Brag#693

ISSUE NO. 693 DECEMBER 14, 2016

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

MUSIC, FILM, THEATRE + MORE

INSIDE This Week

DUBIOZ A KOL EK T I V

Making music as a form of resistance against war.

WA L L I S BIR D

The Irish songwriter coming to Oz under her own steam.

SHI T

Patricia Cornelius' new play doesn't hold back.

M A X JURY

The Iowa wunderkind is on his way for Bluesfest.

Plus

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the BRAG presents

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with Tom Parker, Harriet Flitcroft and David Burley

Newtown Social Club Monday April 10

five things WITH

TREVOR HALL

MITCH FARKAS AND BROCK TENGSTROM FROM W.I.P. The Music You Make BT: I think we all got our 4. brains sparked by heavy and

Inspirations MF: I was blown away by Nirvana as a young gun. The next couple bands I got into varied from Butthole Surfers to Skinny Puppy.

During my later high school years I listened to a lot of Three One G bands like The Locust and Some

2.

Girls. I have always loved music that is noisy and most likely to annoy the average punter.

Your Band MF: W.I.P. is made up by 3. three guys: Brock on guitar and

vocals (ex-Regular John, Tiger Widow), Mitch on bass guitar (ex-Chicks Who Love Guns) and Xavier on drums (ex-Chicks Who Love Guns, Deep Sea Arcade, Black Zeros).

angry music in our teens listening to all the ’90s and early 2000s grunge and punk bands, but I think also a lot of bands like the Gallows and Rowland S. Howard play into it too. We’re big fans of bands like Metz and the Deftones and local bands like Zeahorse, These New South Whales and too many to name really. We recorded our first EP at Linear/ Rolodex with Nick Franklin who is a total ledge, who Mitch and I knew from working with him in Chicks Who Love Guns. We wanted to record it all live and he made it work super well. Our live show is basically the same as the EP but just heaps louder and probably a bit quicker too.

Music, Right Here, Right Now BT: I think any scene of music is great. So many different musical

5.

FOLK YOURSELF THINNER

MANAGING EDITOR: Chris Martin chris@thebrag.com 02 9212 4322 SUB-EDITOR: Joseph Earp ASSOCIATE ONLINE EDITOR: David Molloy STAFF WRITERS: Adam Norris, Augustus Welby NEWS: David Burley, Harriet Flitcroft, Ariana Norton, Tom Parker ART DIRECTOR: Sarah Bryant PHOTOGRAPHERS: Brianna Elton, Benjamin Hunt, Ashley Mar ADVERTISING: 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 GIG & CLUB GUIDE COORDINATOR: Sarah Bryant - gigguide@thebrag.com (rock); clubguide@thebrag.com (dance, hip hop & parties) AWESOME INTERNS: Anna Wilson, Ariana Norton, Harriet Flitcroft, David Burley REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Nat Amat, Arca Bayburt, Prudence Clark, Chelsea Deeley, Christie Eliezer, Patrick Emery, Matthew Galea, Emily Gibb, Jennifer Hoddinett, Sarah Little, 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, Aaron Streatfeild, Rod Whitfield, Anna Wilson, Stephanie Yip, David James Young Please send mail NOT ACCOUNTS direct to this NEW address 100 Albion Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010 ph - (02) 9212 4322 fax - (02) 9319 2227

National Folk Festival has added a bunch more acts to its already booming Easter lineup, featuring a cornucopia of global sounds.

American band Harpeth Rising lead the new list, bringing their mash-up magic combining newgrass, folk, rock and classical. The sounds of Africa come in the form of Bortier Okoe, master drummer and multi-instrumentalist from the lush land of Ghana. The lineup also includes Scandinavian group Sver, the Greek band Apodimi Compania, New Zealand’s own Gilly Darbey and Vicky Clayton, as well as Australian talents Trouble In The Kitchen, Greshka and Ben Whiting. The 51st National Folk Festival will take place at Exhibition Park in Canberra from Thursday April 13 – Monday April 17.

HE WAS BORN WITH THE GIFT

Take it as a sign of what a long, painful slog 2016 has been that Sydney Festival will feature not one but two tributes to lost geniuses. Along with the Let’s Dance David Bowie event, a free-for-all dance fest set to honour the Starman, the 2017 iteration of the fest will also feature Tower Of Song, a tribute to the music of Leonard Cohen. The celebration of the legend will be led by Mikelangelo, the famed Cohen interpreter who will drawl and rumble his way through the legend’s final album, You Want It Darker. Also appearing will be Steve Kilbey, Jack Ladder, Broads and more, making this a very special event indeed. Tower Of Song will hit the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent on Saturday January 14.

niches exist in Sydney side by side. There are some practical obstacles to overcome in terms of diversity of venues that have a really solid and consistent turnout of punters for live shows, but music will thrive regardless and in some ways I think it has started to force people together in new ways too. Local bands like Zeahorse, White Dog and The Laurels have been killing it with amazing releases lately. We’ve seen some good gigs at the Botany View and Newtown Social Club recently and also OAF and Oxford Circus too.

We’re playing a Cave Records night in Marrickville on the 16th, which should be sweet.

With: Dead Farmers, Twelve Point Buck, Orphans, Eggplant Jackson Where: Pleb City Studios, Marrickville When: Friday December 16

Holly Throsby

Newtown Social Club Wednesday April 12

MILES ELECTRIC BAND

Enmore Theatre Thursday April 13

CORINNE BAILEY RAE Metro Theatre Sunday April 16

NIKKI HILL

Newtown Social Club Monday April 17

THE STRUMBELLAS Oxford Art Factory Monday April 17

ST PAUL AND THE BROKEN BONES Metro Theatre Wednesday April 19

be reimagining and reinterpreting tracks from that maiden EP, giving a new spin on a record that inspired a generation of musicians to follow in its footsteps. Dead Letter Circus take over the Factory Theatre on Friday March 3.

HAPPY OAFDAY

HOLLY’S HERE

After recently dropping the clip for her new single, local singer-songwriter Holly Throsby is set to return with her first album since 2011. The new record from the renowned novelist and vocalist, also a member of former Australian folk supergroup Seeker Lover Keeper, is set to conjure up elements from her novel Goodwood as well as experiences from the last five years of her life. Throsby hits Newtown Social Club on Sunday March 19.

MAILING IT IN

Celebrating the tenth anniversary of their watershed self-titled EP, Dead Letter Circus have locked in a very special tour. The band will

Violent Femmes

Freedom 1.0, presented by Volumes and Oxford Art Factory, will be the first of four free events that OAF is hosting to celebrate its tenth birthday year in 2017. With an assortment of some of Australia’s most exciting newcomers, the night is sure to be memorable. Freedom 1.0 has been curated by Volumes, locking in the likes of The Gooch Palms, Middle Kids and Pearls to perform. OAF has been an iconic venue on the Sydney music since opening ten years ago. It has held gigs from huge international acts as well as supporting new acts from the neighbourhood. The concert is happening on Saturday January 14 and is free of charge. There’s a free drink upon arrival if you get in before 9pm.

AS IT ’APPENS

Two of the drumming world’s biggest names, Carmine and Vinny Appice, will hit Sydney as part of their Drum Wars tour. The legendary brothers have been the engine room for some of the most lauded bands of our times, spanning everyone from Black Sabbath and Dio to Ozzy Osbourne and Rod Stewart. Their forthcoming show will see them play a plethora of hits from their previous acts in an event that will act as both a drumming masterclass and performance. They’ll hit the Factory Theatre on Thursday February 16 for their drum clinic, and again on Friday February 17 for the Drum Wars show.

Kingswood

EDITORIAL POLICY: The views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher, editors or staff of the BRAG. ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Kris Furst: accounts@furstmedia.com.au ph - (03) 9428 3600 fax - (03) 9428 3611 Furst Media, 3 Newton Street Richmond Victoria 3121 DEADLINES: Editorial: Friday 12pm (no extensions) Ad bookings: Friday 5pm (no extensions) Fishished art: No later than 2pm Monday Ad cancellations: Friday 4pm Deadlines are strictly adhered to.

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THEY CAN DO ANYTHING

Violent Femmes are heading off on their biggest Australian tour since 2005.

It comes in the wake of a sold-out national jaunt in March that took them through headline spots at festivals including Golden Plains and A Day On The Green. As well as taking on major cities, the Australia All Over Tour will see them cover regional areas. The tour is promising both old cuts and new, including tracks from 2016’s comeback release We Can Do Anything. They’ll play Penrith Panthers on Thursday March 23.

KINGS OF COUNTRY

Kingswood have emerged from hibernation with a new album under their arm, ready to take on Australia with a national tour. Recorded in Nashville’s Sound Emporium (which was where influential records from Robert Plant, Alabama Shakes and Pharrell were created), their new record After Hours, Close To Dawn is due out Friday March 3. The first track from their new album comes in the form of ‘Creepin’, which has already eclipsed 200,000 streams online. They’ll hit the Metro Theatre on Friday March 31.

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The Strumbellas photo by Josh Goldman

1.

Growing Up MF: Growing up we listened to a lot of similar music – punk/ grunge/alternative sorta stuff.

TURIN BRAKES

St Paul and The Broken Bones photo by David McClister

music news

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live & local

free stuff

welcome to the frontline: what’s goin’ on around town... with James Di Fabrizio, David Burley and Ariana Norton

head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

five things WITH

Inspirations When I was young it 2. was all my dad. He played

some of the best shit. I was

lucky as. Bands like Cold Chisel, Pink Floyd, The Doors, AC/DC, Phil Collins, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and heaps more.

Your Band The Crookeds are 3.

Rick Carroll on bass,

Tully ‘T-Man’ Hackett on drums, Jake ‘The Weapon’ McLoughlin on lead guitar,

Byron ‘Bozz’ Stephens on guitar and me, Sonny, on vocals and guitar. Rick and I met when we were about eight years old, started a band in high school and always played together.

One of my best mates Biv introduced us to Tully through his school. Rick knew Jake through some mates and was in a heavy metal band with him for a while. They were actually awesome. Bozz joined the band from an ad we put out on the internet.

Took us a few plebs to find someone but when he walked in with his long curly hair, me and Tully were sold. We all have such random tastes in music but four out of five of us are metalheads.

Recently we finished up

our EP titled Volume.

1 which was recorded at Laneway Studios in Melbourne by Michael Badger from The Demon Parade and mastered by Jason Torrens at our little home base, Debasement in Ferntree Gully.

The Music You Make 4.

We tend to write music that

moment is awesome.

There are so many good up-and-coming bands.

Just depends a lot on what gets recognition. Some shit bands get radio play when a band that’s been doing the road for years gets nothing. I recently saw Ocean Alley – they’re a really good bunch of musos who inspired the hell out of me.

Music, Right Here, Right Now The music scene at the

What: No Worries Fest With: Mild Manic, Neon Queen, Gold Member and more Where: Waterfront Hotel, Moruya When: Saturday December 24 And: Volume. 1 out now independently

we’re into at that moment.

Say we’re listening to heaps of Mötley Crüe, then someone will come to prac with a sleazy riff. I think our main target, though, is music that makes people dance but also has a nice rock groove to it.

5.

THE LAST SHADOW PUPPETS

British supergroup scamps The Last Shadow Puppets have released a new EP to see out 2016 with a bang. The band, featuring Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner and The Rascals’ frontman Miles Kane, has been making music since 2007, but has been rather quiet for the past few years as the members have pursued other projects.

The Dream Synopsis, released this month through Domino/EMI, was recorded live in one day, and features new versions of two album favourites plus a selection of covers including ‘Is This What You Wanted’ by the late Leonard Cohen.

We have three CD copies of The Dream Synopsis to give away, so head over to thebrag.com/freeshit for the chance to fill your ears with some mellow moddy pop.

Dubmarine

Like Royals

DUB YOURSELF IN

Future Folk is coming in 2017 to keep the summertime party going with a lineup that not only embraces but celebrates the innovative, new and weird. Brisbane’s highpowered dub/bass dance outfit Dubmarine are headlining, and they’ll be joined by Kiwi singer Matiu Te Huki, percussionists Circle Of Rhythm, seven-piece soul group New Venusians, swinging swamp blues band Queen Porter Stomp and Australian-born/ Berlin-based producer Deep Child. It’s a full-tilt festival experience spread across two rooms at the Factory Theatre and a courtyard packed with tasty treats. Future Folk is on at the Factory on Friday January 6.

GET STUK IN

Three Sydney bands are coming together for a very special dual album launch party. After 13 months without a gig, The Prehistorics will be hitting the stage to launch their fourth album, Storm The Gates. The Stukas will also be releasing their album on the night, titled Ju-87 and marking the debut full-length from the band after 30 years of touring together. On top of that, The Dunhill Blues will be lending a hand to play their blend of rock, country and garage for fans.

The album launch is taking place at the Factory Floor on Friday January 7.

THANK GOD IT’S OVER

If you’re sick of going to the same house party every New Year’s Eve, The Bamboos have the perfect escape for you. Along with a performance from the band, DJs Frenzie, Meem and Paris Pompor will be bringing the boogie with an assortment of funky tunes to help you finish the year in style on the dancefloor. The Bamboos are set to release an album next year and there might even be a sneak preview on the night. The NYE event starts at 7pm on Saturday December 31 at The Basement.

THE BEST OF THE FEST

Next year, Sydney Festival’s Meriton Festival Village in Hyde Park will host three weeks’ worth of free music for the family to enjoy. The village will welcome an all-Australian lineup over the 21 nights, accompanied by a tasty selection of food stalls. Included in the lineup are Broadway Sounds, Electric Fields, Body Type, Alice Terry, Mighty Duke and The Lords and so, so many more. There will 6 :: BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16

also be a special David Bowie tribute night, along with a bunch of other special events.

Head over to thebrag.com for a full list of free events and all the Sydney Festival information you could ever want.

COURTING GREATNESS

Courtyard Sessions is returning to the Seymour Centre in 2017, bringing back the beloved and free Friday night sunset gigs for another year.

The program features a diverse range of acts including the CMC-nominated Imogen Clark, Frank Sultana, the honky-tonk sounds of Cruisin’ Deuces, and Nashville regular Amber Rae Slade. As well as superb live music, the courtyard setting will play host to a bar, barbecue, vintage games and a family-friendly atmosphere.

What better way to spend a summery Friday night? Courtyard Sessions runs from Friday January 13 – Friday March 17.

SHAKING THINGS UP

God bless those folks over at the Shakespeare Hotel. They have managed to cultivate a truly special lineup for their annual Shakey Xmas Party, in the process providing a perfect antidote to all those venues blasting Mariah Carey on repeat. Like your carols vicious, ugly and barbed? Then you’ll love the one-twothree-punch provided on the night by Shearin’, Antishum and Blaand, a trio of local acts known for their raucous mastery of grunge-pop hooks.

Better still, the whole night is being supported by the legends over at Young Henrys, so one can imagine there will be a lot of Christmas cheer floating about the place. It all goes down on Saturday December 16.

A ROYAL WELCOME

The local metalcore outfit Like Royals are embarking on a comprehensive national tour in support of their new release. ‘Wither Away’ is an intense five-minute encapsulation of many of the issues facing society today. According to vocalist Landon Kirk, “The song is ultimately about the battle of sobriety versus intoxication. Throughout, the song lyrics and instrumentation convey a distinct dark atmosphere.” It’s set to be their largest tour yet and will see them venture through Australia’s country music capital, Tamworth, as well other intimate locations such as the Central Coast and Toowoomba. More locally, Like Royals will unleash on The Red Rattler on Saturday February 18.

The Gooch Palms

EXTREME EXTROVERTS

The Gooch Palms are back in business, locking in new Sydney shows as they return to Australia after overseas dates.

You could say 2016 has been a stellar year for the beloved duo – they managed to write, record and self-release their second album, Introverted Extroverts, to acclaimed reviews, launch their very own record label and tour three different continents multiple times. They’re set to start the New Year with a ripping Aussie tour, hitting Oxford Art Factory on Saturday January 14, Manly’s Moonshine Bar, Hotel Steyne on Friday February 17 and Bondi’s Beach Road Hotel on Wednesday March 8.

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The Last Shadow Puppets photo by Zackery Michael

1.

Growing Up I grew up in Rowville about 30 minutes from the Melbourne CBD; real suburban little town. At public school I always played music.

SONNY FROM THE CROOKEDS

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Industrial Strength Music Industry News with Christie Eliezer

Lifelines Split: Sia and filmmaker husband Erik Anders Lang after two years.

Born: a son to Mick Jagger, 73, and ballerina Melanie Hamrick, 29. It is his eighth child with a number of partners.

Born: a child to Paloma Faith and French boyfriend Leyman Lahcine. It was a difficult first birth for the 35-year-old, with an emergency caesarean required.

Expecting: Ronan Keating and his Australian wife Storm, their first. They met on the set of The X Factor.

Ill: Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi’s lymphoma (diagnosed in 2012) is in remission but he now must have surgery for a lump at the back of his nose.

Died: Greg Lake, bassist, songwriter and co-founder of British prog acts King Crimson and Emerson Lake And Palmer, 69, after “a long and stubborn battle with cancer”.

Died: US drummer Adam Sagan (White Empress, Circle II Circle, Into Eternity), 36, from blood cancer.

AIR AWARDS MOVE TO NEW DATE

The Australian Independent Record Labels Association (AIR) has changed the date of its awards ceremony, with the fresh date to be announced in the New Year. This comes after news the AIR board has extended the nomination window from Monday August 1, 2015 to Saturday December 31, 2016, aligning them more closely with the calendar year. Nominations are open until Tuesday January 31 for AIR members. Additionally, a new partnership with Awards Force, the global awards management system behind country music’s Golden Guitars in Tamworth, will also streamline the voting process.

LABOR PUSHES FOR LATER HOURS FOR NSW VENUES

While the New South Wales live music sector was hardly impressed with Premier Mike Baird’s relaxing of lockout laws by half an hour, the ALP is proposing a new liquor licence for venues outside the lockout laws.

Similar to the one currently covering Oxford Art Factory, the new licence could mean venues will be able to stay open later if they hold live music events or a performance of some kind. State Labor leader Luke Foley told The Sydney Morning Herald that nightlife should be encouraged across Sydney.

“There’s a direct linkage: you encourage live performance, and longer licensing hours can flow from an increased focus on live performance,” he said.

THINGS WE HEAR • Which tour manager fell over while at home doing the gardening and broke two ribs and a foot?

• Who is the “music diva” advertised for the next season of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here?

• After the success of their blues album, are The Rolling Stones already planning a sequel to Blue And Lonesome?

In Australia, it is their seventh number one album, putting

them in equal eighth place in a list of artists with the most Australian number ones. That list includes Eminem, The 12th Man, Foo Fighters, Elton John, Rod Stewart and Pearl Jam. Their previous Aussie chart-toppers were The Rolling Stones (three weeks, 1965), Their Satanic Majesties Request (three weeks, 1968), Sticky Fingers (two weeks, 1971), Goats Head Soup (four weeks, 1973), Voodoo Lounge (one week, 1994) and Tattoo You (11 weeks, 1981).

• The next cities in line to get permanent digital radio are Canberra, Darwin and Hobart.

bought out by Iris Capital. Meanwhile, the owners of the recently opened Leadbelly in Newtown have appointed Geoff Trio of Code One Entertainment to book gigs. Trio once booked The Vanguard, where Leadbelly is now located.

The latest national digital ratings recorded 3,614,000 listeners, a number surging up from 3,603,000 in September.

The most popular stations include Nova Entertainment’s Coles Radio (153,000 listeners), Australian Radio Network’s iHeartRadio (128,000) and Southern Cross Austereo’s Buddha (126,000).

• NSW is set to get a new festival in autumn, with the Lismore Music Festival staging for the first time on Friday March 10 – Saturday March 11 with up to 50 acts and a cap of 1,000 tickets.

• After debut tours in Ireland

SONGWRITER ARRESTED AFTER SETTLING COPYRIGHT CASE

Jay Z’s company Roc Nation wanted to manage Prince’s music after the superstar’s death in April but was unsuccessful, court documents have shown. The news leaked out as Prince’s record label PRN Records is going head-to-head with another Jay Z business, streaming company Tidal, for making a large part of Prince’s catalogue available to its subscribers, allegedly without permission.

French songwriter Didier Marouani of the band Space recently arrived in Moscow for an out-of-court copyright settlement with Russian pop star Philipp Kirkorov. Marouani claimed his song ‘Symphonic Space Dream’ had been stolen by the Russian, who allegedly appropriated it for his song ‘Zhestokaya Lyubov (Cruel Love)’. Marouani was to collect a cheque for 1 million euros.

But he and his lawyer were arrested and jailed for “extortion” after a complaint by Kirkorov, which Marouani’s lawyer said was a move intended to intimidate him and scare off any future plagiarism accusations.

Marouani was released after a few hours and returned to France where he filed a complaint.

AMA STAGING FIRST DRUM/ PERCUSSION SHOW

BMG SIGNS SAFIA, WASHINGTON

JAY Z WANTED TO MANAGE PRINCE’S MUSIC

Following the success of the Melbourne Guitar Show, the Australian Music Association is staging the inaugural Sydney Drum & Percussion Show on Saturday May 27 and Sunday May 28 at Rosehill Gardens. There’ll be information seminars, new product demos and live performances.

Artists won’t be announced until the New Year. But expect anything from speed metal, double-kick drummers and jazz stylists to exotic percussion players, orchestral percussionists and hard-hitting rock’n’rollers.

SUPPORT ACT GETS HELP FROM STARS’ PETS

Support Act Ltd’s end-of-year fundraising campaign is for music folks in financial and health distress over Christmas. Anyone who donates will be able to access e-cards from Jimmy Barnes, Missy Higgins, Delta Goodrem, Amanda Brown and Josh Pyke all posing with their pets, which can be edited to feature your own personal greeting.

BMG has signed electronic act Safia to a worldwide publishing deal. It’s been a busy year for the group, with the Canberrans racking up 30 million streams, seeing their debut album enter the ARIA chart at number two and achieving the impressive feat of playing live to 25,000 people on a national tour over 11 shows. Also joining the BMG roster is singer-songwriter Megan Washington, who was previously with Albert Productions. Albert was acquired by BMG a few months ago.

POPPY REID EXITS TMN

After seven years at The Music Network, editor Poppy Reid has left for a new role in the music industry, to be announced in early 2017. The publication has been interviewing for a replacement to be announced in January.

APPLE MUSIC HITS 20 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS Less than 18 months after launching, the

and the UK and slots on Ultra Music (Croatia) and Creamfields (UK), Brynny has become the first Melbourne bounce DJ to tour South Africa.

One of his first shows was to 8,000 at Rage festival in Durban.

• Morrissey’s ranking of his favourite shows in 2016 saw Philadelphia, Brooklyn and Hong Kong in the top three, with Adelaide and Melbourne at number four and number five respectively. Newcastle was ranked 11th.

• In Hearts Wake have officially welcomed Conor Ward into the band as their full-time drummer.

world’s second-largest music streaming service Apple Music has reached 20 million subscribers, raking in three million in the last three months. More than half of them are from outside the USA. It took Spotify seven years to reach 20 million. But it too has been growing – this year it brought in an extra 12 million to hit 40 million by September.

APPOINTMENT GROUP BUYS AXIS EVENTS

Global travel services company The Appointment Group (TAG) has acquired Sydney-based events company Axis Events, set up 29 years ago by Paul Christie. The deal includes all 28 Axis staffers, with TAG to increase its staff numbers as it plans to expand further in the Asia-Pacific region. It already has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Singapore.

123 AGENCY SIGNS GOOCH PALMS

123 Agency has signed Newcastle duo The Gooch Palms, who will be repped by Adam Montgomery. The band has been touring Europe but is set to return to Australia for 14 shows between Saturday December 31 – Wednesday March 8.

A GRAM OF GRAMMYS

Last week’s Grammy nominations included a host of Aussies, including Flume, Sia, Keith Urban, production team Twice As Nice, Melbourne producer Lipless, Grace Sewell, engineer Simon Cohen, mixer Eric J. Dubowsky, Christian songwriter Mia Fieldes, gospel writers Joel and Luke Smallbone and songwriter Paul Mabury.

Bluesfest is excited that the nominations include five up-and-coming US names on its bill, all of whom are doing sideshows.

They include Rhiannon Giddens (with two nods in folk and roots), Gallant, Gregory Porter, The Record Company and Snarky Puppy.

ALBERTS GETS AMPAL AWARD

Long-time Sydney-based record label and publishing company Albert Productions (AC/DC, John Paul Young, The Easybeats) has been awarded the first AMPAL Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music Publishing. Accepting the gong at the recent annual general meeting of Australasian Music Publishers Association Limited were former CEOs David Albert and Fifa Riccobono. AMPAL general manager Matthew O’Sullivan said, “Alberts has launched the careers of some of Australia’s most loved songwriters and composers.”

Albert Productions was recently sold to BMG, and Heath Johns, managing director of BMG Australia, has joined the board, replacing David Albert.

VENUE AWARD-WINNERS

Among the winners at the Australian Hospitality Association NSW Awards For Excellence were the Hotel Steyne in Manly for Best Live Music, while Proud Mary’s at The Sunken Monkey took out Best Nightclub/ Nightlife Venue. The Steyne’s win came only days after the venue was hit with a ‘first strike’ and fined $5,700 by the District Court after authorities found four 17-yearold girls drinking there last year. Elsewhere, the Gaslight Inn in Darlinghurst has been

8 :: BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16

Musica Copa

MUSICA COPA RAISES $10K FOR CHARITY

The Sydney charity football tournament Musica Copa was staged for the fourth time this month, with over 400 players and spectators boiling in 35-degree temperatures. The winners were Lucky Ent., who were awarded $7,000 for their charity Reach Foundation. The runners-up, Universal Music, donated their $3,000 prize to Musicians Making a Difference (MMAD). Musica Copa has raised $40,000 since it began in 2013. The event organisers, Undr Ctrl’s Paul Stix and Purple Sneakers’ Martin Novosel, confirmed the tournament will return in 2017 (date TBC), in addition to introducing a new event.

Players included members of Flight Facilities, The Delta Riggs, Set Mo and I Know Leopard along with What So Not, Montaigne, Nina Las Vegas, Swick, Danny Clayton, Motorik Vibe Council, Third Floor and Klue. The labels and organisations also represented included Audiopaxx, BMG, Falcona, FBi Radio, Future Classic, Groovin The Moo, I Oh You, Inthemix, Lucky Ent., Ministry of Sound, MTV Australia, Mushroom Group, Pandora, Pedestrian, Red Bull Music Academy, Select Music, Sony Music, Undr Ctrl, Universal Music and WME.

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COVER STORY

ERIC PRYDZ MAGNUM OPUS

BY JOSEPH E A R P

T

here are some who believe art is but a whim, a passing fancy to be indulged whenever the mood takes you. But more often than not, those are the people who don’t make a cent via creative means. If you want to earn a living from putting work out into the world, you have to approach it as you would a nine-to-five, gruelling away at drafts for hours and sometimes wasting time to follow through on ideas that won’t amount to anything.

having others around him while he creates.

He has a whole management team to help with that kind of thing, along with the friends who give him direction when he needs it most.

Eric Prydz has such a working routine down to a fine art. Perhaps that’s why the acclaimed Swedish DJ and producer has been able to make such a name for himself over the years – as long as he’s not touring, he heads over to his studio from Monday to Friday, pouring hours into the creation of the dance and house-based tunes he has forged his reputation on.

Of course, Prydz also has his audiences to help him shape the music. His Australian fans will greet him at the Electric Gardens festivals in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth next year, and it’s these audiences who ultimately keep him going.

“I’m always getting feedback,” he says.

“People say what they think and what they like. A lot of the time you are so close to the music that you are making, it’s really nice to have someone come in and give you perspective and tell you basically what it looks like from the outside.”

“When I started out making electronic dance music, I was always imagining me performing the music I was making in front of a crowd that would dance,” he says.

“Still this to day, the music I make is for the clubs and the dancefloors. I make it because it’s music that I want to play in my sets. I make the music that’s missing from my record box.”

He even fields his call from the BRAG from the confines of the LA-based studio he calls his own, and we catch him just as he’s tinkering around with a new toy. “I just got a smoke machine, so I’ve been playing with that,” he chuckles. “It’s my daily routine. I get in here at eight in the morning and hop out at five in the afternoon.”

That said, he’s learnt that you can’t always trust the crowd. He respects those who flock to his shows, but he doesn’t follow them blindly – he’s been burnt too many times before. “When I made my track ‘Pjanoo’, I actually made it back in 2006 but it didn’t get released till 2008,” he explains.

Not that he works the whole nine hours uninterrupted. He finds it important to treat his muse with respect, and he never pushes something if it seems like it won’t come. “I’ll sometimes do other stuff while I’m here, you know? Just watch movies, or just basically hang out. But I want to be there should the mood strike.”

“I made the track and then played this club in the north of the UK. Obviously, I was really excited about this track because I thought it was a smash hit. I was like, ‘Wow, this is going to go off.’” He takes a moment, then bitterly grumbles the punchline, the pain still present in his voice. “It didn’t work at all. People didn’t get it. So I forgot about the track for two years. Then I found it again on CD in the back of my wallet while I was playing.

I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll play the track again,’ and it just went off. Someone was fi lming me playing and then someone put it on YouTube and it became a hit record.”

Such an answer might go some way to explaining why Prydz has only released his debut album – a glistening collection of bangers titled, in slightly braggadocio style, Opus – this year, despite spending more than a decade in the recording industry. He works hard, constantly, but without rushing, and for him it’s all about haste rather than speed.

“With Opus I didn’t know what it was going to sound like when I sat down. The album took a lot of years. It was more a question of me having a big body of music and then pinpointing which tracks I was going to use.

It wasn’t written one track after the other and then presented as an album. It was more of a long, ongoing process.”

A lot of the difficulties associated with Opus therefore came from the editing down of the album, rather than its writing.

“Obviously because it’s my music, it’s very hard to decide which tracks to include,” Prydz says. “If I could choose, I would probably put 50 tracks on there. It was hard. It was like, ‘I love this track but it doesn’t really fit.’ I had to then put it aside, narrowing it down and then narrowing it down again.”

Indeed, it’s the writing itself that really sustains Prydz. He takes to it with gusto, and prides himself on the freeform, unrestricted manner in which he allows his songs to take shape. He relishes heading out into uncharted territory when an idea comes flittering into his head, and a track like the

10 :: BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16

“THE MUSIC I MAKE IS FOR THE CLUBS AND THE DANCEFLOORS … I MAKE THE MUSIC THAT’S MISSING FROM MY RECORD BOX.” thumping ‘Breathe’ was created without the aid of a blueprint.

“I don’t have a set way of making music, not like some people who start with some beats and build from there,” he says in a deep voice, his Swedish accent still strong after years of living in the States. “It could be anything – I could start with a melody or a bassline or whatever. Or just even sometimes I get a full idea in my head and I just sit down and make it.”

After he has discovered that first spark, Prydz finds it relatively easy to transform

the ideas that live in his head into tracks to be appreciated by dancers and clubbers worldwide. “I think that’s what it is to be a music producer. A lot of people have ideas of tracks in their heads, but it’s about having the knowledge and the know-how to translate that into the real world. It’s about making it sound exactly how it does in your head, how you imagined it. These days, for the past ten years, it just comes naturally to me.”

Though some producers find it lonely working without the aid of a band or other musicians to bounce off, Prydz doesn’t miss

He laughs. But rather than making him cynical, such an experience has simply helped Prydz realise that he works in a fluid industry – one that will never cease to surprise him.

“I know some people who are always trying to make hit records. I just tell them, ‘They will come when they come. They won’t come because you’re trying to make one. They will just appear. One day you will make a track and you have no idea that it’ll blow up and it blows up anyway.’”

He pauses to reflect. “So concentrate on making music that you love. Then, if you are destined to have hit records, they will come to you.”

What: Electric Gardens 2017 With: Sasha, Mark Knight, &Me, Basement Jaxx (DJ set) and more Where: Centennial Parklands When: Saturday January 28

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Lloyd Cole A Change Of Pace By Anna Wilson

“I’M CLOSE TO THE END OF MY CAREER … I FEEL THE NEW MUSIC, IT’S COMING, BUT IT’S COMING MORE AND MORE SLOWLY.”

Wallis Bird Feels Like The First Time By Adam Norris

I

n every interview you read with Ireland’s Wallis Bird, each searing or celebratory lyric, you can’t help but feel she’d be a great person to spend time with over drinks. That image is deftly reinforced when we speak; for Bird, it is late at night, and to take the call she must step into a (sort of) empty hallway in the midst of a house party. The soundtrack to our conversation is the collision of Irish and German accents, of clinking glasses and goodbye-kissed cheeks. Bird sounds like someone who has fi nally taken the time to stop and enjoy her surroundings.

“I put life into perspective. As soon as I turned 32, I started to look over what I’ve done. I hear at 35 your face changes.”

Given her debut Australian tour stretches across December and January – taking in a host of solo gigs as well as the Woodford Folk Festival – Bird’s next birthday will be spent Down Under, but the prospect doesn’t faze her. Indeed, she has quite an impromptu family already waiting for her here.

“It’s funny you should say, because that time is now, it really is,” she says. “It hit the point where I’d been touring hard for a decade, and I totally believed I could keep going. But my management said to me, ‘I think now is the time for a break. You’ve done far too many gigs in too short a time. You’ve lived in too many suitcases, you’ve left clothes unwashed too many times.’ But I would have kept burning the candle at both ends until they stopped me.

“I haven’t been to Australia before, but a tonne of my friends have headed over. So going there, it’ll be like a homecoming without it ever being home. I didn’t have the right context before to visit. I could have gone over, but to be honest, I would have played the Irish card.

And I didn’t want to do that. So I waited until we met the right people, and I’m also not in a hurry to do things. A lot of my friends have been travelling all over the world much longer than I have, and it’s made me think, ‘Fuck, why aren’t I doing that?’ But all in good time.

“So it wasn’t my own choice to stop, but I have to say it was a pretty good choice that they made me stop. I feel good about it now.

“Since then, we met really fabulous people, like [artist agent/ manager] Cathy Kirkpatrick, [Woodford programme director]

Chloe Goodyear. They’re both really something special. Now, with all of what I’ve done, with all the experience that I’ve had, that’s been the making of who I am.

Distilling down to the essence of who I want to be working with, and how. I’ve done the whole licking ashtrays and kissing arses thing, and there’s not a lot of that in me.

I’d rather be working. And that just took time. I had the opportunity before, but now is when it feels right. Took its feckin’ time, though,” she laughs.

Better late than never, and while Bird would surely have been welcomed had she breached our shores years ago, there’s likely truth in her commitment to biding time. Her live energy is the stuff of legend, and her most recent album, Home, is a hell of a showcase of her talents. She is being supported by Tullara – one of those friends who supported her all those moons ago – as she tours her solo show from state to state, and Bird has taken cues from an unlikely source to ensure at least a portion of each performance is hers and hers alone.

“I was watching this thing about Anthony Hopkins, and he said the more you give of yourself, the less

“I’VE DONE THE WHOLE LICKING ASHTRAYS AND KISSING ARSES THING, AND THERE’S NOT A LOT OF THAT IN ME.” 12 :: BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16

you can take away for yourself. If you give away 100 per cent, what can you take back at the end and think, ‘I’ve learned something today’? So give 90 per cent, and be calm with what you’re giving. In a situation where you’re supposed to be creatively open and free and on and giving and forthright all the time, you want to show people your real side. So do 90 per cent for the show, and 10 per cent for you.

“Writing, you also have to be true. I have to dig down deep and see what the song wants to say.

But ultimately, I’m just a vessel.

The song is going to tell me what instrument it wants to go to, and I think that’s why I become magnetised to a certain style or beat. That’s how my songs get written. I just learn how to play these instruments that the song wants me to learn. I honestly feel like I’m sometimes not even part of the parcel any more, but it still makes me grateful. I just try to stay open to it.”

What: Home out now through Caroline/Universal With: William Crighton, Tullara Where: Newtown Social Club When: Thursday January 12 And: Also appearing at Woodford Folk Festival 2016/17, Woodfordia, Tuesday December 27 – Sunday January 1

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I

t must be a special privilege to be a musician who has seen the world across a storied career, yet one who still loves your craft so intently that you don’t know how or when to stop. 55-year-old British songwriter Lloyd Cole has shown no outward signs of his creativity running dry, and until recently, given no hints of bringing a halt to his relentless touring.

“Touring, touring and touring,” he says. “It’s been great, there’s been a lot of positive feedback. I’m not quite sure when it’s gonna end.”

It’s with a little trepidation, therefore, that the former frontman of The Commotions admits he is starting to feel drained. As he reels off his achievements for 2016 alone, it’s somewhat flooring to find that one man can still be pushing as ceaselessly as he is.

“Last year Universal released a box set of LC collections – six discs, posters, and everybody loved it,” he says. “They came back to me and said, ‘Can we do another of the solo records you made?’ I do like records in print rather than only file [formats] – I like vinyl, the way they feel, the way they sound.”

So what inspires Cole to keep going? “First and foremost, it is my job,” he says. “And if I have an audience in the world, that’s how I make a living, so if people want me to come places, within reason – as long as it’s not part of an evil dictatorship – I’ll do it.

“Probably these days it’s more about going back to restaurants I love in that town. I know how to walk to a fantastic cocktail bar with great burgers in Sydney; I’ll be taking my son there.

But I’m still at the point in my career where I’m writing new music and still enjoying it.”

As he looks back at his catalogue, Cole explains the success of his live show might even be independent of the quality of his releases. “There have been years when more or less people have come to shows, and strangely, I don’t really know why,” he says. “I think my last album was better than a couple, though it’s not really for me to say. Maybe I did stick around long enough to feel successful.

“In terms of the response [to new material], you can play to 50 really enthusiastic people or 5,000 and the response is the same. I think people tend to enjoy when they get together in larger groups, they get really boisterous. We

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were like that with The Commotions – more people in a room, we were more relaxed, so we thought, ‘Oh, we’ll just do our thing.’

“Quite honestly, I’m close to the end of my career,” he admits. “I know I am. I feel the new music, it’s coming, but it’s coming more and more slowly. It’s gonna stop at some point, and I’m OK with that, and maybe at some point I’ll be touring with older songs. I don’t like the idea of that being my day job – I think maybe semiretirement, and I’m actually experimenting with electronic music and there’s a possibility that’ll be the main thing I do when I’m older.”

In the meantime, Cole’s creative well has yet to run dry. The reception to releases like 2013’s Standards and 2015’s 1D has enabled him to return to Australia once again, though the setlist will very much be focused on the fan favourites.

“The set covers 1983 to 1996 and there’s far too many songs in that period to sing all of them, so I think mostly I’m going to try and focus on what I think are the better songs and cover the majority of everyone’s favourites, and I think it’s important to play songs we’ve not played before,” he says. “The songs you’ve been calling out for the last 20 years and I’ve said I’m not going to play them, well, I’m going to play them. You don’t really wanna throw a spanner in the works just to keep yourself amused.”

Though he’s been performing live for more than three decades now, Cole is busier than ever, and it’s hard to really believe him when he says he’s winding down.

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“I do want to start making the next record – I’m not sure when I’ll finish it, but I would like to get started,” he says. “But I have to say, when things are going well, I keep saying yes, because you never know – in a couple of years promoters might not be calling. There’s not really a huge hurry for the next record, as long as I’m happy with the direction it’s going.

“It’s pretty much drudgery to write a song – you go to the office and you sit down and write.

If there is such a thing as a musical muse, she helps you start the song but she certainly doesn’t help you finish it.”

Where: City Recital Hall as part of Sydney Festival 2017 When: Sunday January 15

BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16 :: 13

Mild Manic No Worries, Mate By Anna Wilson While their hearts remain with the musical well-being of their hometown, Mild Manic have their own release to work on – something they’ve been striving toward with an uncompromising thirst.

“We did a tour halfway through the year with Neon Queen,” says Rees. “We had our residency at the Tote, which kicked arse, which has been good as we’re trying to get our stamp in the Melbourne scene. The ball’s really rolling for us to the end of this year and now the EP is gonna kick off.

“We’re looking to release a single, ‘Little Larger’, off the new EP just before Christmas … it’s a taste of what’s to come on the EP, which will kind of warm people up to our show at No Worries.”

W

hat could be better than getting together with your mates for music and madness and beers over Christmas?

Curating a festival around the idea, for one thing, and that’s exactly what Mild Manic have done. Eager to create something unique on the South Coast, where everyone from young’uns to oldies can enjoy good local music with great company, Mild Manic have juggled their commitments as a band with the organisation of a mini music festival called No Worries.

As the band’s frontman Sam Rees explains, the idea for No Worries stemmed from a oneoff party in their native Moruya before taking on a life of its own. “It started at a friend of

ours’ property – we’d thrown parties out there before and the gig kind of grew,” he says. “It was my 21st birthday actually [when] we threw the first big party – the amount of people that showed up, the excitement of the bands, we thought, ‘Let’s make it happen a whole lot more.’ The following year it multiplied and four years down the track, here we are.

“The crew is trying to make it more of an official thing, just because there’s nothing like this down that way – there’s ankle-biters saving all year to try and travel to access not only nationwide bands but that vibe of a festival.

Being a home show, that’s something that’s been the biggest impact over the last year.

“We’ve worked nine-to-five jobs [in Melbourne] over the last year to access the industry, to be part of the industry, and back home, more and more people have come to our shows and shown support for the boys who grew up there.

It kind of drives us to be down there, I guess, that they support us so much.

“It’s more than the five of us, it’s the whole community,” Rees adds. “We have people call us up offering their services, to mow the lawns or whatever, even the local police come out and let us know to call them if any hassles are happening – it’s a real community thing, hey. It makes you feel a part of something.”

“WE HAVE PEOPLE CALL US UP OFFERING THEIR SERVICES, TO MOW THE LAWNS OR WHATEVER.”

No Worries will mark the ultimate end to an ultimate year for Mild Manic, and its philosophy is clear. “Our aim is to support up-and-coming and unsigned bands,” says Rees. “We’re hoping it’s gonna be an unsigned band festival.

I watch so many bands in Melbourne and I’m like, ‘Wow, you guys kick arse!’ They play to five people down here and they don’t get that energy of playing to the hundreds. It’s really an event to gear them up, give them hope to feel like their dream is still alive – it’s the most important message, I guess.”

Hearts of gold, these boys. Mild Manic are a band on the rise, and No Worries will give back to the community that has supported them the whole way. “[No Worries] is also to generate fundraising for farms – we did Movember too,” says Rees. “Getting everyone together to make a difference is kind of its purpose, really.”

What: No Worries With: Neon Queen, Amastro, Gold Member, The Crookeds and more Where: Waterfront Hotel, Moruya When: Saturday December 24

Max Jury Untainted Love By Anna Wilson kind of experiences can keep you grounded and give you perspective,” he says. “I think you get to a certain point in your career and it’s easy to get greedy with your success, and in some ways, that’s natural.

“I don’t clean toilets for the city any more, and if I ever feel like I’m slipping into a frame of mind that I’m being close-minded and having first world problems, well, I’ve gotta remember performing is more than enough.”

Indeed, Jury has always been musical. On the origins of his particular style, he says, “It’s probably a melting pot of [artists like] Bill Withers, Curtis Mayfield, and country – Willie Nelson, Hank Williams. In my teens I became more interested in hip hop and indie and I guess I grew a deeper interest that carried into my early 20s. I try to sort of condense all of those sounds and thoughts I have about music into something I feel is natural and convincing and enjoyable to sing.”

T

he first thing you notice about Max Jury is his voice – not just his voice musically, but the one with which he speaks. His speech, much like his music, rings with glimmers of excitement, a sense of humility and an adorable yet appreciative shyness when you compliment his work. The Iowa songwriter bears an unmarked humbleness, not yet rubbed off by the repetitive injury of touring and

14 :: BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16

releasing. Instead, at only 23 years old, Jury is at the starting line, ready to run the marathon of music – and he’s already in the lead.

“My first record came out in June of this year and I’ve just kinda been promoting it in various ways – a lot of touring and festivals and then the promo cycle wrapped up early November. Now I’m working on record number two. [It’s been] a

busy year but a very enjoyable one and it’s been nice to see people respond to the music [with] maybe, I don’t know, a different reaction, I guess.”

From dropping out of the prestigious Berklee College of Music when he found it wasn’t for him, to cleaning toilets for his local parks and recreation department, Jury is no stranger to hard work. “Those

The reality of Jury’s success is something he can’t yet get his head around. Slowly but surely, the light is dawning upon him that he’s not just out there performing music for himself; he’s gone pro and people are loving what he does.

“We played Montreal Jazz Festival in July, and for me it was a great experience,” he says. “I’d always dreamed of playing and the people were really hospitable and we got to bring the whole band. They filmed the concert and we watched it back and it was the first time for me I thought, ‘Wow, we look a real pro band up there.’ That was the closest thing to a pivotal moment,

“I THINK YOU GET TO A CERTAIN POINT IN YOUR CAREER AND IT’S EASY TO GET GREEDY WITH YOUR SUCCESS.” absolutely.”

Jury is bound for more prestigious festivals to come, with his upcoming appearance at Bluesfest marking an Australian adventure he’s almost dumbfounded to be embarking on.

“It’ll be my first trip as a tourist and performer. I mean, I’ve become a bit acclimated in the sense I found out I was playing and found it was a huge festival with a tonne of great bands playing, and I’m really looking forward to it – to meet artists, hang out for a few days.

“It’s surreal compared to four years ago, I didn’t think I was gonna be doing this – I was directionless and didn’t think I’d get here by now. I’m super glad and grateful to do this.”

What: Bluesfest 2017 With: Zac Brown Band, Santana, Barry Gibb, Patti Smith and many more Where: Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm When: Thursday April 13 – Monday April 17 And: Also appearing at The Basement on Thursday April 13 More: Max Jury out now through Marathon

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BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16 :: 15

M

“Well, I didn’t want to play any more,” Poltz admits. While the stroke occurred back in the US, it was on the heels of 38 back-to-back dates here in Australia. “I thought the guitar had done it to me, and I kind of just hunkered down, didn’t know what I was going to do. I couldn’t even drive a car, I was too scared.

It was like PTSD. I was afraid to fall asleep in case I just wouldn’t wake up, or I’d be paralysed. I spent months going to different doctors, cardiologists, neurologists, and all of them kept saying, ‘We don’t know why this happened to you.’ I’m not predisposed to blood clots, don’t need blood thinners. My cholesterol was perfect, I have the heart of a 15-year-old. Nobody knows why it happened, so that’s the good news but also the bad news. It freaked me out.

“It was a blessing though, because it really got me into The Grateful Dead.

Their music really spoke to me. Then I started playing again, and there it was. I was like Al Pacino.” Poltz laughs and does his best Michael Corleone impression. “Once I thought I was out, but they pull me back in.”

It’s rather incredible that he’s managed to push through to

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“I started crying a lot. It was weird,” he chuckles softly. “When I got out of hospital I started sobbing, and I’m not a big crier. I was sobbing just looking at a tree while my friends were waiting for me to get in the car. Weird. They picked me up, and I made them get out of the car and look at this ugly little tree. Then I called my parents, because I hadn’t told them.

Everything was really emotional. I felt like I’d skirted death. It made me appreciate life more. Now two years later, I’m back to my old self.

I don’t give a shit about life. I don’t care.”

So he’s come full circle and he’s learnt nothing? Poltz laughs. “Yeah!

The only thing I’ve learned is there’s nothing to learn. Honestly, the more I know, the more I know what I don’t know. The stroke made me more loving, definitely.

A bit more patient. But even then, this last election in the States had me flummoxed. Just when you think you understand something and know what’s going to happen, life will throw you some weird curveball.

“Being a musician with so many followers – playing in Canada, Australia, England – anywhere outside the United States, I knew what people were thinking. But inside the States? You got a 50/50 chance of hitting a Trump person, and that person could well be at my show. Not that my show preaches that kind of hate, but people can still show up and say, ‘I’m not a

A

s has been famously (and often) said, war is hell. While there is little good that can come from such violence, the bravery and resistance of civilians caught up in confl ict can be truly remarkable. It can also take many shapes. As Dubioza Kolektiv prepare to embark on their first Australian tour, the Bosnian band fi nds itself leading an unexpected charge of revitalised Balkan music. From the 1992 civil war, to what have been dubbed the ‘Bosnian Spring’ protests of 2014, Vedran Mujagic and his cohorts have learned what protest music truly sounds like.

and the situation started to become normal with electricity, water, supplies, everything that had been missing, they kind of lost their reason to exist. They exist in certain periods as direct response to the war, as a way of showing resistance. After, the enthusiasm was lost for some years, and people were enjoying this – what we would fi nd out later – baseless optimism. Like, peaceful times [thinking], ‘Our lives are going to be extremely nice.’ And forward a couple of years, and you see these bands start reactivating, talking about what’s going on.

“It’s very complex story,” Mujagic says. It is worth noting that although his refl ections on Bosnia today are serious, the man himself is quick to laugh with some self-deprecating slight.

“During the war – and this is extraordinary, I don’t think has happened before or after – in Sarajevo for example, a city under siege for almost four years, you had a booming cultural scene.

You had hundreds of bands playing as a direct response to the situation – a genuine example of civic response to the madness that was war, and it was really something that was completely amazing. Fortunately, there is a music compilation CD called Rock Under The Siege, which has some of these bands [together] in one concert that was recorded, so there is some historical record.

“What was also caused by the war was the music industry that was weak before the war is now virtually non-existent. Bands were trying to make it on their own, to make everything DIY. This work ethic is something that we really learned, and are applying in our own work. We try to keep everything under control, to record and design and produce ourselves. I think this is the best way to do it today. And that is a lesson from that period.”

Though the Balkans are now further removed from the horror of the Bosnia-Herzegovina war, all is not tranquil. The musicians who believed – like so many others – that a time of national rebuilding was about to unfold have begun performing once again in opposition to their far-right government. Mujagic is clearly and fi ercely proud of his home, and just as Dubioza Kolektiv are

“WHAT WAS ALSO CAUSED BY THE WAR WAS THE MUSIC INDUSTRY THAT WAS WEAK BEFORE THE WAR IS NOW VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT.”

Bouncing Back By Adam Norris the other side of something so uncertain and traumatic with his spirits still in fighting form. Poltz took a hit that would lay many other folks out for good, but just over two years later, he’s back to touring with the same charming insouciance as ever. He’s the first to admit, though, that when he knew for certain he was going to be physically alright, there was still a lot of shock to process.

Speaking The Truth By Adam Norris

“All these who were there present during the war, when it stopped

Steve Poltz an, Steve Poltz is just great.

Sure, the guy knows how to write a memorable song (most folks would likely recognise him from his co-write of ‘You Were Meant For Me’ with old flame Jewel), and his commitment to touring is exhausting. But he’s also just… well, great. Poltz dives into conversation with the off-the-cuff bravado of Ross Noble coupled with the everyday insight of Raymond Carver. He’s friendly enough to forget you don’t actually know each other – and yet, there has been a lot of tumult in his life since his last Australian visit.

The rise of Trump is one concern; another more personal shock was the stroke he suffered onstage in 2014.

Dubioza Kolektiv

racist, but I voted for Trump.’ And I mean… you can’t even argue about it any more, because you get nowhere.”

While Poltz seems equally at home playing somewhere like Australia as he is back home, the future of his homeland has clearly got the man thinking. He’s currently reading T.C. Boyle’s The Tortilla Curtain – a novel of xenophobia, environmental destruction and refugees written in the ’90s – and while he tries to keep his performances light on politics, he finds the novel’s message quite prescient.

“I think the US doesn’t know where it’s heading. He’s not even President yet, and there are these protests. People are saying, ‘Calm down, he hasn’t even done anything yet.’ I don’t know – can we be calm? I don’t even know what our job is any more as artists. Are we there just to entertain? Are we there to be political? And if we are there to be political, who made us the experts? A lot of times people just chant some slogan without having done any research.

“I kind of just want to walk away from all of it, and realise that a lot of it is out of my control. I can control what’s in my circle and in my shows – my shows can be about love and hope and be inclusive; I can make my own little change that way. But I’m not one to stand on a soapbox and proselytise.”

Where: Camelot Lounge / The Bunker, Coogee Diggers / The Basement When: Thursday December 15 / Friday December 16 / Saturday December 17 And: Also appearing at Woodford Folk Festival 2016/17, Woodfordia, Tuesday January 27 – Sunday January 1

Hard-Ons Unlikely Longevity By Anna Wilson

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tick around long enough on Sydney’s music scene and you’re bound to witness some changes – not just to the city’s musical landscape, but to your band itself. Stalwarts of the punk rock scene for well over 30 years, Hard-Ons are one of Australia’s most prevalent groups, and have certainly experienced their share of adjustments. This year alone they’ve undergone a colossal battle with sickness and uncertainty, the cancellation of shows on their anniversary tour, and a shakedown of their lineup. But when music is in your blood, you must persevere, and as bassist Ray Ahn explains, persevere they do.

“We’ve had problems, accidents on the road, health issues, band’s vans getting broken into,” Ahn says. “All these things happened to our band, and that happens to everyone if you stick around long enough, I guess.”

Extenuating circumstances aside, Ahn says the recent months have been an odd time for Hard-Ons. “We have to settle back to being in this band again because it’s been a funny year. Our original drummer [Keish de Silva] has come back into the band as lead singer, so we’re a four-piece now because we’ve kept Murray Ruse.

“We’ve been a three-piece for 30 years, but four of us, it doesn’t take long to get used to. We’ve only just drafted Keish and he was a founding member – the three founding members have known each other since primary school, we have a good combo.”

Together, Hard-Ons have seen and done it all. The struggles of trying to make it in the Sydney underground back in the ’80s took its toll, and Ahn vividly remembers the competitive obstacles local bands faced from international acts and commercial realities.

“We started before there was a thing called ‘alternative rock’, so you only had bands that were underground, invisible to the mainstream. In 1991, Butthole Surfers came from the US and played for 2,500 people – at the same time, they never got played on radio or on TV, but you had all these people who knew them.

Later that year Nirvana went to number one and that made things harder for bands like the HardOns to compete with bands who had more money, peddling better.

We broke up when we got fed up. Bands that got popular were in-your-face and had commercial appeal. We had more fun because we had other bands that formed with a lot less pressure to adhere to one label.”

Hard-Ons’ hiatus was shortlived – after their 1994 split, they reunited in 1997. It remains difficult for Ahn to say how a band should measure its success, but he knows in the current climate of music and nightlife, finances are key, and that means bands are more reliant than ever on support from their fans.

“A small band back in the ’80s would maybe play in front of 100 people,” he says. “They could headline to maybe three or 400

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Halfway photo by Luke Henery

“I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT OUR JOB IS ANY MORE AS ARTISTS. ARE WE THERE JUST TO ENTERTAIN? ARE WE THERE TO BE POLITICAL? AND IF WE ARE THERE TO BE POLITICAL, WHO MADE US THE EXPERTS?”

committed to entertaining and inspiring their fellow citizens, so too are they hoping to act as something of a warning bell for the rest of the world.

“We look at it as a chance to speak to a wider audience,” says Mujagic.

“You cannot judge success by how many festivals [you play]. If you have more media attention, you have wider audience to speak to, if more are coming to your shows, you can communicate certain messages directly to them.

“When we started, we were really talking about the situation in our country, because we had right wing populist government that were really corrupt and made our lives miserable. And moving forward 13 years, you see the rise of the right wing in Western Europe, you see Trump, you see everything with refugees from the Middle East. Instead of Balkan countries becoming more normal, you see the entire world become Balkanised.

It’s making you feel more urged to speak about these things, because we really know what we’re talking about. Right wing can really fuck you up. And we have credibility because we experienced the rise of the right wing party and what they did to our country. The war and bloodshed, the refugees. That was directly caused by these events.

And we are warning people today they are going in this direction. We know what we talking about.”

Though they’re certainly a politically active band, these guys are a fi ery bunch of musos too.

You think Balkan music, and you’ll likely conjure gypsies, accordions and Eastern European folk. But in Dubioza Kolektiv you fi nd such a collision of infl uences that they are, in a sense, borderless – a ska-dub-pop cavalcade.

“It’s exactly as you say – most people never heard about [modern Balkan music],” says Mujagic. “So I guess it’s not strong enough to be known outside of the Balkan region. But there are a lot of musicians and things going on, but only locally, and only a few of these have ever tried or succeeded

to get out and play abroad, to play festivals.

“Even the people who are coming to Australia are mostly those who were made famous in the ’70s and ’80s and are going there to play for the diaspora there. I can imagine for a band starting right now, they

will have even worse problems then we had 13 years ago. I think the good thing is that if nothing else, DK proved it is possible to expand your audience. If opportunities to perform don’t exist in your city, then go to the next one. And this is how we managed to come to Australia!”

What: Happy Machine out now independently Where: Factory Theatre When: Saturday December 24 And: Also appearing at Woodford Folk Festival 2016/17, Woodfordia, Tuesday December 27 – Sunday January 1

“WE STARTED BEFORE THERE WAS A THING CALLED ‘ALTERNATIVE ROCK’, SO YOU ONLY HAD BANDS THAT WERE UNDERGROUND, INVISIBLE TO THE MAINSTREAM.” Hard-Ons have stayed alive in service of a fan base that needs them, and Ahn says the secret to keeping up with younger artists is simple. “The internet helps get music across easier – every band has those means – but you still have to compete. There’s better looking bands, more commercial bands – nothing has changed, you still have to learn to play guitar.”

Their invitation to appear at the inaugural Thrashville festival in February will see the Sydneysiders share a fresh set of new songs as well as touch on their back catalogue of eternal gems. “We’ll play some old stuff, things we’re familiar with and that still sound good,” Ahn says. “The thing that hasn’t changed is you still have to have a good band before you get started. So what if you’re limited?

You still need a good band to be happy. I don’t see how much has changed.” people in their hometowns, and that was a big crowd. I remember seeing Massappeal – there were probably 400 people when they were headlining, and this is a household name – but how did they draw all the people who were into

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underground music? If you pulled that many people right now, it wouldn’t be as big a deal.

“The Hard-Ons headlined a soldout show at Newtown Social Club – if we’d done that 20 years ago,

that would be a small crowd. At the same time, there are a lot less people going out and watching bands than when I was a young man – all everyone wanted to do was go watch bands; I don’t know why but that’s what they did. A

lot of things have disappeared from the cultural map, but at the same time, we sell more T-shirts now than when we played to more people. For some reason people spend more money on merch and shirts at gigs than they ever did.”

What: Thrashville 2017 With: Cosmic Psychos, Clowns, Mischling, The Neptune Power Federation and more Where: Dashville, Belford When: Saturday January 21

BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16 :: 17

arts in focus

arts news...what's goin' on around town... with Ariana Norton, Chris Martin and David Burley

five minutes WITH

JACK SYMONDS, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF SYDNEY CHAMBER OPERA industrial space of Carriageworks.

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Is it important to show contemporary audiences that opera isn’t all about music from hundreds of years ago?

Yes! That has been Sydney Chamber Opera’s mission from the start. If opera gives up on extending its repertoire into the present, it will become a moribund museum form – albeit a very beautiful one. The creation of stories told through the alchemical meeting of music, text and stagecraft is one of the most exciting art forms ever invented. To confine it to a single historical period because of perceived audience timidity is a cultural tragedy. It therefore falls to companies such as ours to present new work in the best possible light, giving the most virtuosic, sincere, dramatic performances we can.

DISCOVERY MARKETS Trespass

Discovery Point in Wolli Creek is hosting a special Christmas market this weekend. Discovery Markets are southern Sydney’s location of choice for everything from gourmet food to boutique wares on the first and third Saturday of every month, and the Christmas extravaganza will feature over 60 stalls, live music from buskers and carollers, a silent disco, wine tasting and kids’ activities. Be there on Saturday December 17 at 8 Brodie Spark Dr, Wolli Creek.

ADVENTURE TIME LIVE AUSSIES AT FLICKERFEST

PAINTING WITH ZIGGY

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WE THE PEOPLE POWER

is being touted as “an interactive, live audio-visual event” featuring members from the all-star cast, including Jeremy Shada (Finn the Human), John DiMaggio (Jake the Dog), Olivia Olson (Marceline the Vampire Queen) and Hynden Walch (Princess Bubblegum). The show will also include live readings, a Q&A session, musical performances, cosplay comps, new episode sneak peeks and more. It’ll roll into the Big Top Sydney on Saturday March 11.

Flickerfest is the annual short film festival that celebrates Australian and international works, and marks its 26th birthday in 2017. 60 Australian shorts have been announced as part of the program, including 22 world premieres, nine Australian premieres and 19 New South Wales premieres in what looks like an exceptional selection. The full program will be announced soon. The festival will take place at the beautiful Bondi Pavilion from Friday January 6 – Sunday January 15, before heading off on a national tour. We have five double passes to give away to a Flickerfest session of the winners’ choice (excluding opening and closing nights and Flickerlab). Enter the draw at thebrag.com/freeshit.

DOCTOR WHO

The Doctor is back with another Christmas special. Doctor Who: The Return Of Doctor Mysterio sees Peter Capaldi’s Doctor team up with a comic book superhero and an investigative journalist in New York to save the city from an alien threat. The 60-minute special precedes the hotly awaited tenth series of Doctor Who, and its appearance in Event Cinemas this Monday December 26 will give fans an extra special experience, with two exclusive bonus features (A New Kind Of Superhero and a Christmas Doctor Who Extra). We’re giving away five Doctor Mysterio double passes to a cinema of the winners’ choice (George Street, Burwood, Liverpool, Cronulla or Castle Hill). Visit thebrag.com/freeshit to enter.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono/John Malkovich

CINEMA UNDER THE STARS

Settle in for summer nights overlooking Sydney Harbour with a stellar selection of films brought to you by St George OpenAir Cinema. The cinema, situated at Mrs Macquaries Point, is set to show a lineup of films including 20 premiere and preview screenings, opening with the acclaimed Lion (Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman), and also featuring a selection of 2017 Oscar contenders including Jackie (Natalie Portman), Manchester By The Sea (Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams), Loving (Joel Edgerton, Ruth Negga), Gold (Matthew McConaughey, Bryce Dallas Howard) and the long-awaited T2 Trainspotting (Ewan McGregor). Audiences can also look forward to a second opportunity to see some of 2016’s best films with Nocturnal Animals, The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years, Arrival, The Founder, Allied, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. There’ll be good food, good views and great movies – what’s not to love? St George OpenAir Cinema runs from Saturday January 7 – Friday February 17, with tickets on sale at stgeorgeopenair. com.au.

BEING JOHN MALKOVICH

You’ve never seen John Malkovich like this. An exhibit by Chicago photographer Sandro Miller in which the decorated actor appears in some of the 20th century’s most famous images is showing in Darlinghurst this month. Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich: Homage To Photographic Masters features the eponymous performer taking the place of Truman Capote, Marilyn Monroe, John Lennon and more in some of their most famous poses. It’s on now at Black Eye Gallery until Saturday December 24.

Jackie

US-based Australian podcaster, TV host and political satirist Josh Zepps is taking his podcast WeThePeople to stage again this weekend. #WeThePeople Live brings Rob Carlton, Osher Günsberg, Michael Hing, Becky Lucas and Zepps together for a night of cocktails, banter and tongue-in-cheek debate about politics, entertainment, world affairs and culture. The panel will answer questions from social media and the audience and look back on the year that was. It’ll be ballsy, boisterous and thought-provoking entertainment at Giant Dwarf Theatre on Sunday December 18.

Trespass photo by Mark Rogers

Sydney’s dedicated wine and painting class is hosting a David Bowie night this month. Cork & Chroma runs creative nights out, where the wine is BYO and an artist will guide you through creating a visionary masterpiece. The price per seat includes your own artist station, with brushes, paints, a canvas and glasses to pour large glasses of your plonk of choice.

While techniques and basic skills will be taught, each guest is encouraged to add their own flair to their paintings. The studio will be running a Ziggy Stardust themed night on Saturday December 17, so bring your favourite bottle and celebrate the late, great Bowie with an artistic creation of your own. Visit corkandchroma. com.au for more info.

Josh Zepps

What: Biographica as part of Sydney Festival 2017 Where: Carriageworks When: Saturday January 7 – Friday January 13

FLICKERFEST

John Lennon and Yoko Ono photo by Annie Leibovitz/Sandro Miller

Australia’s international short film festival, Flickerfest, returns for its 26th edition to Bondi Beach in January ahead of a national tour. The Australian competition section of the program has now landed, with 60 shorts competing for the prestigious Best Australian Short Film title, accredited by the Academy Awards.

In Face by Luke Tierney, James, a successful banker, urgently needs to get to the pharmacy by midnight.

Unfortunately it’s 11:30pm and the only person who can drive him is his weird neighbour Steve. Welcome To Country sees a remote Aboriginal community preparing for the Prime Minister’s visit, while Trespass follows a woman walking her dog in the bush where she has a strange encounter.

I’m Raymond is the charming story of eight-year-old “global warming alarmist” Raymond Banks taking on big business in court, and Fish With Legs (as the title suggests) is an animated short in which a school of fish wakes to discover everyone has grown legs. For the full Flickerfest Aussie program, visit flickerfest.com. au. The festival takes over Bondi Pavilion, Friday January 6 – Sunday January 15.

Cult cartoon series Adventure Time is bringing its debut live show to Sydney. The antimated series, featuring an absurd mix of a talking transforming dog, a punch-drunk human and a slew of other fantastic monsters and princesses, has found favour among as many adults as it has younger audiences, and is noted for its often surreal storylines and characters. Adventure Time Live

Apart from conducting Biographica, you’re also a composer and the artistic director of Sydney Chamber Opera. What do you have in store for 2017?

I’m particularly excited about SCO’s first co-production with Victorian Opera on the very first chamber opera of consequence – The Rape Of Lucretia by Benjamin Britten, directed by the extraordinary recently appointed artistic director of Sydney Theatre Company, Kip Williams. I’ve no doubt this will be an amazing show!

head to: thebrag.com/freeshit

Jack Symonds photo by Anja Emzen

ou’re conducting the world premiere of Biographica with Sydney Chamber Opera. What can audiences expect from the production?

This is a very unique opera – a fusion of so many different theatrical and musical ideas into a really fascinating whole. The lead character of Gerolamo Cardano is actually a spoken part, played by the amazing Mitchell Butel, who interacts with five singers and 11 instrumentalists. The musical apparatus therefore becomes a dazzlingly rich psychological portrait of a complex figure from the Renaissance, and brings him into an eternal present. The production itself is a sleek modern gloss on Renaissance ideas and visual motifs, always aware of its presence in the striking

How does the Renaissance-inspired music fit with the opera’s thematic concerns?

The composer Mary Finsterer has invented an ingenious method of creating music that filters the radiant yet ascetic beauty of Renaissance music through processes belonging very much to modernity. Cardano was a visionary thinker and an extreme human being; Mary’s score fully reflects his historical roots and the sounds of the Renaissance while extending his thought over the intervening centuries.

Does conducting a work that’s never been performed before offer you an opportunity or a challenge?

Both, in huge amounts – but the opportunities and challenges are genuinely exciting. Every interpretative question I have and decision I have to make in this 300-odd-page score has never been thought of by anyone before. You feel like you’re taking your machete and exploring an untouched environment where everything is at first strange, and then you learn how it all works.

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arts in focus

Sex, Lynch And Video Games [MUSIC/VISUAL ART] A Lot To Take In By Joseph Earp ex, Lynch And Video Games is a difficult work to explain. For a start, it’s not even technically a ‘work’: it’s works, plural – three of them, comprising separate productions conceived by the celebrated artist, musician and classical composer Nicole Lizée. “Two of the pieces were written in 2016,” Lizée explains. “Both 8-Bit Urbex and Lynch Études.

The third piece is Karappo Okesutura, a karaoke-based project that was begun in 2006 with Volume 1. The concert features Volume 2 and I’m about to start work on Volume 3.”

be beautiful, not frightening, whereas others spoke for its innovation and inventive ways of expression and marrying new music and images, positing that this is the future.”

Still with us? Good, because there’s more: though each section contains a strong musical element, it would be wrong to describe Sex, Lynch And Video Games as a concert, per se.

The show is set to heavily involve projection and video work, and the central piece, Lynch Études, draws strongly on the work of film director David Lynch.

“I have a very long history with video games, ever since my father came home one day in the late 1970s with the Atari 2600 home console and two game cartridges. I was hooked. I played the games on those two cartridges constantly. The sounds and visuals became permanently implanted in my brain. And when the console would start to glitch, as analogue devices were prone to do, it became even more compelling.”

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For Lizée, Lynch is one of the premier artists of our time. The genre-breaking surrealist – a creative force responsible for such films as Blue Velvet and Wild At Heart and the cult TV show Twin Peaks – has long fascinated her.

“Lynch is an innovator – he has a completely idiosyncratic style and vision,” she says.

“He is an inventor of worlds, languages, film styles, form, and even genres. His characters from Twin Peaks, for example, are cultural touchstones for many people. They are manifestations of Lynch’s dream worlds, and I think people remember them because they are familiar to them in a way that they can’t quite explain. We all dream and have these vague recollections of the astral plane. Lynch is speaking to us via our ephemeral connection to our dream states.”

Not that those attending Lizée’s performance need a working knowledge of Lynch and his films, mind you. “Sometimes audiences won’t really know the references,” she says.

“On several occasions I have had audience members approach me saying they have never seen a Lynch film, or only certain Lynch films, but were moved by the piece, and now fully intend to watch the films. This is all very interesting to me. I sometimes look at it as if I were a scientist. After the piece is finished I am curious to see how the performers and audience are going to interact and react to something that’s been living in my head for so long.”

Of course, that reaction often involves mild confusion. But Lizée isn’t innocent about the sometimes confrontational nature of her work – she has spent her career sending punters and critics stumbling away from her shows scratching their heads, and has grown used to the response of those thrown or a little lost.

“During a performance in England of my piece, [2013’s] Hitchcock Études, I was told that there was a heated argument among the faculty immediately following the performance, during ‘feedback’ time. One faculty member felt that [it] wasn’t music and that art should

Certainly, there is something deeply forwardthinking about 8-Bit Urbex, one of Sex, Lynch And Video Games’ other components. The work was born from Lizée’s decade-long obsession with video games, and utilises a range of nostalgic devices in order to create a vision of retro-futurism that is truly unique.

“WE ALL DREAM AND HAVE THESE VAGUE RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ASTRAL PLANE. LYNCH IS SPEAKING TO US VIA OUR EPHEMERAL CONNECTION TO OUR DREAM STATES.”

The manipulation of niche devices and gadgets also plays a large part in Karappo Okesutura, providing a nice link between sections and allowing audiences to walk away from Sex, Lynch And Video Games feeling satisfied they have witnessed a complete, finished performance – however strange the performance in question might have been.

Karappo Okesutura was also born both from Lizeé’s obsessive collecting of gizmos and her bizarre interest areas, and though it has its roots in Japanese culture and karaoke, those recognisable touchstones are filtered through her distinct world view.

“In 2005 I started collecting karaoke tapes.

I was drawn to the sounds that jump to the forefront once the main identifiers for a song, the melody and lyrics, are removed – you’re left with the background vocals, basslines, handclaps and everything that exists primarily to support the main melody. Once that’s extracted it becomes a whole new experience.

Some songs sound completely eerie when that lead vocal is taken out. There are moments in certain karaoke songs that are nearly dead silent excerpt for the ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’, or some reverberating handclaps.”

So there you are: the three lopsided, lunatic parts to a striking machine. But Lizeé is at pains to stress that despite how odd and overwhelming it all might sound, Sex, Lynch And Video Games is designed to be a lot of fun. “Audience members have told me how they fluctuate through emotions – humour, giddiness, fear, surprise, nostalgia, sadness, shock, terror – this is all great,” she says.

“Because I go through these emotions when creating it too.”

What: Sex, Lynch And Video Games as part of Sydney Festival 2017 With: The Australian Art Orchestra Where: City Recital Hall When: Thursday January 19

education profile WITH

Sex, Lynch And Video Games photo by Murray Lightburn

What makes us different: The Con is that castle-like building in Macquarie Street, down near the Opera House. It is renowned for turning out many world-class musicians.

But what most people don’t know is that The Con also offers a short course program for adults who want to learn music basics or to extend their musical knowledge in a collaborative group learning environment. Run by the Conservatorium’s Open Academy, these courses range from complete beginner levels through to some that are by audition.

All courses are held at The Con over an eight-week term – two hours per week. Some courses on offer in the summer term starting on February 6 include music fundamentals, songwriting, jazz or blues guitar, music theatre studio, world music ensemble, impro basics, jazz piano basics, jazz sax, composing for film and contemporary voice. thebrag.com

CONSERVATORIUM OPEN ACADEMY

Who are the teachers?

Some of Sydney’s top musos teach in this program, including Andrew Dickeson (jazz drummer), Roy Issac (guitarist), Margi de Ferranti (music theatre performer), Sally Marett (vocalist), Mike Price (jazz guitar), Llew Kiek (world music expert) and Brian Campeau (songwriting).

Take the next step: The Open Academy short courses are fun group learning experiences.

Here’s some comments from our students: “Absolutely LOVED this program.

Really condensed good quality information into a short time, haven’t found any comparable program in Sydney.”

- Jazz harmony student “Just what I have been looking for – music theory demystified.”

- Music fundamentals student What else you need to know:

Most classes are in the evenings but we have some daytime options.

Courses range from complete beginners through to auditioned classes for advanced students – there is something for everyone.

Enrolment dates: Enrol by January 16 and you will receive a 12 per cent early bird discount.

Address: Sydney Conservatorium

of Music, Macquarie Street, Sydney Phone: (02) 9351 1208 Email: con.openacademy@sydney. edu.au Website: openacademy.sydney.edu. au/Short+Courses BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16 :: 19

arts in focus

arts reviews

FEATURES

■ Film

MAHANA In cinemas now A Hollywood director returns to his roots, and to the stories that defined a nation, in this tale of bitter family rivalry, the passion of the young, and the vicious sting of the past.

[THEATRE] Real Talk By Joseph Earp

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atricia Cornelius talks the way she writes: colourfully, with an occasional splash of language blue enough to make the sheltered wince. It would perhaps be foolish to expect the mind behind plays called Shit and Slut to communicate in any other way. But for Cornelius, cursing isn’t about eliciting cheap shock value, or merely trying to sustain the attention of strangers – it’s about embracing the ugly, rubbed-raw beauty of the way Australians speak, something that we seem to have a collective shyness about.

“I love the Australian vernacular,” Cornelius says.

“It’s so raw and funny and vulgar at times. It’s strange to pretend we don’t have our own voice.

We have a multitude of voices and we ignore them all … I mean, [I write] the way I talk. I can’t write in a middle-class voice. I don’t know the language.”

Indeed, language is the key to much of Cornelius’ work, particularly Shit. The darkly funny threehander focuses on a brace of women who directly challenge the notion that female speech has to be refined or mannered, and their coarse turn of phrase becomes a form of rebellion in and of itself. It’s a theme that Cornelius considers genuinely important, and she draws great strength from the galvanising impact of slang.

“There is great fun in it,” she says. “Language can be so scary. I live on a street that has a famous tram that takes people down to get drugs. And it’s really extraordinary, the times you get on that tram and it’s just alive with voices, voices that you don’t hear ever when you’re in the theatre. A lot of people might feel disgust, but actually there’s great humour in it.

There’s great pathos in it. And great power. It’s extraordinary.”

The nature of the language she chooses to use means Cornelius does occasionally have to take up the mantle of translator. She is aware that

merely jotting down every curse and inflected and infected turn of phrase she hears will turn some punters away, and so her job frequently becomes about balancing audience concerns with the brutal truths she wants to communicate.

“You have to teach the language,” she says. “If I copied a lot of the vernacular as you hear it on the tram or in the street, it gets ugly, and it gets ugly really quickly. In a way I’m attracted to it, but I’m attracted to kind of transforming it. I know I have to cheat it, to work it in a way so that people don’t go, ‘Eugh, that voice, that sound, that rhythm.’ It’s about making it quite beautiful at times, and humorous and lovely. A whole play about being on tram 86 wouldn’t be any good.”

She laughs. “You’d want to get off after a while.”

“IT’S STRANGE TO PRETEND [AUSTRALIANS] DON’T HAVE OUR OWN VOICE. WE HAVE A MULTITUDE OF VOICES AND WE IGNORE THEM ALL.” “Culturally, ignoring most of our society is pretty silly, and makes theatre pretty bland,” she says. “There’s apparently an appetite even in the mainstream for Australian work because it sells, but the companies are still so wary of it. And yet there is an interest in the public.

“This is what culturally happens in this country.

We’re so stunted – we have terrific shows that only get one life, and maybe only a few people remember them or go to see them, and then wonder why they never grew into other performances. That’s the history of the country culturally, really. We don’t nurture our artists.”

Initially, Cornelius shows off some of her trademark renegade refusal when asked exactly how she goes about refining the raw coal of language. “I’m not telling you in case somebody else nicks it,” she laughs. “I have the most unacademic approach to playwrighting. Some people ask, ‘How do you work structure?’ and I go, ‘Oh, it’s just fucking hard.’”

Cornelius says a lot of that selfsame dearth comes down to the Australian habit of searching internationally for cultural reference points. We are uniformly afraid of looking within, and prefer to turn to the blinding lights of other countries to find ourselves.

But she does have tips to share, and is happy to reveal that her guiding philosophy involves sidestepping anything that could be interpreted as twee or patronising. “The biggest trick for me that I’ve learnt is to never be sentimental,” she says. “That’s so irksome. Most people aren’t sentimental about their lot. They’re amazingly straightforward. You get such clarity and clout in avoiding sentiment.”

“It’s such an old adage, but it’s about the cultural cringe. We still look to places we think are culturally more sophisticated. So we look to New York and we look to London. And then if you get the chance to go there, of course there’ll be something that will be terrific, but actually a lot of the work is moribund and commercially rubbish. It’s quite difficult to find the vibrancy of new work anywhere. But we don’t trust our own new work.”

As far as Cornelius is concerned, that clout is often lacking in Australian theatre. She is directly opposed to the casual art-consuming set; those who dress up fancy to catch a bit of Shakespeare before quaffing down a rich meal, only to then spend their evening more concerned with their ensuing acid reflux attack than the theatre they’ve just consumed.

She laughs bitterly. “It’s just fucking sad. We’re sad.

We hold our cap in our hands. It’s pathetic.”

What's in our diary...

What: Shit as part of Sydney Festival 2017 Where: Seymour Centre When: Tuesday January 17 – Saturday January 21

arts exposed

Club Swizzle Club Swizzle at the Sydney Opera House is a fantastic delight of acrobatics, comedy and cabaret with the focus on a cocktail bar. Serving the drinks are the Swizzle Boys and hosting the fun is the inimitable MC Murray Hill.

Music comes from Mikey and The Nightcaps, creating a cool and exciting speakeasy vibe that changes every night. From Brett Haylock, creator of La Soirée, Club Swizzle promises multitudes of talent with performers like Amy G, Dandy Wellington and Laurie Hagen. Club Swizzle is an adult environment, with references to alcohol consumption, and children under 15 must be accompanied by an adult.

Club Swizzle runs Tuesdays to Sundays, with a late performance on Fridays and Saturdays. Tickets start at $69.90. Book at sydneyoperahouse.com.

For director Lee Tamahori, Mahana is a welcome return to the form shown in his classic debut Once Were Warriors, another film revolving around Morrison as a violent Maori patriarch. Both have refined their craft and brought subtlety to bear – considering Tamahori’s recent CV, that’s no small task.

The director’s insight into Maori culture and gesture imbues the film with more power than John Collee’s screenplay (based on a novel by Whale Rider writer

■ Theatre

GIRL ASLEEP Playing at Belvoir St Theatre until Saturday December 24 Perfectly capturing nostalgia, the drama of adolescence and the passing clarity of dreams, Girl Asleep makes a triumphant return to the stage after its seamless transition to the screen.

Turning 15 is difficult enough, but thanks to her move to a new school and the meddling of her parents, Greta’s worst nightmares are swiftly coming to life. That is, until she falls asleep at the party she never wanted, and her dreams take full form.

Greta, played by Ellen Steele, does not look like a teenager. It seems an odd choice to have an adult play the gangly teen, despite Steele’s capability.

But then, very little about Girl Asleep is intended to sit flush with expectation, thebrag.com

Club Swizzle photo by Prudence Upton

Studio, Sydney Opera House, until Sunday January 29

20 :: BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16

Shit photo by Sebastian Bourges

Shit

Simeon Mahana (Akuhata Keefe) is full of questions, but his inquisitiveness puts him at odds with his stern grandfather, Tamihana (Temuera Morrison), the patriarch of their sheep-shearing family.

As Simeon develops affection for the daughter of the Mahanas’ bitter rivals, the Poata family, Tamihana’s rage threatens to tear the family apart.

arts in focus

game on Gaming news and reviews with Adam Guetti

Christmas Gift Ideas LOGITECH G933 ARTEMIS SPECTRUM WIRELESS GAMING HEADSET ($299.95)

Buying a gaming headset can present a frustratingly difficult choice, but the G933 takes all that indecision away with a slew of nifty features. Not only can it be used across PC, mobile devices, PS4 and Xbox One, but you also have the option to play either wirelessly with zero lag, or wired to avoid using battery power.

Customisable lighting and advanced sound drivers only solidify this as the one to beat.

Witi Ihimaera) possesses on its own. Their language is not subtitled, but contextualised, and the hongi – a greeting in which breath is exchanged – infuses key moments with enormous emotional resonance.

While the rivalry between the Mahanas and the Poatas seems central, it’s secondary to Simeon’s coming of age, yet a profoundly impactful part of it. The Mahana matriarch, Ramona (played with stunning strength and integrity by Nancy Brunning) holds the secrets to the rivalry between Tamihana and the Poata head Rupeni (Jim Moriarty), and it goes far beyond the shearing shed.

The Mahanas occupy sizable lands in rural New Zealand, and cinematographer Ginny Loane captures them in saturated tones and painterly landscapes. But despite the evocative geography, Tamahori is less adventurous with capturing it than in his debut, favouring effective coverage

Mahana is first and foremost an actors’ film, and newcomers like Keefe and Yvonne Porter prove themselves worthy of their lofty companions. In a trite but affecting scene in a courtroom, Simeon addresses the systemic oppression of his people with uncommon presence. The film does not linger on Maori rights in the 1960s, but uses it to frame the culture. Once Were Warriors focused on the hangover of tribalism among the disenfranchised; Mahana is more nuanced still, its antagonists both worthier and more villainous.

Tamahori’s return to home shores is a welcome change of pace, and one that proves him both an actors’ director and a powerful conduit for Maori culture.

David Molloy

Then there’s Amber McMahon, who simply has to walk onstage to elicit peals of laughter. Her comic timing is impeccable, and her various absurd characters (including a hilarious Finnish Greta) never fail to delight.

Sheridan Harbridge channels a young Winona Ryder as sister Genevieve, and Dylan Young’s awkward lisping Elliott is as charming for the right reasons as his Serge Gainsbourg impression is not.

Girl Asleep photo by Lisa Tomasetti

Superficially, the production nods to pop cultural touchstones like The Mighty Boosh, Wes Anderson and Napoleon Dynamite, but its truest corollary is Spike Jonze’s Where The Wild Things Are, with its particular bittersweet nostalgia.

Windmill Theatre Co. has created a world of its own that seemed readymade for the screen, until you see how cleverly it operates live.

At the heart of the play is writer Matthew Whittet, appearing as Conrad, a “vision of 1970s beige” and the daggiest Aussie dad to ever grace the stage. How an adult man can so honestly thebrag.com

The hot ticket item this Christmas is without question the NES Classic Edition. A miniature version of the beloved 1995 NES console, this tiny wonder packs in 30 classic games for you to enjoy on the big screen. Plus, it utilises HDMI and USB cables to run, making installation an absolute breeze. Every gamer should have this bad boy resting on their shelf, if you’re lucky enough to get your hands on one.

PLAYSTATION 4 PRO/XBOX ONE S ($559/$399)

Whether you have yet to jump on the nextgen console bandwagon, or are looking for a sneaky upgrade, you can’t look past Sony and Microsoft’s latest offerings. The PS4 Pro offers 4K resolution (provided you have the right television for the job), while the Xbox One S is capable of HDR gaming and 4K Blu-ray playback. The price tag might be a little hefty, but if you’re serious about your gaming, these systems will pump out the prettiest console visuals on the market thus far.

over innovative framing. His focus drifts, and the narrative unspools at its own ungainly rate.

and intuitively depict a teenage girl’s internal war is astonishing, while due credit must also go to the superb direction of Rosemary Myers and her realisation of this peculiar waking dream.

dashing as it does between exaggerated reality and fullblown fantasy.

NES CLASSIC ($99)

The Windmill ensemble treats designer Jonathon Oxlade’s fleur-de-lis papered set like the playground it is, drawing every comic and dramatic possibility from it while cheekily giggling at its absurdities. Wrapped in matching body suits, the crew members even manage to elicit a fright as they scurry through strobes to position the next outlandish set piece or costume.

Girl Asleep is deliriously funny, audacious, and, as it reaches its defining moments, surprisingly moving. And like Greta’s music box, this marvellous experience can be reopened and treasured all over again on film.

Review: Watch Dogs 2 (PS4, XBO, PC) Creating a brand new IP is by no means an easy task, let alone a new IP that features a sprawling open world and ambitious new mechanics. That’s exactly what Ubisoft set out to do two years ago with Watch Dogs, and though it was a promising initial offering, there was a lot of room for improvement. Enter Watch Dogs 2, a game that replaces both its main location and its lead protagonist in an attempt to do just that. Thankfully it succeeds, allowing Watch Dogs 2 to transform itself into a much stronger offering.

Picking up after the trials and tribulations of Aiden Pearce, Watch Dogs 2 sees the shady Blume Corporation setting up shop in San Francisco to install CTOS 2.0. It doesn’t take long, however, for a new hacker to arise in the form of Marcus Holloway, who was wrongly profiled as a criminal by the smart city. Soon Marcus joins up with hacking group DedSec in an effort to take on Blume once and for all.

To do so, you’ll need to make use of Marcus’ whole arsenal, which has been given a little more love this time around.

Hacking, for example, is not solely limited to one option, allowing for some creative diversions and deeper gameplay.

Whether you’re taking hold of large structures or enemy phones for minor distractions, your options aren’t as linear as they once were. Marcus can even set up proximity traps and lure enemies towards death by hacking.

Similarly, driving, while still not perfect, has had a dramatic handling upgrade, making car chases far less infuriating than before. That means less restarts and even fewer rage quits.

When you’re not hitting breakneck speeds, you’ll also notice

that San Francisco is a far less drab and lifeless environment than Chicago once was.

Not everything works, though. Firefights lack creativity, particularly in terms of weapons which can be massproduced via a 3D printer, yet cannot be customised to your whims outside of skins, which is pretty disappointing.

Meanwhile, enemy AI are hardly the sharpest tools in the shed and some external characters can irritate.

Yet as a whole, Watch Dogs 2 feels like the refined beast it needs to be if this series wants to continue. Each adjustment is welcomed and beneficial – meaning it shouldn’t have to hack its way to the top of your Christmas list.

Review: Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection (PS4, XBO) With no chief Assassin’s Creed title scheduled for this year, Ubisoft has decided to allow the historic stabbings to continue via its most universally beloved character so far, Ezio Auditore da Firenze. As a result, Assassin’s Creed II, Brotherhood and Revelations are all at your disposal, but while re-entering the smooth Italian’s world once again is prettier via a visual upgrade, the whole experience does feel a tad dated. Facial animations fare the worst, while strange voice acting also rips you straight out of the three games.

They’re issues you’ll eventually be able to move past, however, and if you’re either a serious devotee of the Creed, or looking to experience the series for the first time, it’s hard to look past such a good value deal.

Review: Dishonored 2 (PS4, XBO, PC) The original Dishonored was a surprise hit, mixing a dark and twisted steampunk world with a wonderful amount of player choice. Its sequel takes all these good qualities and builds upon them – leaving one hell of a second chapter.

While Corvo plays largely the same, the addition of Emily into the mix adds great depth to proceedings with some impressive new abilities – Domino in particular. Meanwhile, Arkane’s world is decidedly less one-note and level design is constantly creative. The story might start to feel a little too close to that of its predecessor, but gameplay certainly reigns supreme here.

David Molloy BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16 :: 21

BARS BRAG

B R A G ’ S G U I D E T O S Y D N E Y ’ S B E S T WAT E R I N G H O L E S

A Work In Progres King St, Sydney CBD (02) 9240 3000 Mon – Fri noon-2am; Sat 5pm-2am The ArtHouse 275 Pitt St, Sydney CBD (02) 9284 1200

TH

EK

ADDRESS: 1/83 STANLEY ST, DARLINGHURST PHONE NUMBER: 0417 222 294 WEBSITE: FACEBOOK.COM/THELONGGOODBYESYDNEY OPENING HOURS: TUE 5-11PM, WED – SAT 5PM-MIDNIGHT, SUN 5-10PM

OF

THE LONG GOODBYE bar bar E E W

Mon noon-midnight; Tue – Wed 10am-midnight; Thu 10am-1.30am; Fri 10am-3am; Sat noon1.30am

Ash St Cellar 1 Ash St, Sydney CBD (02) 9240 3000 Mon – Fri 8.30am-11pm Assembly 488 Kent St, Sydney CBD (02) 9283 8808 Mon noon-midnight; Tue 5pm-midnight; Wed – Sat noon-midnight The Australian Heritage Hotel 100 Cumberland St, The Rocks (02) 9247 2229 Mon – Sun 11am-midnight Bar Eleven Lvl 11, 161 Sussex St, Sydney CBD (02) 9290 4000 Mon – Thu 4-9pm; Fri – Sat 4-11pm The Barber Shop 89 York St, Sydney CBD (02) 9299 9699 Mon – Wed 4pm-midnight; Thu – Fri 3pm-midnight; Sat 4pm-midnight

bar

Barrio Cellar Basement Level, 58 Elizabeth St, Sydney (02) 9232 7380 Mon – Sun noon-late Basement Bar Basement, 27-33 Goulburn St, Sydney CBD (02) 8970 5813 Mon – Thu 5pm-10pm; Fri – Sat 5pm-midnight The Baxter Inn Basement 152-156 Clarence St, Sydney CBD (02) 9221 5580 Mon – Sat 4pm-1am

Tell us about your bar: Located at the former Hazy Rose site on Sydney’s iconic Stanley Street, The Long Goodbye is a 1940s and 1950s themed cocktail bar. We take a scientific approach to our cocktails – an ultrasonic machine is used to add flavour to the base liquor. We’ve created some unique flavours including a duck-fatwashed apricot brandy, strawberry balsamic shrub and chilli bitters. With house-made liqueurs, syrups and spices, The Long Goodbye brings a variety of delicious cocktails – from classic Negronis to our impressive signature cocktails.

What’s on the menu?

We have a selection of signature cocktails that are very unique from other bars. Since all our liqueurs, syrups and spices are made in-house we are able to

bring out the rich flavours of all our ingredients. We want to keep the bar customer-focused and we’re able to provide customers with amazing cocktails of their choice.

The Long Goodbye has also introduced toasties to go with the cocktails.

Care for a drink?

Some of our signature cocktails are The Long Goodbye (housemade lime syrup, mescal and mint), as well as Danté’s Sour (black sesame honey, lemon, ginger, rye whisky and egg white). There’s also Strawberry Blonde (lemon curd, lemon, strawberry, gin, egg white and soda) and many more.

Sounds: Since we are a 1940s-’50s style bar, our music is an image of the jazz vibe during that era. We also

have live jazz music every Thursday from 5pm.

Highlights: The Long Goodbye conjures a dark and vintage atmosphere, with intricate candelabras, antique artworks, dark leather lounges and ornate chairs and a chaise lounge. We’ve sourced the furniture and cocktail glassware from local antique markets and Newtown’s Chris On King vintage shop. Also, since our ingredients (syrups, spices et cetera) are made in-house, we are able to come up with new signature cocktail ideas.

The menus are all hand-typed on a vintage typewriter, which can be found at the bar.

The bill comes to: Cheese toastie + Strawberry Blonde = $29

Beta Bar First Floor, 238 Castlereagh St, CBD (02) 8599 8970 Wed – Thu 5pm-midnight; Fri midday-midnight; Sat 5pm-midnight Bulletin Place First Floor, 10-14 Bulletin Place, Circular Quay Mon – Wed 4pm-midnight; Thurs – Sat 4pm-1am; Sun 4-10pm Burrow Bar De Mestre Place, Sydney 0450 466 674 Tue – Sun 4pm-midnight The Captain’s Balcony 46 Erskine St, Sydney CBD (02) 9299 3526 Mon – Fri noon-midnight; Sat 5pm-midnight deVine 32 Market St, Sydney CBD (02) 9262 6906 Mon – Fri noon-11.30pm; Sat 5.30-11.30pm Easy Eight 152-156 Clarence St, Sydney (02) 9299 3769 Tue – Sat 4pm-midnight El Camino Cantina 18 Argyle St, The Rocks (02) 9259 5668 Mon – Sun noon-midnight Frankie’s Pizza 50 Hunter St, Sydney CBD Sun – Thu 4pm-3am; Fri noon-3am Gilt Lounge 2/49 Market St, Sydney CBD (02) 8262 0000 Wed – Friday 5pm-midnight; Sat 6pm-midnight The Glenmore 96 Cumberland St, The Rocks (02) 9247 4794 Mon – Thu, Sun 11am-midnight; Fri – Sat 11am-1am Grain Bar 199 George St, Sydney CBD (02) 9250 3118

22 :: BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16

Mon – Sun noon-midnight

Grandma’s Basement 275 Clarence St, Sydney CBD (02) 9264 3004 Mon – Fri 3pm-midnight; Sat 5pm-1am The Fox Hole 68A Erskine St, Sydney CBD (02) 9279 4369 Mon 7am-3pm; Tue – Fri 7am-late The Grasshopper 1 Temperance Ln, Sydney CBD (02) 9947 9025 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri noon-1am; Sat 4pm-midnight Hacienda Sydney 61 Macquarie St, Sydney CBD (02) 9256 4000 Sun – Thu noon-10.30pm; Fri – Sat noon-midnight Harpoon Harry 40-44 Wentworth Ave, Sydney CBD (02) 8262 8800 Mon – Sat 11.30am-3am; Sun 11am-midnight Hudson Ballroom 53-55 Liverpool St, Sydney CBD Wed – Thu 5pm-11pm; Fri 5pm-3am; Sat 6pm-3am Kittyhawk 16 Phillip Ln, Sydney CBD Mon – Thu 3pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 3pm-2am The Lobo Plantation Basement Lot 1, 209 Clarence St, Sydney CBD 0415 554 908 Mon – Thu, Sat 4pm-midnight; Fri 2pm-midnight The Local Bar 161 Castlereagh St, Sydney CBD (02) 9953 0027 Mon – Wed 7.30am-10pm; Thu – Fri 7.30am-11pm The Loft (UTS) 15 Broadway, Sydney (behind 2SER) (02) 9514 1149 Mon – Thu 2-10pm; Fri 2-11pm Mojo Record Bar Basement 73 York St, Sydney CBD (02) 9262 4999 Mon – Wed 4pm-midnight; Thu 4pm-1am; Fri – Sat 4pm-1am The Morrison 225 George St, Sydney CBD (02) 9247 6744 Mon – Wed 7.30am-11pm; Thu 7.30am-midnight; Fri 7.30am-2am; Sat 11.30am-2am Mr Tipply’s 347 Kent St, Sydney CBD (02) 9299 4877 Mon – Thu 11.30am-10pm; Fri 11.30am-midnight; Sat 10pm-4am The Palisade 35 Bettington St, Millers Point 9018 0123 Mon – Fri noon-midnight; Sat – Sun 11am-midnight Palmer & Co. Abercrombie Ln, Sydney CBD (02) 9240 3000 Sun – Weds 5pm-3am; Thu – Fri 3pm-3am; Sat 4pm-3am Papa Gede’s Bar Laneway at the end of 348 Kent St, Sydney CBD (02) 9299 5671 Mon – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 5pm-midnight Peg Leg Pyrmont 11a Pyrmont Bridge Rd, Pyrmont Mon – Thu 3pm-midnight; Fri – Sun 11am-midnight PS40

40 King St, Sydney CBD Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight

Ramblin’ Rascal Tavern 199 Elizabeth St, Sydney CBD Mon – Fri noon-midnight Rockpool Bar & Grill 66 Hunter St, Sydney CBD (02) 8078 1900 Mon – Fri noon-3pm, 6-11pm; Sun 5.30-10pm The Rook Level 7, 56-58 York St, Sydney CBD (02) 9262 2505 Mon, Sat 4pm-midnight; Tue – Fri noon-midnight The SG 32 York St, Sydney CBD Tue – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 6pm-midnight Shirt Bar 7 Sussex Ln, Sydney CBD (02) 8068 8222 Mon – Fri 8am-10pm Since I Left You 338 Kent St, Sydney CBD (02) 9262 4986 Mon – Tue 4.30-10pm; Wed – Fri 4.30pm-midnight; Sat 6pm-midnight Small Bar 48 Erskine St, Sydney CBD (02) 9279 0782 Mon – Fri noon-midnight; Sat 5pm-midnight The Smoking Panda 5-7 Park St, Sydney CBD (02) 9264 4618 Mon – Sat 4pm-late Stitch Bar 61 York St, Sydney CBD (02) 9279 0380 Mon – Tue 4pm-midnight; Wed – Sat 4pm-2am The Swinging Cat 44 King St, Sydney CBD (02) 9262 3696 Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight Tapa Vino 6 Bulletin Place, Circular Quay (02) 9247 3221 Mon – Fri noon-11.30pm; Sat 5-11.30pm Tuxedo Bar 195 Gloucester St, The Rocks Tue – Wed 3-9pm; Thu – Sat 3-10pm Uncle Ming’s 55 York St, Sydney CBD Mon – Fri noon-midnight; Sat 4pm-midnight York Lane 56 Clarence St, Sydney CBD (02) 9299 1676 Mon – Wed 6.30am-10pm; Thu – Fri 6am-midnight; Sat 6pm-midnight

121BC 4/50 Holt St, Surry Hills (02) 9699 1582 Tue – Sat 5pm-midnight Absinthe Salon 87 Albion St, Surry Hills (02) 9211 6632 Wed – Sat 4-10pm Arcadia Liquors 7 Cope St, Redfern (02) 8068 4470 Mon – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 3pm-midnight; Sun 3-10pm Bar Cleveland Cnr Bourke & Cleveland St, Redfern (02) 9698 1908 Mon – Thu 10am-2am; Fri – Sat 10am-4am Bar H 80 Campbell St, Surry Hills (02) 9280 1980 Mon – Sat 6pm-11.30 Bellini Lounge 2 Kellett St, Potts Point (02) 9331 0058 thebrag.com

Thu – Sun 6pm-late

The Bells Hotel 1 Bourke St, Woolloomooloo (02) 9357 3765 Mon – Sun 10am-1am The Beresford 354 Bourke St, Surry Hills (02) 8313 5000 Mon – Sun noon-1am Big Poppa’s 96 Oxford St, Darlinghurst Mon – Sun 5pm-3am Black Penny 648 Bourke St, Surry Hills (02) 9319 5061 Mon – Fri 3pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm Button Bar 65 Foveaux St, Surry Hills (02) 9211 1544 Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight Café Lounge 277 Goulburn St, Surry Hills (02) 9016 3951 Mon – Thu 5pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sunday 4-10pm Casoni Italian Bar & Eatery 371-373 Bourke St, Darlinghurst Tue – Thu 5pm-11pm; Fri – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 5pm-10pm Central Tavern 42-50 Chalmers St, Surry Hills (02) 9212 3814 Mon – Sat 10am-2am; Sun 10am-10pm Ching-a-Lings 1/133 Oxford St, Darlinghurst (02) 9360 3333 Wed 6-11pm; Thu – Sat 6pm-1am; Sun 5-10pm The Cliff Dive 16-18 Oxford Square, Darlinghurst Fri – Sat 8pm-3am The Commons 32 Burton St, Darlinghurst (02) 9358 1487 Tue – Wed 6pm-midnight; Fri noon-1am; Sat 8.30am-1am; Sun 8.30am-11pm Darlo Bar 306 Liverpool St, Darlinghurst (02) 9331 3672 Mon – Sun 10am-midnight Darlo Country Club Level 1, 235 Victoria St, Darlinghurst (02) 9380 4279 Wed – Thu 5pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 5pm-2am Dead Ringer 413 Bourke St, Surry Hills (02) 9331 3560 Mon – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-midnight Della Hyde 34 Oxford St, Darlinghurst Thu – Sat 5pm-late Eau-De-Vie 229 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst 0422 263 226 Sun – Fri 6pm-1am; Sat 6pm-midnight The Exchange 34 Oxford St, Darlinghurst (02) 9358 2311 Mon – Sun noon-late The Forresters 336 Riley St, Surry Hills (02) 9212 3035 Mon – Wed noon-midnight; Thu – Sat noon-1am; Sun noon-10pm Gardel’s Bar 358 Cleveland St, Surry Hills (02) 8399 1440 Tue – Sat 6pm-midnight Gazebo 2 Elizabeth Bay Rd, Elizabeth Bay thebrag.com

(02) 8070 2424 Tue – Sun noon-midnight

Golden Age Cinema & Bar 80 Commonwealth St, Surry Hills (02) 9211 1556 Wed – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat – Sun 2:30pm-midnight Goros 84-86 Mary St, Surry Hills (02) 9212 0214 Mon – Wed 11:30am-midnight; Thu 11:30am-1am: Fri 11:30am-3am; Sat 4pm-3am

The Norfolk 305 Cleveland St, Surry Hills (02) 9699 3177 Mon – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm Old Growler 218 William St, Woolloomooloo 0458 627 266 Tue – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 4-10pm The Oxford Circus 231 Oxford St, Darlinghurst 0457 353 384 Wed – Sat 6pm-3am

Hinky Dinks 185 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst (02) 8084 6379 Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 2-11pm

The Owl House 97 Crown St, Darlinghurst 0401 273 080 Mon – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 6pm-midnight; Sun 6-10pm

Hollywood Hotel 2 Foster St, Surry Hills (02) 9281 2765 Mon – Wed 10am-midnight; Thu – Sat 10am-3am

Peekaboo 120 Bourke St, Woolloomooloo 0403 747 788 Tue – Thu 4pm-10pm; Fri – Sat 4pm-midnight

The Horse 381 Crown St, Surry Hills 1300 976 683 Mon – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm Jangling Jack’s Bar & Grill 175 Victoria St, Potts Point Tue – Wed 4-11pm, Thu – Sat 4-1am, Sun noon-11pm Hustle & Flow Bar 3/105 Regent St, Redfern (02) 8964 93932 Tue – Thu 6pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 2pm-midnight Li’l Darlin Darlinghurst 235 Victoria St, Darlinghurst (02) 8084 6100 Mon – Sun 4pm-midnight Li’l Darlin Surry Hills 420 Elizabeth St, Surry Hills (02) 9698 5488 Mon – Fri noon-11pm; Sat 4pm-midnight LL Wine and Dine 42 Llankelly Place Potts Point (02) 9356 8393 Mon – Thu 5pm-11pm; Fri – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 11am-10pm The Local Taphouse 122 Flinders St, Darlinghurst (02) 9360 0088 Mon – Wed noon-midnight; Thu – Sat noon-1am; Sun noon-11pm The Long Goodbye 1/83 Stanley Street, Darlinghurst (02) 8957 7674 Tue 5-11pm; Wed – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 5-10pm Love, Tilly Devine 91 Crown Ln, Darlinghurst (02) 9326 9297 Mon – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 5-10pm Low 302 302 Crown St, Surry Hills (02) 9368 1548 Mon – Sun 6pm-2am Mr Fox 557 Crown St, Surry Hills 0410 470 250 Tue – Wed 4pm-midnight; Thu – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 3pm-midnight; Sun 10am-10pm Moya’s Juniper Lounge 101 Regent St, Redfern 0431 113 394 Tue – Sat 4pm-11pm; Sun 2-10pm The Noble Hops 125 Redfern St, Redfern 0431 113 394 Mon – Fri 4pm -midnight; Sat 3pm-midnight; Sun 3pm-10pm

Play Bar 72 Campbell St, Surry Hills (02) 9280 0885 Tue – Thu 5pm-midnight; Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 5pm-midnight Pocket Bar 13 Burton St, Darlinghurst (02) 9380 7002 Mon – Sun 4pm-midnight The Powder Keg 7 Kellett St, Potts Point (02) 8354 0980 Wed – Thu 5pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 4:30pm-midnight; Sun 5pm-midnight The Print Room 11 Glenmore Rd, Paddington (02) 9331 0911 Thu – Fri noon-midnight; Sun – Wed noon-10pm Queenie’s Upstairs 336 Riley St, Surry Hills (02) 9212 3035 Tue – Thu 6pm-late, Fri noon-3pm & 6pm-late; Sat 6pm-late Riley St Garage 55 Riley St, Woolloomooloo (02) 9326 9055 Mon – Sat noon-midnight Roosevelt 32 Orwell St, Potts Point (02) 8696 1787 Tue – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun 3-10pm Rosie Campbell’s 320 Crown St, Surry Hills (02) 9356 4653 Mon – Thu 5pm-midnight; Fri – Sun 11am-midnight Shady Pines Saloon Shop 4, 256 Crown St, Darlinghurst Mon – Sun 4pm-midnight The Soda Factory 16 Wentworth Ave, Surry Hills (02) 8096 9120 Mon – Wed 5pm-midnight; Thu – Fri 5pm-3am; Sat – Sun 6pm-3am Surly’s 182 Campbell St, Surry Hills (02) 9331 3705 Mon – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm Sweethearts Rooftop 33/37 Darlinghurst Rd, Potts Point (02) 9368 7333 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sun noon-midnight This Must Be The Place 239 Oxford St, Darlinghurst (02) 9331 8063 Mon – Sun 3pm-midnight

The Tilbury Hotel 12-18 Nicholson St, Woolloomooloo (02) 9368 1955 Mon 9am-10pm; Tue – Fri 9am-midnight; Sat 10am-midnight; Sun 10am-10pm Tio’s Cerveceria 4-14 Foster St, Surry Hills (02) 9368 1955 Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight Tipple Bar 28 Chalmers St, Surry Hills (02) 9212 0006 Mon midday-10pm; Tue –Sat midday-midnight Vasco 421 Cleveland St, Redfern 0406 775 436 Mon – Sat 5pm-midnight The Village Inn 9-11 Glenmore Rd, Paddington (02) 9331 0911 Mon – Sun noon-late The Wild Rover 75 Campbell St, Surry Hills (02) 9280 2235 Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight The Winery 285A Crown St, Surry Hills (02) 9331 0833 Mon – Sun noonmidnight

Anchor Bar 8 Campbell Pde, Bondi (02) 8084 3145 Mon – Fri 5pm-late; Sat – Sun 12.30pm-late Bat Country 32 St Pauls St, Randwick (@ The Spot) (02) 9398 6694 Mon – Sat 7am-midnight; Sun 7am-10pm Beach Road Hotel 71 Beach Rd, Bondi Beach (02) 9130 7247 Mon – Fri 11am-1am; Sat 10am-1am; Sun 10am-10pm Bondi Hardware 39 Hall St, Bondi (02) 9365 7176 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri noon-midnight; Sat 9am-midnight; Sun 9am-10pm The Bucket List Shop 1, Bondi Pavilion, Queen Elizabeth Drive (02) 9365 4122 Mon – Sun 11am-midnight The Corner House 281 Bondi Rd, Bondi (02) 8020 6698 Mon – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat 9am-midnight; Sun 9am-10pm Fat Ruperts 249 Bondi Rd, Bondi (02) 9130 1033 Tue – Fri 4-11pm; Sat – Sun 2-11pm Jam Gallery 195 Oxford St, Bondi Junction (02) 9389 2485 Wed – Sat 7pm-3am The Phoenix Hotel 1 Moncur St, Woollahra (02) 9363 2608 Mon – Wed 4-11pm; Thu – Fri noon-11pm; Sat – Sun 8am-11pm The Robin Hood Hotel 203 Bronte Rd, Waverley (02) 9389 3477 Mon-Sat 10am-3am; Sun 10am-10pm Selina’s at Coogee Bay Hotel 253 Coogee Bay Rd, Coogee (02) 9665 0000 Selina’s

115 Marriickvillle Road,, Marrickville 22044 (02)) 95569 2668

www.ggassolinnepony.com

Live Music!

BERNIE HAYES

THU 15 DEC

QUEEN PORTER STOMP

FRI 16 DEC

+ GOLDEN WHISTLER + WHOA MULE

BOB BLUNT PRESENTS:

TALL GRASS + NIGHTIME & CHILD + RED ZORA + TRENT MODERN + MORE!

SUN 18 DEC

ACCAPONY SINGALONG!

TUE 20 DEC

YOU & YOUR SO-CALLED FRIENDS + MINDY SOTIRI

WED 21 DEC

LOS ROMEOS OXIDADOS

THU 22 DEC

A VERY SALTY X-MAS SALTY SNACKS & GUESTS

FRI 23 DEC

Marrickville small bar & live music venue BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16 :: 23

out & about Queer(ish) matters with Arca Bayburt

Sydney Is Not Australia: Our Country’s Equality Problem

M

y girlfriend and I spent the past week in the hot, damp armpit of Australia: Queensland.

I’ve always had a curious disdain for Queensland.

I’ve spent countless summers there, frolicking on its pristine, deadly beaches, flouncing around Movie World, snorkelling on the reef, hanging out at Airlie’s famed lagoon, et cetera. I’ve had a good time, so it shouldn’t follow that all of my experiences have been underscored with a very mild sense of disenchantment – but that seems to be the reality of it for me.

After my most recent visit, I’m unsurprised by Pauline Hanson’s triumphant return to mainstream politics in Australia.

I’ve jokingly referred to Queensland as Australia’s Florida while maintaining a strange affection for the state, despite my nearconstant disappointment in it. I think it’s because I’m always deflated by the inexhaustible stream of bigotry and ignorance that I’m guaranteed to witness and experience during my visits there. I’m also peeved that a place so beautiful can be full of so much shit.

Upon boarding the airport shuttle in Proserpine on my way to Airlie, I noticed the woman collecting bus tickets took an unusually long time sorting out the travel details for people who weren’t white. The ones who especially attracted her ire were the Asian couple in front of me who couldn’t speak much English. Sensing their vulnerability, she zeroed in on them immediately. She stomped her way through the bus before pausing at their seats.

She sucked in a huge lungful of air. “Excuuuuuse meeeee!” she began, wide-eyed. “Do you speak English? Any English at all?! Do you even know where you are?!” and without bothering to wait for their response, she leaned in and continued barking at full volume, “YOU’RE MAKING THIS VERY DIFFICULT FOR ME NOW GIVE ME YOUR TICKETS.”

this week…

On Wednesday December 14, head on down to Slyfox in Enmore for Birdcage’s Roller Disco. The Sydney Roller Derby League will be on the floor, along with waitresses on skates and roller rink tunes supplied

by Barfly, Cunningpants and Nicholas Birdcage.

Free entry.

24 :: BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16

him, handed his ticket over, she continued muttering under her breath, jowls quivering. She snatched the ticket away without so much as glancing at it, and continued hunting for other non-English speakers to terrorise.

My girlfriend was sitting next to me with her jaw hanging open. “Can you believe that just happened?” she said.

“Welcome to Australia,” I replied.

The rest of our trip was dotted with interactions like these, ranging from waitresses flinging bills at Asian people, to our tour guide’s proclamation that “Koreans are fucking useless,” to our boat’s captain grumbling about “learning English”. The racism was manifold.

On one of our last evenings at Airlie, we headed out to dinner at a lounge bar that was famed for its cocktails.

We had a great dinner and our waitress was amazing. While eating, I stared out at the table of Swedish tourists laughing with the waitress at the table across from us.

They couldn’t speak much English, but this didn’t seem to deter her or make her irritated. I dimly wondered whether or not she’d be treating us differently had we not been passably white. I wondered if she’d be laughing along with them had they been Asian or of some other demonised ethnicity.

Maybe I was just being cynical. I turned to my partner and said, “At least we haven’t copped much for being gay.” She agreed that we’d been lucky.

There were occasions where I felt uncomfortable holding her hand. At the same time I shamefully felt thankful for being lucky

On Saturday December 17, The Shift Club is hosting the year’s final high NRG Decadence party, featuring Alex K, KCB, Rata, Cadell, Steve S and Lately. Tickets are available now.

And for those homos and their pals still left in Sydney over the New Year’s break, here’s one for the diary: Heaps

enough not to attract racism.

When it came time to pay we noticed a fishbowl sitting on the counter with a couple of goldfish swimming around. I asked the waitress about them and we were told that she’d named them after herself and her friend. My partner then jokingly asked if the pair of fish were lesbians – to which the suddenly less friendly waitress said, “No, they aren’t.”

My partner, deciding to push this further, said, “Oh, so you and your friend aren’t lesbians?” To which the waitress replied shoutily, “NO BUT OUR BOYFRIENDS SURE WOULD LOVE THAT.” Calm down lady, we weren’t hitting on you. My girlfriend was just being cheeky. It didn’t take much to break through that veneer of friendliness.

The waitress wasn’t mean, but she was definitely of Queensland.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about progressives existing in echo chambers, and it’s true. Sydney is not representative of Australia.

I’ve travelled extensively through Australia, and Sydney and Melbourne by comparison are beacons of progress and harmony.

Certain parts of the rest of the country are culturally stagnant with a racism problem so deeply engrained that it’s just a fact of life that Koreans are always useless, the same way that the sky is always blue.

Being openly gay, my girlfriend and I were sometimes given cooler welcomes than our straight pals during our holiday. I shudder to imagine what our experience would have been like had we not been read as white too.

Gay is hosting an epic New Year’s Eve party on Saturday December 31, boasting short bar lines and cheap tickets.

With three stages and 20 acts including drag and performance, this one is set to be big. From 9pm to 4am, projections, dancers and DJs will take over all levels of the Imperial Hotel in Erskineville.

Speakeasy 83 Curlewis St, Bondi (02) 9130 2020 Mon – Sat 5-11pm; Sun 4-10pm Spring Street Social 110 Spring St, Bondi Junction (02) 9389 2485 Tue – Sat 5pm-3am

Earl’s Juke Joint King St, Newtown Mon – Sat 4pm-midnight Forest Lodge Hotel 117 Arundel St, Forest Lodge (02) 9660 1872 Mon – Sat 11am-midnight; Sun noon-10pm Freda’s 109 Regent St, Chippendale (02) 8971 7336 Tue – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 4pm-10pm

Stuffed Beaver 271 Bondi Rd, Bondi (02) 9130 3002 Mon – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm

The Gasoline Pony 115 Marrickville Rd, Marrickville 0401 002 333 Tue – Thu 5-11.30pm; Fri – Sat 3-11.30pm; Sun 3-9.30pm

Bar-racuda 105 Enmore Rd, Newtown (02) 9519 1121 Mon – Sat 6pm-midnight

The Grifter Brewing Co. 1/391-397 Enmore Rd, Marrickville (02) 9550 5742 Thu 4-9pm; Fri – Sat noon9pm; Sun noon-7pm

Batch Brewing Company 44 Sydenham Rd, Marrickville (02) 9550 5432 Mon – Sun 10am-8pm Bauhaus West 163 Enmore Rd, Enmore (02) 8068 9917 Fri – Sat 4pm-midnight The Bearded Tit 183 Regent St, Redfern (02) 8283 4082 Mon – Fri 4-11pm; Sat 2-11pm; Sun 2-10pm B.E.D. 36 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9660 0678 Tue – Sat 2pm-midnight; Sun 2-10pm Blacksheep 256 King St, Newtown (02) 8033 3455 Mon – Fri 4pm-11pm; Sat 2pm-11pm; Sun 2pm-10pm Bloodwood 416 King St, Newtown (02) 9557 7699 Mon – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm Calaveras 324 King St, Newtown 0451 541 712 Tue – Wed 6-10pm; Thu 5-11pm; Fri – Sat 5pm-midnight; Sun 5.3010pm

The Hideaway Bar 156 Enmore Rd, Enmore (02) 8021 8451 Tue– Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sat 4pm-1am Hive Bar 93 Erskineville Rd, Erskineville (02) 9519 1376 Mon – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon-10pm Kelly’s On King 285 King St, Newtown (02) 9565 2288 Mon – Sat 10am-11pm; Sun 11pm-midnight Kingston Public Bar & Kitchen 62-64 King St, Newtown (02) 8084 4140 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sun 2pm-midnight Knox Street Bar Cnr Knox & Shepherd St, Chippendale (02) 8970 6443 Tue – Thu 4-10pm; Fri – Sat 4pm-midnight Kuleto’s 157 King St, Newtown (02) 9519 6369 Tue – Sat 4pm-3am; Sun 4pm-midnight Leadbelly 42 King St, Newtown (02) 9557 9409 Sun – Thur 4pm-midnight; Fri-Sat 4pm-1am

Cornerstone Bar & Food 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh (02) 8571 9004 Sun – Wed 10am-5pm; Thu – Sat 10am-midnight

The Little Guy 87 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 8084 0758 Mon – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 1pm-midnight; Sun 3pm-10pm

Corridor 153A King St, Newtown 0405 671 002 Mon 5pm-midnight; Tue – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sun 3pm-midnight

Mary’s 6 Mary St, Newtown (02) 4995 9550 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sat noon-midnight

Cottage Bar & Kitchen 342 Darling St, Balmain (02) 8084 8185 Mon – Wed 5pm-midnight; Thu – Sat noon-midnight Deus Sydney Bar + Kitchen 98-104 Parramatta Rd, Camperdown (02) 9519 0849 Mon-Tue 8am-3pm; WedSun 8am-11pm Different Drummer 185 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9552 3406 Mon 4.30-11pm; Tue – Wed 4.30pm-1am; Thu – Sat 4.30pm-2am; Sun 4.30am-midnight Doris & Beryl’s Bridge Club and Tea House 530 King St, Newtown Mon – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat – Sun 3.30pm-midnight

The Midnight Special 44 Enmore Road, Newtown (02) 9516 2345 Tue – Fri 5pm-noon; Sat 1pm-midnight Miss Peaches 201 Missenden Rd, Newtown (02) 9557 7280 Wed – Sun 5pm-midnight Mr Falcon’s 92 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9029 6626 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri 3pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun 4pm-10pm Newtown Social Club 387 King St, Newtown (02) 9550 3974 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sat noon-2am; Sun noon-10pm The Oxford Tavern 1 New Canterbury Rd,

Petersham (02) 8019 9351 Mon – Thu noon-midnight; Fri – Sat noon-3am; Sun noon-10pm

Lord Raglan 12 Henderson Rd, Alexandria (02) 9699 4767 Mon – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon10pm The Record Crate 34 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9660 1075 Mon – Thu 5pm-midnight; Sat noon-midnight; Sun 3-10pm The Royal 156 Norton St, Leichhardt (02) 9569 2638 Mon – Thu 10am-1am; Fri – Sat 10am-3am; Sun 10am-midnight Secret Garden Bar 134a Enmore Rd, Enmore 0403 621 585 Mon – Tue 7am-5pm; Wed – Fri 7am-11pm; Sat 7am-10pm; Sun 7am-11pm Staves Brewery 4-8 Grose Street, Glebe (02) 9280 4555 Thu 4-10pm; Fri – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 4-10pm Temperance Society 122 Smith St, Summer Hill (02) 8068 5680 Mon – Thu 4pm-11pm; Fri – Sat 3pm-midnight; Sun 3-10pm Thievery 91 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 8283 1329 Mon – Thu 6pm-11pm; Fri 6pm-midnight; Sat noon3pm & 6pm-midnight Timbah 375 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (02) 9571 7005 Tue – Thu 4-10pm; Fri 4-11pm; Sat 3pm-11pm; Sun 4pm-8pm Vernon’s Bar L2. One Penny Red, 2 Moonbie St. Summer Hill (02) 9797 8118 Mon 4-10pm; Tue – Thu 4-11pm; Fri – Sat 4-midnight; Sun 4-10pm Wayward Brewing Co. 1 Gehrig Ln, Annandale (02) 7903 2445 Thu – Fri 2-10pm; Sat noon-10pm; Sun noon-8pm Websters Bar 323 King St, Newtown (02) 9519 1511 Mon – Sat 10am-4am; Sun 10am-midnight Wilhelmina’s 332 Darling St, Balmain (02) 8068 8762 Wed – Fri 5-11pm; Sat 8-11pm; Sun 8am-10pm The Workers Lvl 1, 292 Darling St, Balmain (02) 9555 8410 Fri – Sat 5pm-3am; Sun 2pm-midnight Young Henrys D & E, 76 Wilford St, Newtown (02) 9519 0048 Mon – Fri noon-7pm; Sat 10am-7pm; Sun 11am-7pm Zigi’s Wine And Cheese Bar 86 Abercrombie St, Chippendale (02) 9699 4222 Tue 4pm-10pm; Wed 4pm-midnight; Thu – Sat 3pm-midnight

Crooked Tailor 250 Old Northern Road, Castle Hill (02) 9899 3167 Mon – Sun 4pm-midnight Daniel San

Your bar’s not here? Email: chris@thebrag.com

55 North Steyne, Manly (02) 9977 6963 Mon – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri – Sun 11am-2am

Firefly 24 Young St, Neutral Bay (02) 9909 0193 Mon – Wed 5-11pm; Thu 5-11.30pm; Fri noon11.30pm; Sat noon-11pm; Sun noon-10pm The Foxtrot 28 Falcon St, Crows Nest Tue – Wed 5pm-midnight; Thu 5pm-1am; Fri 4pm-2am; Sat 5pm-2am; Sun 4-10pm The Hayberry Bar & Diner 97 Willoughby Road, Crows Nest (02) 8084 0816 Tue – Thu 4pm-midnight; Fri & Sat noon-midnight Sun noon-10pm Hemingway’s 48 North Steyne, Manly (02) 9976 3030 Mon – Sat 8am-midnight; Sun 8am-10pm The Hold Shop 4, Sydney Rd Plaza, Manly (02) 9977 2009 Tue – Fri 5pm-midnight; Sat 3pm-midnight; Sun 3-10pm Honey Rider 230 Military Rd, Neutral Bay (02) 9953 8880 Tue – Sat 4pm-midnight; Sun 4pm-10pm InSitu 1/18 Sydney Rd, Manly (02) 9977 0669 Tue – Fri 4pm-midnight; Sat 9am-midnight; Sun 9am-10pm The Hunter 5 Myahgah Rd, Mosman 0409 100 339 Mon – Tue 5pm-midnight; Wed – Sat noon-midnight; Sun noon- 10pm Jah Bar Shop 9, 9-15 Central Ave, Manly (02) 9977 4449 Tue 5pm-midnight; Wed-Fri noon-midnight; Sat 8am-midnight; Sun 9am-10pm Manly Wine 8-13 South Steyne, Manly (02) 8966 9000 Mon – Sun 7am-11pm Miami Cuba 47 North Steyne, Manly 0487 713 350 Mon – Sun 8am-4pm Moonshine Lvl 2, Hotel Steyne, 75 The Corso, Manly (02) 9977 4977 Mon – Thu 9am-3pm; Fri – Sat 9am-2am; Sun 9am-midnight The Pickled Possum 254 Military Rd, Neutral Bay (02) 9909 2091 Thu – Sat 9pm-1am SoCal 1 Young St, Neutral Bay (02) 9904 5691 Mon – Wed 5pm-midnight; Thu 5pm-1am; Sat noon2am; Sun noon-midnight The Stoned Crow 39 Willoughby Rd, Crows Nest (02) 9439 5477 Mon – Sat noon-late; Sun 11.30am-10pm The Treehouse Hotel 60 Miller St, North Sydney (02) 8458 8980 Mon – Fri 7am-midnight; Sat 2pm-midnight

thebrag.com

Airlie Beach Lagoon photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

As the man, utterly confused by this Shar-Pei of a woman screeching at

Airlie Beach Lagoon

Thu 8pm-midnight; Coogee Bay Hotel Mon – Thu 7am-3am, Fri – Sat 7am-6am; Sun 7am-midnight

MUSIC BOOKS FROM OMNIBUS PRESS Christmas is now days away, and the shops are busier than they’ve ever been with people hunting for gifts for their loved ones. And let’s face it; some family members and friends are a little harder to buy for than others. But don’t stress: we’ve got four great gift ideas for that special someone in your life, right here – whether they’re the indoorsy type, they prefer the outdoors, or a bit of both…

S Y D N E Y F E S T I VA L PA C K A G E S

For the music-lover in your life who enjoys a good read, Omnibus Press has some top-notch books on offer, covering the likes of David Bowie, Jack White, Fleetwood Mac and Bay City Rollers.

David Bowie: The Golden Years ($129.95), by Roger Griffin, dives into Bowie’s musical output of the ’70s, considered by many to be his creative peak. The book chronicles Bowie’s life during that decade, following a yearby-year, month-by-month and day-by-day format. As well as a detailed illustrated discography covering every Bowie recording during this hallowed period, the book also features every live performance, every film and

every appearance he made – following Bowie across the countries that inspired his greatest works in the process.

When The Screaming Stops: The Dark History Of The Bay City Rollers ($44.95),

by Simon Spence, uncovers the hidden story of the famous Scottish pop group.

Their troubled tale revolves around pop culture hysteria, coupled with rape, murder, suicide, drug dealing, exploitation, missing millions and more.

Jack White: How He Built An Empire From The Blues ($44.95), by Nick Hasted, tells the tale of prolifi c bluesman and rock lord Jack White.

Following his journey from underground Detroit sensation to Grammywinning kingpin, this is an honest look at a man who forged his own path in the music world.

Fleetwood Mac On Fleetwood Mac: Interviews And Encounters ($39.95), by Sean Egan, follows one of the world’s most successful bands through the highs and lows of its career, including the tumultuous departure of founding member Peter Green. This collection of interviews features articles from iconic members of the music press, giving readers the band’s story in its own words. omnibuspress.com

D AY T O W E L B Y M I L K B E A C H

The busiest month on Sydney’s arts and culture calendar is almost upon us, with Sydney Festival 2017 running from Saturday January 7 – Sunday January 29. The program is activating spaces all around the city, from the harbour

to Parramatta and beyond, and organisers are offering six Christmas packages to suit anyone, no matter who you’re buying for.

Enjoy discount packages on Cheek By Jowl and Pushkin Theatre’s Measure

For Measure with Simon McBurney’s The Encounter (together for $149); Cliff Cardinal’s dark comedy Huff with Patricia Cornelius’ play Shit ($49); Terrapin Puppet Theatre’s magical You And Me And The Space Between with Cirque Éloize’s iD ($69); Sex, Lynch And Video Games with Spectra ($69); cabaret adventure Covered with Ivan Coyote’s Tomboy Survival Guide ($69); and Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s ode to Rautavaara with a concert

by Lubomyr Melnyk, both at the City Recital Hall ($99). sydneyfestival.org. au/2017/xmas

VA P O R I S E R S F R O M T H E B O N G S H O P MILKBEACH’s Day Towel is suited to anyone planning some fun in the sun or any water activity – beach, bath, pool or spa. And what better time for all that than a glorious Sydney summer? Made from premium 550GSM ring-spun combed cotton, and presented in fashion packaging, the Day Towel ($69.95 with free shipping Australia-wide) comes in vivid and extremely luminous colours with a deluxe size measuring 90cm by 180cm.

MILKBEACH is a local start-up offering amazing value for money products designed in Vaucluse, and the high-end luxury quality from this new and exclusive fashion brand comes with a guarantee of 100 per cent responsibly sourced cotton. Check out @milkbeachsydney

on Instagram. And as a Christmas special until December 25, receive 50 per cent off when you purchase two or more Day Towels. Just enter the promo code MILKBEACHXMAS upon checkout. milkbeach.com.au

Do you need a unique twist on the perfect Christmas gift? The Bong Shop are professionals of fun, supplying their enthusiasts with a variety of herbal mixes and the means with which to utilise them. With hookahs, bongs, papers and parts, they stock it all and provide it to punters with no judgement – there are only good vibes here. There’s a massive range of novelty items available too, from Pokéball grinders to Darth Vader-shaped pipes.

From now until Sunday December 18, The Bong Shop is having a massive sale, with 20 per cent off its extensive range of quality vaporisers.

The Pulsar APX is a recommended brand, with a compact size of four inches, single-button function, five temperature settings, USB charge and a quick 40-second heat-up period. The ten-piece kit comes in a unique gift box and is available in a variety of cool designs, from a sleek and discreet black number to the rich pleasure of a colourful tie-dye swirl. Using a ceramic convection-style heating chamber, it’s perfect for the vape enthusiast who likes a customised experience in a clean and hasslefree package.

Head on over to their site and pick one up for some refreshing times. All in all, it’s making for one very chill Christmas. Your grandma’s plum pudding never tasted better. thebongshop.com.au

thebrag.com

BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16 :: 25

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

ALBUM OF THE WEEK FLUME

Skin Companion EP Future Classic

Graciously sharing this tasting plate of tracks that were written around the same time as those that made it onto Skin, Flume keeps fans’ hunger for new music satisfied with an aural smorgasbord of decadent and cerebral ear candy.

Harley Streten uses the short format to explore his darker side.

Closing off this collection of unconventional sounds is ‘Quirk’, and with unparalleled control and finesse, Flume’s execution and experimentation pushes boundaries while still maintaining a clear vision.

David Ohaion

xxx

On opener ‘Trust’, there’s a dreamlike nostalgia and memories of childhood conveyed by the Kalimba sample that weaves its way in and out of the track.

Flume takes a less radio-friendly approach here, the arrangements feeling more like textural tapestries, crafted with absolute care and attention to detail.

‘V’ pushes syncopation to the realms of mindboggling extremities, showing off a depth of experimentation, as the wash of what sounds like metallic rain cools the soul. After shifting further from the commercial sound that’s earned him no shortage of accolades, Flume reminds us how on point he can be with ‘Heater’. There’s an air of safeness that steps away from the exploratory nature of the rest of the EP and makes this track feel like the weakest link, even though on its own, it’s beautiful.

MARTHA WAINWRIGHT

GONE IS GONE

PHANTOGRAM

REDSPENCER

DEN

“I used to do a lot of blow,” coos Martha Wainwright in ‘Around The Bend’, the lush opening number of her new solo album, amid quaint acoustic arpeggios and a gentle shuffle of jazz brushes. It pierces through in a way that reminds you why you fell for Wainwright originally, when she was a firebrand 20-something who not only turned “bloody motherfucking asshole” into a rallying cry, but into one of the defining hooks of the mid-2000s.

The strange new offering from Gone Is Gone tenderly twists itself onto your ears with an unusual slew of musical narratives. But though this is a bizarre record, it’s far from unenjoyable. As each track is almost a saga in itself, most hitting the six-minute mark, you’ll forgive Echolocation its sometimes repetitive nature for the wonders which Gone Is Gone weave.

Lurking somewhere in the shadowy, liminal space between Portishead and Chvrches are New York duo Phantogram, dipping deep in their own darkness while continuing to pump out pop you can really feel.

It’s fitting that Redspencer’s debut album Perks arrives right on the cusp of summer, evoking the warmth and haziness of the season in effortless fashion. Beyond their shimmering guitar pop is an exploration of existential themes that come together to create an album of great depth.

Sydney four-piece Den wield a significant sonic clout on their selftitled debut EP – a pummelling barrage of modulated guitars and sinister synth replete with melody that brings nuance to the bruising assault.

Goodnight City Inertia

Now older, wiser and a mother of two, Wainwright approaches her craft with a little more finesse, in a manner that’s less forthright on her eponymous 2005 LP or the brilliantly titled I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too. As such, Goodnight City takes the good (the delightful bookends of ‘Franci’ and ‘Francis’) with the relatively bad (a mid-album slump, the overlong runtime), all the while painting a portrait of a woman looking back, keeping an eye on her family and watching the wheels go round.

If you’ve fallen for Wainwright’s charm in the past, you’ll no doubt be pleased with what Goodnight City has to offer. If life begins at 40, dear Martha is ready to live it to the fullest.

David James Young

Echolocation Black Dune/Cooking Vinyl

Vocalist Troy Sanders has a rich and wholesome sound, while the gentry of the guitar melodies falls nothing short of exceptional. However, a few of the songs on the album are altogether odd, and seemingly lose the plot a little. ‘Resurge’ falls off the wagon with a strange merrygo-round of lyrics – and yet, other tracks sharing similar qualities, like ‘Dublin’ and ‘Fast Awakening’, offer just enough variety to make it all worthwhile.

‘Ointment’ introduces a heaviness that isn’t present in the album’s opening passages, and so the remainder continues in the same sense, hooking you in with some catchy riffs before delivering a surprise at every turn.

In the vein of early Muse, Echolocation casts a spell that forces you to enjoy the stories the songs are telling. It’s a thoroughly imaginative and refreshing example of industrial rock.

Anna Wilson

Three Republic/Universal

As soon as the glitchy synth bass of ‘Funeral Pyre’ kicks in, vocalist Sarah Barthel stretches to the height of her range as she eulogises herself. Guitarist Josh Carter makes his presence similarly felt with the filthy guitar lick of ‘Same Old Blues’, salvaging the zeitgeist-baiting dub drop that precedes it.

Though the production lacks the hip hop punch of Eyelid Movies, the album’s first half feels assured – never more so than in the fuzzdrenched single ‘You Don’t Get Me High Anymore’ and the perfect Lee Moses sampling in the standout ‘Cruel World’.

Three is packed with dark, sexy electro and carried by Barthel’s R&Binflected vocal style, but it loses its vitality after the halfway mark, with Carter’s leading tracks never quite inspiring the same gloomy gyrations.

Closer ‘Calling All’ is a straight-up tonal mismatch: an attempt to stage a wake to the album’s funeral pyre, but with the wrong DJ.

DARKC3LL

Haunted Reality RTD

The great gloom of Darkc3ll recently swept through town as part of their album tour, harnessing their own brand of hell-on-stage with a set of explosive new songs.

These compositions cast a lens onto the world of industrial goth/ shock rock, which should always be approached with caution.

Haunted Reality is a formidable

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On opener ‘G-Talk’, Dave McMillan’s laconic vocals sing of “smoking durries and sinking a little beer” while reflecting on mortality with a surprising amount of poignancy. ‘Hard Work’ begins with a punchy guitar that gives the band a compelling new dynamic of mystery and intrigue.

‘Interlude’ follows, marrying a puzzling soundbite with a bubbling synth.

While it makes for an interesting listen, the interruption ultimately disrupts the natural flow of the album.

‘Perks’ is a sleepy number that glides at a relaxed pace but has enough masterful guitar work to keep you pegged. Once you get to the dreamy vocalization at the track’s end, it becomes near impossible not to be fully attentive. ‘Petrol’ chronicles teenage boredom with an assured intensity, while ‘Ride It Out’ possesses the strongest hook of the album.

Den Rice Is Nice

‘Life In Chains’ opens with a militant drum beat and from sparse beginnings builds to grandiosity, with haunting keys and swirling synth surrounding the domineering vocals.

‘Poltergeist’ is dark and menacing in demeanour, with buzzsaw guitars jarring against cathedral-like keys.

The oddball ’80s computer keyboard sounds on ‘Inter-view’ could easily have appeared in a Devo number, but the stark, spiky guitar riffs and unsettling organ maintain the band’s malevolent character. ‘Inertia’ is a slithering sneer of a song, unrelenting bass forming a rhythmic foundation that offsets the despondent and bitter vocals. The EP closes with ‘In The Stare’, a rampant punk attack that defiantly trails off in minimalist manner with frantic keys. Den take the angst of late-’70s American synth punk and combine it with the darker leanings of British post-punk.

Three delivers fuzzy satisfaction, but it still leaves you with the munchies.

Perks has a quiet confidence but the sound rarely strays out of the band’s comfort zone. While it might not break any new ground, this record certainly charms.

At times there are striking similarities to their contemporaries of the same ilk (Total Control, Low Life), but these are fleeting flavours that by no means define or detract from the appeal of Den’s debut.

David Molloy

Holly Pereira

Krystal Maynard

INDIE ALBUM OF THE WEEK Why is the renown of Darkc3ll not greater? Well, for one thing, the Queenslanders’ self-proclamation of being “not a product of the mainstream” keeps them undercover. Plus, once you hear Haunted Reality, you might just realise the world isn’t ready for such awesomeness as this.

Perks Deaf Ambitions

balance of stuff you can really get down and dirty with. ‘Stab Me (With Your Crucifix)’, the album’s standout track, will get heads nodding and fists pumping with its bewitching lyrics and great production. And it doesn’t stop there – ‘Preacher’, ‘Creepshow’ and the rest are just one welcome smack in the face; a barrage of gothic lyrics, electronics and good old-fashioned metal.

Darkc3ll might well be up there with the Trent Reznors, Rob Zombies and Wednesday 13s of the world, and we should feel privileged that we can keep the lid on such a great Australian treasure. For now.

OFFICE MIXTAPE And here are the albums that have helped BRAG HQ get through the week...

ELBOW - Build A Rocket Boys!

CAR SEAT HEADREST - Teens Of Denial SOLANGE - A Seat At The Table

JULIA JACKLIN - Don’t Let The Kids Win NEIL YOUNG - Peace Trail

Anna Wilson

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What we’ve been out to see...

FESTIVAL OF THE SUN 2016

Sundowner Breakwall Tourist Park Friday December 9 – Saturday December 10 Ah, FOTSUN. Port Macquarie’s beloved BYO music festival where you’re urged to “pop a tit or nut” as you pass campers, and where rules and shoes are hard to come by (costumes are not). Spirits are always high, and there’s a decent selection across two days of local bands and artists generally kicking goals.

With the sand-covered dancefloor primed and ready, The Lulu Raes got FOTSUNners moving with their sunny tracks and boozy banter early on Friday – the sight of a confident Eddie Burton strutting across stage and skolling a beer from the crowd was one to put a smile on faces, if their tunes hadn’t already.

L-Fresh The Lion, alongside his stellar MC Mirrah, kept up the energy, with ‘1 In 100,000’ and a downtempo ‘Get Mine’ from this year’s album Become proving crowd-pleasers before Middle Kids delivered to a solid audience on the teeny side stage with a rapturous ‘Edge Of Town’.

Montaigne gave arguably the most arresting performance of the weekend in her own fashion. All she needed to do was stand idly in front of the mic, busting her pipes to grab everyone’s attention – as she did when she first started – but with jolts of energetic conviction and twitches of limbs, the singer showcased her performance skills with lipstick smeared across her chin for ‘In The Dark’.

Each coming off fresh buzz overseas, Tash Sultana and Gang Of Youths headed up the tail end of day one.

Despite sound issues for Sultana, the grassroots and DIY favourite persevered,

up all night out all week . . .

maintaining her groove and bass face throughout her set. She also managed to convince her dad to get onstage to prove he can do the splits – a cameo she said was a long time coming.

The last Australian stage they graced was in the Splendour In The Grass amphitheatre but Gang Of Youths certainly didn’t wither their efforts for a significantly smaller crowd at FOTSUN. The one unusual feature during another A+ performance was an actual festival encore, with ‘Radioface’ lapped up by the crowd.

The booze continued flowing as Saturday afternoon kicked into gear, with Luca Brasi, Boo Seeka and Dune Rats each pulling out popular covers. With shoeys going down on shoulders, tinnies and thongs flying everywhere and packets of gravy mix being thrown onstage, Luca Brasi’s cover of Paul Kelly’s ‘How To Make Gravy’ was as much a crowd favourite as ‘Aeroplane’ and ‘Anything Near Conviction’.

Meanwhile, on the side stage, Good Boy, Dumb Punts and The Creases each served up grooves with their own distinct flavours, and if their sets were anything to go by, they should be gracing more festivals across the country ASAP. Bursting onstage with ‘Death To The Lads’, The Smith Street Band gave the fans what they wanted from the start as the sun started to set and Seth Sentry closed the weekend.

Musically, lyrically, in attitude and setting, FOTSUN’s decidedly Aussie tinge proudly rounded out another weekend in Port Macquarie with a solid sense of community that would be difficult to find at a festival anywhere else. Until next year, eh?

Emily Gibb

FAIRGROUNDS FESTIVAL 2016 Berry Fairgrounds Friday December 2 – Saturday December 3

Too often the phrase ‘family-friendly music festival’ feels like a negation in terms, proving about as appealing as decaf coffee or sugar-free Coke. After all, the drawcards that appeal to baby boomers are completely different to those that entice the 20-something crowd, and by mediating between opposing age brackets, festival organisers often end up simply watering down the pleasures for all involved.

The key to the Fairgrounds magic comes from the decision to embrace rather than ignore contrast – and rest assured, it is a kind of magic that brings together an age-diverse field full of punters lapping up a stately, reserved set from Rodriguez before moshing away to a showing from King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard.

In the spirit of that contrast, audiences flocked to see the eminently loveable Julien Baker read a children’s story to an adoring crowd in the kids’ tent before heading over to catch a triumphant Australian festival return from Japandroids, who are among the finest peddlers of alt-rock about and a band perfectly suited to the manic charms of the festival.

Sounding every inch Patricia Highsmith’s line about an angel flung

HUNT PHOTOGRAPHER :: BENJAMIN

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out of space, Bec Sandridge dropped a shimmering set of ’80s-inspired choruses, while elsewhere Angel Olsen leisurely laid down pristine hit after pristine hit. “Y’all are looking fi ne,” Olsen drawled, and even the blistering heat couldn’t undo the energy of all those determined to dance up front.

Nevertheless, a hiccup did appear later that day with the decision to host Baker’s set on the much smaller Newtown Social Club stage. Only two songs in, the audience seemed ready to erupt into riot, with dedicated fans loudly cursing at those whose chatter was beginning to drown out Baker’s tunes, and the strange vibe affected what was otherwise a thundering set.

But such a quibble is minor when compared to the sheer range of delights Fairgrounds had to offer. In its second year, the festival has already become one of Australia’s premier live music events, a reminder that ‘something for everyone’ doesn’t just have to be an empty cliché. After all, there aren’t many places you can watch a band as perfect as The Drones play a song as good as ‘The Miller’s Daughter’ while the sun sets, flanked on one side by a 16-year-old desperately shimmying away and on the other by a wide-eyed baby, clad in oversized headphones and staring up at Gareth Liddiard with something like devotion.

Joseph Earp

N PHOTOGRAPHER :: BRIANNA ELTO

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ANGEL OLSEN, JACK LADDER

cues from the rich history of country and blues of America’s South, while fostering an inward-looking voice that’s as tender as the heart it speaks for.

If you ever want to see a fully mesmerised, perfectly quiet audience, go to an Angel Olsen show. Touring in support of her recently released record My Woman, the Missouri singer-songwriter treated a packed-out Factory Theatre to her markedly refined alt-country dissertations, topped by her appropriately heavenly, lilting vocals.

Opener ‘Never Be Mine’ was met with rapturous applause, the crowd captivated by a chorus of guitars and Olsen’s soaring country queen intonations. As the evening progressed, hands were clasped around partners’ waists and loved ones were held tight; standing at the back of the room, you could see romance slowly filter through the audience. Even when singing of pain and despair, Olsen exudes a warm empathy that shone atop the alt-country interplay.

At times you could hear her practically whisper into the microphone.

Factory Theatre Tuesday December 6

PEACHES, BLACK CRACKER, HABITS Metro Theatre Friday December 9

In perhaps the queerest and most female-empowering set to ever grace the Metro stage, electronic debauchery was in full swing on Friday as Peaches utterly destroyed the joint.

Habits began the night with their signature “sad goth party jams”, but the party was in short supply. Their combo of pulsing bass and grotesquely distorted vox got a few bodies gyrating, but it wasn’t until Black Cracker made moves on the entire front row that the floor started giving way.

Backed by ingenious, cheeky twinscreen projections of his own design, Cracker (Berlin-based Ellison Renee Glenn) demanded of the crowd the same ecstatic response he’s used to in German raves, and set the tone for the lead act with a sexually charged set of oddcore bangers. He came as he was, and we want what he is.

It’s been a year since last we saw Peaches in Oz, and she’s lost none of her transgressive yonic fury despite 15 years of spreading the Teaches. She gifted an ecstatic, mostly shirtless crowd with two hours of utter filth, including her latest album Rub in full.

Emerging in a furry pubic yeti suit and detailed vagina hat, she opened with

female circle-jerk anthem ‘Rub’ and immediately dominated the space.

Peaches is a one-woman mardi gras: three songs in, she was flanked by dancers dressed as full-body front bottoms; a song later, she was topless and nipple-stickered, near-naked crowdsurfing.

What are the words to explain the giant, inflatable cock thrust into the crowd, which Peaches climbed inside? Or the strobing crotch disco that accompanied set closer ‘Light In Places’? Or the simulated three-way anilingus-fest preceding ‘Fuck The Pain Away’? How else do you describe a gig in which a bondage-clad male dancer in a bikini spits full in your face, and you fucking love it?

Peaches is gratuity embodied, a pornographic priestess at the height of her pussy powers, spraying booty-shakin’ synth beats like electronic cumshots into the faces of ecstatic revellers. She was the pill this city’s dying nightlife desperately needed. Drenched in champagne, sweat and who knows what else, we emerged into the night like Berlin ravers after a three-day binge, shaking with the electrifying sensation of total gratification.

The girls wanna be her, the boys wanna be her. No, we don’t wanna be her. We just want her to dominate us all over again.

David Molloy

Opening up proceedings was Sydney’s own Jack Ladder making one of his few live appearances this year, and in an equally rare acoustic mode. Without the accompaniment of The Dreamlanders, Ladder’s stripped-back performance felt like a return to his solo roots, with wry one-liners such as “we go together like salami and jam” jutting out from his ruminations as intended. Playing songs primarily from his last two records, Ladder’s reflective poetry and biting humour served as a perfect foil for the headliner.

The image of a backing band wearing teal Western suits (complete with bolo ties), fronted by Olsen in a simple lime green dress, spoke volumes about her music even before the group played a note. Much like the dress code, Olsen’s performance both celebrated and took

RYAN ADAMS

Enmore Theatre Tuesday December 6 Ryan Adams had only just finished introducing his band, the assortment of ultra-stylish musos recruited to record his new album Prisoner, when one of the night’s many hecklers called out. “Who are you?” they bellowed drunkenly. Everyone’s a comedian at an Adams show – including the musician himself – so the heckler was undoubtedly trying to be funny, but in the search for a jibe they stumbled across a valid question, one that has kept critics busy for decades now.

Who is Ryan Adams? Is he the man who recorded the stark yet pop-hook-heavy Rock N Roll? Or the alt-country troubadour responsible for quietly defiant songs like ‘Peaceful Valley’? Is he the shaggy-haired heartbreaker who, at his last Enmore theatre appearance, blistered through an uncharacteristically heavy set with minimal chat? Or is he the performer who took to the Opera House stage a few years back, taking selfies and laughing about orcs and Sith lords with an audience lapping up every moment?

Initially, it seemed like his Tuesday night show wasn’t going to offer any concrete answers – though whatever Adams he resembled, he was certainly in fine form, proving eager to throw out the map and go

CASS MCCOMBS, ELA STILES Newtown Social Club Tuesday December 6

I’m ever so slightly ashamed to admit this was my first Newtown Social gig. But then, who better to experience in its unassuming confines than the man venerated by many as a saving grace on the songwriting landscape, Cass McCombs?

Casting a singular figure against a backdrop of hardware, Ela Stiles was on hand for support, presenting an intriguing performance of layered and processed vocals that brought to mind the lighter side of minimal wave. Just as the audience was starting to feel inclined, her set ended abruptly for reasons unknown.

However, through the soaring crescendos and sure-fire pop moments (‘Shut Up Kiss Me’ was a real highlight), it was moments of slow, quiet reflection that felt at once the most anachronistic and traditional.

Concluding with a treacle-slow rendition of ‘Intern’, Olsen impressed once more with an angelic vocal performance, lilting atop tinny string pads and casting forth a melody like heaven’s gates opening. The shimmering synth spilled over into one last memento from Olsen – the closing track ‘Woman’, a sprawling meditation on womanhood. The line “I dare you to understand / What makes me a woman” rang throughout the theatre.

Lachlan Wyllie

off-road. A gag about the thematic similarity between his songs led to an improvised number about his love of toast and Joy Division bootlegs, and songs like ‘Magnolia Mountain’ were transformed into long, riffheavy numbers that teetered thrillingly on the edge of collapse.

New material was peppered all the way through, with the bold, damaged songs boasting titles such as ‘Doomsday’ and ‘Prisoner’. Oddly enough, in some ways the tunes most closely resembled numbers from his underrated and oft-ignored heavy metal record, Orion, but in terms of lyrical content they seemed cut from the same tear-andspit-stained cloth of Cold Roses.

So there’s the rub again; the range of musical personalities we talk about when we talk about Ryan Adams laid bare. But as ‘Gimme Something Good’ rear-ended into ‘Kim’, with the audience following every powerpopped chord, such concerns faded away.

Maybe we’ve always been too academic about Adams; too concerned about defining something that does not need to be defined.

As he played the audience up and out with ‘When The Stars Go Blue’, it seemed redundant to confuse personality with art, or try to make cerebral sense out of music aimed squarely for the gut. Who is Ryan Adams? He is his songs. That’s all.

Joseph Earp

McCombs’ most recent album Mangy Love is regarded by many as his most accessible.

Tuesday night’s gig, invested with a surprising brightness and airiness, only served to reaffirm this universal feeling. Where was that sparing, wearied poet, that wandering melancholy?

Still very much there, as ‘Don’t Vote’ would attest. Lauded for his lyricism, McCombs’ unexpectedly direct approach further emboldened his words. The casually delivered lyric, “Could you imagine this could drag on four more years?” was especially pregnant with meaning in these troubled times. Rich, warm bass, steady percussion and refreshingly resonant keyboard inflections seemed to grant even greater affinity to McCombs’ conscious musing.

PHOTOGRAPHER :: ASHLEY MAR

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FRANKIE’S FOURTH BIRTHDAY – FEAT: WOLFMOTHER Frankie’s Pizza Sunday December 11

An open letter to Frankie’s Pizza By The Slice on the occasion of its fourth birthday.

08:12:16 :: Factory Theatre :: 105 Victoria Rd Marrickville 9550 3666

THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH Sydney Opera House Monday December 5

Acoustically speaking, no Australian venue like the Sydney Opera House gives an artist so much in return for their effort. The wide-open space fills with music quickly, there’s a special feeling surrounding the place, and there’s an elevated air to everything that takes flight in the building. Monday evening was no exemption.

Upon the commencement of his show, Swedish musician Kristian Matsson – who records, scores and tours under the name The Tallest Man On Earth – stood alone to perform a set of selfpenned serenades. Armed with only his guitar and loop pedal, the leading man wholly immersed himself in some stirring melancholia as the stage lights dimmed.

Even during the in-between spaces there was something to listen out for – the occasional hiatus where he would stop to pull a thought from deep within his musical memory bank. He even inspired someone in the stalls to whisper, “This is

Appropriately, it was following the lilting sweetness of ‘Brighter!’ that the show really clicked into gear and McCombs’ arrangements really came to life. The playful guitar lick of ‘Run Sister Run’, reminiscent ever so slightly of an Afrobeat fi ll, seemed especially poignant in light of the song’s reference to British Columbia’s tragic Highway of Tears; as it was with the wistful melodic riff of ‘Bum Bum Bum’, in which he gently wavered, “No, it ain’t no dream, it’s all too real / How long until this river of blood congeals?” These are simple, evocative social narratives dressed in a deliberate disguise.

Closing it out was ‘County Line’ – once a bittersweet ballad, now transformed

beautiful – I feel like I’m going to cry.”

Onstage, Matsson was wild but modest, rambling his way through reams of wordplay more haphazard than not. Whether frolicking around dancing on one leg or sitting momentarily on a chair, he rarely seemed nervous or shy. While his vocal delivery can be an acquired taste, it’s inevitably his lyricism that is remoulded by each listener to refl ect his or her own heavy heartache.

Your primary objective was to throw a party like no other, and so you gathered into your arms a choice selection of bands who wanted nothing more than to make your loyal patrons shimmy and shake.

Lepers And Crooks took to your cosy stage with a tantalising swagger, forcing the audience to a climatic peak with ‘Heathen Circus’ and ‘This System’. Frontman Sam Baker mounted the forward speaker and

made love to the crowd as the rest of the band bounced along in rhythmic bliss.

Sydney’s own sons of grunge The Dead Love were a great choice too, for as always, their performance was gnarly in the best of senses. One of the measures of a good band is how they make you move, and with one brave crowd-surfer coming particularly close to the ceiling through classics like ‘Summer’ and ‘Wastelands’, they were fi tting for the occasion.

And as if you couldn’t do more to appease your adoring punters, welcoming Aussie legends Wolfmother to your party just tipped us over the edge, the air con doing nothing to cool the 400 emphatic fans crammed within your sweaty cavity.

Wolfmother set fire to the stage, the ambers of their music burning through the venue, swallowing the crowd in an inferno of rock, with arms raised high and voices singing loud.

So thank you Wolfmother, and thank you Frankie’s, for giving us an unbelievable night of grotty fl oors, sticky beer and deafened ears. Here’s to another year of legendary music and epic memories. Happy birthday, and long live rock’n’roll.

Anna Wilson

For the majority of the almost twohour set, Matsson switched back and forth between songs old and new, each of them maintaining a similar pace to the last. The audience was lulled with the allure of soft stepping in ‘The Wild Hunt’, while ‘Fields Of Our Home’ saw touches of violin, harmonica and pedal steel guitar added for extra measure.

Whether it was the slightly vast ‘Darkness Of The Dream’ or the tender throb of ‘The Gardener’, each song had the crowd avidly hanging onto every word.

Kiera Thanos

into a tastefully dub-infl ected session.

McCombs’ band members had, by this stage, found their voices, a respectful nod acknowledging each of their solos in turn. This was hardly self-indulgence; if anything, the bubbling energy – though occasionally threatening to ensconce its lyrical driver – was punctuated by its restraint.

In refl ection, I’d be the first to admit I’d prepared for the introverted, wearied troubadour, and wrongfully ignored the diversity of his output and the scope and space within his arrangements.

Lent new life in a live setting, this was McCombs affording himself a wry smile.

Alex Chetverikov

frankie’s 4th birthday

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Ah, Frankie’s. For the last four years you’ve not only provided the best selection of beers and spirits alongside the greasiest yet most delicious pizza, you’ve provided a playground for rock stars visiting our fair city, a refuge for city suits to escape the monotony of daily life, a dive bar frequented by the coolest kids in town, and a live music venue for local bands to showcase their talent, raising them onto a platform like no other. And your birthday celebration was no exception.

up all night out all week . . .

11:12:16 :: Frankie’s Pizza :: 50 Hunter St Sydney

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pick of the week A Day To Remember

FRIDAY DECEMBER 16

Hordern Pavilion

A Day To Remember + Issues 6:30pm. $91.65.

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 14 INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Karaoke Wednesdays Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 10pm.

Free.

Live & Original @ Lazybones - feat: Nikita Rolleston + Julianne Jessop & Matt Hanley + Sean Rudd + Taylor King Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 7:30pm. $10.

Manouche Wednesday - feat: Gadjo Guitars Mr Falcon’s, Glebe.

8pm. Free.

Mark Travers Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. Free.

Steve Gadd Band The Basement, Circular Quay. 7pm. $131.60.

Folkswagon Cafe Lounge Bar, Surry Hills. 7pm. Free.

Songwriting Society Of Australia Showcase - feat: John Chesher + Daniel Mountain + Maeve Lawson + Monica + Vic Young + Gavin Fitzgerald + Paul Mcgowan

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

Alex The Seal + Rogue Company The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $7.

Cameron James Henderson Band + Heirs Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. $10.

Joseph Tawadros Quartet Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 8pm. $32.90.

Noël! Noël! 2016 - feat: Australian Brandenburg Orchestra City Recital Hall, Sydney. 5pm. $71.

Noël! Noël! 2016 - feat: Australian Brandenburg Orchestra City Recital Hall, Sydney. 7pm. $71.

Salsa Wednesdays feat: DJ Miro The Argyle, The Rocks. 8:30pm. Free.

The Gypsy Art Club Django Bar @ Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 6:30pm. $10.

Wailing Wednesdays Rosie Campbell’s, Surry Hills. 6pm. Free.

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THURSDAY DECEMBER 15 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

Chasing The Moon Django Bar @ Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 7:30pm. $19.90.

End Notes Jazz - feat: Princeton Parker Cake Wines Cellar Door, Redfern.

6:30pm. Free.

Low Down Riders The Temperance Society, Summer Hill.

7pm. Free.

Soul Roots Revival Band Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8pm. $10.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Anthony Charlton Australian Arms Hotel, Penrith. 8:30pm. Free.

Folk At The Lodge - feat: John Vella + Leroy Lee + Friends Forest Lodge Hotel, Forest Lodge. 7pm.

Free.

Harbourview Hulabaloo - feat: Zack Martin + Red Shift + Tracey Chamberlain + Ron Maxime + Chris Brookes + Monica + Adam Anderson + Kenneth D’Aran Harbourview Hotel,

The Rocks. 7pm. Free.

Jim Finn Carousel Inn Hotel, Rooty Hill. 8pm. Free.

Joseph Banks Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham. 8pm. Free.

Steve Poltz Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 8pm. $37.90.

Tom Stephens + Lazy Colts + Sunscreen Slyfox, Enmore. 8pm.

Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

3-Way Split Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 9pm. Free.

Al Showman Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 12pm.

Free.

Amber Isles The Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt. 8pm. $7.

Anthony Charlton Australian Arms Hotel, Penrith. 7pm. Free.

Balmain Blitz Band Comp Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

7pm. $15.

Bernie Hayes The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $7.

Christmas Kisses St George Leagues Club, Kogarah. 6pm.

Free.

Dee Donavan Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 12pm.

Free.

DZ Deathrays + Ecca Vandal + Rackett Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 7:30pm. $58.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 16 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

Johnny G & The E Types Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 9pm. $27.90.

Lolo Lovina Django Bar @ Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 9pm. $24.90.

Queen Porter Stomp + Golden Whistler + Whoa Mule The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $7.

Rewind - The Aretha Franklin Songbook feat: Christine Anu The Basement, Circular Quay.

7:30pm. $39.60.

Tony Burky’s Hot Club + John & Yuki Well Co. Cafe And Wine Bar, Glebe. 8pm.

Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Anthony Charlton Hornsby Inn, Hornsby.

8pm. Free.

Joseph Banks The Lass O’Gowrie Hotel, Wickham. 9pm.

Free.

Steve Poltz The Bunker, Coogee.

7:30pm. $22.80.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

A Day To Remember + Issues Hordern Pavilion, Moore Park. 6:30pm. $91.65.

Agent 69 Towradgi Beach Hotel, Towradgi. 8pm. Free.

Ali Barter Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $16.50.

Basement Fridays feat: The Vanns The Eastern, Bondi Junction. 9pm. $10.

Birds Of Tokyo Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 7pm. $61.10.

Botany Idol feat: Karaoke Competition Botany Bay Hotel, Banksmeadow.

9:30pm. Free.

Cath & Him Quakers Inn, Quakers Hill. 9pm. Free.

Cave Night - feat: Dead Farmers + W.I.P. + Twelve Point Buck + Orphans + Eggplant Jackson Pleb City Studios, Marrickville. 7pm. $10.

Christmas Kisses St George Leagues Club, Kogarah. 6pm.

Free.

Clive Hay Minto Mirage Hotel, Minto. 8pm. Free.

Cover Me Crazy Castle Hill RSL, Castle Hill. 10pm.

Free.

Damien Leith Penrith Panthers, Penrith. 5:30pm. $41.65.

Ducks! + Moonsign + Sparrows + Auto 64 + Yung Brujo (DJ) Red Rattler, Marrickville. 7:30pm.

Free.

Elliot The Bull Factory Floor, Marrickville. 8pm. $12.

Five Coffees Mr Falcon’s, Glebe.

8:30pm. Free.

Hits & Pieces Wallacia Bowling & Recreation Club, Wallacia. 7pm. Free.

Jon Toogood Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington. 8pm. $23.50.

Mirella’s Inferno + Daze Parade + Slow Nomad Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. $15.

One Hit Wonders Revesby Workers Club, Revesby.

8:30pm. Free.

Paper Thin Black Wire Records, Annandale. 8pm. Free.

Parcels + The Dinlows Moonshine Cider & Rum Bar, Manly. 8pm.

Free.

Reckless Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 10pm. Free.

Resin Moon + Edward Francis + Grim Tilla Join The Dots Studio, Marrickville. 8pm.

Free.

Sam Lyon Duo

Club Central, Hurstville. 5pm. Free.

Self Talk + Rachel Maria & The Cox + Nothing Rhymes With David Black Wire Records, Annandale. 7pm. $10.

Soundbird The Ranch, Eastwood. 9pm. Free.

The Frocks Colonial Hotel, Werrington. 9pm.

Free.

The Original Wiggles - Over 18s Show Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 8pm. $30.

Valve Bar Christmas Party - feat: Chris Duke And The Royals + Jono Reed + Laura Palmer + Batfoot + Hack The Mainframe Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 8pm. $10.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 17 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

Armandito Y Su Trovason Django Bar @ Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 9pm. $25.90.

Cope Street Parade The Sound Lounge, Darlington. 8pm. $25.

Janet Seidel Quartet Penrith Panthers, Penrith. 2pm. Free.

Monsieur Camembert Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 9pm. $40.90.

Noël! Noël! 2016 - feat: Australian Brandenburg Orchestra City Recital Hall, Sydney. 5pm. $71.

Noël! Noël! 2016 - feat: Australian Brandenburg Orchestra City Recital Hall, Sydney. 7pm. $71.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Anthony Charlton Oaks Hotel, Neutral Bay. 7pm. Free.

Darren Hanlon St Stephen’s Uniting Church, Sydney. 7pm. $27.

Five Coffees + Bones Atlas Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. $15.

Paul Hayward And Sidekicks The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 3pm.

Free.

Songsonstage Christmas Concert feat: Russell Neal + The Cheatin’ Hearts + Vee Malnar + Anita Lenzo + Matthew Flood + Adam Anderson Orange Grove Hotel, Lilyfield . 7pm. Free.

Steve Poltz The Basement, Circular Quay.

7:30pm. $39.60.

Sugar Bowl Hokum The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 3pm. $7.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

80s Rewind - feat: Soundproofed Pritchards Hotel, Mount Pritchard.

7:30pm. Free.

Birds Of Tokyo Towradgi Beach Hotel, Towradgi. 8pm. $46.

Blake Tailor Wallacia Hotel, Wallacia. 8pm. Free.

Cath & Him Kelly’s On King, Newtown. 8pm. Free.

Christmas Kisses St George Leagues Club, Kogarah. 6pm.

Free.

Codju Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 5:45pm. Free.

Geoff Yule Smith The Bar Sir Stamford Hotel, Sydney. 6pm.

Free.

Imogen Clark Hawkesbury Hotel, Windsor. 8pm. Free.

Katcha Mr Falcon’s, Glebe.

8:30pm. Free.

Last Stand - The Chisel Barnes Show North Bondi RSL, Bondi North. 8pm.

Free.

Matt Lyon Penrith Panthers, Penrith. 5:30pm. Free.

Ducks! + Moonsign + DJ Jack Shit Tokyo Sing Song, Newtown. 10pm. Free.

Polish Club + Twin Fires + King Dingaling Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $15.

Stephanie Jansen Plough & Harrow, Camden. 8pm. Free.

The Australian ABBA Tribute Show - feat: Abbalanche Canterbury Bankstown Leagues Club, Belmore.

7:30pm. $15.

Thirsty Merc Blue Cattle Dog Hotel, St Clair. 8pm. $34.

Trojans Hermann’s Bar, Darlington. 8pm. Free.

Whooshka Revesby Workers Club, Revesby.

8:30pm. Free.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 18 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

Sunday Collective Secret Garden Bar, Enmore. 5pm. Free.

The Squares Moya’s Juniper Lounge, Redfern.

6pm. Free.

The Unity Hall Jazz Band Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain. 4pm. Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS

Becky & The Pussycats Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 6:30pm. $10.

Big Smack Australian Arms Hotel, Penrith. 3pm. Free.

Day Of The Dancing

thebrag.com

A Day To Remember photo by James Hartley

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Old Fitzroy Hotel, Woolloomooloo.

7:30pm. Free.

The Dirty Earth + Ten Thousand + The Rollercanes Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 8pm. Free.

Easy Street + Special Guests Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington. 8pm.

Free.

Good Lookin’ Roosters Mr Falcon’s, Glebe.

9pm. Free.

Grooveworks Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 12pm.

Free.

Gwyn Ashton Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 8pm. Free.

John Vickers Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 12pm.

Free.

Jon Toogood Brass Monkey, Cronulla. 8pm. $23.50.

Karen Beckett Revesby Workers Club, Revesby. 11am.

Free.

Live & Original @ The Louis - feat: Pepper Jane + Amber Dubs + Joseph Banks + Sahar + Vienna’s Notebook Lewisham Hotel, Lewisham. 7:30pm.

Free.

Live Band Karaoke Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain. 9pm. Free.

Mammals + Slumberhaze Hotel Steyne Manly, Manly. 8pm. Free.

Parcels Selina’s @ Coogee Bay Hotel, Coogee.

8pm. Free.

Steve Gadd Band The Basement, Circular Quay.

6:30pm. $131.60.

The Monkees Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $89.95.

Upstairs Live The Beresford Hotel, Surry Hills. 8pm. Free.

Vauxhall Outlaws + Los Espinas + Sleepytown Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $8.

g g guide gig g

gig picks up all night out all week...

send your listings to : gigguide@thebrag.com Bugs - feat: Tall Grass + Nightime & Child + Red Zora + A Blunt Modern (Trent Holy Soul & Co.) + Manners Park The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 3:30pm. $7.

Dellacoma Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 8pm. Free.

Drop Legs Hotel Steyne Manly, Manly. 7pm. Free.

Jive Expressjive Express Penrith RSL, Penrith.

2pm. Free.

Kirk Brandon Factory Floor, Marrickville. 7pm. $25.

Kris McIntyre Colonial Hotel, Werrington. 4pm.

Free.

Marshall O’Kell Towradgi Beach Hotel, Towradgi.

3:30pm. Free.

Nancy Sinatra Lee Hazlewood Experience - feat: Zoe Carides + Scott Holmes + Murray Cook Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 7:30pm. $22.90.

Performing Brazil Mr Falcon’s, Glebe.

7pm. Free.

Rock Gods 1 - feat: Def Repplica + Poisonus + The Australian Van Halen Show Bridge Hotel, Rozelle.

8pm. $28.20.

Sunday Sundown

- feat: Montaigne + Hein Cooper The Newport, Newport. 12pm. Free.

U2 Elevation Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 3:30pm. Free.

UK Anthems Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm. Free.

Gee + Kenneth D’Aran + Paul Ward Kelly’s On King, Newtown. 7:30pm.

Free.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Latin & Jazz Open Mic Night The World Bar, Kings Cross. 7pm.

Free.

Acoustic Sessions Buena Vista Hotel, Mosman. 2pm. Free.

Gwyn Ashton Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8pm. $10.

Heath Burdell Unity Hall Hotel, Balmain. 3pm. Free.

Nadia Piave Django Bar @ Camelot Lounge, Marrickville. 7:30pm. $22.90.

Stray Dogs The Merton Hotel, Rozelle. 6pm. Free.

MONDAY DECEMBER 19 ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

SSA Christmas Concert - feat: Russell Neal + Pete Scully + Adam Anderson + Peter

JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Adam Gorecki Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm.

Free.

Frankie’s World Famous House Band Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 9pm. Free.

John Maddox Duo Mr Falcon’s, Glebe.

7:30pm. Free.

The Monday Jam The Basement, Circular Quay.

8:30pm. $6.

TUESDAY DECEMBER 20 JAZZ, SOUL, FUNK, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

Steve Hunter Band

Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville.

8:30pm. $10.

ACOUSTIC, COUNTRY, BLUES & FOLK

Montaigne

Songsonstage Christmas Concert - feat: Russell Neal + Chris Brookes + Monica + Pauline Sparkle + Warren Munce Gladstone Hotel, Dulwich Hill.

7:30pm. Free.

Songsonstage Christmas Concert - feat: Stuart Jammin + Guests Kelly’s On King, Newtown. 8pm.

Free.

INDIE, ROCK, POP, METAL, PUNK & COVERS Bucket Lounge Presents – Live & Originals Mr Falcon’s, Glebe.

7pm. Free.

Live & Original @ Mr Falcon’s - feat: Kay Camargo + Nick Murray + Ben Camden + Cuzn + Jasmine Beth Mr Falcon’s, Glebe.

7pm. Free.

Tom Trelawny Orient Hotel, The Rocks. 8:30pm.

Free.

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 14

Jon Toogood Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington. 8pm. $23.50.

Steve Gadd Band The Basement, Circular Quay. 7pm. $131.60.

Mirella’s Inferno + Daze Parade + Slow Nomad Lazybones Lounge, Marrickville. 8:30pm. $15.

The Dirty Earth + Ten Thousand + The Rollercanes Frankie’s Pizza, Sydney. 8pm. Free.

THURSDAY DECEMBER 15

Queen Porter Stomp + Golden Whistler + Whoa Mule The Gasoline Pony, Marrickville. 7pm. $7.

DZ Deathrays + Ecca Vandal + Rackett Factory Theatre, Marrickville. 7:30pm. $58.

Rewind - The Aretha Franklin Songbook - Feat: Christine Anu The Basement, Circular Quay. 7:30pm. $39.60.

Mammals + Slumberhaze Hotel Steyne Manly, Manly. 8pm. Free.

The Monkees Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $89.95.

Tom Stephens + Lazy Colts + Sunscreen Slyfox, Enmore. 8pm. Free.

wed

thu

14 Dec

15 (9:00PM - 12:00AM)

Dec

(9:00PM - 12:00AM)

fri

(10:00PM - 1:40AM)

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

SATURDAY DECEMBER 17 Darren Hanlon St Stephen’s Uniting Church, Sydney.

7pm. $27.

Ali Barter Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst. 8pm. $16.50.

Polish Club + Twin Fires + King Dingaling Newtown Social Club, Newtown. 8pm. $15.

Basement Fridays - Feat: The Vanns The Eastern, Bondi Junction. 9pm. $10.

Cave Night - Feat: Dead Farmers + W.I.P. + Twelve Point Buck + Orphans + Eggplant Jackson Pleb City Studios, Marrickville. 7pm. $10.

Dec

Self Talk + Rachel Maria & The Cox + Nothing Rhymes With David Black Wire Records, Annandale. 7pm. $10.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 16

Birds Of Tokyo Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 7pm. $61.10.

16

Parcels + The Dinlows Moonshine Cider & Rum Bar, Manly.

8pm. Free.

Elliot The Bull Factory Floor, Marrickville. 8pm. $12.

Steve Poltz The Basement, Circular Quay. 7:30pm. $39.60.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 18 Sunday Sundown - Feat: Montaigne + Hein Cooper The Newport, Newport. 12pm. Free.

3:30PM  6:30PM

Steve Poltz

sat

17

5:45PM  8:45PM

Dec

sun

18 Dec

(8:30PM - 11:30PM)

(10:00PM - 1:15AM)

mon

19 Dec

tue

(8:30PM - 11:30PM)

20 Dec

(8:30PM - 11:30PM)

EVERY SATURDAY

Party DJs GROUND FLOOR - AFTER BANDS

thebrag.com

BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16 :: 31

brag beats

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

on the pulse club, dance and hip hop in brief... with David Burley, Ariana Norton and Anna Wilson

five things WITH

Growing Up I actually 1. don’t have

any musical background and neither does most of my family. It wasn’t until about 2006-2008 when I really discovered electronic music through Ministry Of Sound/One Love/Bang Gang compilations where I fell in love with it all and started to go deeper into it through the internet. I’ve always had a yearning to find new music and uncover stuff and

Silent Jay

DENZEL STERLING FROM SIDECHAINS

show it to people, and that’s basically what I get to do with Sidechains and our FBi Radio show.

Inspirations Producers 2. like Crystal Castles, Rustie, The Knife, Yung Lean and Purity Ring are all big inspirations musically, but as a designer I’m also inspired by a lot of different things aesthetically and conceptually. Video games are a big source of inspo for myself.

HUDSON BALLROOM BIRTHDAY

After a transformative year, Hudson Ballroom (FKA Plan B, FKA

Your Crew Our main 3. crew consists of

myself, Sortagoth, FlexMami and Grasps_. I work as a freelance graphic designer and FlexMami is a digital comms manager during the day. Sortagoth and Grasps_ are both currently studying.

We’ve all been connected to music one way or another over the years through clubbing, DJing, producing or the internet, which led all of us to each other!

The Music You Make 4.

And Play

Sidechains is a pretty diverse and eclectic sound.

We’ve released pop, grime, trap, jersey and even an EP from a Sad Boys producer, but for our DJ sets, expect to hear a mixture of bubbly and industrial club music. You’ll probably hear a remix of Teriyaki Boyz – ‘Tokyo Drift’ at least once.

Right Here, Right 5. Music,

Goodgod) is hosting a free party packed with DJs to get you dancing.

The event will take over the entire venue and will feature DJs from all your favourite Hudson Ballroom

Now Australian music has been really strong in the last couple of years, and thanks to platforms like SoundCloud a lot of producers have been brought out into the spotlight.

There’s so much cool and interesting stuff that gets born out of club culture, so as long as people continue to go out and support/discover the up-and-coming talent that start in small clubs, it’ll continue to keep Australian music on the radar. Personally, seeing UV Boi’s live show this year made me really happy. Seeing his development from a bedroom producer into a full live act with vocal work was amazing.

What: Hudson Ballroom 1st Birthday With: Jessie Tank, Levins, John Wineberg, Shantan Wantan Ichiban and more Where: Hudson Ballroom When: Saturday December 17

events like Rhythm Of The Night, Slime Saturdays, Halfway Crooks and Sidechains. The full lineup includes FlexMami, Jessie Tank, Levins, Denzel Sterling, John Wineberg, Shantan Wantan Ichiban, Nick Toth, Helena Ellis, Nic Kelly and DJ Adverse. The first birthday fun goes down on Saturday December 17.

SISTAS WITH SOUL

Just as they did last year, Sistas With Soul will be taking over another warehouse-style Sydney venue, transforming it into a Miami-esque outdoor/indoor party this Boxing Day. With Sydney local MXXWLL headlining the event, the lineup will be boosted

by Melbourne’s Billy Davis and Silent Jay. There’s no shortage of excellent hip hop and jazz artists taking the stage this year; Aussie reps also including Mz Rizk, DJ Cman and Klasik, while the international contingent features DJ DX. As well as a tsunami of musical skills, attendees of Sistas With Soul can enjoy the first-ever Organic Soul Food menu exclusively created by the chefs at Cooh Bar, adding cocktails, beers and eats to great vibes. Be there at Cooh Bar in Alexandria on Monday December 26.

the first hip hop act to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and invented techniques that are the mainstay of modern hip hop Djing today. Recently he has starred in the Netflix series The Get Down

directed by Aussie legend himself Baz Luhrmann, and his intimate show promises to be a night to remember for any music fan. Grandmaster Flash will play The Soda Factory on Friday January 6.

HE’S GOT THE REMEDY

After the success of his debut Australian tour in 2015, Miami-based trap lord Ricky Remedy will return in January with a run of shows.

In the run-up to the release of his second EP, featuring collaborations with Diplo, Remedy will bring his crossbreeding of multiple styles, including dubstep and future house, to major cities across Australia and New Zealand. Catch Remedy at the Metro Theatre, Friday January 27.

Ricky Remedy

Goat Island

SYDNEY FEST FREE DJS

Tornado Wallace

TAKE THE WEATHER WITH YOU

After moving to Berlin and touring the Northern Hemisphere, Tornado Wallace is back to show off his new EP. Picnic HQ is hosting the event to wrap up a big year of shows from Soichi Terada, Simon Caldwell and many more. And now, for Picnic’s final One Night Stand of the year, it’s bringing in the big guns. Wallace has recently played at some huge international festivals including Love International and Into The Valley, so there’s no doubt he’s up for an all-night DJ set. The final One Night Stand for 2016 is taking place at Jam Gallery this Saturday December 17.

GET THE MESSAGE

Grandmaster Flash, a pioneer of US hip hop, will help revellers extend their New Year celebrations further into 2017 by playing a sweet set at The Soda Factory in Surry Hills. He was

GOAT ISLAND SOUNDS

Goat Island Sounds is back for Australia Day 2017, complete with rad live music, spectacular harbour views and, of course, triple j’s Hottest 100. This summer’s lineup includes some of the hottest names in electronic music right now, featuring Ngaiire, Nina Las Vegas, Basenji, Kuren, Adi Toohey and Ariane. If that’s (somehow) not your thing, you can hang out at The Green with sweet garden games and the triple j Hottest 100 and dig into some seriously good food – we’re talking fried chicken, Lebanese cuisine and beer. As well as being a great day out with mates, Goat Island Sounds is working to support some amazing female artists, with women making up four of the six acts. Goat Island Sounds is on Thursday January 26, with tickets on sale now through Moshtix. xxx

32 :: BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16

Sky Terrace and Roller Jam are back in January for Sydney Festival, and they’re bringing a jam-packed lineup of DJs with them. Funkdafied, Nick Toth, Stephen Allkins, Misbehaviour, Simon Caldwell, CC:Disco, Adi Toohey and Paris Groovescooter are set to heat up the dancefloor at The Star’s Sky Terrace and Hyde Park in January, providing a soundtrack for Sydney’s weekly roller derby at the latter.

Whether you’re into the club scene, or gliding, boogieing and shimmying your way around on skates is more your thing, they’ve got you covered.

Sky Terrace is on from Saturday January 7 – Thursday January 22 and Roller Jam is on every Saturday from Saturday January 7 – Saturday January 28.

thebrag.com

club guide g send your listings to : clubguide@thebrag.com

club pick of the week B Wise

THURSDAY DECEMBER 15

SATURDAY DECEMBER 17

Newtown Social Club

HIP HOP & R&B

B Wise

+ Manu Crook$ + Left + DJ Captain Franco 7pm. $19.84.

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 14 CLUB NIGHTS Muto + Crooked Colours DJs + Strange Associates + Monoko And Of Leisure DJs 107 Projects, Redfern. 5pm. $13.53.

Sbw Side Bar, Sydney.

8pm. Free.

Sosueme - feat: Walker & Royce + Leisure + Jennifer Jennifer + Sideboob + Viberia Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm.

Free.

Wet Wednesdays Scary Canary, Sydney. 9:30pm.

Free.

THURSDAY DECEMBER 15 CLUB NIGHTS Femme Fetale The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. Free.

Get Some Goodbar, Paddington. 6pm. thebrag.com

Free.

House Keeping Side Bar, Sydney.

8pm. Free.

Throwback Thursdays Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 8pm.

Free.

Yo/ Da Fu/ Nk feat: Resident Funk DJs The World Bar, Kings Cross. 9pm.

Free.

HIP HOP & R&B

Argyle Thursdays - feat: Mike Champion + Moto + Nino Brown + Tubz + A-Game The Argyle, The Rocks. 12pm. Free.

B Wise + Manu Crook$ + Left + DJ Captain Franco Newtown Social Club, Newtown.

7pm. $19.84.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 16 HIP HOP & R&B

Changeroom Fridays - feat: DJs On Rotation Ivy Bar/Lounge,

Steve P Valve Bar, Agincourt Hotel, Ultimo. 10pm.

Free.

Lady Grey’s Sunday Best - feat: Betoko Zoo Project, Potts Point. 8pm. $21.49.

Ministry Of Sound Reunion Tour 2001-2004 - feat: John Course + Mark Dynamix + Plump DJs + Kid Kenobi + Groove Terminator + Nick Law Metro Theatre, Sydney. 9pm. $61.20.

Mo Funk Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 6pm. Free.

Really Supersonic Oxford Circus, Darlinghurst. 7pm.

Free.

Red Bull Sound Select - feat: Total Giovanni + András And Oscar + Confi dence Man + DJ Levins Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. $3.

Resident DJ: Kali Harpoon Harry, Surry Hills. 6pm.

Free.

Sydney. 9pm. Free.

Curse Ov Dialect + DJs Jack Shit + Andy Clockwise Tokyo Sing Song, Newtown. 8pm.

Free.

Fatback Hudson Ballroom, Sydney. 9pm. Free.

Role Modelz - feat: The Weeknd vs Childish Gambino Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm.

Free.

CLUB NIGHTS Aphotic Warehouse - feat: Gabriel Moraes + Ark-E-Tech + Alec Sander + Methodix + Shepz + Zigmon + Jackson Winter + Zombie Apocalypse + Brosnan Perera + David James Secret Location, Sydney. 9pm. $44.

Argyle Fridays The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. Free.

Bassic - feat: Cesqeaux + Noy + Bankwobber + Mi77enz + Jinx + Radrops + Kinetic Theory + Hit & Run Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $22.90.

Bright Daze Events Presents Sub

Christmas Party 2016 - feat: 5 Finger Discount + Nihilist + Scepaz + Myth 4 + Double + Dseeva + Hyjak + Son Of Sam + Tycotic + P.Smurf The Chippo Hotel, Chippendale. 8pm. $15.

Cult - feat: DJ Rise + Monobrow + Saffron Mash Different Drummer, Glebe. 7pm. Free.

El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 9pm.

Free.

Fire Up Fridays feat: Cool Jerk DJs Rosie Campbell’s, Surry Hills. 5pm.

Free.

Friday Frothers Side Bar, Sydney.

8pm. Free.

Friday Night Dance Off - feat: Modern History + DJ Lou Lou Scruffy Murphy’s Hotel, Sydney. 6pm.

Free.

Jungle Bells feat: Monako + N-Va + Ohmage + Ella Lions + Highly Dubious B2B Scatterbrain + Thierry D B2B Polar + Cappa +

143 Liverpool Street Familia 11th Anniversary - feat: The Learned Hand + DJ Adverse + DJ Makoto + Benny Hinn Play Bar, Surry Hills.

6pm. Free.

Establishment Saturdays - feat: Zannon + DJ’S On Rotation Nemz + Bennett + Billy B + Playz The Establishment, Sydney. 8pm. $10.

Thundamentals Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $38.25.

CLUB NIGHTS .Dark .Days 002 The 12 Hours Of Black Xmas - feat: Dean Benson + Sebastian Bayne + Ben Drayton + John Ferris + David Bangma + Qu-Zen + Gav Whalan + Katia + Blunten + Frederico Puentes + Vini Martins + Josh Verdi + Sheeeen + Sook Yen Portugal Madeira Club, Marrickville.

2pm. $22.

Arabian Knights feat: Ray Isaac Imperial Hotel, Erskineville. 10pm.

Free.

Argyle Saturdays - feat: Tass + TapTap + Minx + Crazy Caz The Argyle, The Rocks. 6pm. Free.

Blueprint Christmas Party feat: Katie Drover + Gabby + Matt Weir + Marcotix + Ben Nott & Aaiste + Ezra + Nick Reverse & Anais + Db + Andy Ef +

Steve Birch + Alex Ludlow + Aaron Smith + Shepz Carlos & Jakob + Ol + Amháin Bridge Hotel, Rozelle. 9pm. $37.57.

Bombs Away + Highjackerz + Luke La Beat + George Orb + Harper + Anonymous + Wafu + Odd Souls + Tactician + Linxar + DJ Thrills + Arlos + 6ft. Sounds + Dirty Harry + Jceez Candy’s Apartment, Potts Point. 8pm. $20.40.

Clique Sydney Cruise Bar, Sydney.

8:30pm. $20.

DJ Pranez AKA Pranesh Gurung Rooty Hill RSL Club, Rooty Hill. 8:30pm.

Free.

DNA Pool Party 2016 Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 12pm. $41.99.

El Loco Later - feat: DJs On Rotation Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills. 9pm.

Free.

Eric Cloutier + Magda Bytnerowicz + Trinity + Kate Doherty + U-Khan + Dave Stuart Secret Location, Sydney. 10pm. $44.

Excision Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $58.05.

Frat Saturdays Side Bar, Sydney.

8pm. Free.

Graham M & Brenny B Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 6pm. Free.

Lndry - feat: Shiba San + Walker & Royce + Friendless + Vats + Mike Hyper + King Lee + DJ Just 1 + Offtapia + High Beam + CD Inc Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $33.10.

Mantra Collective 4th Birthday feat: Varhat + Shai Spooner + Mantra Collective + Aboutjack + Space Junk + Whitecat + Marley Sherman Civic Underground, Sydney. 9pm. $22.

Melt Harbour Cruise - feat: Jakob + Ben Nott + Nick Reverse + Robbie Lowe Star Casino Wharf, Sydney. 11am. $35.

Moonshine Saturdays - feat: DJs Moonshine Cider & Rum Bar, Manly.

8pm. Free.

Mos Trance Nation @ Pacha - feat: Marcus Santoro Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 6:30pm. $27.70.

Mount Liberation Unlimited + Jamie Blanco + Andy Garvey Secret Location, Sydney. 10pm. $27.50.

NLV Records Showcase - feat: Nina Las Vegas + Air Max ‘97 + Lewis Cancut + Strict Face + Swick The Chippo Hotel,

Chippendale. 8pm. $16.50.

One Night Stand - feat: Tornado Wallace Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction. 9pm. $22.

Precious Cargo feat: Special Guest DJs Cargo Lounge, Sydney. 8pm. Free.

Resident DJ: Kali Harpoon Harry, Surry Hills. 6pm.

Free.

Selecta Saturdays feat: Cool Jerk DJs + Special Guests Rosie Campbell’s, Surry Hills. 8:45pm.

Free.

Shiba San + Walker + Royce Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $38.20.

Subsonic Music Festival Survivor Reviver - feat: Tiefschwarz (Ali) + Robbie Lowe + Garry Todd + Marcotix + Nick Reverse + MSG + Davide Db Zoo Project, Potts Point. 10pm. $20.

The Beat Kitchen - feat: Fifi La Frug + Maxxxyt + Paris Groovescooter Different Drummer, Glebe. 8:30pm.

Free.

The Possé Cake Wines Cellar Door, Redfern. 4pm. $16.67.

Undr Ctrl Xmas All-Dayer - feat: Set Mo + Jensen Interceptor + Motorik Vibe Council + Shantan Wantan Ichiban + Undr Ctrl DJs + Yeahsure. DJs Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington. 2pm. $28.14.

Undr Ctrl Xmas All-Dayer - feat: Total Giovanni DJs + World Champion DJs + Kato + Ariane + Luen Freda’s, Chippendale. 7pm. $28.14.

Yours - feat: Yolanda Be Cool + Jack Kennedy + Jesse + Bruno Who Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm.

Free.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 18

Sydney. 1pm. $33.70.

Deeper Than House 2016 Closing Party feat: Cunningpants + Adam Cox + Clueless + Val York + Tk The Slip Inn, Sydney. 2pm. $31.

Deeper Than House 2016 Closing Party - feat: Coda + Colour Castle + NatNoiz + Sass + Ellie D + DJ Caraz + Monako Civic Underground, Sydney. 10pm. $40.

Marco Polo - feat: Breakbot Ivy Bar/Lounge, Sydney. 1pm. $17.70.

Postside Sundays feat: Mark Jarvin + Guest DJs The Port, Darling Harbour. 3pm. Free.

S.A.S.H Xmas Party By Day - feat: Rodriguez Jr + Secret Guest + Michelle Owen + Tom Witheridge Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney. 2pm. $25.

S.A.S.H Xmas Party By Night feat: Dana Ruh + Alexkid + Arpo + Pepperpot + Secret Guest + Gabby + Jake Hough + Venda + Cassette + Daniel Lupica + Matt Meler + Karim + Matt Weir + Kerry Wallace Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour.

10pm. $25.

Shady Sunday feat: Retro DJs Imperial Hotel, Erskineville. 4pm.

Free.

Sin Sundays The Argyle, The Rocks. 7pm. Free.

Stuart Balfour & Husky Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly. 4pm. Free.

Sunday Sounds feat: Meem The Deck, Sydney.

4pm. Free.

Sunshine Sunday Sound System feat: Bossdog + Cool Jerk DJs Rosie Campbell’s, Surry Hills. 12pm.

Free.

Tropical Sundae The World Bar, Kings Cross. 5pm.

Free.

MONDAY DECEMBER 19

HIP HOP & R&B

Classic Album Sundays Presents D’Angelo’s Voodoo - feat: Sistas With Soul The World Bar, Kings Cross. 5pm. $15.

Rooftop Sundays Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm.

Free.

CLUB NIGHTS

CLUB NIGHTS

Coyote Tuesdays The World Bar, Kings Cross. 8pm.

Free.

Propaganda Tuesday Scary Canary, Sydney. 9:30pm.

Free.

Side Bar Tuesdays Side Bar, Sydney.

9pm. Free.

Beresford Sundays - feat: DJs On Rotation The Beresford Hotel, Surry Hills. 12pm.

Free.

Courtyard - feat: Justin Martin + Tube & Berger + Miguel Campbell + Teenage Mutants Ivy Bar/Lounge,

I Love Mondays Side Bar, Sydney.

9pm. Free.

TUESDAY DECEMBER 20 CLUB NIGHTS

BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16 :: 33

club picks p

Off The Record

up all night out all week...

Dance and Electronica with Alex Chetverikov

FRIDAY DECEMBER 16

Excision Enmore Theatre, Newtown. 8pm. $58.05.

Aphotic Warehouse - Feat: Gabriel Moraes + Ark-E-Tech + Alec Sander + Methodix + Shepz + Zigmon + Jackson Winter + Zombie Apocalypse + Brosnan Perera + David James Secret Location, Sydney. 9pm. $44.

Mantra Collective 4th Birthday - Feat: Varhat + Shai Spooner + Mantra Collective + Aboutjack + Space Junk + Whitecat + Marley Sherman Civic Underground, Sydney. 9pm. $22.

Bassic - Feat: Cesqeaux + Noy + Bankwobber + Mi77enz + Jinx + Radrops + Kinetic Theory + Hit & Run Chinese Laundry, Sydney. 9pm. $22.90.

NLV Records Showcase - Feat: Nina Las Vegas + Air Max ‘97 + Lewis Cancut + Strict Face + Swick The Chippo Hotel, Chippendale. 8pm. $16.50.

Ministry Of Sound Reunion Tour 2001-2004 - Feat: John Course + Mark Dynamix + Plump DJs + Kid Kenobi + Groove Terminator + Nick Law Metro Theatre, Sydney. 9pm. $61.20.

Red Bull Sound Select - Feat: Total Giovanni + András And Oscar + Confidence Man + DJ Levins Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm. $3.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 17 .Dark .Days 002 - The 12 Hours Of Black Xmas - Feat: Dean Benson + Sebastian Bayne + Ben Drayton + John Ferris + David Bangma + Qu-Zen + Gav Whalan + Katia + Blunten + Frederico Puentes + Vini Martins + Josh Verdi + Sheeeen + Sook Yen Portugal Madeira Club, Marrickville. 2pm. $22.

Blueprint Christmas Party - Feat: Katie Drover + Gabby + Matt Weir + Marcotix + Ben Nott & Aaiste + Ezra + Nick Reverse & Anais + Db + Andy Ef + Steve Birch + Alex Ludlow + Aaron Smith + Shepz Carlos & Jakob + Ol + Amháin Bridge Hotel, Rozelle. 9pm. $37.57.

Bombs Away + Highjackerz + Luke La Beat + George Orb + Harper + Anonymous + Wafu + Odd Souls + Tactician + Linxar + DJ Thrills + Arlos + 6ft. Sounds + Dirty Harry + Jceez Candy’s Apartment, Potts Point. 8pm. $20.40.

Steve Aoki

One Night Stand - Feat: Tornado Wallace Jam Gallery, Bondi Junction. 9pm. $22.

Thundamentals Metro Theatre, Sydney. 8pm. $38.25.

Undr Ctrl Xmas All-Dayer - Feat: Set Mo + Jensen Interceptor + Motorik Vibe Council + Shantan Wantan Ichiban + Undr Ctrl DJs + Yeahsure. DJs Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington. 2pm. $28.14.

Yours - Feat: Yolanda Be Cool + Jack Kennedy + Jesse + Bruno Who Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach. 8pm.

Free.

SUNDAY DECEMBER 18 Deeper Than House 2016 Closing Party - Feat: Cunningpants + Adam Cox + Clueless + Val York + Tk The Slip Inn, Sydney. 2pm. $31.

S.A.S.H Xmas Party By Day - Feat: Rodriguez Jr + Secret Guest + Michelle Owen + Tom Witheridge Greenwood Hotel, North Sydney. 2pm. $25.

S.A.S.H Xmas Party By Night - Feat: Dana Ruh + Alexkid + Arpo + Pepperpot + Secret Guest + Gabby + Jake Hough + Venda + Cassette + Daniel Lupica + Matt Meler + Karim + Matt Weir + Kerry Wallace Home Nightclub, Darling Harbour. 10pm. $25.

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

I

t’s been an unquestionably awful year for countless reasons, not least the news that Steve Aoki has recently been nominated for a Grammy (while both are essentially devoid of any and all romance, it’s still appalling).

Communally we have grieved for the loss of mentors, of poets, of visionaries, and of peers and fellow human beings. The recent tragedy in Oakland, California, in which 36 people lost their lives in a warehouse party fire, has only served to underline how we as a community share these stages of grief. It has shown how we help one another frame and understand this grief, and how we might honour the memory of those lost. By continuing to produce and participate in music, and in all creative expressions, we allow ourselves to reflect, renew and rehabilitate. By coming together despite obstructions and damages to our liberties – whether it’s Trump and his disturbing disregard, or the lockout laws and their entirely unsubtle motivations – we refuse to give in to the passivity of the individual.

As the neurologist Oliver Sacks once wrote, “[Music] has the unique power

FLUME, VINCE STAPLES, SOPHIE Qudos Bank Arena Friday December 9

Less than five years ago, Flume was a music industry outsider. Half a decade on, the Sydney producer was playing to over 18,000 fans at Qudos Bank Arena, the culmination of his influence and career on display in this spectacular hometown show.

Much like Flume, Sophie has come to define a subgenre of electronica: PC Music. The UK arist with a penchant for hiding his face opened to a smaller crowd, and while he took more of a club approach to his set, Samuel Long’s blend of percussive-heavy bangers and hints of dancehall seemed to mostly fall on confused ears. The one appearance of an actual Sophie track – the song ‘L.O.V.E.’ – was a shaky addition.

Despite good intentions, Sophie’s characteristically sparse instrumentation and jumpy beats are simply not engineered for an arena show; abruptly ending his set after a brief 30 minutes, it was pretty clear the artist felt the same way.

Vince Staples, on the other hand, was a bona fide crowd-pleaser, and in spite of a claustrophobic set-up, the Californian rapper delivered a high-energy set over thrumming, bassheavy beats. Fans of Staples’ starkly brilliant feature on With You.’s ‘Ghost’

34 :: BRAG :: 693 :: 14:12:16

were delighted with a clubby edit of the original, as well as ‘Jump Off The Roof’ and ‘Norf Norf’. Despite briefly stealing it, Staples insisted that this was not his show, and once Harley Streten took the stage, this became all too apparent.

to express inner states or feelings.

Music can pierce the heart directly; it needs no mediation.” Music is memory, music is therapy. Music is composed of nothingness. It is inherent in every part of our being – in the everyday sounds we hear and feel, in the natural world as the simplest form of communication, and in the organic rhythms of our physical constitution. It affords us the most basic and beautiful platform of expression, in marriage with dance.

We will never forget the 36 victims of Oakland’s Ghost Ship warehouse.

Nor will there ever be another Sharon Jones, Mose Allison, Leonard Cohen, Dave Cash, David Mancuso, Sir Neville Marriner, Marlene Marder, Prince Buster, Rudy van Gelder, David Bowie, Pierre Boulez, Prince, Merle Haggard, Phife Dawg, Sir George Martin, Colonel Abrams, Jean-Jacques Perrey, Papa Wemba, Billy Paul, Gato Barbieri, Maurice White, Leon Haywood, Alan Vega, Vanity or Paul Kantner.

Their memory is in our shared experience, and in our memories they helped define and shape.

THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST

Max Graef jumps aboard the Apron Records bus with the jazzy lo-fi Apron EP, Nina Kraviz takes a typically jilted and skittishly effective approach to her Fabric 91 mix, and check out Bradley Zero and Rhythm Section’s recent NTS radio show, a live recording of their pleasantly meandering Sydney gig.

A heavenly host of strings preceded Flume’s entrance, sweeping throughout the arena. Then came a crashing boom and a whirring soundscape, strobe lights dancing to the beat of an arpeggio. The curtain dropped, revealing the humble artist standing inside a giant V-shaped station, complemented by a symphony of visual stimulation around him.

RECOMMENDED Childish Gambino

Field Day: Chance The Rapper, Booka Shade, Childish Gambino, Newham Generals The Domain

Demons melting, glass shattering, crowns spinning and kaleidoscopic bodies tumbling in a black void; entire chapters could be written to describe all the visuals in play. Streten balanced new and old material perfectly; a Like A Version reprise of Ghost Town DJs’ ‘My Boo’ featuring Staples and Kucka perfectly sparking our collective R&B nostalgia.

While there was a noticeable absence of Chet Faker tracks, Streten played to his strengths throughout, dropping his ‘HyperParadise’ remix, ‘Never Be Like You’, as well as countless favourites from his debut album with pinpoint precision. Flume isn’t part of the zeitgeist, he is the zeitgeist, and this was the show to prove it.

Lachlan Wyllie

SUNDAY JANUARY 1

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 12

Hot Since 82: Open-Air Concert Royal Randwick

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 21

FRIDAY DECEMBER 16

Hans Down 007: Ben Fester

Slyfox

SATURDAY DECEMBER 17

Picnic One Night Stand: Tornado Wallace Jam Gallery

Raggamuffin All Stars: Shaggy, The Wailers feat.

Julian Marley Hordern Pavilion

thebrag.com

RIDAY