. Joining The East Pointers on their Sydney stretch are Australia’s rising stars of the folk scene The Mae Trio, who, alongside the headliners, are sure to provide a double dose of harmony heaven. Catch the Canadian trio at Cronulla’s Brass Monkey on Thursday April 7 and at Marrickville’s Django Bar on Sunday April 10.

SPIN DOCTORS

The kings and queens of Western swing are blasting their way through our fair city, stopping by for a single Sydney show. The

masters of country/blues/soul fusion, The Spin Drifters are renowned for their frenetic and endlessly enjoyable shows, making the gig a

MAYFAIR IN MARCH

Mayfair Kytes

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It’s going to be a busy next couple of weeks for Melbourne four-piece Mayfair Kytes. Not only are they releasing their new single ‘Sleepyhead’, their debut album Animus is also out next month. To celebrate, the multi-instrumentalist folk/art-poppers are hitting the road. Recorded in just over a year, Animus features performances by string players from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, as well as extra synths and production added by Hiatus Kaiyote’s Simon Mavin and Paul Bender. Mayfair Kytes’ Animus comes out Friday April 1. See the Melburnians when they play The Vanguard on Thursday April 28.

very enticing proposition indeed. The group has only just returned to our shores after a whirlwind trip through Cuba, so if you want to catch an internationally renowned band at the height of its powers, then head along to the show. The Spin Drifters hit The Basement on Wednesday March 9.

ZOO CITY, LAD

Rock’n’roll will never die, and The Zoo City Lads are here to make sure of it. The local four-piece first made a splash with their debut headline show at Oxford Art Factory in 2014, and went on to bolster their reputation the old-fashioned way: by gigging and grafting hard around the Sydney scene. They’re set to head into the studio to craft a new collection of grooves, but in the meantime, the Lads are heading back to where it all began, with help from a supporting cast of Orewa and Mac The Knife. Get a sneak preview of some new Zoo City Lads material at Oxford Art Factory’s Gallery Bar on Friday March 18. thebrag.com

thebrag.com

BRAG :: 653 :: 09:03:16 :: 7

Industrial Strength Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer

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THINGS WE HEAR • Which international singer has taken up yoga after the stresses of his divorce? • Are Hamish & Andy about to return to TV? • Which club DJ is about to land a TV gig? • Is Morrissey actually serious about running for Mayor of London? • Armin van Buuren confirmed that his upcoming world tour, kicking off in Amsterdam in May, will include Sydney and Melbourne. • The five Australian shows for Laneway Festival drew 61,150 people in total – its most successful run yet. Melbourne (15,000), Brisbane (13,500), Sydney (12,500) and Fremantle (12,500) were sold out before the tour began. Adelaide doubled attendance from last year to 7,600. • The 1975 scored their first chart-topping album in Oz this week with I Like It When

BEATPORT FOR SALE

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EDM empire SFX Entertainment is selling Beatport, the DJ store that it extended into a streaming service after buying it a few years ago for US$50 million. SFX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month, and explained it can’t keep pumping money into Beatport, which last year lost $5.5m after making a profit of $7.1m in 2014. It generated revenue of $39.1m in 2015 and $46.5m the year before. 24 parties are interested, with 18 looking through the books. The auction is in May.

APRA AMCOS LAUNCHES ART MUSIC FUND

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In recognition of the limited performance opportunities for art music composers to showcase their new works, APRA AMCOS has launched the Art Music Fund. There is a grant pool of $100,000 aimed at expanding the lifespan of projects through collaborations with ensembles, orchestras, producers, recording companies, broadcasters, festivals and other parties to propose the writing of a work within five years. Applications close Saturday April 30. See APRA’s website for details.

MADONNA’S REBEL HEART TOUR HITS $100M

As Madonna’s Rebel Heart Tour hits Australia this week, Billboard reports that globally it has surpassed US$100 million in revenue. During January, Madonna strutted the stage in seven US cities, and five others including Mexico City and San Juan, Puerto Rico. In that month, she drew 150,000 fans and grossed $19.3 million. It was the second biggest tour in the world in the first month of this year. In total, since the tour began in Montreal last September, it has grossed $107.3 million from 61 shows in 14 countries to 819,792 fans until the end of January. The biggest tour in January was by The Rolling Stones, whose Latin American sweep grossed $36.9 million. The Stones are playing a free show in Cuba.

NEW AUSSIE SHOW FOR HIT NETWORK

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The Hit Network is giving Aussie acts more exposure with a new show called Hit AU, airing Sunday nights from 10pm. It will be “home for hot Australian music – new and old school – and the go-to show for discovering upcoming Australian artists�. The regular host is Byron Cooke, who is joined each week by a different celeb. The launch last weekend saw Samantha Jade co-host and Melbourne’s Masketta Fall featured in the ‘Fansnap’ segment, which allows listeners to ask acts direct questions via Snapchat.

POT-FRIENDLY VENUES IN AMERICA?

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A new breed of US venue operators is eyeing how to get a share of the country’s $1-billiona-year legal pot industry. Cannabist editor Ricardo Baca told The Real that the state of Nevada is voting on legalisation in November. He predicts the first to have weed would be the Las Vegas casinos, which have the political clout to be able to include everything from weed delivery apps to pot-friendly blackjack rooms as part of their gambling experience. “I think we will get to a point where you can sell and buy marijuana at a music venue,� said Baca, the first marijuana editor. As the laws stand at present, the venues would not be able to serve alcohol, club entry has to be free and the weed would need to be given away.

You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It debuting at the top of the ARIA chart. Chart historian Gavin Ryan tells us that the 16-word title is still not the longest number one album name. That honour goes to the 18 words in Bring Me The Horizon’s 2010 There Is A Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There Is A Heaven, Let’s Keep It A Secret. The 1975 are also not the first to top the ARIA chart with a year as a band name: Sydney band 1927 did that in May 1989 with their debut ...Ish. • In the UK, an ÂŁ85 (AU$163) Adele ticket is going for ÂŁ24,000 ($46,036). • DMA’s vocalist Tommy O’Dell told England’s Mirror paper that their drug-taking is affecting their sex life! • Boom Crash Opera revealed to Noise 11 that singer Dale Ryder left the band last November and their new frontman is former CDB singer Andrew De Silva. • Macklemore expressed regret about namechecking Australia’s Iggy Azalea on ‘White Privilege II’: “I should have let her know

PADDO RSL REVIVES LIVE MUSIC WITH LEVEL ONE

Live bands are returning to the Paddington RSL in May with the revival of Level One in its showroom after ten years. Level One is run by LimeHQ Events, whose CEO Lindsay Osborne says, “We will be presenting a wide variety of entertainment including music, comedy and theatre ‌ Paddo RSL represents a passion, a history, a place in time. And most importantly, Paddo RSL wants people to enjoy their space.â€? Bands booked will be a mix of established and up-and-comers.

GLOBAL PUBLISHING DEAL FOR MEG MAC

Melbourne soulster Meg Mac has signed a global publishing deal with BMG and Pulse Music. She’s been in LA writing songs for her debut album. BMG’s Thomas Scherer said, “We fell in love with Meg Mac’s smouldering vocals and soulful songs which have earned her worldwide praise.� She’s already backed by the powerful 300 Entertainment set up by Lyor Cohen for the world (outside Australia and New Zealand), which saw her track ‘Roll Up Your Sleeves’ in the US Top 30 of the alternative charts last year. In June, she returns to the US to play festivals and make her live debut in Canada.

GRAEME CONNORS BACK AT ABC Award-winning country music singer-songwriter Graeme Connors is back at ABC Music, marking his 60th birthday and 40 years in the business. ABC is releasing the 37-track 60 Summers: The Ultimate Collection (with some new tracks) on Friday April 29, his birthday. On that day, he plays a free community drought relief concert in Barcaldine in Central West Queensland. In May, he embarks on the 60 Summers tour.

SIX MORE SONGWRITERS IN HALL OF FAME Six more songwriters will be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York in May. They are Elvis Costello, Marvin Gaye, Tom Petty, Nile Rodgers and the late Bernard Edwards from Chic, and Chip Taylor who wrote ‘Wild Thing’ and ‘Angel Of The Morning’.

RESERVOIR RECORDS LAUNCHES New Sydney label Reservoir Records officially launched with a showcase of four signings at The Star’s Rock Lily. These were Australia’s Got Talent 2013 runner-up Greg Gould who recently made his New York debut, Academy of Country Music graduate Max Jackson who co-wrote eight tracks on the new Gina Jeffreys album, pop singer Ava who was signed straight out of high school, and US Grammy-winning Printz Board who was part of the Black Eyed Peas family. Reservoir was set up by Gem McCormack, recently back from LA and who manages Gould. The label takes its name from Reservoir Street, Surry Hills, where its offices are based. It is associated with The Music Cellar studios on the Central Coast. If you want to be considered by Reservoir, send McCormack your SoundCloud link at digitalwagon.com.au.

NE OBLIVISCARIS TURNS TO FANS

Australian prog metal band Ne Obliviscaris have come up with a twist on crowdfunding to stay on the road. They’re appealing to fans to contribute towards a total of $17,079.40 a month, to be divided between six members (or $34,158.80 a year each, the minimum

beforehand.� • Triple j will on Thursday March 10 reveal which regional town will host its One Night Stand with Boy & Bear, Alison Wonderland and Urthboy. • Hard-Ons’ next tour in April sees them revert to a four-piece, with Keish De Silva returning permanently as full-time frontman. • Swedish singer-songwriter JosÊ Gonzålez’s Vestiges & Claws won European indie association IMPALA’s Independent Album of the Year Award. • Despite pleas from the live music industry, Liquor and Gaming NSW has extended its freeze on new club licences in the Sydney CBD and Kings Cross until February 2017. It also announced that from this week the Australia Post Keypass identity card will be a valid form of identification for all NSW licenced venues. • It’s official: the Guns N’ Roses reunion will not include Izzy Stradlin. They’re rumoured to be asking for US$3 million for each show.

full-time wage in Australia) so they can devote themselves wholly to the band. NeO’s Tim Charles calls the Patreon campaign “the most important thing we’ve done in our lives�. It’s a new model that this column thinks could become the norm.

Lifelines Dating: Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom are official, as they were spotted holding hands during a Hawaiian holiday. Ill: Cream drummer Ginger Baker has axed all touring due to “serious heart problems�. Hospitalised: Ritchie Blackmore had surgery due to an excess of uric acid build-up in his finger joint, but will be back in action when the newly reformed Rainbow hit the road in the northern summer. Hospitalised: Unwritten Law’s Scott Russo, after surgery for an unspecified problem. In Court: Madonna lost her bid for custody of her teen son Rocco after a judge ruled he could remain in the UK with filmmaker dad Guy Ritchie to continue schooling, and urged them to sort it out without undue publicity for the boy. Jailed: Sydney-based Christian hip hop producer Kodi Maybir for 42 years for the May 2013 murder of his live-in partner’s young son. The boy underwent “cruel, degrading and inhumane treatment� in the months before his death, the Supreme Court said, with physical and psychological punishments “in line with his extreme views on religion and discipline�, including fracturing his skull and knocking him unconscious. Charged: an 18-year-old man for allegedly assaulting a security guard at the Good Life festival in Perth. Police said the guard was questioning him and a mate for jumping the fence. The guard was briefly hospitalised with concussion. Charged: rap mogul and producer Rick Ross and his bodyguard on nine counts over a 2015 incident when he allegedly pistol-whipped his groundskeeper, causing him to lose the use of his jaw. Ross says the man was committing felonies on his personal property and hence it was self-defence. Died: Lennie Baker, singer and sax player of US ’60s band Sha Na Na, 69. Died: Winston ‘Merritone’ Blake, influential Jamaican producer and operator of the country’s oldest sound system Merritone Music, 75, from asthma complications. He was among the first to popularise ska, rocksteady, reggae and dancehall. Died: John Thomas, one-time guitarist with ’70s UK band Budgie, 63.

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BRAG :: 653 :: 09:03:16 :: 9

MATT CORBY HIS LONG FIGHT FOR FREEDOM BY ADAM NORRIS

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t is a cold early morning in Glasgow, and Matt Corby is stomping around a car park trying to keep warm. The first show of his Australian tour is set to take place in April, although he has only just performed at Secret Garden Festival and sold out over 20 gigs across the world in the past 12 months alone. Touring is a second skin to Corby, and has been since he first hit the road at 14. However, few artists are so talented and inspired, yet still so wracked with self-doubt, as the Sydney-born Corby. Though it’s going too far to say he is running from his past, his drive to keep moving seems inexorably tied to his craft as a performer. He is quite sincerely trying to make music that matters, and regardless of the shape of his career, it is the integrity of Corby’s songs that lets him rest easy at night.

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“I mean, what does ‘success’ mean? You could have something with no substance that doesn’t help anyone, and it could still make a shit-tonne of money. Is that successful? I don’t know. I don’t measure it that way. If this were the ’50s, would anybody even fucking give a shit about what I was doing? Back then you’ve got real musicians that fucking play everything together live on tape, that have worked their entire lives to hit that snare at the exact right increment so you get the exact right tone; those musicians knew all that. Now, you’ve got fucking Kaoss Pads and machines that you can trigger, and you’ve got the snare hit that guy spent 40 years fi guring out how to move his wrist that way to do. I don’t know.” If Corby sounds frustrated, it’s certainly not without reason, yet he is by no means a bitter man. After the uneasy success of coming second on Australian Idol, followed by his breakthrough track ‘Brother’, Corby worked long and hard on the debut album that would fi nally show his fans the artist he’d always wanted to be; explorative and engaging. But after fi nding himself encouraged

down insincere musical paths in the studio, he jettisoned 22 songs and walked away stunned, yet with a renewed sense of only making music that he was inspired to create. “I think I kind of knew it wasn’t working the whole time, in my gut – you know, when you’re in the middle of something you’ve been obligated to do, which is how I felt straight off the bat. I had made a tiny bit of music, a few EPs, and then got the attention of the industry, record companies, and they sign you and say, ‘We’re going to make your album, and we’re going to do this, we’re going to do that.’ And it’s like, ‘Well, no – what the fuck are you talking about? I didn’t know this was going to be a proviso, this was a condition of me signing the contract, that I have to immediately go out and do what you say.’ I was going along with it because I felt obligated to do it. So I just got to a point where I was so unhappy with the way that music sounds. It isn’t something that I would ever buy or listen to, but I’m putting all my time and all my emotions and effort into it, and for what? For them? For an audience that I would end up hating, because I’d hate myself? “So I got to the end of that

process, listened to the album and I was like, ‘This is fucking terrible.’ Maybe if I was 40 and I’d made that record I’d probably release it, but I was 22, and I should be doing things that I want to do, that were interesting. I don’t want to be some fucking cookie-cutter, boyband singing [artist].” Which leads us to Telluric, a collection of 11 tracks that retain Corby’s roots background but don’t shy away from a good dose of funk and blues. It’s strange to think of his debut only now arriving, when he has long been a household name for so many. While it’s easy to think we already know Matt Corby, that we have an understanding of his style and his sensibilities, the portrait that has been presented to us so far is really half in shadow. Corby is earnest and refreshing, yet he is still a man shackled by doubts and confusion, someone who has not quite surmounted the struggle that comes with working out who you are and what you stand for. But by God, you know he’s not going to stop trying. “I think I feel a little better about myself now. I think I haven’t for a long time. Since I was 14 onwards, I’ve been scrambling to fi nd out what the fuck I’m doing with [my music]. Because I know you can

“Since I was 14 onwards, I’ve been scrambling to find out what the fuck I’m doing with [my music]. Because I know you can do something good with it, and I feel like this record is the first little glimmer of hope for me being self-sufficient.”

do something good with it, and I feel like this record is the first little glimmer of hope for me being selfsufficient, making the music all on my own. I feel better about myself. “It’s been hard, man. I mean, everyone has a fucking hard time, but I just … It’s been very strange to have to grow up as a musician since Idol. People look at you and go, ‘Oh, he’s that guy from Idol,’ or, ‘He’s that guy who wrote that dumb song ‘Brother’.’ You know what I mean? You’re continuously redefi ned, and it weighs you down. “To be honest, man, I hate doing interviews. I get so nervous and I don’t know what to say, because I don’t want to put myself in the position where I say something fucking stupid, like everyone does. And I don’t want people to have a bad impression of me, because I wouldn’t want it to destroy any of the music for them, because that is all that I ever want to say. “To be honest, I have so much self-loathing, like so many people. It’s just… I don’t know. This album will hopefully speak to people who are hurting. Which everyone is, in their own way, and I am too. Obviously life isn’t too bad; it’s great. But we’re all in this together, and it’s quite difficult sometimes. But if we have things to bring joy into our lives, that’s a good thing.” What: Telluric out Friday March 11 through Universal Where: Enmore Theatre When: Monday April 11 – Wednesday April 13

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Hilltop Hoods photo by xxx

“I would like to think that I have this rough plan of being a 70-year-old and not feeling like I compromised in any way,” he begins. “I think that’s always been in the back of my head. I mean, we’ll all be dead soon, and that’s fi ne, that’s the beauty of art. It’s why art is made. For the most part it’s cause of this crazy fear of your own mortality and of making a mark. I mean, I can sing alright, I can convey a message, so why don’t I devote my life to being uncompromising? I would hate to have someone dictate my creativity and self-expression, and that shouldn’t be taken away from people just for the sake of people

making money, or you being ‘successful’.

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Ruby Boots The Truth, And Nothing But By Joseph Earp

I

n the eyes of many, excess is key to the country music myth. The genre is full of untimely ends, littered with alcohol-swollen cadavers and drug-induced breakdowns, with some habits proving so hard to kick that they have been handed down through generations (see the Williams and Earle lineages). But as ever, when one speaks to an insider, myth and reality begin to diverge. “I quit drinking about eight months ago,” says Australian country up-andcomer Ruby Boots, real name Bex Chilcott. “It’s like I’m starting again. I’m not saying I used to get onstage hammered, although…” She laughs. “There were some occasions where that happened, but we won’t rehash them.” Though Chilcott admits breaking up with the bottle was a struggle, she attributes her success to simple self-control. “I think with our drinking culture, especially in the industry we’re in, drinking is pretty heavily embedded into what we’re doing. But I also feel like I [can] make a choice about something. We’re all free to choose. [You’re] still able to make a choice. Like, if there’s some heroin in front of me every night … I wouldn’t just shoot up cause it’s there. I know drinking is more acceptable and more available but I’m not just going to do it because of that.” Chilcott acknowledges that even without the additional stress of alcohol, touring is hard. “I was in America last September touring,” she says. “[I was] exhausted. I was like, ‘Oh fuck, this is how I feel like when I’m not drinking. This is exhaustion from actual touring.’ I was like, ‘No

wonder my hangovers are so bad on the road.’ It was a wake-up call.” Perhaps the stress on Chilcott’s body and energy levels is inevitable. She has been playing a colossal amount of shows, even for an artist on the rise, having toured internationally to promote her debut album Solitude for months on end, and jumped across continents with a full band in tow. “I’ve been playing close to a hundred shows a year,” she says, her voice taking on an audible aspect of weariness even when simply speaking about life on the road. “It takes its toll. To have enough energy for that, I need to give every member of the audience every part of me.” But despite these pressures, Chilcott sees heading out on tour as a kind of dream; a fantasy she has cultivated for a long time. “I’ve always wanted to sing,” she says. “I’ve wanted to perform … from an early age. I’ve never been able to not perform. I guess the need to perform came naturally for me, but growing as a performer is something I still feel I’m learning about, for sure.” When it comes to discussing the practicalities of the tour – the setlist, the rehearsals – Chilcott becomes all-business, and her raw laughter is replaced by a tone so earnest it’s almost as though she has become another person. Perhaps it’s to be expected: Chilcott is a selfmanaged artist, and the change in her demeanour is a simple slip between roles, a switch from the down-to-earth performer to the manager responsible for keeping up with gruelling deadlines and complex business deals.

“How I shape a set and how I present a show is [dependent on] to the venue,” she says. “Cause really, my ideal situation is when I have the five of us onstage, and I’m creating moments throughout a full band performance. Some people will say they’re not willing to budge on their show, but for me I am. I can play an acoustic set and be happy with that, and quite often I’ll get a really big kick from playing a really small show to 30 people. I love what you can get from those performances solo.” This dedication to crafting the best set possible seems to be born not only from a feeling of responsibility to her audience, but also out of a great respect and love for the country music genre. When asked how she thinks the Australian country scene is

changing, Chilcott answers with optimism and reverie. “It’s totally growing. And as it should. It’s a fucking great genre. Country is not a dirty word at all – I mean, if you’re talking real country music rather than Top 40 country. There’s some incredible songwriters coming out of Australia who are writing country music. And it should be heard by more people, in my opinion.” She laughs. “Of course I’m going to say that, though.” For Chilcott, perhaps the most important element of country music is its essential honesty; the nourishing, raw sense of the real that Americana tunes can provide in a world she sees as fundamentally uncommunicative. “Not just musically but just in general, we’re pretty disconnected,” she says.

“Music is a way [to] hold onto those core kind of ways of feeling connected.” It comes down to this: with Chilcott, one always gets the raw truth, whether that reveals itself in simple everyday conversation or across her twanging, relentlessly listenable body of work. She can’t help but agree. “There’s one thing I can’t do, and that is lie.” She laughs again. “I’ve always been a shit liar.” What: Solitude out now through Lost Highway/Universal With: James Thomson, Bell Harvey Where: Newtown Social Club When: Friday March 18

John Grant Honesty In Obscurity By David Molloy on his craft. Given the personal nature of his songwriting, the freedom and time for introspection are practically vital. “It seems to me that I’m in a good position, because I’m with a record label that allows me to do whatever the hell I want to do with every album. And the only person that’s putting any input into the music is me. That’s a great position to be in, because I would prefer for my visibility to develop naturally because of people’s reaction to the music.” If and when the fame monster does rear its head in Grant’s life, he has excellent models to aspire to – the list of artists he has worked with includes such monolithic names as Sinéad O’Connor and Elton John. “They’re people that have their heads screwed on quite firmly, I would say – I mean, with Elton, it’s a little bit different because he is at the head of a gigantic empire,” Grant laughs. “So when you’re out to dinner with him or when you’re at his house – I’ve never seen things like that before, so it’s quite crazy. “[Sinéad] has a nice house on the coast of Ireland and, you know, it’s a very normal existence. I’m just sort of underground and sort of barely visible, and so I suppose I haven’t really had the need to feel like I needed advice on that.”

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eykjavík, Iceland’s coastal capital, is fast becoming the location of choice for the musically inclined. It’s the go-to place for expansive music videos, and it’s home to such industry heavy-hitters as Björk, Ben Frost, Sigur Rós and Ásgeir. John Grant, the American-born singersongwriter and former head of The Czars, has called Reykjavík home since recording his second solo album there in 2012, Pale Green Ghosts. “Luxuriating” in his bed, he sounds like he’s never felt more grounded. “It’s an unstressful environment to be in,” he says. “The landscape is stunning, the air is crisp and fresh all the time and there’s a thriving music scene here that’s very progressive and modern. And, you know, it’s also a very friendly scene – it’s a pretty happening place. It doesn’t feel as small as it is.” 12 :: BRAG :: 653 :: 09:03:16

For Grant, it seems the perfect place to focus on his career without being sidetracked by his gradually increasing profile. Despite the critical successes of his latest album, Grey Tickles, Black Pressure, and his solo career as a whole, he hasn’t seen a great increase in media attention – something he considers fortunate. “I’m not terribly jealous of the people I see who are constantly in the limelight, you know?” he says. “That doesn’t seem to have a good effect for anybody, because it just seems like their reality gets warped in the public eye. You get all sorts of different types of entities interested in you that weren’t interested in you before, and I don’t feel like I would be terribly comfortable with that much attention.” Living comfortably out of the spotlight has given Grant the opportunity to focus solely

Grant’s relationship with visibility is a curious one, as his solo albums have always been marked by a fearless honesty about his own experiences with drug addiction, homophobia, domestic division and living with HIV. The provocative trailer for Grey Tickles, Black Pressure is said to be indicative of what he’d like to do every time someone calls him a ‘faggot’. “It’s more a phantom of the past,” he says, “leftover rage from having experienced that for several decades. I think the worst thing about it was always that I never really felt or never really was able to stand up for myself, because I felt like I was getting what I deserved, and that was the worst part of it for me. “That definitely has translated to a lot of

rage in me because I allowed people to treat me in a way that I thought I deserved, because I was taught to believe that what I was was a hundred per cent bad and undesirable and sick.” Fortunately, he’s able to say that at least some progress has been made on this front in the decades since his own traumatic experiences. “I do think that there are a lot more people who are willing to come forward and say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, this doesn’t make sense. To treat these people differently than other people…’ My very own father has changed his thinking quite a bit, simply because he wants to have a relationship with his children, because he loves us.” Grant is the first to admit, however, that his honesty doesn’t necessarily stem from altruistic intentions, and that its therapeutic value to others is a corollary to his reaching out in search of empathy. “I definitely am seeking connections with people, with my music. I think that I wanted to just be able to speak about myself and not be ashamed about myself, so I think it’s more of a selfi sh thing than an intention to help other people. I get a lot of letters from people and the music does seem to resonate with a lot of people and, of course, for me that’s very humbling and I feel very good about that. “I just needed to say things exactly the way they were, without any fantasies attached to it and without the escapism. To just say, ‘This is the way it is, and I don’t give a shit whether you like it or not, it’s just the truth of my particular existence.’ And I don’t think that my existence is more important than your existence – I just wanted to be able to feel like I expressed myself clearly, for once in my life.” What: Grey Tickles, Black Pressure out now through Bella Union With: Caitlin Park Where: Metro Theatre When: Wednesday March 16

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Tweedy Like Father Like Son By Augustus Welby

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ver the course of a 30-year career spanning Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, various collaborations and now Tweedy, singer-songwriter Jeff Tweedy has written an unbelievable number of songs. While he’s never churned out albums in quick succession, the sustaining quality of his output is truly staggering.

After taking a break following Wilco’s The Whole Love (2011), he returned in 2014 with Tweedy – a quasi-solo project formed with his 18-year-old son, Spencer. The band’s debut double LP Sukierae landed in September that year, and just ten months later Wilco surprised everyone with their ninth album, Star Wars, suggesting Jeff has landed in a creative purple patch. “There are a few things that I think have really contributed to me being able to work a lot more efficiently than I have in the past,” Tweedy says. “There’s some practical reasons – the studio that we put together over the years is pretty dialled in now. And my favourite person to work with in the studio, Tom Schick, moved to Chicago a few years ago so that we can just keep working on records. So I get to go there every day and make something, and that’s the reason there’s so much stuff now. There’s a whole ’nother Wilco record done and it’s probably going to come out sometime this year.

freedom, but Tweedy can’t play everything himself onstage. He and Spencer recruited a bunch of old friends to form the Tweedy touring band, which visits Australia this month. “We just put together a great group of people to hang out with, who happened to be great musicians. It’s what any band should be. It’s what Wilco is – Wilco’s a great group of musicians that are fun to hang out with. I guess I did it enough in my life where it wasn’t that much fun and there were personalities that subtracted from the overall positivity of the experience, but at this point in my life it’s really intolerable to deal with anything less than that.” What: Bluesfest 2016 With: The National, Tom Jones, Kendrick Lamar, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and many more Where: Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm When: Thursday March 24 – Monday March 28 And: Also appearing at the Factory Theatre on Tuesday March 22

“There’s that, and also my kids are old enough to be young adults now. I think that frees up a lot of mental space to work. They’re a lot more demanding on your time when they’re younger and you feel like you really need to be there. And I feel like I still am there for them, but they’re a lot more autonomous and I think that has given back a certain amount of energy to each day for my own pursuits.” Gaining additional mental and temporal freedom doesn’t necessarily mean one will experience a burst of creative energy. But Tweedy doesn’t require strict self-discipline to launch into songwriting. “It’s the thing I really want to do,” he says. “It’s the sustaining thing in my life. It’s a constant. I look at it like a really good job, and it’s the part of the job that does the most for me. I like disappearing into the creative process and forgetting about the records I’ve made in the past and the person that people think I am – the persona that’s projected onto me. Getting immersed in a new piece of music is miraculous. It still works the same way it did when I was 14 years old. I feel lucky that I get to stay connected to that.” Sukierae differs from a Wilco record in some obvious ways. For starters, Jeff plays the majority of instruments. The only other band member is Spencer, whose intuitive, jazzinfl ected drumming forms a core part of the record’s identity. However, it’s not miles away from Wilco, chiefl y because of Jeff’s unguarded vocal timbre, characteristic use of melody and accessible yet poetically ambiguous lyrics. In fact, it’s by virtue of his vocal familiarity that Wilco have been able to carry out such frequent stylistic exploration over the years without massively upsetting listeners. It’s also freed the frontman from having to keep to a supposed songwriting signature. “I know that there are artists and friends of mine that do that – that have specifi c types of things they’ll do with certain projects and they have parameters that maybe make it easier to write within the confi nes of a certain project. But for me, the whole idea is to surprise yourself and have freedom and limitless creativity. And if anything, the pre-established ideas of what your music is should be averted. It’s exciting to play with that preconception, because you can surprise people if you work against it. But more than anything, I just don’t think about it. I just want to make something that I like and am excited by.” Given he’s already a fairly unrestrained creator, stepping away from Wilco to make Sukierae led Tweedy to a more impulsive approach to song construction. “There was some freedom in playing all of the instruments,” he says. “It was liberating to eliminate a certain amount of committee in seeing things through in an arrangement. You could move much faster playing all the instruments by yourself. With a six-piece band it takes a long time for everybody to fi nd their way into a song or fi nd their way around who’s going to get to play what frequencies. That’s one of my only frustrations ever in the studio – when things are moving slow. I really am joyous when things are moving fast. I’m pretty neurotic when things slow down.” He may have relished the added studio thebrag.com

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Killswitch Engage Only Human By Natalie Rogers

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ncarnate, the seventh studio album from Killswitch Engage, arrives this week as one of Rolling Stone’s ‘Most Anticipated Metal Albums of 2016’ – and it does not disappoint. Three years after Disarm The Descent, the seasoned US metalcore quintet is back with a career-defining release. Co-founding guitarist Joel Stroetzel explains how Incarnate came into being. “We never like to wait too long between records,” he says. “It’s been almost three years since [Disarm The Descent], so we were due for a new one, and it was really cool how it all came together.” As proud recipients of two Grammy nominations, three Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards and two Boston Music Awards, it’s safe to say these guys know a thing or two about metal. Since their inception in 1999, Killswitch Engage have sold millions of records, and are known in the right circles as one of the founders of metalcore.

The most notable roadblocks Killswitch Engage have overcome include lead guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz’s crippling back issues, and the shock departure of longtime lead vocalist Howard Jones. When Jones left the band in 2012, to the surprise of many, original frontman Jesse Leach returned after a decade away. It was a welcome reunion.

Despite uniting to undertake a mammoth tour of the Northern Hemisphere over the next few months, Stroetzel says Incarnate came to life while the five members were thousands of miles apart. “Justin [Foley, drums] lives down in Florida; me, Mike [D’Antonio, bass] and Jesse live in Massachusetts; and Adam just moved to San Diego,” says Stroetzel. “So we were all kind of spread out. We all did a lot of homework and writing on the road. “When we felt like we had enough material, we started meeting up and piecing stuff together. There was a lot of material – everybody wrote a lot of stuff. This album is definitely a unique collaboration.” Through Incarnate, Killswitch Engage continue the tradition of producing hard-hitting metal anthems. ‘Hate By Design’ tackles the issue of self-sabotage; ‘Quiet Distress’ shines a light on the often hushed-up topic of selfharm; and their latest single ‘Cut Me Loose’ will speak to anyone dealing with anxiety or depression. This collection of songs celebrates the beauty in the breakdown, while others such as ‘Strength Of The Mind’, ‘We Carry On’ and ‘Ascension’ remind us that dark days will pass. “I really liked ‘Cut Me Loose’ the first time I heard it, when it was just the bones of a song, and I felt the same about ‘Hate By Design’,” Stroetzel says. “Both of those were Justin’s songs, which is really cool.

“Justin and Adam really took this record to another level with a lot of the songs. Incarnate as a whole is a little bit more melodic and it’s thicker, not as thrashy, as Disarm The Descent.” To the delight of the band and fans alike, Dutkiewicz returned to his role as producer – a position he’s held on every Killswitch album bar one. “Obviously we’re very comfortable working with Adam at this point and it’s nice having someone who gets the songs and understands the vision,” Stroetzel says. “Adam is one of the main songwriters in Killswitch, so it’s cool having him do that, and we feel so lucky to have such an incredible engineer and producer as part of the band as well. It’s kind of a luxury that we certainly don’t take for granted.” Stroetzel says that through all the band’s ups and downs, he has never taken his position lightly. “We’re coming up to 17 years as Killswitch Engage – it’s insane! Sometimes when you start a new band you wonder if you’ll make it 17 weeks,” he laughs. “Looking back on the crazy old days, it’s really funny – we’ve been very fortunate.” The good fortune continues into 2016 for the boys. Stroetzel fulfilled a childhood dream when he was offered the opportunity to dress up as a cast member of history’s most successful film franchise, suggested by Revolver Magazine. “Everybody grew up with the Star Wars movies,” he says. “So when we got an email saying, ‘Hey, are you guys willing to dress up as Star Wars characters?’ we thought, ‘Yeah! That sounds awesome.’ So we flew to New York for a day to do the photo shoot and

everyone got to pick what costume they wanted. I thought I might as well be Chewie, because I’m already hairy and bearded – I didn’t really need much more. “Jesse wanted to be Han Solo,” Stroetzel adds, “and of course Adam had to be the princess because he’s always wearing

dresses – and we couldn’t leave anybody out. We had a lot of fun with it and obviously we were honoured to be on the cover. One day, hopefully people can look back on it and have a good laugh.” What: Incarnate out Friday March 11 through Roadrunner/ Warner

Tonight Alive No Limits By Rod Whitfield from the people we surround ourselves with, the journey was what made the record what it is.” “I’m excited,” Taahi adds. “Every single song has a purpose, it’s on there for a certain reason, whether that be lyrics, or just the mood of the album. I don’t think we could have done it any other way.” Though fans are fi nally able to enjoy the fi nished product now the album is out, they might not have a clear appreciation of what the band went through to arrive at that point. Tonight Alive experienced a truly gruelling and soul-searching two years as they prepared Limitless, and this also contributed to the strength and variation of the record’s sound in a monumental way. “Those first nine days in the studio just turned our lives upside down,” McDougall recalls with a mix of dread and awe. “We tore the songs apart and tore us apart as people too. But what it taught us to do was converse with our instruments. We were talking to each other with what we were playing, complementing each other with our parts. “Nobody was competing anymore, there was no repetition, there [weren’t] two guitars strumming the same thing. There [were] no two rhythms that were the same. Every instrument learned how to use its voice.”

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hen you think of pop-rock bands, a particular sound and style springs to mind. Tonight Alive may be considered a pop-rock outfit in certain circles, but their sound has the potential to surprise some, especially on their excellent new album Limitless. It’s an appropriate title, given the Sydneysiders have not confined themselves to the usual conventions of the genre. They have spread their musical wings while staying true to the ever-growing core audience they have built up over the last eight years, a difficult task if ever there was one.

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We meet with singer Jenna McDougall and guitarist Whakaio Taahi on a warm mid-summer’s morning at a café in South Melbourne to chat about the expansive new sounds they explore on their third album, and what inspires them. “I love the epic, spacious thing,” Taahi says fervently. “That’s my favourite stuff. A big infl uence that I’ve been listening to a lot is movie scores and soundtracks. I really got into a lot of Hans Zimmer’s stuff and I delved into how he did his stuff, and that was a huge infl uence on a lot of the music. I wanted to do it differently this time.”

Taahi feels the length of time the band spent writing and recording the album also had a strong impact on the way it sounds. “I think it’s so varied because it was over a period of two years that we wrote this, so it’s like a snapshot of the best of those two years.” Both McDougall and Taahi are justifi ably very proud of what they have come up with. “We stand by everything we recorded, everything we wrote,” McDougall says. “Having been the people that were on that journey and facing the challenges and facing the expectations from ourselves and

The album’s lyrics are particularly autobiographical, in that they refl ect the catharsis of the creative process. “The lyrics are about the personal choice that went into the whole thing, to do this for our own happiness, and to make sure that this record, if it became successful, was on our own terms,” McDougall explains. “It was kind of a looking-myself-in-the-eye moment, and I think I got the purest expression of myself and our band with those lyrics.” What: Limitless out now through Sony

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Lucky Peterson photo ©JM Lubrano

However, such success has not come without its share of trials and tribulations. “We’ve been through some dark times, but right now the morale is good,” Stroetzel says. “I think we’re the strongest we’ve been in a long time.”

“As a band in the ‘camp’, we’re very happy,” Stroetzel explains. “We’re a cohesive unit and we’re friends again.”

Blackberry Smoke Southern Custodians By Shaun Cowe

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he Appalachian melting pot that is Blackberry Smoke is a hard act to pin down. With the long, unruly hair and ’70s stonewashed aesthetic of Almost Famous extras, the band has been hailed as the future of Southern rock, though it’s an accolade the five members don’t know quite what to do with. Frontman Charlie Starr is at his Georgia home, recharging before his next shows in North Carolina in a couple of days’ time, and he speaks about the band’s evolution of style, as well as the upcoming visit for Bluesfest. “The band just sounds the way that it does purely by happenstance,” says Starr. “The first time we plugged in together we knew the kind of music we were going to make, because that’s just the kind of guys we are. Obviously our love of music goes deeper than Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers – who we love dearly – but we never really decided we’re going to fly this flag. We’re just a rock’n’roll band from Georgia.” As for being celebrated as the custodians of Southern music, Starr is as indifferent to the title as he is to those who call Blackberry Smoke ‘revivalists’. For him, the band’s ethos is to live and let live. It’s this focus on the music that’s propelled the transition from Blackberry Smoke’s grittier early work to the sound of their 2015 album, Holding All The Roses. “If the fans that appreciate our music, if they get something from that, then great, we are that band, but we’re not revivalists or a throwback band or anything like that – we’re just five guys playing our music. For instance, we wouldn’t make a very good punk band.”

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Speaking of the band’s work, Holding All The Roses is a uniquely formed album that came out last year. Blackberry Smoke’s recording style has historically been an attempt to capture the band’s live aesthetic. From the biting Southern bar feel of their earliest studio album, Bad Luck Ain’t No Crime, to breakthrough 2012 record The Whippoorwill, Starr says Holding All The Roses was meant to be their version of Aerosmith’s Rocks – an album made for headphone listening – and producer Brendan O’Brien was brought on to move Blackberry Smoke in this new direction. “In speaking with Brendan O’Brien, when we started to record, he and I agreed that The Whippoorwill, our previous album, was just us playing live and it was underproduced. We love it of course, but we’d just made that record and we don’t like to repeat ourselves,” Starr says. “We always record together, playing ‘live’, if you will, while recording. But you can try in vain for years trying to capture real, live energy in the studio. It’s nigh impossible, you know? I think we started to understand it’s two completely different things.” Blackberry Smoke cut their teeth touring, and Starr believes an integral part of their 16-year longevity has been the ability to reinforce their fan base around the world through playing live and never staying in the same place for too long. “Play in front of as many people as possible,” Starr advises. “Unless you have a huge radio hit in your pocket, I would say playing every club from West Coast to East Coast is the plan. When we started

Blackberry Smoke, we bought a van and a trailer and loaded up our ramshackle gear pretty much constantly. That’ll drive you kind of crazy when you’re not making much money and everybody wants to go home. But then you find your rhythm and get into it. [But] keeping a van together is quite a challenge.” The success of Blackberry Smoke’s last two albums has opened up channels for the band to tour around the world, reaching the European circuit and now Australia. When asked about why Blackberry Smoke – as well as Southern rock and Americana more generally – are received so favourably in Australia, Starr says it’s to do with the instinctual reach these genres have with the middle class. “I think that kind of music resonates

with so many people because it’s so honest. It comes from the blues, jazz and hillbilly country music; those kinds of music resonate. It hits people where they live. It’s nostalgic, not only musically but it reminds people of the good times and bad times and home.” Speaking of nostalgia, Starr gets to talking about his earliest experiences with music. Today he sees the internet as a changing force in his society’s appreciation for the art; he says even his own children’s relationship to music is too ephemeral. Quoting the old adage of songwriting, there’s no tension and release anymore. “We all turn into our dads at some point. I was trying to explain to my oldest son that I would spend months searching for some record or cassette that wouldn’t be

readily available the way music is today. Once I finally found it after searching record stores, modern pop stores, flea markets, whatever, the wait to get home was thrilling. Instant gratification is the name of the game these days and I think there was something to be said for the anticipation of finding something you’d really yearned for.” What: Bluesfest 2016 With: The National, Tom Jones, Kendrick Lamar, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and many more Where: Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm When: Thursday March 24 – Monday March 28 And: Also appearing at The Basement, Wednesday March 23 More: Holding All The Roses out now through Rounder/Concord

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The Jessica Stuart Few Safe Passage Guaranteed By Adam Norris I’m doing a lot of the business side of my profession as well. So I’ve been burning the candle at both ends, to be honest, leading up to this tour. In Asia we have people who take care of the whole hard thing, but most Englishspeaking countries I do it, and that’s probably part of why I lost my voice. Part of the reason as well is that I had a two-set gig in a loud venue last Saturday night, and that’s what blasted it out. I gave it my all! I had a great time, but turns out that was all there was, there was nothing left afterwards. I got home and muttered some things in baritone, and woke up totally silent.”

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’ve been warned in the past not to scoff at voodoo, and so I approached The Jessica Stuart Few with gentle steps. Stuart has toured Australia before – indeed, she has developed a true affinity for the place – and she seems like

a lovely person. But prior to our originally scheduled conversation, the Canadian artist completely lost her voice. Last time I spoke with a singer who had recovered from a lost voice, I lost my own voice the very next day. Still, Stuart assures

me her black magic skills are negligible. “It was the very first time I ever lost my voice,” she chuckles. “I’m in a position that many other independent artists are in, where

“The koto is tuned to a scale, as opposed to a guitar where if you strum the strings without putting your fingers down anywhere, it doesn’t really sound like anything in particular,” Stuart explains. “No matter how you strum it, the koto will sound good. But there aren’t that many koto players around, and there’s no-one writing original music for koto in a nontraditional style. There is a kind

For the release of her latest album, The Passage, Stuart is about to undertake a comprehensive tour of Australia. It’s a lifestyle she has always been drawn to, and one that directly translates back home, once she finally settles down and returns to the serious business of being an undefeated champion of Boggle (and yes, she is open to challengers). “I’m a travelling soul and grew up in a travelling family. I mean, we weren’t nomadic or gypsy in any way, [but] to be honest, when I’m in one place for too long, I start to feel stagnant. It’s not that Toronto lacks creative and exciting things, it’s more that you start looking at them in the same way. When you’re travelling, your eyes are opened a little wider. I think a little of that goes away when you’re living in a place for a long time. So when you do travel, that sparks up again, and I always find when I get back from travelling I enjoy home more. I’ll notice more things about it. So I do love being on the road. I love seeing new things, meeting new people.” What: The Passage out now independently Where: Foundry616 When: Monday March 14

Stephen ‘Baamba’ Albert Baad Medicine By Augustus Welby there’s a place called Bungarun. It used to be a place for people with leprosy, and for therapy the nuns taught the people how to play music, but classical music. So in the bush in the ’30s they had a 42-piece orchestra, indigenous orchestra. They had violins and cellos and the old squeezebox and guitars and all sorts of stuff. They used to have parties every second night and I used to watch them. So I grew up with that – I thought every kid had that same thing.” It wasn’t long until Albert decided to have a crack at performing music himself. “There was a talent quest when I was about nine or ten at the old racecourse,” he says. “The Rotary Club used to give us a picnic day, and we had a talent quest. I came second – I sang ‘A Sunburnt Country’, Dorothea Mackellar’s old song. I got ten pounds for that. That was big money in the ’50s.”

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his time last year, Stephen ‘Baamba’ Albert released his debut album, Baad. A native of Broome, Western Australia, Albert is best known for appearing in the stage musicals Bran Nue Dae and Corrugation Road, as well as his ongoing efforts to provide training in music, media and events management for people in the Kimberley region. He’s also been a keen musician since his youth, and Baad sees him covering a collection of songs that have taken on signifi cance at various times during his 65 years.

says Albert. “So by the end of the day they get a story of how I got into music, how I used music to do different things and how I got into acting and theatre. It’s a compilation of songs that my elders – my uncles and brothers who passed away – never had a chance to record. And so one of my mates, Stephen Pigram, said, ‘Look, we better record you because you’re one of the last guys from that era – from the ’50s and ’60s.’ So I said, ‘Yeah, no worries.’ It took me 50 years, but it’s done,” he laughs.

“It tells a story, and while I’m onstage I can tell that story and I can bring people on a journey,”

Albert began playing music when he was a boy, and went on to form his first band, The Broome Beats,

when he was just a teenager. However, as a young man, he didn’t dare dream of releasing a record. “Never in the whole wide world did I think I’d make an album,” he says. “When I first heard records it was – you know the old gramophone, you have to wind it up and put the old 78 on? That’s the music I grew up with.” However, gramophone records weren’t his only access to music. Performance was a central focus in the community where he was raised, which allowed the young Albert to gain a unique education. “My uncles and aunties, they were very profi cient musicians,” Albert says. “About 40ks out of Derby

“I DON’T THINK YOU CAN SING A SONG WITHOUT THINKING OF WHERE IT CAME FROM AND WHAT IT’S DONE TO YOU.” 16 :: BRAG :: 653 :: 09:03:16

Baad includes such golden oldies as Cole Porter’s ‘Begin The Beguine’, Engelbert Humperdinck’s ‘Ten Guitars’ and Louis Armstrong’s ‘What A Wonderful World’. Performing these songs live never fails to transport Albert back to an earlier time in his life. “I don’t think you can sing a song without thinking of where it came from and what it’s done to you. I tell stories before about the song – how I first heard it, and who was with me.” He first discovered Porter’s ‘Begin The Beguine’ when travelling around Western Australia with his close friend, musician and playwright Jimmy Chi (the writer of Bran Nue Dae). “We had to fly down to Perth for secondary schooling. I was in my last year of school and Jimmy Chi was in his first year of university. So him and I, we decided to come back [to Broome] on a ship, and every night they’d play that song. I just

fell in love with it, but I never knew where it came from, who wrote it or whatever, until about 20 years later when I saw a movie about Cole Porter. And then I did a bit more research and found out ‘Beguine’ was terminology for a white lady in the Caribbean. And then they turned it into a dance, and they’d play that song for the dance.” Along with the cherished standards, the album includes a few songs written by Albert’s close friends. There’s ‘Nothing I Would Rather Be’, ‘Town By The Bay’ and ‘Fishing’ by Kuckles – a band that originally featured Chi, Pigram and Mick Manolis – plus ‘Saltwater Cowboy’ by The Pigram Brothers. “Stephen and Mickey, that’s their songs,” Albert says. “I said, ‘Look, I’d like to sing a couple you guys’ songs too,’ and their answer to me was, ‘Look bro, you sing, we are the storytellers. We are the songwriters, you are the singer.’” Releasing an album at the age of 65 is an impressive feat, and Albert isn’t discounting the prospect of more records in the future. “It’s like when you’re onstage for the first time in theatre. At the end of the theatre, everybody gives you a standing ovation. That feeling is different from, you know, having a birthday party. So when the CD goes out, then you think, ‘Oh yeah, I can do it better and I can do another album.’ So yes, probably in the future there will be another one.” What: National Folk Festival 2016 With: Steve Poltz, Nancy Kerr, All Our Exes Live In Texas, Jordie Lane and many more Where: Exhibition Park, Canberra When: Thursday March 24 – Monday March 28 And: Baad out now independently

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Lucky Peterson photo ©JM Lubrano

Her Asian observation might seem an odd aside, until you watch Stuart play. Having spent a year in rural Japan as a youngster, and with her mother considered a master of the instrument, Stuart is renowned for playing the koto. Japan’s national instrument is a huge and beautiful stringed device, the length of an average person and shaped like the tooth of some unlikely wooden shark.

of wonderment, this magic sound to it – I don’t know how better to explain it. The koto has a kind of mystery about it, and it inspires me in a different way than playing the guitar does.”

arts in focus

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arts news...what's goin' on around town... with Joseph Earp and Anna Wilson

five minutes WITH

RYAN JOHNSON FROM 80 MINUTES NO INTERVAL also moving. It’s the sort of thing theatregoers will love because it celebrates the indulgence of theatre but also it’s the sort of show my dad could enjoy. It has a clear narrative and heaps of gags. Something for everyone.

ou’re about to star in 80 Minutes No Interval at the Old Fitz Theatre. Is the play really as simple as the title suggests? Absolutely. Who else is tired of three-hour shows? OK – Jasper Jones was brilliant, but most shows are too long! This is short, sharp, heaps of fun and

Little Shop Of Horrors photo by Jeff Busby

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How is the rehearsal process when the writer for a play is also its director, in this case Travis Cotton? It’s great. It’s a different experience for me because I’m used to playing the reaction to moments. Trav has us playing everything on the lines, to push the momentum and keep anyone from dropping the ball. Or maybe it’s so we don’t go over 80 minutes? Either way, I’ve had to adapt and it’s good to be challenged. I always start rehearsals thinking it’s all up to me; that I have to have it all figured out day one. Then I

Savages

realise I’m surrounded by very gifted people and I just trust that we’re all doing it together. The characters around you inform your own character as much as you do. Wait till you see Robin Goldsworthy rip. That guy is so funny, my biggest challenge will be not breaking into laughter. Bad luck keeps striking your character down, but what’s the unluckiest thing that’s ever happened in your career? I got fired from a really bad TV show. I was considered not good enough to be in a really shit show that bombed and was universally panned. Now I think about it, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing. Depends how you look at things, I guess. Do you believe we make our own luck? I don’t know. I think you just have

PURE SAVAGERY

to get up every day and try again. I’ve had so many ups and downs as an actor and I think you have to accept that nothing stays the same. Focus on the possible and the impossible starts seeming more likely. Be grateful for the people that support you and try and set that example. I should write a self-help book. I did just have two coffees, so it could be the caffeine talking, but I do try and live that way. You’ve had a busy last few years in film and television acting. What’s planned for the year ahead? A TV show! Very excited. We start shooting in April. It airs next year. That’s all I can say right now. What: 80 Minutes No Interval Where: Old Fitz Theatre When: Until Saturday April 9

In its latest venture, entertainment mammoth Ubisoft has brought to life Tom Clancy’s The Division. An online-only third-person shooter game, this next-gen open-world RPG is set on a devastating Black Friday. As a smallpox pandemic sweeps through New York City, leading basic services to fail, food and water run out and society begins to collapse into chaos. It’s up to The Division, an autonomous unit of self-supported tactical agents, to fight an international conspiracy, save the President of the United States, and piece NYC back together. The Division is out now on Xbox One, PC and PS4, and we have ten copies to give away on Xbox One. Head to thebrag.com/ freeshit to enter the draw.

Little Shop Of Horrors

Are you emotionally prepared to spend an evening with a group of savages? Savages, a new play from celebrated and controversial Australian author Patricia Cornelius, has been announced as part of Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s 2016 season. The work, a confronting look at bro culture and the changing face of misogyny, has already been performed to stunned but receptive Melbourne audiences, meaning it comes prepackaged with a theatrical seal of approval. If you like your theatre vicious and visceral, then this one’s for you. Savages runs at Eternity Playhouse from Wednesday April 6 – Sunday May 1.

RU SERIOUS?

Some of the world’s biggest touring drag stars will make their way to Sydney when the cast of RuPaul’s Drag Race make their way to Australia for the first time during a five-date nationwide tour in July. Host Michelle Visage will be joined by her sidekicks Adore Delano, Ivy Winters,

Detox, Jinx Monsoon, Manila Luzon, Sharon Needles, Violet Chachki and Alaska Thunderfuck to engage in a number of provocative challenges. Capping it off, the show includes an all-star cast of past winners, finalists and fan favourites from each season. It all goes down on Saturday July 2 at the Big Top, Luna Park.

Vivid Sydney

MORE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

The mean green mother from outer space is set to hit Sydney once again. Due to overwhelming demand, the Australian production of Little Shop Of Horrors has announced a reprise season. Featuring nine performers, some ridiculously memorable songs, and the most terrifying plant the world has ever seen, Little Shop Of Horrors is a musical unlike many others. If you missed out on tickets the first time around, don’t make the same mistake again. The reprise season of Little Shop Of Horrors runs from Wednesday July 20 – Sunday July 31 at the Roslyn Packer Theatre.

WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE

The Great Fire, a tragicomic dissection of the woes and worries facing Australia’s middle class, has been announced as part of Belvoir’s 2016 season. The ten-actor-strong production will be helmed by Eamon Flack, and is being presented as a kind of companion piece to Belvoir’s The Blind Giant Is Dancing. Both have the same targets in their sights – the struggles of the ‘everyday Australian’, whatever that person looks like – but they go about disseminating them in very different ways. The Great Fire runs from Saturday April 2 – Sunday May 8 at Belvoir St Theatre.

Vivid Sydney photo by Destination NSW

TOM CLANCY’S THE DIVISION

THE GALERIES AT ART MONTH

SYDNEY LIGHTS UP AGAIN

Prepare to stand back in awe as Sydney shows off its very best side, proving definitively that our city knows how to celebrate both rigorously and responsibly. Vivid Sydney has just announced the full set of dates for its 2016 run, and this year, the festival of lights, music and ideas will run for a bumper 23 nights – its longest stretch yet. Last year the event attracted over 1.7 million attendees, so it’s safe to say the festival is swelling in popularity. No new names have been announced as musical guests yet, but the revelation last month that Anohni will be one of the Vivid LIVE stars bodes very well for things to come. Keep your ear to the ground. Vivid Sydney 2016 will run from Friday May 27 – Saturday June 18.

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Sydney CBD retail and lifestyle precinct The Galeries has joined Art Month Sydney, transforming into a living gallery for the duration of March. As part of Sydney’s citywide festival, which celebrates contemporary art and artists, The Galeries have been transformed into a living gallery of street art in an installation aptly named Artists’ Playground. The Galeries will also initiate its inaugural Emerging Artist Award, offering $4,000 prize money and a mentorship with Art Month Sydney creative director Barry Keldoulis as well as $1,000 prize money for a People’s Choice winner. The Artists’ Playground

exhibition runs at The Galeries until Thursday March 31.

THE BEST OF THE BEST

The snappily titled Theatresports Cup Winners Cup is already shaping up to be a night of wits and wonder. An entertaining romp of improv presented by some of Australia’s brightest comedy stars, the evening will feature prior winners of Theatresports battling head to head. Fans of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and Thank God You’re Here should definitely apply, as should any lovers of live comedy. Get ready to feel those sides splittin’. The Theatresports Cup Winners Cup hits the Harold Park Hotel on Friday March 11.

ACHOO! BLESS YOU

Presented by Sydney Theatre Company as part of its 2016 season, Noël Coward’s classic comedy Hay Fever looks to leave you in stitches. Wielding the wit and heart of Coward’s finest work, Hay Fever follows the bohemian Bliss family and their silly and suave highjinks. Joining the production are theatre veterans Heather Mitchell and Tony Llewellyn-Jones, who bring a dynamic presence to Coward’s glamorous world under the direction of Imara Savage. Hay Fever runs at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House from Monday April 11 – Saturday May 21. BRAG :: 653 :: 09:03:16 :: 17

Raw Comedy [COMEDY] Welcome To The Jungle By Tegan Jones

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he month of March is upon us, and as all comedy fans know, that means Raw Comedy – Australia’s biggest comedy-based open mic competition – is well under way. After a long series of heats, the state and national fi nals are now imminent. Triple j breakfast host Matt Okine was a fi nalist back in 2004, having only performed stand-up three times previously – all dur ing the preliminary heats of the competition. Okine, who will host the New South Wales fi nal this month, continues to be a massive supporter and ambassador for the competition and its importance to the world of comedy. “It gives people a safe place,” he says. “Open mic nights can be goddamn jungles! I’ve been to pubs where the audience is literally looking at the greyhounds on the screens playing over your shoulder. Raw lets you jump onstage with a group of people who are often giving it their first crack too. The audience is mostly family or friends, or people who actually respect comedy and know how confi dent – read: deluded – you need to be to give it a go.” Considering how intense and intimidating performance can be – this writer even signed up for a Raw heat in Wollongong once, but pulled out because I’m a complete chicken shit, and because I didn’t want to get glassed by a Dragons fan – one wonders how 18-year-old Okine found the Raw experience.

Tom Green [COMEDY] Pranks And Practicality By Tegan Jones

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om Green is arguably the trailblazer of modern-day prank culture captured on film. Before YouTube, Periscope, Vine and Snapchat, Green was terrorising unsuspecting targets with a video camera and his unique sense of humour. A quarter of a decade later, he continues to entertain audiences around the world, and will be bringing the laughs to Sydney on his latest stand-up tour. Unfortunately for us old-school fans, he has confirmed the Slut Mobile will be remaining at home. “The hood of the car still exists! Is it the ‘bonnet’ or the ‘hood’ in Australia? That is where the painting was on my parents’ 1992 Honda Accord. I replaced it for them and kept the bonnet, so I have the Slut Mobile and it’s hanging in my garage here in Los Angeles.” The Tom Green Show, which aired from 19942000, was incredibly innovative in the world of comedy at the time. Green admits he and his team were conscious of their pioneering prank comedy style. “We were aware that we were doing something that was new and hadn’t really been done on television, and I think that was a big part of the motivation behind a lot of the ideas. We tried to use video cameras in a way that we hadn’t seen them used before to do pranks and make a TV show in a really raw and guerilla way.” Although he still dabbles in prank culture, Green doesn’t feel that is entirely what he’s about anymore. “Everything has become so mainstream, whether it’s YouTube, Vine, Instagram or Twitter. I use all of that stuff and it’s fun for me, but I think the place where I’m getting my most creative inspiration from is onstage doing stand-up. That’s where I really get to talk about the world we’re living in, the absurdities I feel that aren’t talked about in the mainstream media by other comedians. That’s where I feel I can do the most innovative stuff.” When it comes to his social media presence, Green explains he has something of a love/hate relationship with the internet and technology. “I use it all the time and we’re living in a world now where so many people get their information from social media,” he says. “But then I’m also frustrated by how much time I spend on it and how much time others spend on it. Especially when you’re hanging out and everyone’s on their phones and not talking to each other, and that has become a consistent theme in my stand-up over the years.” He continues, “It’s very cathartic for me to get up onstage and vent frustrations about 18 :: BRAG :: 653 :: 09:03:16

things, but it’s also a lot of fun to interact with audiences that are having a great time and grew up watching the Slut Mobile and remember that their favourite movie is Freddy Got Fingered.”

“Terrifying. I only told two friends. One I needed to borrow a T-shirt from and the other I wanted to drive so that I could, umm, ‘calm my nerves’. It all turned out pretty good though. I ended up winning my heat and ended up in the local paper. Thankfully I was wearing a decent shirt!” As it turns out, Okine wasn’t the only comedy hopeful who embarked on the Raw journey from an incredibly young age. Plenty of young folk with zero experience enter the heats, which is something that Okine encourages.

“Every heat has at least four or fi ve newbies,” he says. “And there’s absolutely zero judgment, because everyone else has been there before. You get to sit down with the organisers and MC beforehand and are given a run-through of how it all works and where the nearest bathrooms are before your nerves take over and make you wee more than a 21-year-old who is 14 schooners deep. There’s nothing to fear.” The entertainment industry at large is so difficult to get into, and even more so when you start venturing into the realm of niche genres such as comedy. Its Australian scene, in particular, is incredibly small, and from the outside looking in seems to be quite tight-knit. I’m curious as to whether there is a lot of support for Raw comedians after the competition has been run and won. “Of course,” Okine says. “At the end of the day, nobody cares who wins or loses – unless, of course, you win – and the whole competition is really just a way for you to meet other people in the scene who can tell you about where the best open mic rooms are, and can give you lifts to the next gig, et cetera.” Being a comedy competition, you can expect Okine has experienced some pretty hilarious moments over the years, on and off the stage. It turns out that one of his most memorable recollections involves just a tiny bit of hubris. “There was a 17-year-old kid in the Queensland fi nal in 2005 and I didn’t even watch his performance because I thought I had it in the bag. Nek minnit, the 17-yearold kid wins. He turns out to be Josh Thomas. He’s since gone on to destroy at everything he does, so at least my loss was deserved.” What: Raw Comedy 2016 State Final Where: The Comedy Store When: Tuesday March 15 Matt Okine

Stand-up has also given Green a chance to get back to his comedy roots. “I started doing stand-up when I was a teenager, long before I was doing films and television – it was really my first toe in the water of show business. It’s super exciting to be able to focus on it now at an older age and have a lot more perspective on the world and my opinions on things. It’s really been great.” Now that his perspectives have evolved, Green ponders the question of whether his entire sense of humour has changed. “In some ways, yeah, but I’ve always liked to look at the world and poke fun at it and pick it apart from a weird point of view. As a stand-up comedian it’s a completely different type of comedy than making video pranks, but the heart of it is hopefully shining a light on the power and hypocrisy in the world and laughing at it.” Beyond that, however, Green won’t reveal too much of what he’ll cover in his live show – at first, anyway. “Oh it’s all completely top secret,” he declares, before caving immediately. “Honestly, I have so many different subjects that I talk about – there’s a lot of spontaneity, a lot of improv. It’s not a political show – I’m not there to talk about politics in the traditional sense – but I do like to talk about things that I find ridiculous about the political system. I mean, Donald Trump is running for President and I touch on that a bit because I was on his Celebrity Apprentice show and got fired by him. “I do a lot of crowd work; I like getting into it with the audience and pulling a lot of comedy out of thin air through spontaneous conversation. There’s also a lot about technology and how relationships are affected by them. Everyone is on Instagram posting their entire private lives for everybody to see. How does that affect our daily existence on this planet when you’re dating or in a marriage and your husband or wife is putting everything about themselves online and everyone is talking about it or commenting on it? What are some of the pitfalls of that? I like to make fun of that stuff.” Where: Factory Theatre When: Thursday March 17 and Saturday March 19

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Sebastian Goldspink [VISUAL ART] Kings Cross On Foot By Adam Norris

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ut through Hyde Park along William Street, eyes fixed on the distant glow of the Coke sign, and hook left into Kings Cross. What do you see? Ask some people, and the answer is likely to be strip clubs, prostitution and drunk buffoons beating each other up on the street. But turn off the neon spotlight and you’ll find the Cross is a far more interesting and complicated place. With a history stretching back to colonisation, it has always been a suburb of extremes, as Sebastian Goldspink knows better than most. With the arrival of Art Month, the director of Alaska Projects will be offering a tour of this supposed den of inequity. “I guess the key to Alaska is this idea of the centre directly supporting artists,” Goldspink says. “Somewhere over 500 artists have been shown there since we opened, and it’s not just artists from Sydney, but nationally and internationally. Exhibition spaces can also be quite hard to come by for young artists, and to have free exhibition space in the inner city is important. At the core of what Alaska does is this sense of diversity, so we’re really proud of our representations of Aboriginal artists, gender and sexual diversity. It’s weird, because a lot of the time when you’re talking

about community art organisations or cultural programs, there’s a feeling that everything has to be about that community. But our thing is to just provide good art, so every show doesn’t have to just be about the Cross, or telling us that heroin is bad. It encourages a diversity of ideas as well as a diversity of people.”

know if the casinos are going to serve that. I’m predicting that we might see a rise in underground culture like I remember from the late ’80s – warehouse parties, raves. We might even see a speakeasy culture return. Sydney is a city that loves its nightlife, and I don’t think that this will halt that.”

Of course, it is a topical time to be thinking about representations of Kings Cross. With the much-maligned lockout laws driving custom away and closing businesses, there are many in the community worried that we are truly seeing the rise of the nanny state. Yet other residents are applauding the restrictions and welcome the shifting cultural focus.

Nor does Goldspink worry that we’ll see the end of the Cross as a place of culture and celebration anytime soon.

“Kings Cross has always been a place of culture,” says Goldspink. “It’s a place where during the 20th century lots of poets, artists, writers and musicians lived. It has a bohemian heart, but it’s also been through some tumultuous times. But the late-night, vice-orientated culture I think will die. We’re not far off seeing a Cross where there are no strip clubs on the main street. But I know a city needs that release, and I don’t

“Kings Cross is filled with ghosts. Either actually, or figuratively. So much happened in that neighbourhood, there’s so much significant history. There’s such a rich tapestry to draw on, so I want to evoke that. I’m very proud of my neighbourhood, and I think people often have a very simplistic view of Kings Cross. They don’t see the depth. There’s so much more to it. It’s one of the most architecturally significant areas in the country. I think Kings Cross has a black eye at the moment, you know, and I think some people have given up on it. It’s had its day. But I think it’s evolving. Whether people like that or not, it’s the reality. Kings Cross always fights back.”

What: Kings Cross Walking Tours: The Art and The History as part of Art Month Sydney 2016 Where: Alaska Projects When: Friday March 18

La Bohème La Bohème photo by by Branco Gaica

[OPERA] Musetta In Profile By Adam Norris

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a Bohème, the opulent story of a tragic love affair that inspired the likes of Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!, has returned to the Opera House as sumptuous as ever. First premiering under director Gale Edwards’ stewardship back in 2011, Puccini’s perennial favourite has been a stalwart of Opera Australia ever since and shows no signs of retiring. Set in the fading days of the Weimar Republic – where decadence and debauchery were on full display – it is likely one of the most moving and entertaining operas you will see this year. Principal artist

Julie Lea Goodwin walks us through a day in the life. “This production has been around for about five years, and I think it’s become a permanent part of the repertory,” Goodwin says. “It’s here to stay, and I think that’s because it’s so glamorous. I got a bit of a shock, actually, when I saw the costumes up close. When I was understudy I was basically watching my character the entire time, so this time, I saw dog leashes around people’s necks, and a lot of bare skin, people on stilts, some really

weird and wonderful things. I think it looks phenomenal when it’s all put together.”

of these amazing other artists up close and personal. It’s a nice way to ease into it.”

Having graduated from an understudy, it is a testament to both Goodwin’s own talents as a performer, as well as the efforts Opera Australia undertakes in order to promote emerging singers, that she has developed the role with such strength. As Musetta, Goodwin finds herself as a major character, and her ‘Quando Me’n Vo’’ is one of the production’s standout arias.

While the production has inevitably changed over the years, La Bohème’s enticing, sorrowful heart has endured. As the cast and crew have rotated, new energy and perspectives have been added to the show, and Goodwin now finds herself able to instil her own interpretation to the role.

“I started with Opera Australia last year, and the first role that I understudied was actually this role. So I feel like I’ve had time to theoretically digest it and come up with my own take on the character within the staging that’s provided, but there are a couple of tricky things. There’s a revolve that works on the stage, so just working out how to look really fluid while the stage is effectively moving out from underneath you,” she laughs. “I’m getting the hang of it. I came from musical theatre, so I didn’t go through the same path that a lot of other young singers would. I came in with quite a lot of performance experience, but I had a lot to figure out in terms of the world of opera. No microphones of course, speaking other languages. So it’s really wonderful to have all of the coaching every week, and watching all

“It’s changed, no doubt, but they’ve kept it fairly close to the original. There are a handful of people still here from the first season, including the conductor. But I think it’s important as well that when you do have a new person take on a role, people are willing to adapt. And people have different strengths. In my version of Musetta, I like to think that maybe she was a showgirl once, and it makes sense that she has this singing and dancing background behind her. Her character loves a performance, to get attention, and so I like having all these little dancing moments that might pop in. Things that perhaps somebody else wouldn’t have done in the past.” What: La Bohème as part of Spectrum Now 2016 Where: Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House When: Until Wednesday March 23

Bully Boy [THEATRE] Laughter In The Face Of Danger By Adam Norris

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t first glance, a play written by UK comedian (and soon to be QI host) Sandi Toksvig promises to be a hilarious romp through all things cheeky and irreverent. But as the opening of Bully Boy approaches, the story of lives undone by the psychological horrors of war is no light amusement. The traumas endured by returned servicemen and women is a growing scourge not only in the world of the play, but across Australia itself, where Vice Chief of the Defence Force Ray Griggs has conceded the exact number of veteran suicides is unknown. Bully Boy director Deborah Mulhall reflects on how the voice of a comic like Toksvig can sometimes be the strongest insight into tragedy. “I think a good comedian always has that different perspective, that way of looking at things which is just a little skewed,” Mulhall says. “Their perspectives are always creatively unique. They just see the world a little differently, and

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perhaps more cynically than most people do. But certainly there’s a creative difference in their viewpoint. I don’t think any comedian sees the world as the majority do, and it’s that ability to disassociate from the mass view that makes them funny, that gives them the observations, that makes them interesting. The only way to deal with the despair, which would be inevitable when one sits back and views the world, is to turn it on its head and make it funny.” Mulhall’s interests in the play have been brewing for some time. Following a former production that shared themes with Bully Boy, Mulhall’s fascination with the psychological scars that so many veterans carry with them led to the tag line, ‘In War, Not All Wounds Are Visible’. “I did a play with similar issues last year called Britannia Waves The Rules, and it was looking at the effects of going to war in Afghanistan, which is not a war

with a front. It’s an insurgency, where we just take young men and teach them how to kill people, and then put them in this foreign land where nobody wants them to be. And then when they finish, we expect that they can just go back and live a normal life. That’s such an unrealistic expectation to ask of any human being.” Mulhall is right to make such a claim, having spent time discussing the realities of war with real soldiers. She has brought a true and troubling insight into Toksvig’s celebrated play. “I was in England last year, and by sheer chance I ended up in a pub talking to three young men who were in the British Army. I came up with such a stronger understanding of how they think, what they think. They have a duality of feeling about the army. It gives them a sense of purpose and belonging, but at the same time it puts them through the most horrific experiences. But what I found most interesting,

and something I tried to pump into rehearsals, is that what they learned in the army is that they are not fighting for Queen or country. They were fighting for each other. “Soldiers have said to me as soon as they go on leave, all they do is worry about the mates they leave behind. What if one of them gets injured because you weren’t there? They never blame the enemy for a friend dying, though they of course call them abusive names. But if

one of their mates die, they blame themselves. If their mate gets shot, steps on an IED [improvised explosive device], their reaction is, ‘Well, if I had taken better care of him, this wouldn’t have happened.’” What: Bully Boy Where: Blood Moon Theatre, The World Bar When: Thursday March 10 – Saturday March 26

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Film Reviews Hits and misses on the silver screen around town

■ Film

GODS OF EGYPT In cinemas now Gods Of Egypt is possibly the most ridiculous movie I’ve seen in a long time, but goddammit, it’s a fun one. It’s The Mummy meets every buddy cop fi lm from the ’90s meets Wild Wild West. For example, see the giant mechanical scarabs that never get explained because director Alex Proyas straight up doesn’t give a fuck.

The Lady In The Van ■ Film

THE LADY IN THE VAN In cinemas now Maggie Smith: what a woman. At 81, this matriarch of the big screen is not showing any sign of slowing down or settling for subpar roles. And The Lady In The Van is no exception. It is a brash, witty and exceptionally English look at the life of Miss Shepherd, an elderly lady who squatted in a van in London’s Camden district in the 1970s and ’80s.

that one day she will just “move on”. But it’s Bennett she takes to best. His curiosity and compassion for Shepherd fuels their odd relationship as she preys on those attributes stealthily, manipulating the young man’s conscience to the point he offers her (and her van) a two-month sojourn in his driveway. It becomes a 15-year residence.

Based on a play by Alan Bennett, The Lady In The Van reads something like an incomplete biography or a chapter in an autobiography, taking on the perspective of Bennett (played by Alex Jennings), an unattached playwright, as he enters the neighbourhood and meets its infamous character: Miss Shepherd.

Shepherd takes as much as she can but gives very little, and Bennett is forced to piece together her history from the leads she donates him. He exhausts himself searching for answers in the people who knew her before she became this irascible hermit. Her life, unsurprisingly, had been colourful. It’s a shame, then, that this story must detail exclusively what Bennett knows – his long and drawn-out 15-year encounter with a remarkably difficult squatter – and not her transition from the strong, haughty and talented woman that she once was to the lady in the van we eventually meet.

She’s sordid, petulant, arrogant and conniving, and Smith plays her like a violin – full of confidence, pomp, English humour and that kind of sanctimonious air only Smith can pull off without seeming charmless or ignoble. The neighbourhood tolerates Shepherd at best, but the general feeling is that she is hotly unwanted. Everyone hopes

xxx photo by xxx

“To be, or not to be”… and you know the rest. That’s right; one of Shakespeare’s most quotable plays is coming back to the Inner West this month as the Bard On The Beach theatre company does Hamlet in intimate surroundings. It stars Chenier Moore in the title role as the conflicted Dane, and though the work has become canonised – so much so that anyone can rattle off a few lines from its oft-parodied soliloquies – the upcoming production should serve as a timely reminder of just how vicious and cutting edge Shakespeare always was and still remains. For more information on the company and venue directions, visit bardonthebeach.net.

So if you’re a fan of cheesy action romps and enjoy the idea of Gerard Butler looking super fi ne as a godly bad boy who doesn’t give enough of a shit to keep his accent consistent, get on Gods Of Egypt. It’s a great movie to switch off and cry/laugh to. Tegan Jones

exhibitor profile

What's in our diary...

The Greek Theatre, Marrickville, Friday March 11 – Saturday March 19

Eventually Horus emerges from selfimposed exile to seek vengeance on Set with the help of the mortal thief Bek (Brenton Thwaites), who is on a

So what makes this fi lm so gloriously stupid? Well, the gods are about ten feet taller than humans, which looks comical, the writing is beyond awkward and there is an overabundance of mischief music. It’s complete trash – but therein lies its charm. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Geoffrey Rush shooting an oversized fire stick at a giant Sarlacc from his godly space station in the sky.

Gods Of Egypt

Stephanie Yip

Arts Exposed Hamlet

Not that the plot matters at all, but the story centres around Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), whose coronation as the new king of Egypt is interrupted by his uncle Set (Gerard Butler), who proceeds to murder his own brother, cut out Horus’ eyes and enslave all mortals. Basically, he’s a massive dick. Speaking of which, he also decides to build a giant phallic obelisk in honour of his father, Ra (Geoffrey Rush). Daddy issues.

quest to help save his hot girlfriend from death. After all, what is a corny action movie without a sappy B-plot?

WITH

VENOMOUS INK

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he Australian International Tattoo Expo is almost upon us, and we’ve been catching up with some of the exhibitors ahead of the big weekend. Our latest guests have a unique approach to tattooing and aftercare… Who are you? We are Venomous Ink, AKA V-Ink, and we have created our own uniquely Australian, all natural tattoo aftercare that actually works, called LadyV’s Miracle Mist Tattoo Aftercare. What’s your story? We have two tattoo artists – LadyVenom* AKA iLana-Jane Vandaliza, and wHootaGirl* AKA Liz Slattery, as well as a silent partner who takes care of most of the business end of our company. Venomous Ink opened her doors for the first time in 2012 in an industrial estate in Alexandria as a private custom studio. Today we are located in Chippendale Art Precinct opposite Mortuary Station on the fringe of Central Park. Venomous Ink is now thriving and

we have a fantastic clientele of wonderfully deep and passionate people wearing our art with pride. Does V-Ink have a particular speciality? At V-Ink we specialise in interpreting your dismally vague and unclear ideas of what you think you want! LadyVenom* enjoys black and grey style tattooing with a little colour, focusing mostly on re-drawing Oriental designs from ancient taboo artworks, and particularly likes to follow the lines of modern Mongolian art of Zaya, as well as motorcycle trash flash including grim reapers, sexy ladies and demon beasts by Boris Vallejo, plus realistic flowers, animals and human portraits. wHootaGirl* has a real talent for solid colour, animate and comic graphic tattooing and enjoys re-interpreting old-school favourite cartoons into modern tattoo flash art.

all the Australian Tattoo & Body Art Expos since it begun. Both Liz & iLana-Jane will be tattooing clients, taking walk-ins and doing free consultations during the three days as well as selling LadyV’s Miracle Mist Tattoo Aftercare to everyone who is serious about looking after and preserving their tattoos with an Australian made product using only sustainable, all natural, quality ingredients found here in Australia.

How will you be representing at the upcoming Expo? We will be at this year’s Expo representing as we have done at

This product is 100 per cent Australian made and contains five natural ingredients: emu oil, manuka honey, calendula oil,

vitamin E oil, and chamomile oil. These five active ingredients have been carefully selected and blended to create an aftercare product, which is soothing for the skin and also reduces the redness. Our unique hands-free application method allows the body heat to disperse the product. It absorbs quickly, leaving a thin protective layer of wax that prevents dust and sweat invading the tattoo. For more information on how to and where to purchase this amazing innovative Australian tattoo aftercare, please check out our website, ladyvsmiraclemist. com.au. Where can we find you outside the Expo? V-Ink is located at 77 Regent Street, Chippendale. Our website is venomous-ink.com. What: Australian International Tattoo Expo Where: Royal Hall Of Industries When: Friday March 11 – Sunday March 13

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out & about Queer(ish) matters with Lucy Watson

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ardi Gras is over. Summer is over. Daylight saving is coming to an end. Maybe you’ve gone back to uni. The week after Mardi Gras is always the hardest for me, facing reality again after the holiday season, and doing it all with a hangover. These are my tips for recovering from Mardi Gras, and dealing with post-party depression.

1.

Savour every last piece of glitter

Some people hate glitter in their bed. I love it. I love waking up, six months after Mardi Gras, to find an errant piece of glitter on my boob. Don’t waste your energy trying to get rid of it, because no matter how hard you try, it’ll still be around. Embrace it! Let the party live on!

2.

Comfort food

You’ve probably spent months shredding for Mardi Gras. But now as we head into winter, no-one will see your body, so eat all the food you want! Food makes everything better.

3.

Cuddles

Cuddles are absolutely necessary. Find a loved one, or some mates, and have a cuddle pile on. Take the week off work, if you can, and just cuddle all day. Don’t have mates or a loved one? Try Grindr, Tinder, whatever. Change your bio to “down to cuddle” and find a beautiful stranger to curl up to.

4.

Instagram

Relive the party with a daily selfie. Hopefully you didn’t bombard everyone with every selfie you took on Saturday night. Now you can post them all, and don’t forget to add #tbt.

5.

7.

The beach

Don’t go to work, fool! This week is like the week heteros have between Christmas and New Year, and they get that off. What do they do with their time? They go to the beach! They have BBQs! They do fun, weird, straight people things! We can do that, too. Summer might be over, but with global warming, you won’t even notice. Get out with some comfort

Brainstorm costume ideas for next year (or next week)

You shouldn’t have to save all your amazing costumes for Mardi Gras. If you’ve got a costume idea, why not bust it out this weekend? Every day should be as fabulous as parade day.

8.

Don’t stop caring about LGBT issues

GAYNZ is all packed up, someone in the NRL said something homophobic, the Liberal Party still generally sucks. For two weeks of the year, these guys pretend like they care, and then go back to not giving a shit. Don’t be like those guys. The parade’s over, the panels are over, the films have all gone back to being boring hetero rom-coms, but that doesn’t mean you have to. Tangerine is on Netflix. Queer publications are still pumping out LGBT issue think pieces. There’s still space in your life to care, I promise. Even if your profile picture isn’t a rainbow anymore.

9.

Sunglasses

It’s been, what, almost a week since the parade, but I assume you’re still hungover. If you must go to work, wear your sunglasses all day, so no-one will know.

6.

food and someone to cuddle, and embrace the salt and sun (but not the sand – your room is already covered with glitter, we don’t need to add to that).

And don’t stop the party.

More than ever, Sydney’s nightlife needs our help. If we want to keep queer parties afloat, we need to turn up more than once a year. There are still plenty of things happening, and this is still our city. Mardi Gras season is my favourite time of the year. But I don’t stop being queer when it ends. Allies shouldn’t stop being allies. The more we care, the more we go to queer films, art galleries, theatre productions and parties – all year round – the more in demand these things become. We shouldn’t have to have just two weeks of the year. Let’s make every day a gay day.

this week…

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL PROUDLY PRESENTS

‘BLISSFULLY FUNNY’ THE INDEPENDENT

Mr. Ties

RICH HALL

We Are All in the Gutter, But Some of Us Are Looking at David O’Doherty

17 & 19 MARCH 7PM COMEDY STORE COMEDYSTORE.COM.AU

Mr. Ties photo by Byron Reza Afshar

There aren’t so many one-off parties happening this week, but there are still all the regular events that deserve support. Last week was the first instalment of Yellow Wednesdays at Secret Garden Bar. It’s on again this Wednesday March 9 and every week, run by a rotating crew of artists. Also on Wednesday are your other regulars, Birdcage at Slyfox, and bingo at the Imperial Hotel.

Thursdays are ladies’ night at the Imperial Hotel, with Sveta and cheap beer. There’s also karaoke at Tokyo Sing Song with the legendary Aaron Manhattan, and don’t forget comedy at The Shift with Brenda Trolloppe. Also this Thursday March 10 is the Deconstructing

Masculinity discussion at the Museum of Contemporary Art. This Saturday March 12, Mr. Ties is back at Arq. Known for his Homopatik parties in Berlin, Mr. Ties is a bloody awesome DJ. He’s playing next weekend, too.

I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING & OTHER LIES I TELL MYSELF

MO

22 MARCH 7.30PM 17 & 18 APRIL COMEDY STORE ENMORE THEATRE COMEDYSTORE.COM.AU

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E TO U D D DDE MAND! A HOWNAL DE IL S D R N ME SECOPHENO 18 AP N

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THE BRAG’S HOTSPOTS

St. Patrick’s Day

Irish eyes are smiling once again this month ahead of St. Patrick’s Day, which arrives on Thursday March 17. The sad news of the annual parade’s cancellation has been tempered by the announcement of party plans at pubs around Sydney, so we spoke to some of our hot picks to find out what craic they’ve got to offer.

THE MERCANTILE HOTEL

THE FIDDLER What to see and do: Irish breakfast from 9am, live Irish music from midday, Irish dancing, Irish coffee cart and Guinness on tap in all the bars, and games and competitions for young and old! The shenanigans will last well into the night. What’s the fuel? A lot of malarkey and lots of beer, make no mistake, you’ll want to be here.

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An Irish touch: With The Fiddler’s rich Irish heritage, how can we not put on the biggest party in Western Sydney this St. Patrick’s Day? Finish this sentence: We love celebrating the luck of the Irish because… Like the Irish, we don’t hold back on the celebrations!

What to see and do: St. Patrick’s Day kicks off at 7am with our breakfast event serving a full Irish breakfast (including black pudding!), Irish coffee, Guinness, Irish dance performance and traditional Irish music. Celebration of our wonderful Irish culture continues throughout the day with performances by Currie-Henderson Academy of Irish Dancing and music by our famous bands, Blackwater, Shindig and Shaylee Wilde, with traditional Irish music and Irish rock.

What’s the fuel? Full Irish breakfast and shamrock pie available throughout the day as well as Guinness (of course!), Magners and Jameson. Finish this sentence: We love celebrating the luck of the Irish because… We love a good bit of craic! The crowd: Large groups for the morning with lots coming and going throughout the day, most kicking on for the night!

The crowd: Large groups, young and old, there is something for everyone.

The damage: $50 for the breakfast event. Free entry after.

The damage: Free entry.

Where: 25-27 George Street, The Rocks

Where: Cnr Windsor and Commercial Roads, Rouse Hill

When: Kick off at 7am, Thursday March 17. Our Festival Week kicks off on Sunday March 13 – it’s our Family Fun Day with more Irish dancing and music, including face-painting and balloon fun for the kids!

When: Full Irish breakfast from 9am with a whole day of shenanigans going well into the night!

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snap sn ap

VIEW FULL GALLERIES AT

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up all night out all week . . .

ORIENT HOTEL

What’s the fuel? From 11am, it’s our traditional Irish mixed grill – eggs, bacon, black pudding, hash browns, mushrooms, tomatoes and soda bread, with Irish coffee and Guinness available. Order at any bar. An Irish touch: The Orient Hotel’s St. Pat’s Day is a unique and legendary day of celebrations. Fantastic live acts blend great traditional Irish music with the best of Irish party music.

Finish this sentence: We love celebrating the luck of the Irish because… It’s a great way of being positive, the world needs a great celebration, and the Irish do it the right way. The crowd: We have a great mix of people from international visitors to our local community and as expected at the Orient, people from all areas of Sydney come by for great service and a real good time. We cater for small to large crowds.

jhené aiko

PICS :: AM

What to see and do: We’ll be hosting live bands on Thursday March 17: 10am – The Blarney Boys 1:30pm – The U2 show feat. U2 Elevation 4.30pm – The Moonshiners 7pm – Dublin Up 11pm – Lonesome Train

29:02:16 :: Enmore Theatre :: 118-132 Enmore Rd Newtown 9550 3666

The damage: Free before 10pm Where: 89 George Street, The Rocks When: It kicks off from 10am with live acts and 11am for the Irish mixed grill. Orient Hotel has live acts every day and indeed we celebrate St. Pat’s Day all week!

a lot of malarkey & lots of beer... make no mistake, you’ll want to be here!

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PICS :: AM

that fiddler feeling

as a rival + nerdlinger + the great awake + laser brains + dividers + ebolagoldfish 06:03:16 :: Frankie’s Pizza :: 50 Hunter St Sydney corner of commercial & windsor rds rouse hill nsw 2155 P (02) 9629 4811 w w w.th e f i d d l e r .c o m . a u www.facebook.com/thefiddlerfunctions

CARTER :: KATRINA CLAR OUR PHOTOGRAPHERS :: D.A.

KE :: ASHLEY MAR ::

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Album Reviews What's been crossing our ears this week...

ALBUM OF THE WEEK LÅPSLEY

an affecting Adele-like voice, the DIY spirit of Grimes and that British broodiness that carried Daughter and London Grammar into the limelight. Yet Låpsley’s sound is distinctively her own.

Long Way Home XL/Remote Control

A humble teenager is behind one of the most emotionally intelligent records of 2016 so far.

THAO AND THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN A Man Alive Domino/EMI

Thao and The Get Down Stay Down’s A Man Alive is all bone and wire; an intricate web of fragile emotions and prickly guitar solos. But though it might look brittle and passive from the outside, this is a record that manages to transform hurt into heroism, and cowardice into courage. The album was inspired in part by lead singer Thao Nguyen’s troubled relationship with her father. No need to consult the liner notes to discover that shred of personal history; hurt emanates from the piece like a wave of heat coming off a sick animal. “We are not born for departure, but we do learn to take it,” Nguyen sings on ‘Departure’, her pained voice curled up in the centre of the barbed wire nest she has chosen for a chorus.

From the cooing vocals and elastic rhythm of opener ‘Heartless’, it becomes clear why this singer-songwriter and producer has garnered such attention. She’s got

Singles ‘Hurt Me’ and ‘Love Is Blind’ hang warped vocals off minimalist piano chords. ‘Operator (He Doesn’t Call Me)’ adds a disco twist while ‘Painter’ slips into a diffused lullaby of reverb-ridden chords and toy-box tinkling. However, it is the stubbornly stark ‘Station’, with its rhythmic tug of dropped vocals, drifting falsetto and peppering of bizarre error-message sounds, that truly flaunts Låpsley’s production prowess. A striking mix of simplicity and surprise, Long Way Home is an ambient gem. Jennifer Hoddinett

MIIKE SNOW

GUERILLA TOSS

Three years of radio silence from indie-pop trio Miike Snow have finally given way to III, a club-friendly simplification of their sound that rests on its heavy-hitting singles.

As a genre term, ‘live rock’n’roll dance music’ fails to truly grasp the weird and wonderful mashing of sounds that is Guerilla Toss. Percussive and abstract, this is a band that demands your undivided attention. Vocalist Kassie Carlson’s warble can be grating at first, but as the tunes accumulate, her purpose becomes clear. Her eccentric vocals – mumbled recitations that are intermittently driven to a yelp, as though they are being poked with a hot iron – are a conjuring. Her lyrics run parallel to the band’s disjointedness, covering topics of mental illness, hallucinogenics and addiction.

III Atlantic/Warner

The first tastes of the new record are without question the best – ‘Heart Is Full’ is a bombastic barnstormer that will have club floors surging, and a 180-degree flip for the band. With its sampling of soul hits, Mark Ronson-esque horns and big, sexy vocal hooks, the only way it could be better is with a guest verse by hip hop outfit Run The Jewels. Oh hey, they close the album.

Yet despite the undercurrent of tragedy, this is an album that demands movement. ‘Nobody Dies’ is a deranged rejection of reality, a cathartic wash of punky riffs and pogoing choruses, while album opener ‘Astonished Man’ works itself up to a stunning conclusion, gathering steam and energy until it boils over into utter insanity.

Likewise, ‘Genghis Khan’ is enormously fun despite its reductive lyrics. The trio slide back to old habits in ‘Over And Over’, lacing syncopated pianos with tasty guitar licks, and opener ‘My Trigger’ is shallow and fun. Elsewhere, their new reliance on hip hop aesthetics falls short, as even the pop songwriting skills of Bloodshy & Avant – Miike Snow’s musical core – fail. The glitchy chaos of ‘For U’ is ruined by its frankly annoying chorus, with vocalist Andrew Wyatt throwing in Auto-Tune for no reason other than to reference the zeitgeist.

A Man Alive might be born of hurt, but it’s one hell of a ride: a spurned bride hitching up her wedding dress in order to deliver a kick aimed squarely below the belt.

With less indie and more pop on offer, both fan bases may feel somewhat cheated, but the singles at least show the jackalope still has kick.

Joseph Earp

David Molloy

Eraser Stargazer DFA

The album’s production benefited from its short lead time. Written and recorded in only six weeks, Eraser Stargazer sounds fresh and frenetic. Drummer Peter Negroponte’s seductive beats pound through the mix, taking command of the psychedelic orchestrations. Unexpected twists and turns sideswipe the album’s manic jaunts, with ‘Grass Shack’ switching midway through like a Mr. Bungle track, resembling a distorted carnival tune. This is an album full of surprises, and the only consistency is its inconsistency.

BIG BAD ECHO

It Takes A Big Dog To Weigh A Tonne Independent

24 :: BRAG :: 653 :: 09:03:16

This is a refreshingly eclectic release: fuzz rock, cacophonous drones, spoken-word monologues, off-kilter psychedelia and a catchy lead single combine to make a record that throws up one high-quality surprise after another. ‘Cannon Fire’ and ‘Half Polyester Sheets’ provide an opening 11 minutes of pounding layers of noise fit for any late-night road trip, while vocalist Mick Reddy recalls Jim Morrison at his most shamanistic. ‘Ice Breaker’ is the obvious single, although its repetitive rumblings and ruminations are far from radio-friendly and all the better for it. “All I ever wanted is to fall at your feet,” Reddy

AURORA

All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend Liberator/Glassnote It would seem wasteful if Norwegian singer-songwriter Aurora created anything less than the fairy-tale-tinted indie-pop of All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend. After all, the 19-yearold shares a name with the princess from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty and hails from a town (no joke) whose name translates to ‘Fjord of Lights’. Yet this debut offers the fantastical with fangs. Against a dreamy and disquieting landscape, we meet a cast of unlikely heroes. There’s the restless runaway who seeks abandonment in nature, a warrior whose greatest enemy is herself, a victim who empathises with her murderer. These 12 tracks explore monsters of an intimate kind; dashed hopes, gnawing loneliness and engulfing insecurities. ‘Running With The Wolves’ and ‘Warrior’ conjure chase scenes with their primal drums, prickly synths and war cry vocals, while ballads ‘Through The Eyes Of A Child’ and ‘Home’ entrance with ethereal harmonies and feathery keys. Every track swells to the same cathartic crescendo; Aurora’s vocals driving with the grace and gall of a sailboat at sea.

CLUB CHEVAL Discipline Parlophone/Warner

Winding between bass-filled tunes, electronic rhythms and somewhat abrasive interludes, Discipline proves to be a wild ride through the eyes and ears of French quartet Club Cheval. Many songs contain vocals seemingly inspired by the likes of Ne-Yo or The Weeknd, but these styles mesh together well with the group’s production. The ability to switch the sound from a chantworthy anthem like ‘Legends’ to a slower, more heartfelt number like ‘Other Guy’ represents Club Cheval’s diverse musical style. It’s not hard to pick out the lead single from the 15-track roster though, as ‘Discipline’ delivers with a fun, upbeat tone that rounds off their debut in slick fashion. There are a few moments on the album that feature experimental sounds, but they don’t really serve their purpose as good gap-fillers to tie over the more powerful tracks. Each member of Club Cheval tries their hand at an interlude, but apart from Panteros666’s effort, the rest seem out of place and almost compromise the album’s rhythm.

Erazer Stargazer isn’t an album for the faint-hearted. First impressions may last, but the funk will always prevail.

An evocative mixture of visceral beats, supple vocals and earworm melodies, All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend is a pithy and playful romp in the big bad woods.

Club Cheval have packaged Discipline well, and listeners will be pleasantly surprised with their unique crossover of genres.

Aaron Streatfeild

Jennifer Hoddinett

Ben Pearce

INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK Convention, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing, if the excellent seven-track debut EP from Big Bad Echo is anything to go by.

DIIV photo by Sandy Kim

There’s something pleasantly intrusive about listening to Låpsley’s Long Way Home. It’s as if you’ve followed her aching vocals into a vast auditorium and found her lone silhouette bent over a piano – or a laptop, rather. It’s an expansive yet intimate debut, with each of the 12 tracks reflecting the impressive journey this 19-year-old has been on since releasing her bedroom-recorded Monday EP back in 2013.

sings amid an outpouring of angst, urgency and reverb. ‘Two Crows Flying’ takes a turn for the weird, as a dismal vocal fights for space with searing guitars and a sinister synth, and closer ‘Blink Your Eyes’ mashes all the aforementioned elements into the type of six-minute, Herculean beast of a track that leaves instruments and musicians alike bruised and broken. Witnessing a band marching triumphantly to the sound of its own (somewhat peculiar) drum makes you hope it can construct a killer album. All evidence Big Bad Echo have offered thus far points to the quintet releasing something big – and certainly not bad – in the future.

OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week... KENDRICK LAMAR - Untitled Unmastered. GARY BARTZ - Another Earth URTHBOY - The Signal

THE WHO - Quadrophenia PLAYWRITE - Cathedrals

Paul McBride thebrag.com

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up all night out all week . . .

PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY MAR

PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY MAR

The decision to schedule Spectrum Now’s Divine Times concert on the same night as Mardi Gras may have seemed to some like an odd kind of organisational suicide. But rather than one event overshadowing the other, the two joined together in strange symbiosis. After all, both proved to be celebrations of love, and if there was one thing that united the diverse talents on display at Divine Times, it was a sometimes strange but no less striking sense of devotion. This was music played by people who love music, lapped up by a crowd that adored it in turn. Jonathan Boulet began proceedings on a high note. Blasting his way through a dark yet danceable series of songs – the kind of music Madness might play if they found themselves in the grip of a bad acid trip – he was charismatic and chatty, introducing the audience to his sheepish parents, who stood in the corner watching. U.S. Girls’ Meghan Remy played a difficult, stark set, stalking around the

stage like a predator, and Seekae were all prickly, pogoing choruses. Headline act The Jesus and Mary Chain powered through an assemblage of B-sides before making light work of the seminal Psychocandy, combining blistering feedback with blissed-out choruses. It was barbed wire baked into cake; apple sauce laced with arsenic. Nonetheless, of them all, Nova Scotian fi ve-piece Alvvays were the most tr anscendent. Their set began with a very long, very public soundcheck, and early tunes were plagued with minor technical issues. But by the time they were done, the band had ended up in a different realm entirely – somewhere alien yet familiar, stumbling through a landscape both beautiful and hostile. It was a stunning testimony to music’s transformative power, as the fi ve 20-somethings onstage slowly grew in stature, becoming solid, signifi cant fi gures playing solid, signifi cant music. And when it was done, the fans stumbled out into the night, the sound of Mardi Gras all around them, as the city in which they nestled buzzed and breathed as one. Joseph Earp

VIOLENT FEMMES, XYLOURIS WHITE Taronga Zoo Friday March 4

play at Taronga on the release date of their first album in 15 years, We Can Do Anything. Referring to the animals featured in the title track, they had been told that the noise restrictions were in place so as not to upset the elephants.

Xylouris White are a duo matched in creativity and eccentricity. Introducing The hits were always going to have his Cretan lute ahead of himself, George a place in the setlist, and instantly Xylouris’ hypnotising strumming style met became highlights. ‘Country Death in harmony with Jim White of Dirty Three Song’, ‘Gimme The Car’ and perhaps and his dramatic drumming. As the sonic the peak of the night, ‘Gone Daddy journey snaked from one song to another, Gone’, delivered much delight to the it was the perfect wind-down for those fans. But surrounded by the 28:12:16 :: Frankie’s Pizza :: to 50Taronga Hunter St loyal Sydney who had made the pilgrimage sounds of native animals, it was the Zoo straight from work. With no idea of instrumental section of ‘Black Girls’ that where the music was leading, they had was the most fitting backdrop, as its no choice but to let go and go along for dissonant melody mimicked the chaotic the ride. sounds of a zoo. Violent Femmes opened with their The inevitable encore, ‘Add It Up’, proved ultimate crowd-pleaser, ‘Blister In The it will forever be a Sun’. It seemed like the band was just crowd favourite. getting the 1983 folk-punk hit out of the Although the way early, until an invitation for a singfans were still along turned out to be a well seasoned hooked on the recipe for an instant mosh pit. ’80s hits, ‘Memory’ got everyone As the crowd bopped along to ‘Kiss Off’, moving, but it was the predictable beat and Gordon Gano’s ‘American Music’ ageless vocals seamlessly led into the that finished recent releases ‘Good For/At Nothing’ the set with and ‘Love Love Love Love Love’ without full on daddiminishing the audience’s energy. dancing. Bassist Brian Ritchie was convinced Tanydd Jaquet Violent Femmes were “predestined” to

get folked

live at the sly ft. samuel dobson + wallace + beastside

PICS :: DC

Big Top, The Domain Saturday March 5

PICS :: AM

DIVINE TIMES

03:03:16 :: Slyfox :: 199 Enmore Rd Enmore 9557 2917 PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY MAR

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CARTER :: KATRINA CLAR OUR PHOTOGRAPHERS :: D.A.

KE :: ASHLEY MAR ::

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What we've been out to see...

SLEATER-KINNEY, U.S GIRLS Sydney Opera House Sunday March 6 After a ten-year hiatus, during which new generations of fans must have given up hope of their return, the iconic Sleater-Kinney arrived back in Sydney at the iconic Sydney Opera House. One of the few reunion gigs where the new stuff would be as anticipated as their esteemed back catalogue, the band had multiple options as how to handle the plethora of fan expectations. As it went, the night became the future textbook example of how to handle a comeback show. U.S. Girls opened with their brand of synthpop by way of The Ronettes, and while the set itself was solid – the high harmonies and Meghan Remy’s sampling prowess in particular impressed – pairing a synthpop opener with Sleater-Kinney’s hard rock was a thankless task. Add to that the Opera House’s notoriously frigid crowds and giving a first impression with the lumbering dirge ‘Rosemary’ meant the band deserved a better response than what the crowd offered up. From the very first notes of ‘Price Tag’, SleaterKinney made clear their sole intention was to rock you, and they did nothing but for 90 minutes straight. Corin Tucker’s oneof-a-kind voice, Janet

Weiss’ non-stop drum abuse, and Carrie Brownstein’s endless supply of guitar licks (and endless supply of rock star posturing, delivered with such grace that it looks like she invented the idea), this band is one of the most dazzling in existence, with its multitude of talents all merging to create an unstoppable ball of brute force. No Cities To Love arrived last year to universal acclaim and gained SleaterKinney hordes of new Portlandians to call fans, so they’d be justified in focusing on just that album. But they were very diplomatic, covering all but their earliest material. Special attention was given to One Beat, Dig Me Out and their solid gold masterpiece The Woods, which provided most of the set’s highlights. However, the band wasn’t immune to the cold Opera House audience either – as iconic as it is, the Concert Hall and punk gigs shouldn’t mix, as chairs are a poison for punk. Slowly but surely people got out of their seats and started dancing, until it came to a head with a vicious ‘Entertain’, which saw Brownstein put her guitar down, jump into the crowd with mic in hand, and chastise the remaining few people still sitting down before returning to the stage to finish off the song without missing a beat. This led right into a supercharged ‘Jumpers’, with everyone dancing around and energy levels going through the roof. Closing with their most signature of signature tunes – ‘Modern Girl’ followed by ‘Dig Me Out’ – Sleater-Kinney exceeded all sky-high expectations, leaving in their wake only stunned expressions and the hope that they don’t take another ten years to come back. Leonardo Silvestrini

PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY MAR

PATRICK JAMES, HEIN COOPER The Basement Friday March 4 For those mourning the passing of summer, Patrick James’ sweet sun-soaked tunes at The Basement last Friday were a fitting final huzzah. The evening kicked off with Milton singersongwriter Hein Cooper, who oozed confidence in every direction. He impeccably navigated a smorgasbord of nimble acoustics, electronic grooves and looped, a capella moments, charming the crowd with his straight-shooting style (“This song is called ‘All My Desires’. It’s about all the shit that I want that I don’t have”). Many

musicians might hesitate before tackling a Kanye cover, but not Cooper, whose flossy falsetto polished the coarseness of ‘Runaway’ into something raw and lovely. Do yourself a favour and check out his debut, The Art Of Escape, launched that evening. Ironically it was man of the hour, Patrick James, who played coy despite a soldout show. The Aussie troubadour exuded an earnest energy from the first honeyed note of ‘In New Light’. Perhaps his gentle demeanour was mirroring the crowd, peppered with fresh-faced couples a little self-conscious themselves. Or perhaps it was reverse psychology, because for each fervid expression, quiet chuckle, thumbs up or sliver of backstory he offered, the audience

was coaxed into participation. Three songs deep and it seemed everybody was chanting the chorus of the creeping slow-builder ‘Bugs’. Crowd camaraderie well established, James worked his way through his cache of mellow pop, mostly drawing from his debut Outlier. Setlist gems included a lulled and lingering rendition of ‘Kings And Queens’ and the coastal toe-tapping thrum of ‘California Song’, which had the audience ruffling and swaying like palm trees. There were curveballs too, including a brooding, bare-bones cover of The Killers’ ‘Runaways’ for encore and a tongue-incheek version of John Farnham’s ‘Two Strong Hearts’. Backed with doo-wop-

style vocals from James’ band, dusted in tambourines and injected with a cheeky sax solo (inducing a disproportional amount of cheering from the crowd), the latter number caused James himself to stop halfway through for a laugh. Warm and authentic in sound and stage presence, and with a clear penchant for crowd sing-alongs, James (or ‘Patty James’ to fans) has an endearing effect on people in a room. It was a testament to his chops as a performer that despite his unassuming songs and an intimate venue, every time he invited people to sing, they did wholeheartedly. They knew all the words too. Jennifer Hoddinett

speed date WITH AL

GRIGG FROM PALMS Your Profile Hi there, our name is Palms. We play 1. rock music. We like patting cute dogs and

cause the floor was about to fall through. That could’ve easily become the worst gig ever. Sometimes it’s a fine line.

following them on Instagram. In a fan, we look for someone who likes to jump around, bang their head, sing their lungs out and occasionally comment on our Instagram with cute emojis.

Current Playlist 4. I’m really digging the new DIIV album. It’s got a sort of aggressive dreaminess to

Keeping Busy Our second album Crazy Rack came out 2. about four months ago, so we’ve been busy gearing up to go on tour and play some shows to (belatedly) celebrate. It’s been a while since we’ve played interstate too, so itching to cross some borders and make some noise. Best Gig Ever 3. One of the most memorable gigs we’ve played recently was this crazy show upstairs at The Gladstone in Chippendale. We crammed over a hundred people into a room that should have held about 50 and the floor was bouncing as people were jumping around. Halfway through the show the booker came upstairs to tell us that everyone needed to stop jumping 26 :: BRAG :: 653 :: 09:03:16

it, which I really like. The last show that blew me away was High Tension at Laneway. It was such a powerful performance. The lead singer was amazing. She had a real magnetic presence. Grimes was pretty sick at Laneway too. Your Ultimate Rider 5. We’d be happy with a bunch of cool local dogs to play with. What: Crazy Rack out now through Ivy League Where: Moonshine Bar, Hotel Steyne / Oxford Art Factory When: Thursday March 10 / Saturday March 19

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g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com

pick of the week Something For Kate

SATURDAY MARCH 12 The Domain Th D

Something For Kate + Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever 7pm. $69.90. WEDNESDAY MARCH 9 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Jason Aldean + Georgia Line Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park. 6:30pm. $111.19. Manouche

Wednesday - feat: Gadjo Guitars Mr Falcon’s, Glebe. 7pm. Free. The Pigs Royal Botanic Gardens & The Domain, Sydney. 8pm. Free.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Greening/Elphick/ Sutherland Trio

Foundry616, Ultimo. 8:30pm. $20.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Chico Seeds + Driftwood + The Desert Sea Frankie’s Pizza. Sydney. 9pm. Free. D Henry Fenton + Mike Elrington The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $7.

Ego Monkey + Fox Holmes + Velvet Elevator + Rawhide Kid Brass Monkey, Cronulla. 8pm. $12.25. Gostwyck + Stockley + The Gypsy Scholars The Vanguard, Newtown. 7pm. $13.80. Hits & Pieces Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville. 8pm. Free.

Jeff Rosenstock + Antarctigo Vespucci + Camp Cope Factory Floor, Marrickville. 7pm. $20. Live & Original @ Lazybones - feat: Lisa Caruso + Gene Gibson + Bandditts Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 7:30pm. Free. Live Music @ Manning Manning Bar, Camperdown. 3pm. Free. Mark Travers Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. Free. Muso’s Club Jam Night Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt. 8pm. Free. Seims + Napoleonic Wars + Basil’s Kite + Dream Cities Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 7pm. $15. Seniors Concert - feat: Davidia + Milton Ward Belmont 16s, Belmont. 7pm. Free. Songwriting Society Of Australia Showcase - feat: John Chesher + Pete Scully + Paul McGowan + Gavin Fitzgerald + Russell Neal Old Fitzroy Hotel, Woolloomooloo. 7:30pm. Free. The Wiggles Cronulla Leagues Club - Sharkies, Woolooware. 10am. $27.90.

THURSDAY MARCH 10 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Big Blind Ray Frankie’s Pizza. Sydney. 9pm. Free. Fire And Rain - feat: Juan Gonzalez The Bells Hotel, Woolloomooloo. 7pm. Free.

Harbourview Hullabaloo - feat: Zack Martin Harbourview Hotel, The Rocks. 7pm. Free. Huknee Puknee Mr Falcon’s, Glebe. 8:30pm. Free. Mary Black + Róisín O Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 7pm. $96.40. Mia Dyson Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7pm. $25. Sounds On The Terrace - feat: Aleisha McDonald Museum Of Contemporary Art, The Rocks. 6:30pm. Free. Sunset Sessions feat: Benny Vibes + Krysitie Erickson The Bristol Arms Hotel, Sydney. 6pm. Free. The Pigs Royal Botanic Gardens & The Domain, Sydney. 8pm. Free. Tori Forsyth + The Wayward Henrys The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $7.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Cuban Night - feat: Live Cuban Band And DJ Della Hyde, Darlinghurst. 5pm. Free. Diego El Cigala City Recital Hall, Sydney. 8pm. $89. Rhythm & Bowls - feat: Johnny G & The E Types + Julz Di Sisto Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville. 5:30pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS AJ Dyce The Push Bar, The Rocks. 7pm. Free. Blake Tailor Dee Why Hotel, Dee Why. 7pm. Free.

Dave Anthony Crown Hotel, Sydney. 5pm. Free. Glenn Esmond Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale. 7:30pm. Free. Lazy Thinking Presents - feat: Earthquake Magnificent + Autosuggest Red Rattler, Marrickville. 7pm. $10. Live & Original @ The Merc - feat: Andrew Samuel + Cuzn The Mercantile Hotel, The Rocks. 7:30pm. Free. Live At The Sly feat: Delphine Geoff + Colour Cage + Shady Nasty Slyfox, Enmore. 7:30pm. Free. Live Music @ Manning Manning Bar, Camperdown. 3pm. Free. RocKwiz Live - feat: Hosts Julia Zemiro And Brian Nankervis + The RocKwiz Orkestra + Guests Royal Botanic Gardens & The Domain, Sydney. 7pm. $89.90. The Beatvilles Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. Free. The Jensens Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $10. The Mummies + Psychotic + Tumbuckles + Los Tones Hermann’s Bar, Darlington. 8pm. $45.

FRIDAY MARCH 11 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Mike Nock Octet Foundry616, Ultimo. 8:30pm. $25. Ten Part Invitation’s 30th Anniversary The Sound Lounge,

Sydney. 8:30pm. $10.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Francesca De Valence + Helen Perris The Newsagency, Marrickville. 8pm. $20. Luca Gemma + Ross Ward Django Bar @ Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 7:30pm. $22.70. Sunset Sessions feat: Benny Vibes + Krysitie Erickson The Bristol Arms Hotel, Sydney. 6pm. Free. Tailor Birds Mr Falcon’s, Glebe. 9pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Alfredo Malabello The Push Bar, The Rocks. 7:30pm. Free. Belinda Carlisle + Pseudo Echo Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $82.80. Birds Of Tokyo Royal Botanic Gardens & The Domain, Sydney. 7pm. $69.90. Blake Tailor Zest Grill House, Rooty Hill. 5:30pm. Free. Built To Spill Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm. $55. Buzzcocks + Hits! + White Dog Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $55. Courtyard Sessions - feat: William Crighton Seymour Centre, Chippendale. 6pm. Free. Dave Anthony Chatswood RSL, Chatswood. 5pm. Free. Dee Donavan + Donna Campbell + Gary Sterling + Grooveworks

five things WITH

MATT WYKNIET FROM GOSTWYCK intentionality of Brian Wilson and topped off with the expression of Dave Hosking. The list could go on really. Your Band 3. Gostwyck is made up of Gus, Joe, Kerr, Will and Swanny along with myself. As cliché as it sounds, our friendship is what really ties us all together, as hard and easy as that is at times. Our music is a real reflection of our reality and the ways in which life ebbs and flows. Our songs are expressions not purely of what one particular person is experiencing, but how we collectively endure these experiences together. The Music You Make 4. We’ve drawn on a lot of bands who we collectively dig for

1.

Growing Up I’ve always grown up in a household where music is encouraged. I have a super vague memory of being nominated as a piano player’s page turner. I was young, couldn’t read music and my

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rigid transition between sheets often saw them on the floor. The seemingly meaningless notations on the page had a sense of chaos to them that made music super appealing to me, and I continued to invest a greater interest in it from there.

2.

Inspirations If I could roll a few songwriting inspirations into one, I would take the earnest nature of Bob Dylan, the work ethic of Ben Cooper, the craftsmanship of Justin Vernon, the cacophony of Kurt Cobain, the

stylistic variation and nuance. Bruce Springsteen’s music shapes our guitar tones, The Paper Kites and Boy & Bear for our stuff on drums, and many, many more. We recently recorded our debut EP at Jungle Studios with Lewis Mitchell, who we really can’t thank enough for his

tireless effort and failure to respond to our poor jokes. At our live shows you can expect honesty through our lyrics but also a lot of energy that stems from the kick we get out of playing together. Music, Right Here, Right 5. Now There are so many killer venues in Sydney. I’m a sucker for small, gritty intimate spaces where music feels like it’s being spoon-fed to you. Despite all that’s happening in regards to the various reformations of cultural policy and the lockout laws at the moment, I just hope people continue to support live music and appreciate artistic expression for what it is, because there really are few greater thrills. What: It’s All A Dream out now independently With: Stockley, The Gypsy Scholars Where: The Vanguard When: Wednesday March 9

BRAG :: 653 :: 09:03:16 :: 27

g g guide gig g send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com

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(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

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11 Mar (10:00PM - 1:40AM)

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

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5:45PM  8:45PM

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

(4:30PM - 7:30PM)

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Rooty Hill RSL Club, Rooty Hill. 10:30am. Free. Doom Priestess Presents Coven 2016 - feat: Watchtower + Sumeru + Fatter Della Morte + Comacozer + Lord Sword + Hawkmoth Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $15. Grenadiers Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $15. Halcyon Drive

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

Waywards, Newtown. 8pm. Free. Handpicked Royal Motor Yacht Club, Newport. 8:15pm. Free. Joe Moore Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $35. John Vella 99 On York, Sydney. 5:30pm. Free. No Troubles Penrith RSL, Penrith. 9pm. Free. Reckless Orient Hotel, The

Mar

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

Rocks. 10pm. Free. Rosie Catalano Hornsby Mall, Hornsby. 5pm. Free. Soul Nights Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8:30pm. Free. Soundproofed Rooty Hill RSL Club, Rooty Hill. 8:30pm. Free. Steve Crocker Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale. 9:30pm. Free. Strung Out + Pears Metro Theatre,

Sydney. 8pm. $46.90. Suite Az + DJ Troy T The Arthouse, Sydney. 5pm. Free. Ted Nash Lord Raglan Hotel, Sydney. 7pm. Free. The Bellfuries Manhattan Superbowl, Mascot. 8pm. $35. The Charlatans Max Watt’s, Moore Park. 8pm. $75.50. The JP Project Vineyard Hotel, Vineyard. 9:30pm. Free. The Mighty Peeve

Colonial Hotel, Werrington. 8:30pm. Free. The Organics Bald Faced Stag Hotel, Leichhardt. 8pm. $10. The Rockin’ Eddie Band Belmont 16s, Belmont. 7pm. Free. The Vegas Nerve Experience Coogee Diggers, Coo gee. 7pm. $25. Twilight At Taronga feat: C.W. Stoneking + Marlon Williams And The Yarra Benders Taronga Zoo, Mosman. 7pm. $70.95. Vanessa Heinitz Duo Coogee Bay Hotel, Coogee. 9pm. Free. Whelan & Gover Crown Hotel, Sydney. 7:30pm. Free.

SATURDAY MARCH 12 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Chich And The Soul Messengers Petersham Inn, Petersham. 8pm. Free. Joseph Liddy And The Skeleton Horse’s Super Plush Adult Contemporary Dance Party 107 Projects, Redfern. 7pm. $10. Tina Harrod Quartet The Sound Lounge, Sydney. 8:30pm. $15. Twilight At Taronga - feat: Ladysmith Black Mambazo Taronga Zoo, Mosman. 7pm. $90.95.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS After Party Band Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8:30pm. Free.

Ash Max Watt’s, Moore Park. 8pm. $67.25. Cruzers Belmont 16s, Belmont. 7pm. Free. Dave Anthony Crown Hotel, Sydney. 9pm. Free. Dave Debs Lord Raglan Hotel, Sydney. 7pm. Free. Furnace & The Fundamentals Royal Botanic Gardens & The Domain, Sydney. 6:30pm. Free. Geoff Davies The Push Bar, The Rocks. 7:30pm. Free. Glenn Esmond Fortune Of War, The Rocks. 3pm. Free. Good For You Tour - feat: Courtney Barnett + Fraser A. Gorman + Jen Cloher + Ouch My Face + East Brunswick All Girls Choir + The Finks Vic On The Park, Enmore. 4pm. Free. Ground Control To The Garry Owen (Bowie Tribute) feat: Gary Izzard + Jean-Marc Girard + Matt Ralph + Scott O’Hara + Tim Jones + Jenny Hume + Tyler Mahoney + Zero Fret + Andrew Denniston + Russell Neal Garry Owen Hotel, Rozelle. 7:30pm. Free. Jack Horner Wallacia Hotel, Wallacia. 8pm. Free. John Vella Rocks Brewing Co, Alexandria. 2pm. Free. Jono Collins Plough & Harrow, Camden. 8pm. Free. Mangelwurzel Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $18. Matt Hanley The Merton Hotel, Rozelle . 8pm. Free. Metal Fiesta 9 - feat: Witchgrinder + Our Last Enemy + Hazmat + Inhuman Remains + The Murdering + Alice Through A Windshield Glass + Jonathan Devoy

Solo Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 6pm. $15. Mike Hallam Hot Five Penrith RSL, Penrith. 2pm. Free. Natasha Duarte Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 5:45pm. Free. Opia + Mercury Sky + Sevsons + Genetics + Metanoia Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt. 8pm. $11.80. Rob Eastwood Campbelltown Catholic Club, Campbelltown. 6pm. Free. Something For Kate + Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever Royal Botanic Gardens & The Domain, Sydney. 7pm. $69.90. Soul Tattoo Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale. 9pm. Free. Spit Roasting Bibbers Picton Hotel, Picton. 8pm. Free. Stephanie Lea Novotel, Rooty Hill. 6:30pm. Free. Steve Crocker Red Cow Inn, Penrith. 3pm. Free. Studio 529 Royal Motor Yacht Club, Newport. 8:15pm. Free. Ted Nash Panania Diggers, Panania. 8pm. Free. The JP Project The Bells Hotel, 7:30pm. Free. The Wiggles Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 9:30am. $27.90. Total Chaos Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 7:30pm. $30. Unleash Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill. 8pm. Free. Uptown Funk Penrith RSL, Penrith. 9pm. Free. Vanessa Heinitz Panania Hotel, Panania. 8:30pm. Free. Walken + Muddy Chanter + Daggerz +

Sloom + Dead Brian The Record Crate, Glebe. 8pm. $10. Whelan & Gover The Belvedere Hotel, Sydney. 7:30pm. Free. Wildcatz Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 10pm. Free.

SUNDAY MARCH 13 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Jazz & Shiraz Sundays Northies Cronulla Hotel, Sydney. 1pm. Free. Lyre Byrdland Royal Botanic Gardens & The Domain, Sydney. 3pm. Free. Malo Malo Royal Botanic Gardens & The Domain, Sydney. 7:20pm. Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK Bluesonstage - feat: Andrew Denniston + Paul B Wilde Red Lion Hotel, Rozelle. 4pm. Free. Borrowed Verse feat: Alice Night + Alex Bell + Willowy The Newsagency, Marrickville. 7:30pm. $20. Jimi Beavis + Roland Kay-Smith The Record Crate, Glebe. 4:30pm. Free. Live Music Sundays - feat: Sydney Blues Society Botany View Hotel, Newtown. 7pm. Free. Los Romeos Oxidados The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 5pm. $5. Roy Payne’s Big Island Express

five things WITH Growing Up 1. I travelled a lot as a child, my parents moving us around the globe

Your Band 3. Opia has been around since 2007. Back then it was a different

constantly. My early musical memories were very ethnic – rhythmical, and even tribal I guess you could say. Growing up through the school years I learnt classical guitar for a long period of time, ultimately making the progression into the electric ‘amplified’ world of music. The rest is history – although I still play classical guitar a lot. I think the memories we grow with really inspire certain sparks, whatever the artistic outlet is.

lineup, and has since (over the past two to three years) evolved into the current one. Originally our debut album was scheduled for early 2012, which would have been a year and a half after our five-track EP released in 2010. At that time, we were planning the record with a totally different rhythm section. As the months went by due to various reasons, the new Opia gradually took shape. Dan Zarb took on bass duties, and Dain Pattison the new helm on drums. I guess you could say Eon is the new Opia, and more fired up now than ever before!

Inspirations 2. As I think of my CD collection over the years, that’s always been a hard question for me to answer, and pinpoint, as the inspirations are so vast and many that only naming a few would be too hard! Personally I’m a listener of many genres (as are Dan and Dain) and take a lot from all styles, which in turn just filters into a personal musical development. Mix that with a bunch of guys that are on the same path, and boom – we got Eon! 28 :: BRAG :: 653 :: 09:03:16

The Music You Make 4. I guess our music is definitely heavy rock, moving into a more progressive style of rock. For a threepiece, we really try and push our boundaries with so much going on in the songs, trying to make them as three-dimensional as possible, really working on the arrangements, and particularly sounds, in certain sections. Using a lot of different styles

MICHAEL BOK FROM OPIA and approaches, we really wanted to keep Eon as interesting as we possibly could, with a broad spectrum of music on there. Our live show is just dedicated to delivering the album to its fullest, and it’s so much fun doing that with this batch of songs. It’s really sounding huge onstage! Music, Right Here, Right Now 5. I think there are so many amazing bands in Australia at the moment that are just pushing boundaries. Personally I think the level of quality in all genres is at a high, that bands just inspire other bands to keep creating and pushing to new levels, and that’s a healthy thing in music – thinking outside the box and not being restricted. Sure, have a style and sound, but be yourself doing it. What: Eon out now independently With: Mercury Sky, Sevsons, Genetics, Metanoia Where: The Bald Faced Stag When: Saturday March 12

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g g guide gig g

g g picks gig p

send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville. 2pm. Free. Ryan Thomas + Nat James Mr Falcon’s, Glebe. 7pm. Free. Songsonstage feat: Russell Neal + Ionia Petersham Inn, Petersham. 4pm. Free. Sunday Live At The Bowlo Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville. 4:30pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Klassic Blak Belmont 16s, Belmont. 7pm. Free. Amber Lies - feat: Dark Raven + Cigars Of The Pharaoh + Green Manalishi + Postmentalist + The Lightening Experience Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 4pm. $10. Dave Anthony Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown. 2pm. Free. Gary Johns Trio Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm. Free. Glenn Esmond Fortune Of War, The Rocks. 6pm. Free. Michael Kopp Rocks Brewing Co, Alexandria. 2pm. Free. Missy Higgins + Montaigne Royal Botanic Gardens & The Domain, Sydney. 7pm. $79.90. Richard Calabro Royal Motor Yacht Club, Newport. 2pm. Free. Smoked Out At Frankie’s - feat: Comacozer + Witchskull + Aver + Frozen Planet 1969 Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 4pm. Free. Stephanie Lea Northies Cronulla

Hotel, Sydney. 1pm. Free. The Endless Summer Beach Party Penrith RSL, Penrith. 2pm. Free. The JP Project Ingleburn Hotel, Ingleburn. 1pm. Free. The Wiggles Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 9:30am. $27.90. Tyne-James Organ The Lair @ Metro Theatre, Sydney. 2pm. $17.10. White Bros Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 4:30pm. Free.

MONDAY MARCH 14 INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Live Music @ Manning Manning Bar, Camperdown. 3pm. Free. Rob Henry Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. Free. The Monday Jam The Beresford Hotel, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free.

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC Latin & Jazz Open Mic Night The World Bar, Kings Cross. 7pm. Free. Reggae Mondays - feat: Eric Renaud And Caribbean Soul Civic Underground, Sydney. 10pm. Free. The Monday Jam The Basement, Circular Quay. 8pm. $5.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

up all night out all week...

John Maddox Duo Mr Falcon’s, Glebe. 7pm. Free. Songsonstage - feat: Russell Neal Kelly’s On King, Newtown. 7:30pm. Free.

TUESDAY MARCH 15 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

WEDNESDAY MARCH 9

C.W. Stoneking

D Henry Fenton + Mike Elrington The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $7. Gostwyck + Stockley + The Gypsy Scholars The Vanguard, Newtown. 7pm. $13.80. Jason Aldean + Georgia Line Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park. 6:30pm. $111.19. Jeff Rosenstock + Antarctigo Vespucci + Camp Cope Factory Floor, Marrickville. 7pm. $20.

Taronga Zoo, Mosman. 7pm. $70.95.

THURSDAY MARCH 10

SATURDAY MARCH 12

Sunset Jazz Hermann’s Bar, Darlington. 6pm. Free.

Live At The Sly - Feat: Delphine Geoff + Colour Cage + Shady Nasty Slyfox, Enmore. 7:30pm. Free.

Ash Max Watt’s, Moore Park. 8pm. $67.25.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Mary Black + Róisín O Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 7pm. $96.40.

Furnace & The Fundamentals Royal Botanic Gardens & The Domain, Sydney. 6:30pm. Free.

Bandquest - feat: Three Blind Venetians + Cold Vulture + Yellow Bird Music + Andrew Denniston Ruby L’otel, Rozelle. 7:30pm. Free. Bucket Lounge Presents – Live & Originals Mr Falcon’s, Glebe. 7pm. Free. Songsonstage - feat: Russell Neal Gladstone Hotel, Dulwich Hill. 7:30pm. Free. Songsonstage - feat: Stuart Jammin Kelly’s On King, Newtown. 8pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Acoustic Playboys Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. Free. Blake Tailor Zest Grill House, Rooty Hill. 5:30pm. Free. Live Rock & Roll Karaoke Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 4pm. Free. Sunn O))) Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm. $69.90.

Mia Dyson Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 7pm. $25. Rhythm & Bowls - Feat: Johnny G & The E Types + Julz Di Sisto Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville. 5:30pm. Free.

FRIDAY MARCH 11 Belinda Carlisle + Pseudo Echo Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $82.80. Birds Of Tokyo Royal Botanic Gardens & The Domain, Sydney. 7pm. $69.90. Built To Spill Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm. $55.

Good For You Tour - Feat: Courtney Barnett + Fraser A. Gorman + Jen Cloher + Ouch My Face + East Brunswick All Girls Choir + The Finks Vic On The Park, Enmore. 4pm. Free. Mangelwurzel Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $18. Opia + Mercury Sky + Sevsons + Genetics + Metanoia Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt. 8pm. $11.80. Total Chaos Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 7:30pm. $30. Twilight At Taronga - Feat: Ladysmith Black Mambazo Taronga Zoo, Mosman. 7pm. $90.95.

Buzzcocks + Hits! + White Dog Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 8pm. $55.

SUNDAY MARCH 13

Courtyard Sessions - feat: William Crighton Seymour Centre, Chippendale. 6pm. Free.

Malo Malo Royal Botanic Gardens & The Domain, Sydney. 7:20pm. Free.

Francesca De Valence + Helen Perris The Newsagency, Marrickville. 8pm. $20. Grenadiers Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $15. Halcyon Drive Waywards, Newtown. 8pm. Free. Joe Moore Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $35.

Missy Higgins + Montaigne Royal Botanic Gardens & The Domain, Sydney. 7pm. $79.90. Smoked Out At Frankie’s - Feat: Comacozer + Witchskull + Aver + Frozen Planet 1969 Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 4pm. Free. Tyne-James Organ The Lair @ Metro Theatre, Sydney. 2pm. $17.10.

The Charlatans Max Watt’s, Moore Park. 8pm. $75.50.

TUESDAY MARCH 15

Twilight At Taronga - Feat: C.W. Stoneking + Marlon Williams And The Yarra Benders

Sunn O))) Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm. $69.90.

songwriters’ secrets WITH

RAVEN KANETAKTA FROM DIGGING ROOTS The First Song I Wrote 1. The first song I ever wrote was when I was roughly around the age of 16, when my grandfather walked into my home and surprised me by saying it was his 80th birthday. I didn’t have a present and so in about a half an hour I wrote a song for him. He was a big fan of country music so I did it in that style. If I picked up a guitar I could still play it in its entirety. The Last Song I Released 2. The last album we released was For The Light. It was written, recorded and produced by ShoShona and I. We consider it our favourite work to date, although we’re super excited to get back into the studio! Songwriting Secrets 3. I don’t think I’ve ever written a song the same way twice; it’s always different! Sometimes there are lyrics and often the music comes first. Other times it takes weeks because ShoShona (who is my songwriting partner) and I hit a creative wall that we’re trying to solve. Sometimes the song is written in 20 minutes. The biggest challenge is to get the ego out of the way so there’s room for the song to be born. Song That Makes Me Proud 4. The I just love music. Each song brings

something different emotionally and musically. It’s akin to eating different types of food; if you haven’t eaten Thai food for a while then it really hits the spot. We’ll often bring in older songs that we haven’t played in a while because it brings a different spice to the live setlist. Although I’d say our song ‘Spring To Come’ becomes a great jam when we invite guests up onstage, and at the moment I’m having a blast performing ‘Cut My Hair’, which is yet to be released. The Song That Changed My Life 5. For me it’s an artist that changed my life. Bob Marley wrote so many fantastic songs and had so much commentary within those songs. His music and message was really a gamechanger for me as he spoke to things that I could relate to having grown up on a rez (Indian Reserve) in northern Canada. I loved the ‘one love’ concept but also the heavier messages that he sang about. Bob was the man! With: Declan Kelly, Krista Pav Where: Newtown Social Club When: Wednesday March 16 And: Also appearing at Bluesfest, Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, Thursday March 24 – Monday March 28 xxx

thebrag.com

BRAG :: 653 :: 09:03:16 :: 29

brag beats

BRAG’s guide to dance, hip hop and club culture

dance music news club, dance and hip hop in brief... with Chris Martin, Joseph Earp and James Di Fabrizio

five things WITH

JOSH BUTLER

THIS WEEK IN BONDI

UV Boi

Bondi’s premier party destination, the Beach Road Hotel, has lived up to its reputation with its announcement of gigs this week. First up for Sosueme this Wednesday March 9 are Sydney beats conjurers Cosmo’s Midnight, whose 2016 is shaping up to be a big one. Joining them for the midweek soiree is Jess Kent. Then, come Friday March 11, the venue will host a double bill from Belvie and Yanya, sure to get the crowds moving their feet. The weekly Yours party on Saturday March 12 is styled Family Night Pt. 1, while Sunday March 13 will see Pantheon wave goodbye to the weekend.

SUPER MARIO IN SYDNEY

A one-time Dancing With The Stars contestant is here to show us the very meaning of style. Global R&B wunderkind Mario has unveiled the date for his oneoff Sydney show. Though not yet a household name in Australia, Mario is exceedingly popular in the States, lauded for his neo-funk stylings and his deep, resonant voice. His show is bound to dazzle not only long-term fans, but will also undoubtedly attract a flock of newcomers to the man’s swagger. So, given how in demand tickets are already shaping up to be, those in the know should start saving the date, stat. Mario hits Hotel Chambers on Saturday March 26.

SOMETHING TO SHOW YOU

Brisbane’s UV Boi has shared his latest single, ‘Show You’, and locked in a Sydney show to celebrate. The track features fellow Brisbane lads MTNS, and is a new cut from his upcoming debut EP, L-UV. In support of the release, UV Boi will be heading on a national tour, joined by special guests Collarbones, Gill Bates and Villette. The tour rolls into Oxford Art Factory on Saturday April 30.

DO IT, TRY IT

Jesabel Growing Up The Music You 1. My dad plays the 4. Make And Play guitar and he used to No two sets of mine have little multi-track tape decks that he would record on. Both my mum and dad are big Pink Floyd fans, so I was introduced to some outstanding music from a young age. My mum was always into dance stuff as well as rock, so I would steal her Faithless and Prodigy CDs whenever I could. Inspirations 2. I listen to a wide variety of music, so it’s hard to choose a favourite. It all depends on the mood that I’m in. I find myself drawing inspiration from King Tubby, New Order, Moby, Fatboy Slim and many more. I try to combine elements of what I like about each artist. Of course, house guys like Kerri Chandler, Marshall Jefferson, Ron Trent and MAW are also all a huge inspiration.

3.

ON THE RADAR

The good people behind Sydney’s hottest underground record label and warehouse party events, Surveillance Party, are set to host their biggest throwdown yet. Radar, to be held at Oxford Art Factory on the Easter weekend, is styled as a night of live bands and a silent rave. Dancefloor fiends can expect tech, electro, house and DnB from the likes of Haptic, Wonky and Xan Müller, while the live acts on offer include No Illuminati and Mirella’s Inferno. It’s set to be a prime time on Oxford Street come Saturday March 26.

Marcus Whale

Music, Right 5. Here, Right Now Nicole Moudaber played some of the best sets I saw last year! She destroyed Circoloco at DC10. Northern England is my local scene. Manchester is world renowned for producing some of the best dance music. The Haçienda may have been a little before my time, but that raw creative energy is still strong in the North. Past and present are both important to me. Know the history, respect the roots and push forward. Where: The World Bar When: Saturday March 12

IT’S JUST JESABEL

It’s hard to find a better location in Sydney than The Argyle – just a stone’s throw away from the shoreline of our worldfamous harbour – and the venue’s music offerings are only getting bigger and bigger. A highlight on The Argyle’s booming weekly diary is its Friday night, and this Friday March 11 sees a headline set from a prime party-starter in Jesabel. This Aussie DJ and producer on the rise has supported some fellow young hotshots in Tigerlily, Uberjak’d and Will Sparks, but this time she’ll be top of the bill herself. Joining her at The Argyle is Lavida, a regular resident around Sydney’s hottest dancefloors.

EARS HAVE EARS LIVE

Fans of the experimental and the odd rejoice: FBi Radio’s Ears Have Ears has announced a brand new live music event. The debut evening of Ears Have Ears Live will feature noted electronic musician and dark provocateur Marcus Whale, kicking off the program with a very significant bang. Even better, not only will Whale be performing, he will also be in conversation with sound artist and teacher Pia van Gelder, offering a rare insight into his artistic practice. And to top it all off? The evening won’t cost you a dime. Ears Have Ears Live hits FBi Radio’s live broadcast space in Alexandria on Thursday March 31. RSVP is essential to live@fbiradio.com.

xxx

Your Crew Recently I have been working with Sante, Darius Syrossian, Hauswerks and Pawsa. I also have a very exciting collaboration project with some of my house heroes, but I’m not going to say too much yet.

are ever the same. The idea of playing the same tracklist every night bores me to death. It’s about tailoring a set for each crowd, venue and mood. In the grand scheme of things it’s all house music. Usually I start a little deeper and softer and then build the vibe for a while until I can gradually shift towards the harder side of my sound.

As he heads towards the release of his upcoming album, M83 has returned with a new single and an Australian tour. ‘Do It, Try It’ is the first taste of Anthony Gonzalez’s upcoming album, entitled Junk, due out later this year. It marks the long-awaited follow-up to his critically acclaimed album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, which featured the Grammynominated single ‘Midnight City’. M83 will play the Enmore Theatre on Monday May 16, with support from Japanese Wallpaper.

30 :: BRAG :: 653 :: 09:03:16

thebrag.com

Santigold Making Cents Of It All By Adam Norris

A

t the risk of hyperbole, it looks like Santigold has got this whole ‘life’ deal totally figured out. From her first solo forays back in 2007, to the recent release of third album 99¢, the US pop-electronic artist has developed a philosophy of music that’s as inspiring as it is creative. Better still, when the dervish of New York City becomes too much, Santigold simply retreats to a tropical hideaway. Not a bad way to spend your days, especially when a performance career was once the last thing on her mind. Initially working in A&R, it was her experiences on the other side of the label that provided the impetus for becoming the artist she is today.

Santigold photo by C. de Castro

“That was really important, because basically I had no aspirations of being a musician or a performer until I had that experience,” Santigold recalls. “I thought that’s what I wanted to do. I thought I wanted to own a record company. But as I started working there I realised, ‘This sucks! I don’t wanna do this!’ So I started writing songs for other people, and then it was more, ‘Well, these songs aren’t sounding exactly like I hear them. So I guess I need to sing them myself.’ “Sometimes you have to figure out what you don’t want before you figure out what you do. For me, it was very clear that in my wildest dreams I would never have thought of being a singer or a performer. But everything has changed since then in the music industry. That was a long time ago, and every time I put out a record there’s a whole new landscape.” From her work with Epic Records,

Santigold left to co-write and produce the debut album for popsoul artist Res, and it was here that her own musical intentions began to truly flourish. If learning what she didn’t want to do at Epic helped reveal a different path, the revelation that only she could give her writing the voice it needed was the next fork in the road. “It was hard. Especially because I was so inexperienced, I didn’t know how to deal with anything. I wasn’t the diplomatic, seasoned individual I am now,” she laughs self-deprecatingly. “Because you’d write a song and just love it, and then you’d give it to someone and they’d change it, rearrange things. It was hard, especially when you thought at any given time that they were changing it for the worse. Sometimes for the better, but if you thought it was going in the wrong direction, it was hard to step back and let it happen. Since then, I’ve done a lot of songwriting for other people, and I don’t really care as much. You put ideas out there and if it’s not for your record, well, whatever. They can take and leave what they want, and you move on. But I only feel that way because I know I have my own records. The reason I was led to my own music was because of the frustration of having this idea and not getting to hear it the way you dreamed. That’s what pushed me to be an artist.” And an artist of significant critical acclaim, at that. 99¢ is a notably more upbeat album from past releases; it is catchy and cute without ever becoming twee. You suspect it’s destined to be a crossover album, something that will charm both new and old listeners. Yet despite the

assurances of her press releases, any curiosity over Santigold’s remarks that she doesn’t write for herself but for others is met with a good-humoured rebuke. “No, I write for myself, because I think if I wasn’t writing music I wouldn’t be living the life I’m supposed to live. I feel spiritually connected to the process of songwriting. I write because I need to write. But it’s not like it’s this thing where –” Santigold clears her throat and puts on a low, whining voice. “‘I don’t care if anybody likes this, I do whatever I want.’ Music for me is a very communal thing, and that’s why I’ve done so many collaborations. I love working with

people, I love sharing music, I love performing music. I get energy from that. So when I do my songs, I’m writing it for myself and other people too. Just like a novelist. You want to make sure you’re saying it in the right way, you want to get your intention across.” As we wrap up our conversation, it is lightly snowing in New York while in Australia the tarmac has melted to sludge. Santigold is wrapped up snug, looking forward to reading her favourite author, Haruki Murakami, and admiring the winter wonderland outside. Yet even in such Gershwin romance, part of her creative soul is dreaming of green.

Off The Record

Âme Saturday March 12 you’ve got the choice of the double bill of Guy J and Pablo Sanchez at the Burdekin Hotel, Dana Ruh at Civic Underground or Âme, Edu Imbernon and Audiojack at Greenwood Hotel. Oh, and of course the previously announced gig featuring Mr. Ties and Marcellus Pittman at Arq. You’re most likely going to be mighty crusty on Sunday morning, which brings me to my next point.

Lee Gamble

If you’re after some essential viewing this week/end, head no further than bbc.co.uk. Yes – I know this may sound strange, but hear me out. The site has revived six of its best rave-centric documentaries from the archives, include Rave: The Beat Goes On, Witness: The Haçienda Nightclub, Stories In Sound: The Roots Of Rave, Behind The Label: Ram Records, The Amen Break and Stacey Dooley Investigates: Ecstasy Wars. Essential viewing, especially the documentary on the infamous Haçienda. When you’re hungover next Sunday and looking for something to watch while you wait for your take-out, you’ll thank me.

Lee Gamble photo by Oliver Clasper

W

Ol’ mate Greg Pepperpot will return to Sydney later this month. For the past seven years the French stalwart has been

What: 99¢ out now through Atlantic/Warner

RECOMMENDED

Dance and Electronica with Tyson Wray

oaaaah mumma. This ain’t no April Fools’ joke: on Friday April 1, the one and only Lee Gamble is descending on Sydney. Emerging from Birmingham’s legendary jungle and techno scene in the early ’00s, the man has gone on to release his own recordings on the likes of Entr’act and PAN, and most recently formed his own label UIQ. He’ll be joined by Josh Leenaars, Moopie and Jon Watts one a Funktion-One sound system at Slyfox. Giddy up.

“I love New York because of the constant stimulus. You get so much inspiration just from being here, because you’re constantly encountering something that’s going to make you feel, that’s going to make you think. But when you need to hear your own voice and ideas, you really have to be silent inside. It’s hard to do that all the time when you’re in such a bustling place, so especially when I’m having trouble with lyrics I like to go to Jamaica. I look out over the ocean, listen to the birds, and the words just come.”

a resident at the legendary Parisian Rex Club, but over the course of his 20-year career he’s been bringing his subtle brand of house and techno to the biggest clubs and festivals around the world, and imprints such as Silver Network, Serialism and Kaato Music. Word on the street is that he’s planning to launch his own label soon, so get a sneak peek of his first releases when he hits the Burdekin Hotel on Saturday March 19 with support from Donald Leicester, James Petrou and Eliot Mireylees. A couple of newly announced international acts are hitting the town this weekend. On

Tour rumours: expect to see a visit from Frenchman and Antinote label curator Zaltan by the end of the month. Same goes for Sidney Charles and Olivier Giacomotto. Best releases this week: it actually came out a month ago, but after hearing Kenji Takimi throw down Closed Paradise’s ‘Your Love I’m Gonna Take’, I can’t take the track off repeat. If you were a fan of the deep house/disco hybrids that were emerging from Melbourne basements back in 2010 (think Tornado Wallace, Francis Inferno Orchestra, Andy Hart), then you’ll love this. Other highlights include the compilation LI$002 (on Low Income $quad) and the joint project from Voices From The Lake and Wata Igarashi, Stealth 2/3 (Time To Express).

FRIDAY MARCH 11

TUESDAY MARCH 15 St. Germain Enmore Theatre

Marco Shuttle TBA

SATURDAY MARCH 19

SATURDAY MARCH 12

Soichi Terada Jam Gallery

Mr. Ties, Marcellus Pittman Arq

Mr. Ties, Tom Of England Arq

Guy J, Pablo Sanchez Burdekin Hotel

Pepperpot Burdekin Hotel

SATURDAY MARCH 26

Dana Ruh Civic Underground Âme, Edu Imbernon, Audiojack Greenwood Hotel

Vril Burdekin Hotel

FRIDAY APRIL 1 Lee Gamble Slyfox

Got any tip-offs, hate mail, praise or cat photos? Email hey@tysonwray.com or contact me via carrier pigeon. thebrag.com

BRAG :: 653 :: 09:02:16 :: 31

club guide g

club picks p up all night out all week...

send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com

club pick of the week Art vs Science

SATURDAY MARCH 12 Metro Theatre M

Art vs Science + KLP + Tees Xxx

8pm. $33.90. WEDNESDAY MARCH 9 CLUB NIGHTS Salsa Wednesdays - feat: DJ Miro + Special Guests The Argyle, The Rocks. 8:30pm. Free. Snapback Newtown Hotel, Newtown. 8pm. Free. Sosueme - feat: Cosmo’s Midnight + Jess Kent Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. Free. The Wall The World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. Free.

THURSDAY MARCH 10 CLUB NIGHTS Femme Fetale The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. Free. Mixed Tape - feat: DJs Hermann’s Bar, Darlington. 4pm. Free. The Thursday Jive - feat: Nukewood & Friends Taylor’s Social, Sydney. 5pm. Free. XO Thursdays Mona Vale Hotel, Mona Vale. 9pm. Free.

HIP HOP & R&B Downtown Funk -

CLUB NIGHTS Back To Funk Party! - feat: DJ Meem Plan B Small Club, Sydney. 8pm. Free. Argyle Fridays The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. Free. Bassic - feat: Boombox Cartel + Hatch + Lennon + Blackjack + Bassriot + Autoclaws + Chenzo Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $33.10. Cult - feat: Saffron Mash + DJ Salty + DJ Rise Different Drummer, Glebe. 7pm. Free. El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation

32 :: BRAG :: 653 :: 09:03:16

Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 9pm. Free. Feel Good Fridays Bar100, The Rocks. 5pm. Free. Friday Frothers feat: DJ Babysham + DJ Jesse Sewell Side Bar, Sydney. 9pm. Free. Friday Lite - feat: Victoria Kim Plan B Small Club, Sydney. 10pm. Free. Fridays At Zeta Zeta Bar, Sydney. 9pm. Free. Guilty Pleasures - feat: DJ Sean Rowley Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 9pm. $20. Harbour Club - feat: Resident DJs The Watershed Hotel, Sydney. 6pm. Free. Jam Fridays Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction. 9:30pm. Free. Loco Friday - feat: DJs On Rotation The Slip Inn, Sydney. 5pm. Free. Marco Shuttle + Stefano Pellegrini + Jordan Peters + Sebastian Bayne + Gareth Psaltis + David Bangma Secret Location, Sydney. 9pm. $27.50. Minx Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $13.40. Night Lyfe - feat: Belvie + Yanya Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. Free. Scubar Fridays - feat: DJs On Rotation Scubar, Sydney. 8pm. Free. Somatik Manly Wharf Hotel,

Manly. 8pm. Free. Student DJs Hermann’s Bar, Darlington. 5pm. Free. The City Knock Off - feat: DJ Just1 + King Lee + Samrai Taylor’s Social, Sydney. 5pm. Free.

SATURDAY MARCH 12 HIP HOP & R&B Boathouse Saturdays - feat: Resident DJs The Watershed Hotel, Sydney. 9pm. $20. Katcha Mr Falcon’s, Glebe. 9:30pm. Free. R&B DJs By The Greens Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville. 4pm. Free. Sydney Cypher Supremo V - feat: Broke + Adverse + Benny Hinn Play Bar, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free.

CLUB NIGHTS Angel Or Demons - feat: Dime + The Quake Machine Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10. Argyle Saturdays - feat: Tass + TapTap + Minx + Crazy Caz The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. Free. C.U Saturday feat: Dana Ruh + Mantra Collective + Marley Sherman + Nathaniel Garry

FRIDAY MARCH 11

Derell + DJ Just 1 + King Lee + Nes Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $28.

Bassic - Feat: Boombox Cartel + Hatch + Lennon + Blackjack + Bassriot + Autoclaws + Chenzo Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $33.10.

Marquee 4th Birthday Feat: Will Sparks Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $39.

Freddie Gibbs Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm. $51.55. Marco Shuttle + Stefano Pellegrini + Jordan Peters + Sebastian Bayne + Gareth Psaltis + David Bangma Secret Location, Sydney. 9pm. $27.50. Minx Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $13.40. Night Lyfe - Feat: Belvie + Yanya Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. Free. The Island Live - Feat: Kilter + Shantan Wantan Ichiban + Klue + Special Guest Sydney Harbour, Sydney. 5pm. $83.37.

SATURDAY MARCH 12 C.U Saturday - Feat: Dana Ruh + Mantra Collective + Marley Sherman + Nathaniel Garry Civic Underground, Sydney. 9pm. $22. Days Like This! - Feat: Ame + Edu Imbernon + Audiojack Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney. 2pm. $55. Father Sydney Vol. VI Feat: Snavs + Quix Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $33.80.

Pacha Sydney - Feat: DJ Fresh Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 6:30pm. $32.80. San Saturday Nights Feat: Jimmi Walker + Mike O’Connor Daniel San, Manly. 9pm. Free. Something Else - Feat: Guy J + Bodywork + Zankee Gulati + Shivers* + Dave Stuart + Aaron Robins + Pablo Sanchez + Brosnan Perera + Tech No More Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst. 10pm. $33. The Sweet Escape - Feat: Stereogamous Imperial Hotel, Erskineville. 9pm. Free.

SUNDAY MARCH 13 Action Bronson Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $69.90. P-Money + Royal-T Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $39.70. S.A.S.H By Night - Feat: Robert Babicz + Pepperpot + Mike Callander + Marcotix + Jengis Köse + Chien d’Ours + Dungeon Events + Matt Weir + Kerry Wallace Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 9pm $15.

Foxlife - Feat: Rabbit Taxi + Mesan Slyfox, Enmore. 10pm. $10. Lndry - Feat: Kolombo + Lancelot + Acaddamy + Friendless + Nine Yards +

Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. Free.

SUNDAY MARCH 13 HIP HOP & R&B Action Bronson Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $69.90.

CLUB NIGHTS Beresford Sundays - feat: DJs On Rotation Upstairs Beresford, Surry Hills. 3pm. Free. Brenny B + Alex Mac Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 8pm. Free. Escape Sundays Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 2pm. Free. P-Money + Royal-T Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $39.70. S.A.S.H By Day -

feat: Secret Guest + Aaron Robins + Somerville & Wilson + Geoffrey James Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney. 2pm. $15. S.A.S.H By Night feat: Robert Babicz + Pepperpot + Mike Callander + Marcotix + Jengis Köse + Chien d’Ours + Dungeon Events + Matt Weir + Kerry Wallace Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 9pm $15. Shady Sundays Imperial Hotel, Erskineville. 5pm. Free. Sin Sundays The Argyle, The Rocks. 7pm. Free. Sunday Sundown - feat: Ben Lee + Linda Marigliano + World Champion DJs The Newport, Newport. 3:30pm. Free. Sunday Sundowners - feat: Jimmi Walker +

Robert Babicz

Mike O’Connor Daniel San, Manly. 3pm. Free.

MONDAY MARCH 14 CLUB NIGHTS Mashup Monday - feat: Resident DJs + DJ Thieves + Recess + OTG + Chivalry + More Side Bar, Sydney. 8pm. Free.

TUESDAY MARCH 15 CLUB NIGHTS Coyote Tuesdays The World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm. $10. St Germain Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 7pm. $79.90. Terrible Tuesdays Slyfox, Enmore. 6pm. Free. thebrag.com

Xxx

FRIDAY MARCH 11

feat: Zac Hendrix + Benny Hinn Play Bar, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free. Freddie Gibbs Manning Bar, Camperdown. 8pm. $51.55. Fuck The Haters Mixtape Launch feat: Shorty Main + NJE + Untaymable + Sub & Creep + Skhitlz + Animal Child + DJ Jimmy New Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10. Latam Friday Fiesta - feat: DJ Don Juan + Dante Rivera Royal Botanic Gardens & The Domain, Sydney. 9pm. Free. The Island Live - feat: Kilter + Shantan Wantan Ichiban + Klue + Special Guest Sydney Harbour, Sydney. 5pm. $83.37.

Civic Underground, Sydney. 9pm. $22. Cakes - feat: Josh Butler The World Bar, Kings Cross. 8pm. Free. Days Like This! - feat: Ame + Edu Imbernon + Audiojack Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney. 2pm. $55. Dig 60s Night (Sydney Edition) feat: DJ Craig Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 11pm. $10. El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 9pm. Free. Father Sydney Vol. VI - feat: Snavs + Quix Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $33.80. Foxlife - feat: Rabbit Taxi + Mesan Slyfox, Enmore. 10pm. $10. Frat Saturdays feat: DJ Jonski Side Bar, Sydney. 7:30pm. Free. Husky + Brenny B Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 6pm. Free. Lndry - feat: Kolombo + Lancelot + Acaddamy + Friendless + Nine Yards + Derell + DJ Just 1 + King Lee + Nes Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $28. Marquee 4th Birthday - feat: Will Sparks Marquee, Pyrmont. 10pm. $39. Masif Saturdays Space, Sydney. 10pm. $25. Mona Saturdays feat: Local DJs Mona Vale Hotel, Mona Vale. 9pm. Free. My Place Saturdays - feat: DJs On Rotation Bar100, The Rocks. 8pm. Free. Pacha Sydney feat: DJ Fresh Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 6:30pm. $32.80. San Saturday Nights - feat: Jimmi Walker + Mike O’Connor Daniel San, Manly. 9pm. Free. Scubar Saturdays - feat: DJs On Rotation Scubar, Sydney. 8:30pm. Free. Soda Saturdays Soda Factory, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free. Something Else - feat: Guy J + Bodywork + Zankee Gulati + Shivers* + Dave Stuart + Aaron Robins + Pablo Sanchez + Brosnan Perera + Tech No More Burdekin Hotel, Darlinghurst. 10pm. $33. The Beat Kitchen feat: Fifi La Frug + Danny Beck Different Drummer, Glebe. 8:30pm. Free. The Sweet Escape feat: Stereogamous Imperial Hotel, Erskineville. 9pm. Free. Yours - Family Night Pt 1

EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT WITH RESIDENTS

RABBIT TAXI MESAN KERRY WALLACE

+ WEEKLY GUESTS

1 0 P M - L AT E

$10 BEFORE 12AM / $15 AFTER 1 9 9 E N M O R E R O A D / W W W . S LY F O X . S Y D N E Y

BY DAY

BY NIGHT

Sunday 13th March Secret Guest Aaron Robins Somerville & Wilson Geoffrey James

GREENWOOD HOTEL

Robert Babicz Pepperpot Mike Callander ࠮ Marcotix Jengis Köse ࠮ Chien d'Ours Dungeon Events Matt Weir ࠮ Kerry Wallace

HOME NIGHTCLUB 9pm to 4am

2pm to 10pm

www.sash.net.au thebrag.com

BRAG :: 653 :: 09:03:16 :: 33

snap

VIEW FULL GALLERIES AT

thebrag.com/snaps

up all night out all week . . .

live reviews What we've been out to see...

ECCA VANDAL, WAAX Newtown Social Club Friday March 4

If audience rowdiness is an indicator of how good a gig is going to be, then the antics during Waax’s support set were everything to go by. Lead singer Marie DeVita stalked the stage – eyes wide and arms whirling like she was possessed – as her rowdy contingent fired up the room with their endless energy and roaring vocals. A solid and committed bunch of fans reciprocated, thrashing their way through slamming drums and winding guitar as the rest of the crowd watched in awe. After Waax churned through their repertoire (‘Holy Sick’ and ‘I For An Eye’ were highlights), a driving crescendo of riffs saw things out as the fans threw themselves around like pinballs; we were well and truly warmed up. Despite playing a reasonably small room, Ecca Vandal spared little in delivering a relatively large-scale production. Wide-ranging merch including stickers and zines, a full stage of gear and LED ‘EV’ symbols suspended either side of the band made it all feel much bigger. The sentiment was confirmed further when Vandal calmly strode onstage in Pepto-Bismol pink, exuding strength.

PICS :: KC

sydney gay & lesbian mardi gras ’16

s.a.s.h by day

Such a composed yet frenetic performance and dominant stage presence from an artist who’s just released her debut EP is a certain measure of what can only be big things ahead for Ecca Vandal. After that effort, she sure deserves it. Emily Gibb

03:03:16 :: Metro Theatre :: 624 George St Sydney 9550 3666

06:03:16 :: Greenwood Hotel :: 36 Blue Street North Sydney 9964 9477

34 :: BRAG :: 653 :: 09:03:16

It was here when everything kicked in to a new gear. Calling everyone forward, Vandal coolly cruised through the last few songs, barely breaking a sweat. From body-moving hand claps on ‘Running At People Exiting’ to the jagged guitar riff of ‘Father Hu$$la’ and then unrelenting closer ‘Battle Royal’, Vandal and co. went from strength to strength.

PICS :: AM

05:03:16 :: Hyde Park to Moore Park Sydney

g-eazy

When it came to ‘End Of Time’ – presumably close to the conclusion if you weren’t checking the clock – the room was heaving. Vandal’s current single saw that committed group at the front expand, attempt crowd-surfing and a stage invasion, all while Vandal was working every inch of the stage.

PICS :: AM

Launching into things vigorously with an assured demeanour, Vandal and her

hard-working band – clearly enjoying themselves with exhaustive effort – sounded sharp, although there was a sense of repetition in their sound early on. Her eclecticism shone once they hit tracks from her End Of Time EP, thanks to punky infusions and bursts of dance synths, as well as on unreleased material featuring an abrupt change of pace.

OUR LOVELY PHOTOGRAPHER

S :: KATRINA CLARKE :: ASHLEY

MAR

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