The Music (Melbourne) Issue #181 by TheMusic.com.au

22.03.17 Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Melbourne / Free / Incorporating

Issue

181

2 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 3

4 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

250 High st, Northcote Hill 9482 13

Wesley Anne

Bar, Restaurant, Etc.

Thursday 23 March

Friday 24 March

Saturday 25 March

Sunday 26 March

Tuesday 28 March

Refraction

Davies West Trio Agogo

6pm, Front Bar, Free

Wattle and Wood

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Robbie Boyd

Mechanical Pterodactyl

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Broadstone ‘Genesis’ Single Launch 2pm, Band room, $5

The Moulin Beige 7.30pm, Band Room $15 ticket $30 meal & show

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Danny Ross 6pm, Front Bar, Free

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LIVE THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 5

Credits Publisher Street Press Australia Pty Ltd Group Managing Editor Andrew Mast National Editor – Magazines Mark Neilsen Editor Bryget Chrisfield Arts & Culture Editor Maxim Boon Gig Guide Justine Lynch gigs@themusic.com.au

Music Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Ska Excited

Victorian ska punks The Resignators are stoked to announce that they will be heading out on the road with Mexican two-tone/ska act Los Kung Fu Monkeys in April.

The Resignators

Editorial Assistants Brynn Davies, Sam Wall

Pretty Sneaky, Sys

Senior Contributor Jeff Jenkins

Sneaky Sound System are teaming up with Goodwill, Tonite Only and more for a Ministry Of Sound reunion tour that will highlight the best of midnoughties electro this May.

Contributors Bradley Armstrong, Annelise Ball, Emma Breheny, Sean Capel, Luke Carter, Anthony Carew, Uppy Chatterjee, Daniel Cribb, Cyclone, Guy Davis, Dave Drayton, Guido Farnell, Tim Finney, Bob Baker Fish, Cameron Grace, Neil Griffiths, Kate Kingsmill, Tim Kroenert, Pete Laurie, Chris Maric, Fred Negro, Obliveus, Paz, Rod Whitfield, Sarah Petchell, Michael Preberg, Paul Ransom, Dylan Stewart Senior Photographer Kane Hibberd Photographers Andrew Briscoe, Cole Bennetts, Jay Hynes, Lucinda Goodwin Advertising Dept Leigh Treweek, Antony Attridge, Braden Draper, Brad Summers sales@themusic.com.au Art Dept Ben Nicol, Felicity Case-Mejia, Alex Foreman vic.art@themusic.com.au Admin & Accounts Loretta Zoppos, Ajaz Durrani, Meg Burnham, Emma Clarke accounts@themusic.com.au Distro distro@themusic.com.au Subscriptions store@themusic.com.au

Sneaky Sound System

Big Scary

info@themusic.com.au www.themusic.com.au

Californian R&B singer Kehlani has announced that Australia will be sharing in her success with debut album, SweetSexySavage, this August when she brings her acclaimed record on tour.

Level 1, 221 Kerr Street Fitzroy Vic 3057 Locked Bag 2001 Clifton Hill VIC 3068

— Melbourne

Big Gig Melburnian duo Big Scary are doing a final headline tour to celebrate their third record, Animal. Come and join the crowd in June with supporting acts Cub Sport and CC: Disco. 6 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

Sexy Times

c / Arts / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Killing Time

Killing Heidi

Off the back of a stellar set of shows at Melbourne and Sydney’s zoo gigs, rockers Killing Heidi have announced their first headline tour in over ten years. Kicking off in June, don’t miss out!

Where and when? For more gig details go to theMusic.com.au

Emily Wurramara

Feelin’ The Blues Boomerang Festival will once again be a vital part of this year’s Byron Bay Bluesfest as a must-see showcase of local and international indigenous culture. They’ve announced their line-up featuring Leonard Sumner, Emily Wurramara and more.

Kehlani

Chris Rock

Holy Moly Buckle yourselves in: acclaimed comedian, actor and director Chris Rock has announced his first tour of Australia in nine years. Visiting four cities this June, be prepared to laugh until you cry.

4 The number of nominations Flume has for the APRA Awards, the most of any artist.

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 7

Music / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Let’s Go Fly A Kite

Scream Out Loud

Stroll along the scenic Edwardes Lake Park in Reservoir for the Darebin Community & Kite Festival which starts this Sunday. It’s free and fun, with performances, community stalls, pet expos, and glorious kite flying.

Screamfeeder are back with a new album Pop Guilt set for release in April. That same month they’ll do their own shows along the east coast.

Darebin Community & Kite Festival

[walks in to ER & pushes in front of guy with bullet wound asphyxiating on his own vomit]

Risebud After teasing fans with a couple of singles heavy experimentalists Orsome Welles are set to drop a new EP in May titled Rise. Even better, they are planning to take on the road with a national tour in June and July.

Me: my dick touched the toilet seat at McDonald’s @david8hughes

Orsome Welles

Gretta Ray

For a regular hit of news sign up to our daily newsletter at theMusic.com.au Gretta Ready Melbourne singer Gretta Ray will be hosting single launches for Towers this April. Her beautiful lyricism and voice with be on show in Sydney and Melbourne. 8 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

Arts / Li Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

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Finding Utopia

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Acclaimed Aussie muso DD Dumbo is setting off for a six-date run of shows in June in support of his lauded debut album, Utopia Defeated. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s his first headline tour with a full band.

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,16201,80 For Mel The Croxton Bandroom is holding a show called Mel Fest in April to support Melbourne music identity Mel McNamara, who is battling a third round of cancer. Artists such as Paul Dempsey, Dan Kelly and Krista Polvere will perform.

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THE MUSIC â&#x20AC;˘ 22ND MARCH 2017 â&#x20AC;˘ 9

Comedy

THE ART OF THE NEEL

Twenty-two-yearold comedian Neel Kolhatkar wants you to objectify him. Ahead of his Melbourne International Comedy Festival appearances, Maxim Boon meets the wunderkind comic and would-be sex symbol.

hen it comes to career ambitions, Neel Kolhatkar follows the go big or go home school of thought. That’s perhaps unsurprising given the impressive numbers the 22-year-old comedian already boasts. Since launching his own YouTube channel a little under a decade ago, his online following has skyrocketed, with many of the young comic’s character and impression driven videos raking in millions of views. Most notably, his 2013 video, Australia In 2 Minutes, made him a viral sensation practically overnight, drawing well over a million views in just a few days, eventually plateauing at nearly four million hits. Any stand-up purists rolling their eyes at pesky millennials hiding behind their laptops, dodging the spit and sawdust graft of the comedy club, should also note that Kolhatkar is also a force to be reckoned with live on stage. If you don’t want to take my word for it, his CV highlights speak volumes. He picked up Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s teen talent gong, The Class Clown Award, in 2009, followed by a coveted invitation to appear at the MICF’s Comedy Zone break-out artist showcase in 2013. By 2015 he was already touring nationally in Australia as well as flying the Aussie comedy flag overseas in New Zealand and at that most hallowed international platform, the Edinburgh Festival. Now the wunderkind comedian is a headliner with his eye on world domination. “I’ve definitely been trying to make material that’s more global in its appeal. When I got my start on YouTube, the content was definitely very Australiancentric, but lately, I think I have been taking my comedy in a direction that will appeal to an international audience,” Kolhatkar shares. “I mean, of course there’s still plenty of Aussie references. I’m very proud of being Australian and Aussies like nothing more than some good home grown banter, but I’m definitely trying to work in global themes more. Ironically enough, the far-right craziness that’s taking over the world right now, trying to put up walls - literally - and keep people of different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds apart, is actually bringing people together. These are topics that are on a lot of people’s minds, and that’s basically what comedy is, right? We look at the world around us and make observations. So it makes complete sense that comedians are kind of on the front line when it comes to making sense of those things.”

Roasting current affairs may have tapped Kolhatkar into the global zeitgeist, but the Indian-Australian comic’s personal heritage has put him in an innate position as a voice for minorities. While not always overtly political, as a comedian of colour, Kolhatkar’s jokes have always skewered certain racial and cultural stereotypes - rap and hip hop tropes and true blue larrikin Australiana are favourite subject matters - with often eye-wateringly close to the bone punchlines. The land Down Under hasn’t always been supportive of multicultural diversity, to put it mildly. But Kolhatkar is part of a vanguard of comedy and entertainment personalities championing those often neglected viewpoints, including artists like comedians Ronny Chieng and Nazeem Hussain, TV presenter Waleed Aly and Black Comedy writerperformer Nakkiah Lui. However, winning over hearts and minds in Australia, one non-white comedian at a time, is a work in progress, he admits. “I think things have improved - or let’s say they’ve changed, maybe that’s a better way to say it,” Kolhatkar smiles. “There is definitely a lot more diversity represented nowadays, even on those more traditional networks like Channel 9, with Here Come The Habibs. That came in for some flack when it first aired, but it definitely shows that Australia is embracing a more multicultural identity. There isn’t just one ‘Australian’ kind of comedy, it’s a massively diverse range of voices and experiences and stories, so yeah, maybe some way to go yet, but I think any step in the right direction is a good thing.” Challenging racial preconceptions has

been on Kolhatkar’s mind of late while preparing for his latest show, #ObjectifyNeel, which comes with the eye-catching tagline, “because brown men need to be more sexually objectified.” It’s the latest display of the comedian’s unique combination of political incorrectness infused with thought-provoking smarts. “I think the sorts of sexual themes in this show are relevant to everyone. They’re very universal and they can still be done in a very high-brow way without losing the sharpness of that humour. I hope it’s got a little more substance and a bit more thought behind it than just, ‘Hey guys, sex is funny!’” he notes. “We live in a very sexualised world, but I really wanted to bring in the idea of racial stereotypes, particularly the way brown men are often seen as not as masculine, maybe a bit weaker and feminine, kind of shy. Because I want to see more brown sex symbols, ya know. I want to be a brown sex symbol! And there is still that edge of crude comedy, but I like that there’s something maybe something a bit challenging and a bit thoughtful in there too.” Kolhatkar rarely pulls and punches on stage, but he’s no firebrand. In fact, his upbeat, disarmingly charismatic delivery is often cited by critics and fans alike as the X-factor behind his ability to land jokes that could be wincingly off-key in the hands of a lesser performer. But, while he may not be an activist in the traditional sense, he is most definitely an instigator, given his signature shock and awe style. As Kolhatkar explains, he’s never been afraid to go down that oh-no-he-di’int route. “I should have just stopped that sentence with, ‘Not afraid to go down!’” he quips with on-brand precociousness. “Yeah, um, I can’t really put my finger why that sort of comedy appeals to me, but it’s what I’ve always done and what has really worked for me. It’s just something that I caught onto from a young age and my humour’s always sort of pushed the boundaries. You’ve got to be really unapologetic about it for it to work. If I have something to say, I will say it, I won’t shy away from it. It’s me, it’s all me. It’s my voice, my opinions, I’m saying exactly what I want to say and I personally think that that’s the best kind of humour. It’s the kind of humour I respond to, the kind of gig I’d go to.”

I want to see more brown sex symbols, ya know. I want to be a brown sex symbol!

What: #ObjectifyNeel When & Where: 30 Mar - 23 Apr, Melbourne Town Hall

ESSENTIAL VIEWING

Check out these viral masterpieces from the YouTube channel that launched Kolhatkar’s career. Australia In 2 minutes 3.88 million views The two minutes that chance Neel’s world. More fucks, shits and C-bombs than you can shake a didgeridoo at, this vid perfectly captures the rude, crude and true blue lewd spirit of Kolhatkar’s comedy brand.

#Equality 2.5 million views Neel takes us back to the future with a look at how future Australia might look - and it’s not good news for straight white men. If this vid is anything to go by some Network needs to give this kid his own show, STAT.

What White People Say To Brown People 1 million views Kolhatkar turns the tables on the unconsciously offensive things well-meaning but clueless white folks say to their dark skinned mates. This is definitely one of those, it’s funny ‘cos it’s true situations.

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 11

Music

Evergreen Heading into The Waifs’ 25th year, vocalist Vikki Thorn tells Rod Whitfield about meeting fans who are younger than the band and using some old tricks on their new album Ironbark.

t seems thoroughly implausible, but with some longrunning bands, it almost seems a case of one day you turn around and suddenly realise that they have been around for 25 years. And let’s look at that another way: that’s a quarter of a century. Such is the case with Western Australia’s favourite folky pop/rock trio The Waifs. According to the band’s guitarist, vocalist and co-founding member Vikki Thorn, speaking from her home in Albany in the wild west, one of the trippiest parts about it is the fact they play to fans that weren’t even born when they first put the band together.

It’s become an inter-generational thing, we’re the band you can bring your parents to.

“That’s hilarious,” she says wryly. “That’s happened to me - a young guy comes up to me and says, ‘I love your music, I’ve been listening to it since I was four-years-old, my parents used to play it.’ It’s almost like, ‘You’ve got the wrong person!’” She laughs. “It’s become an intergenerational thing, we’re the band you can bring your parents to.” At this juncture in the band’s career, Thorn feels it’s just about time for the band to reflect a little on what they’ve achieved over the last 25 years: “Because with all of this leading up to releasing an album and touring, we haven’t done that yet,” she states. “I just sent an email the other day saying ‘When the tour’s over, when do we celebrate?’ We need to have a party, we need to have something where we sit down and celebrate, just have a toast.” 12 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

The band have a brand new studio album set to be released, an epic double album entitled Ironbark. The 25-year milestone helped shape the album’s content as well. “We ended up recording 30 tracks,” she reveals, “then we said, ‘What are we going to do with that? Why did we record that many songs? That’s a bit silly.’ So we decided to make it a double album and make it the whole 25 songs for 25 years thing. That’s not the sort of thing we’ve ever done before, and we’ve never had that much material before, so it just made sense.” The band are very happy with the results of their efforts this time around. Thorn believes that it was more of a collaborative effort and that it has something new and different to offer from their previous few studio albums; she feels their existing fans will find much to like within the grooves of Ironbark. “There’s a lot more harmony stuff,” she says. “The tracks on the B-side of the album were the ones that felt more like individuals’ solo efforts, more representative of the individual writers in the band, whereas the main album is a lot more harmony, and we were more involved in those songs. That’s what we all felt like had been lacking a little in The Waifs’ direction in the last few albums - the albums started to sound like three individuals. So for our 25th anniversary album we decided that we needed to be all-in on this music.” The Waifs head off on an extensive tour of the nation at the release of the album, and Thorn is very much looking forward to hitting the road again, although she has a slight touch of trepidation about playing the brand new tracks live. “The thing is, we’ve only ever played these songs when we recorded them that time in the studio,” she says. “We’re going out on tour, so we have to meet in a couple of weeks to rehearse, and that will be pretty much re-learning how to play those songs for the first time.” For fans awaiting their return to the road, the band have some new and different stuff planned for these coming shows. “We’re gearing up, we’ve got lots of ideas. We want this tour to look a little bit different to our other tours in terms of, I think we’re going to come out and do some stuff as a trio which we’ve not done for a long time. So we’ll start the gig maybe playing retrospectively, and then bring [touring members] Jade and Ben on to play some of the new material.” 25 years down the track, Thorn is quite confident that the band have plenty left in them, in a creative sense. From a personal perspective it’s slightly more touch and go, but overall the future still looks pretty rosy for this folk rock institution. “Creatively, absolutely. I can’t speak for the others, but we just have to see. We actually really enjoy it, but we have long periods off in between, to be with our families and just live our lives, and as long as the career can sit around that then I think we’re all happy.”

What: Ironbark (Jarrah Records) When & Where: 28 Mar, Ulumbarra Theatre, Bendigo; 29 & 30 Mar, Hamer Hall

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PLUS HE A PS MORE AT W W W.NORTHCOTESOCI A LCLUB.COM THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 13

Music

Off The Beaten Track After filling her days with collaborations, novel writing and the general business of getting on with life, Holly Throsby’s returned to her own music. By Liz Giuffre. Feature pics by Cole Bennetts.

“Y

eah, it was pretty literal,” Holly Throsby says by way of introducing and explaining her new album After A Time. “I’ve always enjoyed naming my albums. I think all artists would enjoy that process. When I was thinking about it I had some titles milling around in my head and it has been such a long time, really, it’s been six years since my last record.” Throsby sits outside on a stupidly hot Sydney day at the relative beginning of the ‘launching a new record’ cycle. She’s cool in the best way, seemingly untroubled by the weather or about revisiting the process behind

I’m always challenging myself creatively and I’d rather move to different media forms to do that.

the album that’s taken so long to germinate. Opener Aeroplane, she explains, is “a really old song [that] was always going to be a centrepiece for the next record, but it didn’t have any friends. I wasn’t feeling them, literally”. Rather than banging her creative head against a brick wall (or studio floor), Throsby switched outlets. “For me the solution [for a creative block] is doing something like a children’s record or writing a novel,” tells Throsby. “I’m always challenging myself creatively and I’d rather move to different media forms to do that.” After A Time may have shifted genres, but there’s familiarity in the approach that Throsby has purposefully maintained even as her creative spark has morphed. “There’s a really solid line through all of my records,” 14 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

she continues. “I’ve had the same font for every album cover and I have had the same width and boarder for every album and each release too — I’ve had the same intention as when I started. I’m interested in reflecting on what is in front of me in this time in my life. And I’m interested in song as a form and what the use of that is.” Although this is a solo record, fans of Throsby’s collaborations will find plenty to sink their teeth into. While her previous joint output is hard to top — the magnificent Seeker Lover Keeper’s self titled album (with Sarah Blasko and Sally Seltmann) or her duet with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy on Would You?, for example — she’s certainly had a good crack at it. In addition to a fabulous group of players, there are some amazing feature musicians; Dirty Three’s Mick Turner, long-time collaborator Bree van Reyk (Paul Kelly, Seeker Lover Keeper), Marcus Whale and feature vocalist Mark Kozelek (Sun Kil Moon, Red House Painters). “It’s not necessarily that hard to organise,” she says of getting the group together. “Bree has played drums for me forever, since 2005 or something. And as for playing with Mick, I went to a Dirty Three show the last time they played at the State Theatre in Sydney, and I was particularly thinking about him playing on a song called Gardening on this record. “So after the Dirty Three show I was backstage and I said, ‘I have this song,’ and he was so generous. He said, ‘Absolutely, send it to me,’ and after hearing what he did with that one song I said ‘There’s another four,’” she laughs. “And Marcus Whale has become a close friend, he’s kind of a family member of mine, his saxophone playing on the record was just fantastic. I just asked for what I thought the songs needed and invited people in.” A particular gem is What Do You Say?, an unexpected but striking duet with Kozelek that tells the story of a perhaps doomed love. It’s almost impossible to listen to without reaching for the repeat button. “I started writing that song in my head, without a guitar,” says Throsby. “The idea of ‘what do you say?’ for the chorus just wrote itself extremely quickly, and as the song goes through and develops it’s this real conversation between people. And just as I was going through it in my head I could hear Mark’s voice on it. I finally just emailed and said, ‘I’ve got this song and I can hear you on it,’ and he essentially said ‘Yes’ without even hearing it. And he was really into it, which is great. He really loves the song and I think you can hear that in his performance. And he loves the tension in it, I think you can hear that.” Although now firmly back on the musician track of her creative life, Throsby’s work as a novelist with recent debut Goodwood has also received much acclaim. While she says she sees those sides of her creative life as “very separate”, it’s too tempting not to ask if she might score a soundtrack for the novel one day and bring everything together for a short time. “I’d love to do the soundtrack — and I hope that it happens, I’ve heard some rumours,” she laughs. Get out your cheque books, potential backers — let’s make this happen.

What: After A Time (Spunk) When & Where: 26 Mar, Northcote Social Club

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THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 15

Music

Sleepless Guitarist Otto Wicks-Green tells Rod Whitfield he’s “stoked” sleepmakeswaves now have “more ambitious technical stuff out”, thanks to their latest album, to ensure they’ll better fit into Devin Townsend’s world.

he brand new album from Australia’s favourite exponents of instrumental post-rock majesty sleepmakeswaves is almost upon us. That means anticipation and celebration for most, however for the band’s guitar player Otto Wicks-Green, and the other three members of the band, it means facing that strange dichotomy of emotion that many musicians go through in that slightly awkward phase between a new album’s physical completion and actual release. “I saw this thing online once, about art. This Venn diagram where one side is narcissism and the other is crippling self-doubt!” he laughs. “All art is like that,

I saw this thing online... This Venn diagram where one side is narcissism and the other is crippling self-doubt!

especially something like this, which for me at least has been the most personal record to date and dealt with some of the heavier aspects of this thing called life.” Another emotion he is feeling in the lead-up to the unleashing of Made Of Breath Only is just pure relief. “I’m over the intensity and trauma of recording,” he admits, “where you have to sign off on everything, make all the decisions and then there’s no turning back. It is traumatic because we’re such perfectionists and so obsessive, recording is always a bit&#133; stressful. But now that it’s done and I have the artwork and I can see it and hold it all in my hand, I feel mighty proud of it and excited about what people are going to think of it.” Even though a band like this operates without the use of expressive vocals and image-laden lyrics, Made Of

16 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

Breath Only manages to project incredibly dark yet vibrant and exciting imagery through instrumentation alone, and Wicks-Green is more than happy to provide some insight into some of the non-musical inspirations that helped shape the way the record sounds. “The track Edge Of Everything especially was very demanding in terms of its technicality and ambition,” he recalls. “The working title of that song was ‘Mawson’, to take a step back. The record started as this conceptual thing where we wanted to look at the Antarctic and the Arctic. As part of that I looked at these explorers. I got particularly interested in Mawson, he set out from Hobart on an incredibly ill-fated expedition to Antarctica. I just found his story so amazing, it was such a triumph of human endurance... that he made it back alive and survived. “That’s kind of where the sound of that song came from, the slide guitar in some parts; I was trying to evoke the howling of the huskies and the wind, and just the overall sense of journey and the sense of redemption at the end. I’m really proud of the way that song turned out.” There were some very specific musical influences that made their mark on this record’s sound and vibe too, stemming from some of the rather extensive touring the band has done over the past few years. “We wanted to create something that was darker and heavier in scope, and more ambitious in terms of technicality,” he explains. “We had been playing a lot of these amazing metal bands and, although we didn’t want to actually imitate them, it is pretty inspiring to be around these kinds of bands, like The Contortionist, Monuments, Entheos, Karnivool and so on.” And that is set to continue, as the band prepare to head off on a massive bout of touring, including a trip to China, the album tour when they go out with fellow Aussie progressive heavy music legends Caligula’s Horse, then a run with the mighty Devin Townsend. “Oh man, how about that?!” he enthuses, regarding the great Canadian genius. “We’re so fuckin’ excited, I can’t even tell you. What a bloody hero! And I’m really stoked that we’ve just got this more ambitious technical stuff out so that we can at least get into his world.” That all takes the band up to around half way through the year, at which time they actually get a couple of months break, but then things will heat up again as they head off for far-flung lands to play with more legends of progressive and heavy music. “We’ve just been confirmed for the main stage of ArcTanGent Festival in August,” he announces, “which is fricken awesome because it’s an amazing line-up — Explosions In The Sky, Tesseract, Converge — on the bill. So we’re heading over to England in August and we’re going to try and build a tour around that in England and in Europe. Then we’ll probably go back again for a proper European tour towards the end of the year, and we’ll do another Australian headline tour at the end of the year.

What: Made Of Breath Only (Bird’s Robe) When & Where: 25 Mar, Max Watt’s

WED 22 MAR

CLAWHAWK

MIND THE MACHINE KAKU

THU 23 MAR

GREENLY MOZZY ELK + MAMMOTH HUGH FUCHSEN

FRI 24 MAR

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THE DEVIL GOAT FAMILY STRING BAND NIGHT:

SLOW GRIND FEVER SUN 26 MAR

SPIDER GOAT CANYON (ALBUM LAUNCH)

NIKO NIKO GOODBYE ENEMY AIRSHIP

MON 27 MAR

SCREEN SECT FILM CLUB TUE 28 MAR

MAKE IT UP CLUB

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 17

Film

Speaking Out Danish director Martin Zandvliet has braved public opinion to tell a WWII narrative that doesn’t vilify the Nazis. He spoke to Anthony Carew about the explosive truth in his film Land Of Mine.

and Of Mine, a film about German prisoners-ofwar clearing a Danish beach of live landmines in the wake of World War II, was among the nominees for Best Foreign Language Picture at this year’s Academy Awards. Meaning that, yes, its director, Martin Zandvliet, was in the building for the infamous ‘wrong envelope’ moment. “Well, it was certainly entertaining,” chuckles Zandvliet, back in Copenhagen from Los Angeles, the Oscars debacle still fresh in his mind. “I think it’s nice to know that people are still human, and that they make

There were certain people who wished that I’d never told this story.

mistakes. And, then, that we have to work out how to fix them, to be honest and open. So, I liked it. Of course, I wasn’t one of the ones on stage thanking their moms and their wives, and then having to stop and take it back. I was just someone in the crowd. So, to me, it was amusing.” The 46-year-old is in the middle of making his fourth film, The Outsider. His Land Of Mine follow-up is something radically different: a Yakuza movie about an American in Japan, which stars Jared Leto, Emile Hirsch, and Asano Tadanobu, and which was shot on location. The principle filmmakers — including his wife, cinematographer Camilla Hjelm Knudsen — were Zandvliet regulars, but the crew, and much of the cast, 18 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

were Japanese. “You can never prepare for working in such a different culture,” Zandvliet says. “It was tough to direct in a language where you have no idea what they’re saying. I directed out of facial expressions, mimicry, had dialogue coaches nearby, but I used the actors as well, wanting to make sure that they felt fine with everything they were saying. A translation of a script is never just a translation of a script: a sentence can mean so many different things, depending on how you say it.” The Outsider is, actually, Zandvliet’s second film in a row not in his native tongue; much of Land Of Mine is spoken in German. It depicts a history of spun words: when the Danes conscripted captured German soldiers to remove landmines laid during World War II, the Geneva convention wouldn’t allow “prisoners of war” to be kept after the ceasefire. So, instead, Denmark dubbed them “voluntary military personnel”. Zandvliet had heard these stories, but, upon researching it, he found that most of the German soldiers were kids, recruited late in the war to fight a losing battle. “When I went up to the cemeteries on the coast, and saw where these boys were buried — and how young they were, and how many there were — that’s when I knew I had to tell this story,” he offers. “I felt the need to tell it because, as far as World War II goes, we Danes have a tendency to tell stories as if we were only on the ‘good’ side. We become better people only if we learn from our past, not try to hide it.” This practice, of employing German POWs to undertake the dangerous task of mine removal, also occurred in Holland, Norway, and France. But, where those countries were occupied in a totalitarian fashion, the occupation in Denmark was more benign; the country largely functioning as normal under German rule. “We’ve always had a strange, complex relationship with Germany, because we were occupied, but in a less direct way,” Zandvliet says. Following the release of Land Of Mine, he found that depicting this piece of dark Danish history — and, empathising the Germans therein as he did — opened some old wounds. “It created a lot of press here, and I got a lot of hate-mail from it,” he recounts. “There were certain people who wished that I’d never told this story. People didn’t find me patriotic enough — that old generation, that finds nationalism a positive thing.” “It’s exactly the conversation I wanted to start,” Zandvliet continues. “When I wrote it, and when we were filming it, Europe was closing down its borders to Syrian refugees. And, now, it’s the global conversation: ‘Let’s close the borders. Let’s close down Europe. Let’s close down the States.’ To me, it’s a regressive step. People are judging each other, not helping each other, hate and fear are ruling over tolerance.”

What: Land Of Mine

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THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 19

Music

Frontlash Catching Marlon

Kingcognito

If Marlon Williams & The Yarra Benders’ show at The Curtin last week is anything to go by, album number two for the outrageously talented Kiwi is gonna be choice (sorry)!

Lizard Kings King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are in the midst of playing six sold-out shows at The Night Cat this week off the back of their ninth LP before heading to the States again. Unstoppable!

Lashes

Monkeying Around So song titles registered to UK-based music licensing company Phonographic Performance Ltd seem to have leaked a pukka roster of guests featuring on the next Gorillaz album. Frothing!!!

Gizzing All Over The Joint

Backlash

Vale Chuck Berry

RIP Chuck Berry. Rock’n’roll wouldn’t be what it is today were it not for your brazen inventiveness and fiery licks.

Texas Dreaming

Anyone else get majorly jelly looking at all those South By Southwest posts? Yep, us too.

You’re Terminated! As if we didn’t already have enough reasons to hate Trump! His continued involvement as executive producer on Celebrity Apprentice has led to a plummet in the show’s ratings and with its future uncertain. Wah, but it’s soooo good! 20 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

Word to the wise from Alex Laska to Rod Whitfield: when it come’s to Kingswood’s latest LP, After Hours, Close To Dawn, fans “will not know what to expect, that’s what they need to expect.”

ccording to a very hungover Alex Laska, anyone who has followed Melbourne rock’n’rollers Kingswood over the last seven to eight years of their career can expect the unexpected from their brand new album. The band made the conscious decision to challenge themselves creatively as well as challenge their audience to listen to and accept something very new and different. “They will not know what to expect, that’s what they need to expect,” Laska states with confidence, “they will have no idea what’s about to happen. We had a mini launch party last night in Melbourne, which is why I’m hungover, but we were playing little snippets of new songs throughout the night, just secretly, and no one knew that it was us. So that was great.” The difference is such that it has caused a touch of consternation from the people who look after the band and put their records out. “It’s so different that our record label thought we were playing a joke on them, and that’s not a lie!” he laughs. “It was literally like, ‘Okay, cool guys, this is funny, now where are the real songs?’ And we said, ‘No, this is it.’” What was the thinking behind such a radical stylistic shift? “We crave challenge

and growth and diversity and interest, to feel like we’re going somewhere,” he says, “so I guess, in that sense, it’s just a pursuit of creativity and for no other reason than that is the type of music we want to make.” The album is a very immersive experience, as punters are sure to hear upon their first listen to After Hours, Close To Dawn, and Laska is confident that the tunes from the album will lift to another level again in a live setting when they head off on a massive run across the nation as of mid/late March. “I cannot wait to get this new stuff out on the road,” he enthuses, “and have people experience it live and just get right into it. Making [the album] is one thing, but when you start to play with it and mess with it, it’s a whole ‘nother world of musical excitement. It’s like when you’re a kid and you get to show your parents what you’ve been working on.” And the band will be far from resting on their laurels when they get back off the Australian tour in May, as they have plenty more activity planned for the second half of 2017. “We’ll be looking at the next album, we’ve a bunch of new songs already,” he reveals. “We’ll be doing some international touring as well which will be incredible if everything goes according to plan there. Probably both Europe and the States. “We’re very conscious of just maintaining momentum in this creative space that we’re in right now. So we just want to keep going in that same vein.”

What: After Hours, Close To Dawn (Dew Process/ Universal) When & Where: 23 Mar, Sooki Lounge; 24 & 26 Mar, 170 Russell; 16 Apr, Torquay Hotel

Get ready for folk songstress Freya Josephine Hollick to serenade your sorrows into smithereens with her perfectly polished country tunes navigating love, loss, yearning and everything in between. Hollick received a standing ovation after her set at Suttons House Of Music as part of the Inaugural Victorian Music Crawl recently (that rendition of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You!) and her 2016 release, The Unceremonious Junking Of Me, is a beautiful body of work that sees her dreamy vocals drenched in delicate guitars and featuring some of the most lovely string embellishments you’ll ever hear. This superspecial artist has a string of dates coming up so be sure to check out at least one: 22 Mar (supporting My Bubba); 24 Mar, The Post Office Hotel; 5 Apr, Bella Union; 16 Apr, Boogie; and 28 Apr, Longhorn Saloon.

Freya Josephine Hollick Pic: Jessica Tremp

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 21

Dance Massive

Turn Back Time

Top Work Alex Lahey @ Music Victoria Awards. Pic by Joshua Braybrook

You might not know it, but Music Victoria does a hell of a lot for the scene and as just an example, here are their five biggest achievements for the last 12 months: 1.

2. 3.

The 2016 Council election survey that made councils commit their support to local music communities. Sold out The Age Music Victoria Awards. Held 15 workshops and seven masterclasses with an attendance of over 650 people. Ran the Good Music Neighbours Live Music Sound Management Program (state government initiative delivered by Music Victoria). Launched Live Music Professionals coaching program (state government initiative delivered by Music Victoria).

22 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

They say you shouldn’t dwell on the past, but try telling that to choreographer Martin Hansen. He tells Maxim Boon about travelling through time in his latest production, If It’s All In My Veins.

s the medium of dance has evolved and resonated with changing creative innovations, the conceptual inspiration for a movement piece has become as important a facet as the choreography itself, in much the same way as conceptual artists such as Damien Hirst or Tracey Emin use the physical components of their work as a means to an intellectual end. This conceptual model is Martin Hansen’s chosen approach, but the choreographer is quick to assert the enduring importance of a robust grounding in conventional dance techniques. To step away from tradition, an artist must first embrace it, he believes. “I don’t really see those two methods [traditional versus conceptual choreography] as existing in opposition. Dance doesn’t have to be a binary state,” he insists. “Conceptual work doesn’t negate process orientated work. Yes, my productions are often derived from a concept that I’ve developed before going into the studio, but that’s just a starting point. You have to discover so much through a process of ‘doing’, like how the show will look, how the movement relates to the material. These are things that you can’t

just think your way through.” Hansen’s If It’s All In My Veins, which began its life as a shortlisted work for the 2016 Kier Choreographic Prize, is a case in point. An ode to the history of dance told through a distinctly conceptual process, it uses GIFs of great dancers from the past, such as the troubled genius and star of the Ballet Russes, Vaslav Nijinsky, or the French dance icon Pina Bausch, projected onto a screen while three dancers mimic the unnaturally repetitive clips. It’s a work that poses a complex set of questions simultaneously, about the implications of capturing and preserving art that exists in the ephemeral space of live performance, whether the act of recording dance divorces it from the qualities that define it, and how the awe-inspiring reputation of a particular performer can influence our opinions. At its core is an interrogation of time, and how the unstoppable march of the ages can be subverted through digital technology. This work gives the audience plenty to think about, but despite its cerebral creds, there’s also a tangibly romantic quality to the ideas Hansen has woven into If It’s All In My Veins. “The way we understand these great artists is only ever through certain concepts of looking back at the past. Their legacy and significance and memory is always changing - they’re not these solid, immutable truths because their work is always being considered within the conditions of the present. It’s this constant process of being re-written, re-imagined, idolised. So using GIFs felt like a very direct way of exploring that idea,” Hansen shares.

What: If It’s All In My Veins When & Where: 23 - 26 Mar, Dancehouse, part of Dance Massive

Music

Drink Of The Memory

Melbourne quartet Things Of Stone & Wood are revisiting their debut album The Yearning in full, and Greg Arnold tells Steve Bell that it’s still a labour of love.

t’s been nearly 25 years since Melbourne folk-poppers Things Of Stone & Wood released their acclaimed 1993 debut album The Yearning, the record that catapulted the young four-piece to national fame almost overnight. While these days the album is probably best remembered for ARIA-winning lead single Share This Wine and its smash hit follow-up Happy Birthday Helen - the song written for frontman Greg Arnold’s girlfriend (now wife), which somehow tapped into the national psyche - there’s much more than just those songs to The Yearning as a document. Rife with familiar Melbourne imagery, the album’s deft lyrics also touched upon social issues such as racism, Indigenous culture, urban decay and the potential advent of war - topics that still resonate loudly today - all couched in interesting arrangements and perfectly hummable melodies. On the eve of a reunion that finds them playing The Yearning in full for the first time, Arnold looks back fondly on this powerful opening gambit. “Obviously the history of the record - like so many records - is attached to its most prominent singles, but to us the album itself always had this thing about it,” he reflects. “At the time you

could really tell that amongst listeners: they sort of really, really responded to the whole thing. Everyone’s personal favourites aren’t necessarily those big singles - often the singles are an invitation into the record. A song like In Our Home is unlikely to ever be a big-release single but to me that was a really big song on that album. “We laboured on that album, in a really loving way. We put a lot of time into it, we’d be going out on tour and coming back and working on another track. And there were a lot of EPs as well - the Happy Birthday Helen EP [1992] held a lot of songs that I sometimes forget weren’t on The Yearning. But The Yearning tells its own little story from start to finish and, while it’s not a concept album, it is an album that has this journey across the record which really makes sense unto itself. We took a lot of time over that and really cared about it.” Hindsight has also made Arnold justifiably proud of Things Of Stone & Wood’s legacy as a whole. “I’m very proud and also very happy to see the way that it seems to have resonated,” he smiles. “You have a time after you’ve stopped touring and things like that where you’re sort of wondering where everything’s at and how your work is being viewed, and I suppose we’ve had this lovely time over the last few years where you can really feel the strength of the legacy and the way it’s resonated with people, and obviously for a long time now. It’s so great, we couldn’t be happier.”

Watch Out It’s not all industry initiatives with Music Victoria. Here are Music Victoria’s top five acts to watch out for from Victoria:

Camp Cope

Alex Lahey

AB Original

The Teskey Brothers

When & Where: 23 & 24 Mar, Northcote Social Club; 31 Mar, The Workers Club Geelong

Harvey Sutherland & Bermuda

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 23

Eat / Drink Eat/Drink

Farm

Candy Cottage, Carl Warner

CANVAS Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans, Aqua Teen Hunger Force. From the first caveman to the last instagrammer, we will always be obsessed with making art from food. Some people are just a little more literal about it. Cheese, Yeonju Sung

Carl Warner Despite the Brothers Grimm’s best efforts, if we’d found Carl Warner’s Candy Cottage in the woods as kids we’d have been straight in there, cavities and cannibal crones be damned. From dark and stormy seas (purple cabbage) to cobbled country roads (dusted cashews), there’s no topography the man can’t Foodscape.

Pumpkin Paradise, Carl Warner

Yeonju Sung

Winter Mushroom, Yeonju Sung

Bridging the gap between the hottest haute cuisine and couture, Korean artist Yeonju Sung is dressed to ingest with Wearable Foods. Made entirely from edible materials, Sung’s outfits are beautiful in their colourful hues and graceful lines, but also in their temporary and contradictory nature.

Dan Cretu Romanian artist Dan Cretu has a range of interesting projects, like recreating classical paintings for modern times (think Narcissus mesmerised by his Instagram). Our favourite, however, is the strikingly colourful photograph series of his food sculptures, which skew perception of humble meat and veg in increasingly curious ways. 24 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

Food Art, Dan Cretu

Film

Sexuality On Screen For his second year programming the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Spiro Economopoulos is looking to the dark side of LGBTQI+ cinema. Anthony Carew takes a closer look.

tandard film festival practice is to program a sure crowd-pleaser as the opening night film. But the 2017 Melbourne Queer Film Festival bucks that trend: opening its 27th fest with I Am Michael, in which James Franco plays Michael Glatze, the queer activist who ‘converted’ to being a straight, anti-gay pastor. “There are people in the queer community who feel like this film shouldn’t’ve been made,” says Justin Kelly, I Am Michael’s director. “Since I’m gay, and a lot of the people on the film were gay, it was really hard for us to make a film about someone who, after having been a gay activist for ten years, with a boyfriend for ten years, went on to write that all gay people were paedophiles who were going to burn in hell.” I Am Michael is one of two Kelly films at Melbourne Queer Film Festival. The other is his follow-up, King Cobra, also with Franco, and recruits a bonkers cast (Christian Slater! Alicia Silverstone! Molly Ringwald!) in a tale of greed and murder in the gay porn world, based on real events. “It was really great to get the two Justin Kelly films, particularly I Am Michael, which is our opening night film,” says Spiro Economopoulos, Melbourne Queer Film Festival’s Program Manager. “This being my second year, I wanted to push a little bit more, program some films that were more difficult, challenging, or provocative.” The provocations extend to other highlights: Handl Klaus’s Haneke-esque Tomcat; Olivier Ducastel & Jacques Martineau’s boy-meets-boy tale Paris 05:59 Theo & Hugo, which opens with 15 straight minutes of orgy; and You’ll Never Be Alone, the dark directorial debut of cult Chilean synth-pop stud Alex Anwandter. Economopoulos has also programmed two iconic films of feminist cinema trailblazer Dorothy Arzner: 1929’s The Wild Party and 1940’s Dance, Girl, Dance. “I always think it’s really important to have retrospective titles at festivals, to look back as much as you look

I wanted to push a little bit more, program some films that were more difficult.

forward. It’s a really vital part of any film festival.” In highlighting the works of Kelly, Melbourne Queer Film Festival is introducing local audiences to a nextgeneration queer filmmaker. Kelly would make his debut with Gus Van Sant as executive producer, bringing to screen a story Franco had optioned from Benoit Denizet Lewis’ article My Ex-Gay Friend. At first, Kelly was unsure how he could tell a story about someone “saying such vile things”, but changed his mind when he met Glatze and could humanise him, especially given the enthusiast response he received from his subject. “[Michael] was pretty excited,” says Kelly. “Think about it: out of the blue, someone tells you that Gus Van Sant wants to produce a film where James Franco is going to be playing you. You’d have to be, at the very least, a little bit flattered. And as you see in the film, Michael is a person who loves attention.” Glatze didn’t even lose his enthusiasm even after seeing the finished film at its Sundance premiere; admitting that I Am Michael’s portrait of him as confused, and someone capable of horrible acts, was true. Eight months later, Kelly was already behind the camera again, shooting Franco in another scandalous true story: the 2007 murder of gay porn peddler Bryan Kocis. “It really came from James Franco. He, clearly, likes to work very fast and make a lot of films,” Kelly laughs. Kelly had kept the idea in his “back pocket”, but never thought he’d actually get it made. “But, somehow, from producers to crew to actors, everyone loved this fun, nottoo-serious, gay-porn murder story,” he says. “So many actors wanted to be involved, to do something different. Christian Slater hadn’t played a gay character before... Keegan Allen, coming off this fame and success with Pretty Little Liars, wanted to [make] this wild departure from the teen world.”

What: Melbourne Queer Film Festival When & Where: until 27 Mar, various venues

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 25

OPINION Opinion

Mindsnare’s Bonus ALbum

Wa ke The Dead Punk And Hardcore With Sarah Petchell

f there’s one thing we’ve been waiting for, at least since 2007, it’s a new Mindsnare full-length. There has been a split with Ringworm, a few 7-inch releases, a few shows, but that full-length has been evertantalisingly on the horizon. So close yet so far. And that’s okay. They’re dudes with jobs and families. Priorities change. The band isn’t everything the way it is when you’re 22.

The Get Down Funky Shit With Obliveus

So the recent announcement that Mindsnare would be releasing two 7-inches through Resist Records was cool, but it wasn’t that full-length record we’ve been waiting for. And it’s Mindsnare, so of course I preordered both. Then the preorders arrived and with it came the realisation that Mindsnare had got us all good. Well, those of us who had ordered the two 7-inches. The package was a lot larger than expected because inside

o I have this nice little 45 coming from WD4D at Care Package Records and the A-side is a hiphouse winner. Said producer writes wonky, 2-step-style, golden era, hiphouse beats that any fans of BBD will love. Lead single That Vibe will absolutely slay many a future dancefloor with its upbeat, cut-up and sampled style machismo, so don’t say I didn’t warn you because these will be gone faster than Bobby Brown’s career. Staying on the same vibes, J Rocc’s Funky Presidents Edits Volume 5 just dropped late last year and The Get Down hasn’t found the time to give it a proper hype yet, so here it is! The A-side features the first version of Break Yo Self (Breakbeat Lenny Tribute), a smorgasbord of just about every killer funk break, horn stab, keys sample and vocal shot ever recorded by those who know and then he tops it off by dropping the same jam on the flip but as the Breakbeat Lou Tribute and it’s even funkier. Without a doubt, we have a winner here. While we’re on the subject of winners, grab yourself a copy of the latest Soopasoul 45 from his cheeky Soopastole Edits imprint. He’s gone in hard on Kool & The Gang’s heavily sampled horny b-boy breaker Give It Up and turned up the dancefloor-heat thermometer to exploding. To complete the package, he’s tastefully added a drop of sugar to Aretha Franklin’s Rock Steady on the flip. And with that, I’m out. J Rocc

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was the full-length we had all been waiting for, but no one was expecting in a limited release of 50 (I got #14). I’m not going to review the record, but just thinking about this ploy makes me so happy. It’s almost the ultimate reward for patience and loyalty, while simultaneously being somewhat of a practical joke. In a world dominated by social media and slick marketing — even in punk and hardcore — it is so refreshing to see a band just do whatever they want. No curated releases. Not even any notice of a release — just slip it in with something minor that maybe 50 people will get. All while the howls of fans that missed out can be heard across t

Trailer Tra s h Dives Into Your Screens And Idiot Boxes With Guy Davis

hen the fanboys heard about the latest popculture reboot, they wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer. Hey, apologies for butchering Greek historian Plutarch’s quote about Alexander The Great, but it seemed the best way for me to kick off a discussion about Warner Bros’ recent announcement to reboot its dormant Matrix franchise, not to mention a cool way for yours

OPINION Opinion

truly to come off as someone with a bit of book-learnin’. Social media was set aflame last week when word started spreading about the studio’s plans to reboot the saga of a future where the human race is enslaved by sentient machines, their bodies used as energy sources and their collective consciousness logged into a virtual reality known as the Matrix. In all honesty, it was the kind of furore that usually ensues when chatter about a new take on a beloved property begins. Now there’s a good chance that this uproar stemmed from the news reports not definitively stating that Matrix masterminds Lana and Lilly Wachowski nor leading man Keanu Reeves would be involved. Instead, there was talk that Warner Bros had established a writers’ room to

brainstorm new concepts and ideas. And I can see why that would piss off Matrix diehards, many of whom tend to view the franchise as the brainchild of the Wachowski sibs. The fans view it as art, not corporate IP to be dusted off and tarted up for a new generation of punters. (Today in Controversy Corner: I don’t give a shit if the Wachowskis are involved or not — almost everything they’ve done since the first Matrix has been erratic verging on shithouse.) However, I can recall when the Star Wars prequels were first whispered about back in the late ‘90s and thinking back then that while it’d be cool to have George Lucas back at the helm of the saga he’d created 20-odd years earlier (and was I quickly disabused of that notion), it’d be even cooler to let the artists influenced by Star Wars loose in the sandpit and give them the opportunity to build their own castles on an existing foundation with a potentially rich and expansive mythology. While the Matrix saga quickly started spinning its wheels with the Reloaded and Revolutions sequels back in the early 2000s, the Animatrix shorts that accompanied the home video release were a potent reminder that there was plenty of room to move in this particular universe. And while one can’t sensibly expect Warner Bros to get too wacky with it, Trailer Trash can’t help but be optimistic that all involved will move beyond a simple retelling of the first Matrix movie from a different angle or featuring different characters. Having said that, the word from ‘inside sources’ is that the idea that is gaining plenty of traction is a prequel that would (hopefully) star Creed’s Michael B Jordan as the young Morpheus, the character played by Laurence Fishburne in the original Matrix trilogy. Sure, it’s going over old ground in a way. But getting broken out The Matrix of the Matrix — as Keanu’s Neo was — is one thing. Staging your own breakout — as Morpheus seemed to do, if Trailer Trash recalls Matrix lore correctly — is something else entirely.

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store.themusic.com.au THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 27

Album / E Album/EP Reviews

Album OF THE Week

Sleepmakeswaves Made Of Breath Only Bird’s Robe Records

Does perfection exist? It’s a great philosophical question to ponder. In a musical sense, it could be said to exist within certain idioms, and from the perspective of individual listeners. Some fans may have what they feel to be the perfect rock album, the perfect metal album, the perfect jazz album, and so on. In this humble writer’s opinion, Made Of Breath Only is the perfect instrumental rock album. Yep, it’s just that damn good. It lacks for nothing, everything you could possibly wish for in an album such as this is present - and present in droves beyond droves. It is immensely powerful, it is breathtakingly (pun intended) catchy, it has groove, it has ambience, imagery and conceptual oomph, it is dynamic to a fault, it has prodigious levels of musicianship and production value. And even beyond those superlative-laden descriptions, it does something more intangible. It moves you, it speaks to your emotions, it carries you away to some distant, mystical land where things are wonderful and everyone is happy. Nothing can be singled out for special mention here, every song, every moment, is flawless. Perfection exists in the form of four blokes from Sydney. This album is musical utopia. Rod Whitfield

★★★★★

Lewis Watson

Ali Barter

Midnight

A Suitable Girl

Cooking Vinyl

Ronnie Records/Inertia

★★★

★★★★

Lewis Watson has matured since 2010 when he, his acoustic guitar and his emo fringe shot to internet fame with covers of Bombay Bicycle Club and Angus & Julia Stone (found among such riveting filler videos as some poopy video that features me being an ‘assclown’ and how to make a grilled cheese... honestly, if you haven’t dug back into your pubescent YouTube history, do so now.) Adult Watson brings to the table an album of substance and delicately spun acoustic pop, thematically lighter-hearted than his debut record and earlier EPs (see titles: it’s got four sad songs on it BTW and another four sad songs). Subtle string arrangements add a hint of melodrama to love songs such as deep the water, with single little light floating on expansive washes

With their honest, relatable lyrics and soaring choruses, each song on grunge/pop musician Ali Barter’s debut album A Suitable Girl sounds like it belongs on the soundtrack of an angsty ‘90s teen flick. The many elements of grunge and punk incorporated into the album make it easy to draw comparisons to the music of Hole, but with its pop sensibility and witty lyrics, A Suitable Girl shares more commonalities with much of Liz Phair’s early music. Uptempo highlights Cigarette, One Foot In and Far Away are equal parts catchy and cool, with singalong hooks delivered by Barter’s soft voice - sweet, but laden with attitude - cutting through layers of over-driven guitars and crashing drums. The anthemic Girlie Bits, an expression of frustration at

28 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

of electric guitar, introducing us to his latest, plugged-in incarnation (though hello hello and run reassures us that he hasn’t abandoned acousticmode entirely). While he’s drawing influence from the trophy case of winterindie greats - Death Cab For Cutie, Bon Iver, Ben Howard - he doesn’t quite achieve the effect with finesse. But, admittedly, it’s hard to do strings like Coldplay. A pleasant, easily consumed listen that comforts again and again, midnight is the musical embodiment of a B-grade teen romance. Brynn Davies

gender expectations, stands out with driving instrumentals under repetitive but clever and meaningful lyrics: “Give us a smile princess, it’s better for business.” Emotive Tokyo, Walk/Talk and Please Stay show a more vulnerable side to the Melbourne singer, exploring themes of loneliness and longing. A Suitable Girl is a dynamic, fun and edgy debut that brings back some ‘90s riot grrrl vibes and takes the listener on an emotional journey. Madelyn Tait

EP Reviews Album/EP Reviews

Spiral Stairs

The Bug Vs Earth Angie

Doris & The Daggers

Concrete Desert

Shyness

Coolin’ By Sound

Ninja Tune/Inertia

Rice Is Nice

The Jesus & Mary Chain Damage And Joy ADA

★★★½

★★★

★

You may know Scott Kannberg as a founding member of Pavement, but to many he’s also known as Spiral Stairs. Doris & The Daggers is his second record under this moniker (the first: 2009’s The Real Feel). The four years Kannberg spent living in Australia have left their mark on this album, with The GoBetweens-y inflections found across the ten tracks and an unmistakable ode to Melbourne, Trams (Stole My Love). The depth of Doris... makes it unlike any Pavement record, but the local references - to Australia, Scotland and elsewhere - make it an enjoyable listen and a welcome return.

Doom metal band Earth team up with heavy bass producer The Bug, aka Kevin Martin, to deliver this low-slung album that grinds deep and heavy. Themed around the idea of a Concrete Desert, this album offers ten instrumental visions of a futuristic post-apocalyptic world that bleakly contemplate the aftermath of destruction. Earth’s deep distorted guitar drones and haunting twangy melodies collide with the intensity of The Bug’s massive growling bass and electronic noise. The result is a thick, oozing, toxic, aural sludge. An unrelenting noise that’s strangely evocative and wouldn’t be out of place on the next instalment of Mad Max.

Angie (aka Angela Garrick, Circle Pit, Southern Comfort, Ruined Fortune, Straight Arrows et al) is back with album three. Shyness feels appropriately titled. It’s gentle, understated and at times reluctant to move from its comfort zone. Haunting vocal and guitar work revolves around cyclical piano chords for most of the record, making for an evocative if slightly repetitive experience. Listeners looking for more punch and texture might look through Garrick’s back catalogue. However, those happy to meditate in Shyness’ pocket of ambience will find plenty of comfort here.

It was probably asking too much. Hopes were high for Jesus & The Mary Chain’s first studio album in 19 years after their well-received Psychocandy anniversary shows, but Damage And Joy is a barely coherent pile-up of cliches. Whereas each previous Mary Chain album had its own direction and merits, this is a hodgepodge of elements from different eras combined and melted down into a disposable rawk goo. Hopelessly banal songs and limp performances make Damage And Joy one giant cringe. Don’t remember them this way.

Dylan Stewart

Christopher H James

Evan Young

Guido Farnell

More Reviews Online Soulwax From Deewee

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Steel Panther Lower The Bar

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THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 29

Live Re Live Reviews

Adele @ Etihad Stadium. Pic: Graham Denholm Getty Images

Violent Femmes @ Hamer Hall. Pic: Joshua Braybrook

The Hot 8 Brass Band @ CoburgTown Hall. Pic: Monique Pizzica

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The Hot 8 Brass Band @ CoburgTown Hall. Pic: Monique Pizzica

Adele

Etihad Stadium 18 Mar

Adele’s in-the-round stage set-up features a 360-degree screen and, as we take our seats, footage displays the singer’s closed eyes, with trademark ‘60s smokey eye, winged eyeliner and multiple sets of false eyelashes. The make-up artist definitely deserves to at least have an Instagram handle displayed on the bottom of the screen - it’s exquisite work. Around 7.45pm, a cheer goes up as the pimped-out road case (which we now know houses Adele) is wheeled down the aisle toward the stage. It takes a couple more songs for Adele to take her position and then, finally, her eyes open on the 360-degree screen, we hear Adele singing Hello and then the screen rises to reveal the diva in a bedazzled, burgundy, floor-length, off-theshoulder gown - how many Swarovski crystals are sewn into that number? And there are star-shaped sequins among the intricate beading. She aptly spins around, 180 degrees, to face the other side of the stadium before singing, “Hello from the other siiiiiiii-iiiide!” Adele’s band are positioned stage level, but she’s elevated on a circular rostra. This must be isolating for the musicians, who are unable to engage with one other, and the drummer bashes away in a completely separate quadrant. Hometown Glory features local footage shot around Melbourne. There’s a heavy-duty Beyonce-style fan up there that messes with Adele’s strands, and her ‘do looks as if it could use some dry shampoo. That voice, though! It’s flawless, which can’t be said for her enunciation while speaking. Adele would be perfectly cast as Nancy in Oliver!. Adele tells us her favourite shows are performed on the weekend, adding, “I’m very

nervous, by the way. This is actually my last two shows in Australia.” A couple hold up a sign that reads, “It’s our first anniversary,” which sadly Adele doesn’t notice. Her banter has us in stitches. Of her show, she says, “It’s basically two hours of crying and songs about my ex-boyfriend.” Adele then tells

There was literally shit in my spanx. us she left a letter taped to one of the nosebleed section seats (also enclosing a photo of her holding the letter to prove it’s legit). As the lucky recipient graces the giant screens, madly waving her prize, Adele jokes, “You’ve got such a shit seat, I felt terrible!” For those among us who came along for a good time, Adele warns, “You’re not gonna have too good of a time, because my songs are miserable!” Not so Rumour Has It, which is a highlight and one of our rare dancing ops this evening. Within, “Just ‘cause I said it/Don’t mean that I meant it,” Adele inserts a cheeky aside: “I did!” I Miss You gives us lumps in throats - hey, we’ve all been there, right? Adele regularly wanders around, chatting to her audience in between songs, with mug in hand, taking sips of hot water and honey. “I say no to practically everything,” she reveals of when she was asked to sing Skyfall. Admitting her voice changed, allowing her to sing in a lower register, while she was preggas, she bemoans, “I got a beard as well!” before adding that said beard was actually blonde and she had to have it lasered off. In trademark self-effacing fashion, Adele says it must have been “a slow year”, which is why she won the Grammy for Best Song Written For Visual Media. On her Oscars performance of

eviews Live Reviews

this same song? “There was literally shit in my spanx.” Adele doesn’t laugh; she infectiously cackles. A male choir space themselves out evenly around the periphery of the circular stage - all wearing black suits with black shirts underneath and probably sweltering - to elevate this 2012 Bond theme song. “Perth exposed me,” Adele shares of how much make-up dripped off her thanks to the West Australian heat. She tries to do a Beyonce booty drop in front of the Beyonce fan and the band kick into Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It). Adele informs us she’s just performed her 108th show before confessing that touring isn’t really her thing and she’d rather be at home “eating a Chinese” meal. Ten minutes after her booty drop, Adele admits she’s still out of breath from pretending to be Beyonce for a couple of seconds. “The other night in Sydney, I forgot the words and it was weird ‘cause it’s called Don’t You Remember,” Adele cackles, before divulging Alison Krauss inspired this song, telling us she’s grateful to have had the chance to share this fact with the American bluegrasscountry singer-songwriter (even if she had to follow her into the toilets to do so). She then waves and says “hello” to a group of people assembled on the toplevel balcony of a neighbouring apartment block. We’re all told to raise our smartphone torches for Adele’s Bob Dylan cover, Make You Feel My Love (from her first album). A punter yells out, “It’s our wedding song!” Adele asks, “How long?” “One year!” - maybe it’s the same couple who held up the sign earlier. Send My Love (To Your New Lover) offers another opportunity to be upstanding and bop. Adele tells us she had to get a smaller “T-shirt gun” because her large-scale model is “illegal” in Melbourne. Her second shot goes nowhere and

Adele despairs, “Oh, my god! That was fucking pathetic!” Each of these T-shirts are signed, have $20 attached (so that the recipient can buy a drink) and they’re sprayed with Adele’s own perfume, she points out. Adele marvels about how she’s successfully avoided the Australian paparazzi, admitting Bieber probably copped “the lot of them”. After reading a little girl called Sapphire’s banner, requesting an opportunity to get up on stage and sing, Adele offers her the stage and hands her the mic. Sapphire sings Hello all the way through, wearing a cat-ear headband. “I’ll see you in the charts,” Adele praises. A team of bodyguards in the photography pit follow Adele as she wanders the periphery of the stage during Sweetest Devotion while confetti cannons detonate, single colours raining down separately. Kiss Cam is fun, but goes for a little too long and kind of makes us hope for a costume change from Adele. A priceless photo of young Adele dressed in East 17 T-shirt flashes up onscreen plus a tribute to George Michael (is that Adele dressed as the late singer?) with “We miss you George” scrawled on it. Adele returns (no costume change) and hits all the Rolling In The Deep power notes as white ticker tape featuring Adele’s own handwriting rains down on us. She still has a lot to say about the break-up that inspired her stunning 21 album (“I lost my TV and all! I lost my friends...”), but stresses the songwriting process “helped [her] get over being bitchy and witchy”. “We’re not friends,” she concludes, unable to resist pointing out that she’s pretty sure he’s not doing anything as fabulous as she is. “I have zero plans of touring after the last 18 months,” Adele discloses and why should she? Adele is one of the few recording artists who rakes it in on CD sales alone. She then takes this opportunity to set the inspiration

behind Someone Like You straight: the lyrics, “I wish nothing but the best for you,” should be taken literally. She instructs us to take over her vocals for a chorus and then walks down an aisle as footage of her exit graces the giant screens. Adele waves as she departs, but it’s goodbye instead of Hello - this time. Bryget Chrisfield

Violent Femmes Hamer Hall 16 Mar The members of Violent Femmes emerge looking more like a comedy trio than a rock band. Frontman Gordon Gano begins playing the wiry riff for Confessions, which is soon joined by Brian Ritchie’s iconic, show-stealing bassline and suddenly it sounds like Violent Femmes and no one else. The

Anyone with doubts about whether the Femmes are still worth seeing can assuredly lay their concerns to rest. trio is joined mid-song by dual saxophones and various other brass instruments, and the song reaches a chaotic, clamouring crescendo. Anyone with doubts about whether the Femmes are still worth seeing can assuredly lay their concerns to rest. Next up, bafflingly, is Blister In The Sun and plenty of people vacate their cushioned seats in favour of dancing in the aisles. The band do without a setlist and remain crowd-pleasers with an

acute understanding of what we came for, which means we hear eight of the ten songs from their undying, undeniably great debut album. This tossed-off approach also allows for the inclusion of ill-advised, latecareer lowlights such as Freak Magnet, which is worth it for the exciting, improvised quality this adds. Gano picks up a violin for a couple of songs, including Jesus Walking On The Water, which inspires a spirited singalong. He may not be as technically proficient as the violinists Hamer Hall usually hosts, but Gano wrenches plenty of emotion out of a simple-but-affecting solo in the glorious Good Feeling. John Sparrow, the most recent in the band’s revolving door of drummers, more than capably does the standingdrummer-with-brushes thing. His set-up notably includes a Weber barbecue and a cajon, demonstrating how little the band have strayed from their street-performing roots. Local singer-songwriter Paris Wells provides intermittent backing vocals on a few songs, but these songs don’t easily accommodate a female voice, particularly one that’s on-key. Ritchie plays xylophone on Gone Daddy Gone, which includes a note-perfect rendition of its solo and is followed by a cathartic Add It Up and a rousing rendition of American Music. The band’s obvious affection for these songs and their audience - if not each other - translates to the warm, joyful and, uh, good feeling pervading the room tonight. Their shambolic songs about sexual frustration are quite incongruous with the grand surroundings of Hamer Hall. It feels strangely subversive in a way that rock music rarely does in 2017, a considerable feat for a band deep into their fourth decade. Joel Lohman

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 31

Arts Reviews Dance Massive

Split

Dance Massive 2017

Until March 23 at Arts House

★★★★

Piece For Person & Ghetto Blaster

TANGI WAI... The Cry Of Water

Until March 26 at the Malthouse THeatre

Until March 26 at Meat Market

★★★★

★★★

The title of choreographer Jo Lloyd and performer Nicola Gunn’s Piece For Person & Ghetto Blaster could hardly be more appropriate, and not just because this show does exactly what it says on the tin. Much like its content, the deceptively utilitarian name of this production belies the level of whip-smart, intricate sophistication at its core. It’s a bright, brilliant and bravely unbuttoned joyride, probing the nature of self-image and subjective uncertainty in the face of that most essential of moral conundrums: what defines the difference between right and wrong? The text is a meandering stream of consciousness, constantly digressing onto unexpected tangents. These off-piste diversions are thoroughly entertaining and dripping with wit and charisma. Lloyd’s choreography is similarly built. The small, fidgety, unconscious gestures that accompany deep thought are allowed to explode into wild, gloriously hell-bent gesticulations. All the social constraints that dictate how we project ourselves to the outside world - both physically and mentally - are gone, leaving just the baser instincts; all thrusting hips, spread-eagled legs, dragged-bottoms and inelegant angles. A wondrously OTT finale suddenly pulls the work wholesale into the realm of total surrealism. It’s one final, cheeky send-up of theatrical pomposity and an ideal cadence for a piece that is as very much about challenging its own nature.

Drawing on spiritual traditions from choreographer Victoria Hunt’s Maori ancestry, this piece attempts to conjure a realm of the infinite - an intangible, incorporeal expanse. From the inky black, as a symphony of otherworldly sounds swell into a cosmic cacophony, a prick of light suddenly appears. We are transfixed, this endless void suddenly sharpened into a singularity of pure white. Various forms of illumination follow - a roiling carpet of glowing ripples; a slash of piercing blue that spits and crackles with electric intensity; a cone of glowing, nebulous mist - bringing fleeting reference points of form, colour and dimension to this shapeless abyss. Occasionally a human form emerges from the pervasive gloaming only to be swallowed up once more by the darkness. From a technical and even a theatrical perspective, there’s a lot that’s very successful but those in search of dance are likely to leave TANGI WAI underwhelmed. Save for a few all too short moments, the performers execute their choreography in almost total darkness. It’s hard to pinpoint the rationale for making the danced elements so wantonly inscrutable, except that it seems TANGI WAI’s conceptual philosophy has overwhelmed its practical reality. It’s an unfortunate miscalculation, as it seems some relatively small adjustments could transform it from a dark mystery into an incandescent success.

Maxim Boon

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Dancers Melanie Lane (wearing a flowing frock) and Lilian Steiner (nude) are illuminated on stage (although it takes a while for their contrasting states of dress to become apparent). They dance in perfect unison - even breathing as one - and we can imagine the countless hours spent rehearsing in front of a mirror under Lucy Guerin’s expert direction. Movement varies from minute gestures to sweeping, travelling phrases and turn sequences. Both dancers demonstrate extraordinary body control and the spacing between them is perfectly maintained. The dance space is defined by white tape, which the dancers dissect at regular intervals throughout by laying down more strips of white tape to further diminish dimensions and hence separate Split into scenes. A sense of conflict between Lane and Steiner becomes more pronounced each time their performance space is reduced, and eventually the pair dance with each other or as a reaction to the other - finding their own pathways in the increasingly limited space available. Paul Lim’s lighting design further accentuates their impending claustrophobia and focuses our gaze. Are the dancers depicting dual consciousness/ split personalities? There’s definitely violent struggle and some menacing, invasive moments during which one dancer appears to subdue and even pick at or feed on her prey. The majority of this piece must have been created on these dancers’ bodies in the studio through patient experimentation. A general sense of unease washes over the audience as we wonder how much smaller and more contained the stage dimensions will become. And Scanner’s score pounds on, unsettling also. Both dancers grapple for control before one acquiesces, but their roles shift throughout and we’re held in a continual state of suspense. The technical virtuosity on display here is matched by the dancers’ arresting performances; Lane and Steiner totally surrender to inhabit this strange world of Guerin’s imagining. Her choreography is always fearless, and this fascinating work is both beautiful and stark. Split showcases everything that’s exciting about dance as an art form. Bryget Chrisfield

Indie Indie

Scott Candlish

Robbie Boyd

Mechanical Pterodactyl

EP Focus

Album Focus

EP Title? Home Away From Home

Album title? Break The Chain

Answered by: Yen Nguyen

How many releases do you have now? I have two CDs now, but I’m a little more pumped about this one!

Where did the title of your new album come from? From one of my songs on the album called Who’s Standing In Your Way. It’s about standing up for yourself and breaking free from ill behaviours/character traits that only hinder your growth.

Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? Heaps and heaps of travelling. In particular, Barcelona and Edinburgh have just blown me away and I find myself attached to them. What’s your favourite song on it? Two Feet generally has been, as it’s directly about my experiences away from home and was fun to record, too. We’ll like this EP if we like... Acoustic guitar, harmonies and the whole folky vibe! I’d love to say I sound like Ryan Adams but not sure how accurate that is. When and where is your launch/next gig? 23 Mar, Wesley Anne. Playing with Jess De Luca, Iris Springs and Sherri Parry. Website link for more info? facebook.com/events/647884382066073

How many releases do you have now? This is my second full-length album. How long did it take to write/record? All of the songs on Break The Chain were written in the last year, and I’ve used a few different producers to find the right sound so it’s taken about the same time to record. Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? Philosophy, lifestyle changes, my family, my self, relationships, a deeper look at love, and a bit of Trump/Brexit and all the craziness in the world! What’s your favourite song on it? Hey Girl - it always gets such a great reaction when I play it live and it means a lot. Will you do anything differently next time? More of the same in a different way. I love the process of writing and recording songs. It’s important to take your time to get it right, on your terms. When and where is your launch/next gig? 24 Mar, Wesley Anne.

Album title? Timelapse Where did the title of your new album come from? It’s the idea that sometimes in life you can find yourself stuck in a loop and you can blink and months or years can pass. How many releases do you have now? This will be our third album. The first one is no longer available for sale. Thankfully. How long did it take to write/record? About four years to write. We’re still finishing the recording at the moment. People have babies now so it’s tricky, but it’ll be out soon. Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making? I get inspired by different artists I work with as a producer. One album in particular by Tim Willis & The End called Night & Day. That and life. What’s your favourite song on it? I love all my children equally but I’d say Don’t Want Anyone Else, which will be the first single. Will you do anything differently next time? Many things but I’m not sure what they will be yet. When I know that is when the next album will be ready. When and where is your launch/next gig? 25 Mar, Wesley Anne Website link for more info? facebook.com/mechanicalpterodactyl

Website link for more info? robbie-boyd.com

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 33

OPINION Opinion

Howzat!

Local Music By Jeff Jenkins Press Play We’ve arguably never been better served by music critics at our daily papers, with The Herald Sun’s Cameron Adams and Mikey Cahill, Fairfax’s Bernard Zuel, Craig Mathieson and Michael Dwyer, and The Australian’s Iain Shedden. Aside from the fact there are too many blokes on that list, each critic is astute and perceptive. But is anybody out there? In the age of social media when everyone’s a critic and it’s never been easier to access music, is the role of the rock writer redundant? After starting in Brisbane last year, A Rock hits Melbourne this year at the Abbotsford Convent on 9 Apr. Panelists include local writers Mikey Cahill, Michael Dwyer and Jenny Valentish, with Brisbane’s Andrew McMillen and Andrew Stafford, plus artists such as Rob Snarski, Mick Thomas and Jess Ribeiro. Leanne de Souza started the event with Joe Woolley after she attended Splendour In The Grass and Byron Writers Festival. She wanted to take “the writing and ideas festival further by including songwriters, critics and long-form journalists and adding some of the immersive experience that music festivals

34 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

give.” Greil Marcus infamously opened his piece on Dylan’s Self Portrait: “What is this shit?” Can a review make or break a record these days? Michael Dwyer gave the new Kingswood album four stars in Rolling Stone, hailing the “hard rockers’ radical reinvention”. But Bernard Zuel compared the band to Thirsty Merc and Eskimo Joe, adding, “Let’s be clear... I’m not praising”. Will the Rolling Stone rave or Bernard’s damnation affect record sales? And should the critics be criticised? Rock writer Jon Landau - who became Bruce Springsteen’s manager after penning perhaps the most famous line in rock criticism: “I saw rock’n’roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen” said in 1976: “I find the biggest problem with rock criticism is the lack of any criticism of the criticism.” But does any of it matter, anyway? As Mark Twain

Joe Wooley and Leanne De Sourza

remarked, “The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all.” Leanne, however, remains optimistic. “Music will always need quality writing. A high standard of music criticism helps amplify the integrity and meaning that underpins the craft of the music. When a good music writer unlocks an artist’s work, that is a powerful thing to read.”

Remembering Vince Valentines singer, Divinyls manager and rock writer Vince Lovegrove died in a car crash, aged 65, five years ago this week.

Hot Line “When life has no certainty, I stick to the melody” - Colin Hay, Love Don’t Mean Enough.

PR E SE N T E D B Y T RIPLE J, THE M U S IC , W M E AN D E LE FAN T TRAK S

BARDO S T A T E T OU R

WI TH

D A V I D DA LLA S (NZ) & TUR QU OI S E P R I N C E

CHELSEA HTS | FRIDAY 9 JUNE | CHELSEA HEIGHTS HOTEL

GEELONG | SATURDAY 10 JUNE | BARWON CLUB

SUNDAY 11 JUNE | 170 RUSSELL TICKETS: HORRORSHOW.COM

BARDO STATE OUT NOW ON DIGITAL, 2LP, CD ON ELEFANT TRAKS / INERTIA

Comedy / G The Guide

Wed 22

Kingswood

Julien Wilson ‘B For Chicken’ Quartet + Bohjass: 303, Northcote Clawhawk + Kaku + Mind The Machine: Bar Open, Fitzroy

At The Dakota

Moon + The Mercy Kills + The Plastic Fingers: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Vallis Alps + Baro: Corner Hotel, Richmond

The Music Presents

Found Heads with DJ Clever Austin + Mandacaru + DJ Godriguez: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy

Jeff Lang: 24 Mar The Golden Vine Bendigo; 25 Mar Suttons House of Music Ballarat

The Unternationale: Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick

Holly Throsby: 26 Mar Northcote Social Club The Waifs: 28 Mar Ulumbarra Theatre Bendigo; 29 & 30 Mar Hamer Hall Guy Sebastian: 29 & 30 Mar Corner Hotel Roy Ayers: 9 Apr The Croxton Rhiannon Giddens: 11 Apr Corner Hotel Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue: 11 April 170 Russell Gallant: 17 Apr Corner Hotel The Lumineers: 19 Apr Arts Centre Melbourne The Record Company: 20 Apr Northcote Social Club At The Dakota: 5 May The Golden Vine; 7 May The Workers Club Horrorshow: 9 Jun Chelsea Heights Hotel Aspendale Gardens; 10 Jun Barwon Club Hotel South Geelong; 11 Jun 170 Russell

Glamour On The Grid feat Mya: Formula 1 @ Rolex Australian Grand Prix, Albert Park Splendidid + Sunnyside + Miss Modular: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood

Two Days, All The Faves

Little Big Town + Kip Moore: Hamer Hall, Melbourne

Kingswood are bringing their After Hours, Close To Dawn tour to 170 Russell not one, but two days this week. These guys have got something for everyone, so make sure you’re there to hear their latest tracks and old faves on Friday and Sunday.

Beef People: Karova Lounge, Ballarat Hang Massive: Max Watt’s, Melbourne My Bubba + Freya Josephine Hollick: Northcote Social Club, Northcote Shol Quintet: Open Studio, Northcote

Tartie + North + Cas: The Workers Club, Fitzroy

Low Down Big Band: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick

Doc Halibut: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick

Trivia: Wesley Anne, Northcote

Checkout: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick

Local Coward + Ute Root + Shepparton Airplane: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs), Collingwood

Slumber Kitty + DFFDL + Birds + Gearoid Brinn: Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford

Kingswood + WAAX + Batz: Sooki Lounge, Belgrave

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: The Night Cat, Fitzroy

Thu 23 Aztx + Sunnyside + Koda: 303, Northcote

Oslow

Mayfield: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick Biscotti + Pastiche + Pikelet + Gregor: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood

Greenly Mozzy + Elk + Mammoth + Hugh Fuchsen: Bar Open, Fitzroy Guru Grets and Her Psychic Sex and Life Advice feat Gretel Killeen: Bella Union, Carlton South

Luca Brasi: 23 Jun 170 Russell Orsome Welles: 8 Jul Evelyn Hotel

Greg Steps: Charles Weston Hotel, Brunswick Vallis Alps + Baro: Corner Hotel, Richmond WHARVES: Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne

Oslow & Steady Tearing up Corner Hotel this Sunday are Sydneysiders Oslow. They’re in town to warm up the stage as national tour supports for American outfit Balance & Composure, alongside Introvert and Crusch.

Zillanova + Karate Boogaloo + Allysha Joy + Cactus Channel DJs: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Baby Blue + Closet Straights: The Tote (Front Bar), Collingwood Peaches & Cream feat Pink Lips + I Hate Max + Infra Ghosts + The Fluffs: The Tote (Upstairs), Collingwood

36 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

Public High + Master Beta + Chillers: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Shiver Canyon + Aphir + Emah Fox + Liana Pearl & Perolas: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood Jordan Rakei + Sampology + Street Rat: Howler, Brunswick Bottlecaps + Northwood + Late Nights + Circle of Wolves: Karova Lounge, Ballarat Van Walker: Labour In Vain, Fitzroy The Council + Shinplasters + Forklift Assassins + Black Radius: Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar, Melbourne JLS & Co: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East DJ Richie 1250: Longhorn Saloon, Carlton Rogue Element + Rosie Haden: Mr Boogie Man Bar, Abbotsford Things Of Stone & Wood + Club Hoy: Northcote Social Club, Northcote

Cosmo’s Midnight

Midnight Special Get ready to destroy the dancefloor at Howler this Friday when Cosmo’s Midnight, freshly returned from North America, roll out their bass-heavy bangers as part of the Aussie leg of their History tour. Muto to support. The Sadults + Marathon + Real Love + Guffman: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs), Collingwood King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: The Night Cat, Fitzroy The Fainters + Boy Parts + Nique: The Old Bar, Fitzroy

Gigs / Live The Guide

Brendan Forward

Liana & The Perolas: Compass Pizza Bar, Brunswick East

Tek Tek Ensemble + The Public Opinion Six + Windari + 1/6 + DJ Chris Gill + more: Condell Street Reserve, Fitzroy

Vallis Alps + Baro: Corner Hotel, Richmond

Thinking Forward Brendan Forward, lead guitarist for local rockers Massive, is bringing all his finger-picking blues, slide guitar and harmonica goodness to Edinburgh Castle Hotel. Head down Friday for a mix of originals and the odd stripped-down Massive tune. Vacuum + Gaud: The Post Office Hotel, Coburg Six60: The Prince, St Kilda Domini Forster + James Kenyon + Phoebe Sanger: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Hills Hoist + Environments + The Beegles: The Tote (Band Room), Collingwood Hannah Kate + Culte + Weatherboards + DJ Kitty Chrystal: The Tote (Upstairs), Collingwood Postblue + Smoke Rings + The Bends: The Workers Club, Fitzroy

BitterFruitt: Penny Black, Brunswick

Babba: The Grand Hotel, Mornington

In Store with Spoon: Polyester Records (12 45pm), Fitzroy

The Hills Are Alive feat Cloud Control + Dope Lemon + Remi + Northeast Party House + Amy Shark + Jordan Rakei + Gretta Ray + Ocean Alley + The Hard Aches + Dorsal Fins + Bec Sandridge + Fortunes + Timberwolf + Josh Cashman + Saatsuma + West Thebarton Brothel Party + Flowertruck + Birdz + Wallace + Tulalah + Caiti Baker + The Drunken Poachers + Fountaineer + Fossil Fuel + ManChoir + Canverse + The Colemans + more: The Hill, Kernot

La Danse Macabre with Brunswick Massive: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy

Mya + Marlo: Crown Melbourne (Co - Level 3), Southbank

Black Heart Breakers + Laura Palmer + Cmash Cmunt + DJ Adalita: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick

Brendan Forward + DJ Smoke Bellow: Edinburgh Castle Hotel (Beer Garden), Brunswick

The Sick Minds + Sex Grimes + The Commonly Insane + Charlie Connor: Reverence Hotel, Footscray

The Crookeds + Twisted Willows + The Rollercanes + The Violent Monks + Maverick: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy

The Eagles Story: Satellite Lounge, Wheelers Hill

Linda: Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick

Caligula’s Horse

Kit Convict & Thee Terrible Two + Latreenagers + Black Bats + Nicky Half: Forester’s Hall (Woody’s Bar), Collingwood Mya: Formula 1 @ Rolex Australian Grand Prix (Main Stage), Albert Park Kate Martin + Tiaryn + Ross Henry: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood Cosmo’s Midnight + Muto: Howler, Brunswick Hollow World + Daemon Pyre + Zeolite + Splatterpuss + Upon Worlds End: Karova Lounge, Ballarat The Tropes + Killer Birds: Labour In Vain, Fitzroy Trojans + As Paradise Falls + Mirrors: Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar, Melbourne Ogopogo + Max Teakle & his Honky-Tonky Friends: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East Sandra Afrika: Max Watt’s, Melbourne

Refraction: Wesley Anne (Front Bar), Northcote

Straight From The Horse’s Mouth Progressive alt-rockers Caligula’s Horse are taking over the stage at Max Watt’s to support sleepmakeswaves. Be there to watch these fierce five from Brissy shred the stage to pieces on Saturday.

Clawhawk

Scott Candlish + Iris Springs + Jess De Luca + Sherri Parry: Wesley Anne (Band Room), Northcote

Zerafina Zara + Alleged Associates: Smokehouse 101, Maribyrnong

Middlemarch: Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford

Tijuana Cartel: Sooki Lounge, Belgrave Soul Cupcake: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick

Fri 24 Kingswood + WAAX + Batz: 170 Russell, Melbourne The Monotremes + Great Rack: 303, Northcote Client Liaison + Luke Millions: Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne The Quarry Mountain Dead Rats + The Scrims: Bar Open, Fitzroy In Store with Liam Gerner: Basement Discs (12 45pm), Melbourne Mono Loco: Boney, Melbourne The Upbeats + Metrik + The Prototypes: Brown Alley, Melbourne Red Red Krovvy + Ausmuteants + Esp Mayhem + 58008: Catfish (Upstairs), Fitzroy Knock Off Drinks with Chris Wilson: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Filthy Lucre + Devil Electric: Cherry Bar, Melbourne

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: The Night Cat, Fitzroy

Hawk’N’Roll Clawhawk are taking the stage at Bar Open this week for a Wednesday night that’ll give you the energy to will your way through the rest of the working week. Get down for some thrashing tunes and wailing vocals.

The Dandy Jonestown Massacre + Empire Five: Mr Boogie Man Bar, Abbotsford Things Of Stone & Wood + Club Hoy + Rick Hart: Northcote Social Club, Northcote Maya: Paris Cat Jazz Club, Melbourne

Hordes Of The Black Cross + Funeral Moon + Nocturnal Graves + Decrepit Soul + Diabolical Demon Director: The Bendigo, Collingwood The New Savages: The Blues Train, Queenscliff Little Miss Remembering: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Martha Wainwright + Oh Pep!: The Capital, Bendigo Performing Arts Centre, Bendigo

Near Myth + Golden Girls + Other Places + Actor/Model: The Old Bar, Fitzroy Mysterious Girls feat Freya Hollick + Plazza: The Post Office Hotel, Coburg Lockie’s 30th Birthday Bash with CHOQ + Elektrik Dynamite + Jumping Jack & The Thumbuckets: The Tote (Band Room), Collingwood The Electric Guitars + The SMB + Pleather Purrs + DJ Miss K: The Tote (Upstairs), Collingwood Andy Phillips: The Westernport Hotel, Phillip Island Copia + Transience + Figures + Terrestrials: The Workers Club, Fitzroy

PNAU: The Croxton, Thornbury

Stars: Thornbury Theatre (Ballroom), Thornbury

Lincoln Le Fevre & The Insiders + Jess Locke + Self Talk: The Curtin, Carlton

Tash Sultana: UNO Danceclub, Geelong

Amarina Waters + Al Parkinson + Gob Iron Stringband: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood DJ Boring + Human Movement + Shouse + Sweetland + Peruw: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood Jeff Lang: The Golden Vine, Bendigo

Robbie Boyd: Wesley Anne (Band Room), Northcote Davies West: Wesley Anne (Front Bar), Northcote Yackandandah Folk Festival with Les Poules a Colin + Scott Cook + Various Artists: Yackandandah Public Hall, Yackandandah

THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 37

Comedy / G The Guide

The Raffaellas: Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy Plyers + The World At A Glance + Protection + World Sick: Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford

Dan Kye + Albrecht La’Brooy: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood

Holly Throsby

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: The Night Cat, Fitzroy

Panhandler + Foxtrot + Tiger Can Smile + Hammock District: The Old Bar, Fitzroy

Sat 25

Cool Sounds + The Quivers: The Post Office Hotel, Coburg

Bohjass + Junki: 303, Northcote Balance & Composure: Arrow On Swanston, Carlton

21 Years of DJing with Boogs: The Third Day, North Melbourne

The Devil Goat Family String Band: Bar Open (Front Bar), Fitzroy

Tennyson + Leisure Suite: The Toff In Town, Melbourne

Slow Grind Fever #45 feat DJ Richie 1250 + DJ Mohair Slim + DJ Pierre Baroni + DJ Doc Popalotacorn: Bar Open, Fitzroy

No Sister + Mares + Miranda Leibscher + Tobias Brodel: The Tote (Front Bar), Collingwood

Jerkfest with Nun + Terrible Truths + more: Barwon Club Hotel, South Geelong Jack Carty: Bella Union, Carlton South Lach Laneous + Ziggy Zeitgiest: Charles Weston Hotel, Brunswick Young Offenders + Brothers Grimm + The 131s: Cherry Bar, Melbourne The Blue Two Few: Compass Pizza Bar, Brunswick East

Time After Time In one of the final shows of her After A Time album tour, musician, novelist and national treasure Holly Throsby will bring her delicate vocals and dreamy instrumentation Northcote Social Club on Sunday night.

Grinners Are Winners When Sunday strolls in this week and finds you sporting a near-crippling hangover, head for The Brunswick Hotel. Adelaide’s Tiger Can Smile are supporting Panhandler for the Swedes’ There Goes The Neighbourhood tour and they’re playing a headfriendly acoustic set.

Party Hardy with Brian El Dorado + The Tuesday People + Copperhead Brass Band + Pocket Clock: Forester’s Hall (Woody’s Bar), Collingwood Heineken Saturday feat Rudimental + Hayden James: Formula 1 @ Rolex Australian Grand Prix, Albert Park Hotel Wrecking City Traders: Gin Lane, Belgrave

Beenie Man: Trak Lounge Bar, Toorak

Afternoon Show with Peasant Moon + Rick Hart: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick

Spoonful + Tess McKenna & the Shapiros: Union Hotel, Brunswick

Suburban Haze + Freya + Kurdaitcha: Reverence Hotel, Footscray

Trio Agogo: Wesley Anne (Front Bar), Northcote

Chris Jagger + Steve Davies + Midweek Blues: Rifle Brigade Hotel, Bendigo

Mechanical Pterodactyl + Emi: Wesley Anne (Band Room), Northcote

Hot Dub Wine Machine Tour feat Hot Dub Time Machine + PNAU + Miami Horror + Tom Tilley + Confidence Man + Liz Cambage + I Oh You DJs + Mimi + Falcona DJs: Rochford Wines, Coldstream

Rockin’ The Raceway feat Adam Brand + Thirsty Merc + Choirboys + Dean Ray + Riversnake: Winton Motor Raceway, Winton

Reggae Night Explosive feat Ras Jahknow: Rubix The Venue, Brunswick Renee Geyer: Satellite Lounge, Wheelers Hill

Tamen + Zero1 + Jor Terror + Unsoundbuoy + more: Grumpy’s Green, Fitzroy

Cave, Waits & Cohen played by +Mikelangelo: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick

Tijuana Cartel + Malcura: Howler, Brunswick

Hanksaw: Surabaya Johnny’s, St Kilda

Fruit Cup feat TELL: Howler, Brunswick

Jeff Lang: Suttons House of Music, Ballarat

Harvey Cartel: Labour In Vain, Fitzroy

Hollow World + Daemon Pyre + Zeolite + Splatterpuss + Annihilist: The Bendigo, Collingwood

The Hornets: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East

Grasshole: Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne

Sleepmakeswaves + Caligula’s Horse: Max Watt’s, Melbourne

Afternoon Show with Cameron Holmes & the Blues Dudes: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick

Paris Combo: Melbourne Recital Centre, Southbank

AD + Terrestrials + Sentia + Oolluu + Elemada: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick

James Morrison + James Mustafa Jazz Orchestra: Monash Academy of Performing Arts (MAPA) (Robert Blackwood Hall), Clayton

Spoon: The Croxton, Thornbury

MONK + Man Made Mountain + Bahdoesa + more: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy

Amy Shark + Timberwolf + Nyck: Northcote Social Club, Northcote Passerine: Penny Black, Brunswick Shannon Bourne: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy

38 • THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017

All Ages Show with Trojans + As Paradise Falls + Mirrors: Wrangler Studios, West Footscray Baptism Of Uzi: Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy Make More + Cat Heaven + Heat Wave + Jessie L Warren: Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford

Scott & Charlene’s Wedding

Chris Jagger + Bill Barber: The Blues Train, Queenscliff

Wednesday 13 + Bourbon Crow: Corner Hotel, Richmond

Unpainted Prospects + DJ Chips & Salad: Edinburgh Castle Hotel (Beer Garden), Brunswick

Silicon Valley: The Westernport Hotel, Phillip Island

Outside The Academy + Squarehead + Romeo Moon: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick

Neon Queen + Society of Beggars + Plotz: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood

Mental Tremors + Spike The River + Sweetcheeks: Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar, Melbourne

Come Together Festival feat Ganga Giri + Sikander + DJ Obliveus + Dom Hogan + The Cumbia Cosmonauts + The Seven Ups + The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra: Edendale Farm, Eltham

Foolish Boys + Shmegma + Roundhouse + The Grogans: The Tote (Upstairs), Collingwood

City at Midnight: The Workers Club Geelong, Geelong A Day on the Fairfield Green feat Kim Salmon + Ashley Naylor’s High Horse + Monique Brumby + Rebecca Barnard + The Blackeyed Susans Trio + Kerri Simpson + Suzannah Espie + Barb Waters + Alison Ferrier + more: Fairfield Public School, Fairfield

Tiger Can Smile

Internal Rot + Black Jesus + Headless Death + Faceless Burial + Reaper: The Tote (Band Room), Collingwood

The Best of the Eagles: The Cube, Wodonga Afternoon Show with Fragile Dude Syndrome + Runsthevoodoodown + Max Matthews + Rob Grymel + Bostki + Natty: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs), Collingwood

Roof Tops Melbourne faves Scott & Charlene’s Wedding are bringing the single scene to Evelyn Hotel for a rare rooftop show. Head down this Sunday to catch them with special guests Deaf Wish, Bitch Diesel and Moon Rituals.

Gigs / Live The Guide

Sun 26

Holly Throsby + The Finks: Northcote Social Club, Northcote

Rya Park + The Sand Dollars + Elle Murphy: The Workers Club, Fitzroy

Railroad Wrex & The Hapless Brakemen: Tramway Hotel, North Fitzroy

Great Aunt + Gareth Leach: 303, Northcote

Matinee Show with Tinpan Orange + Mount Saint Leonard: Northcote Social Club, Northcote

Spider Goat Canyon + Niko Niko + Goodbye Enemy Airship: Bar Open, Fitzroy

Afternoon Show with Don Hillman’s Secret Beach: Panton Hill Hotel, Panton Hill

Cherry Blues with Steve Boyd’s Rum Reverie: Cherry Bar, Melbourne

Tiger Stripes: Pawn & Co, South Yarra

Wattle & Wood: Wesley Anne (Front Bar), Northcote

Centre & The South: Penny Black, Brunswick

Ford Flank + Lou Davies + Abbey Howlett: Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford

Invert Beauty + Dougal & The Sunken Sea + Ioda Rosa: Railway Hotel, Brunswick

Mon 27

Kingswood + WAAX + Batz: 170 Russell, Melbourne

The Wildbloods + Dal Santo + Swamp: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Flmxd Pyjms: Compass Pizza Bar, Brunswick East Balance & Composure + Oslow + Introvert + Crusch: Corner Hotel, Richmond

Chris Wilson: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy The Moonee Valley Drifters: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick

Catfish Voodoo + The Joelenes: Union Hotel, Brunswick

Melbourne Polytechnic Music: 303, Northcote Monday Bone Machine feat T-Rek: Boney, Melbourne Cherry Jam: Cherry Bar, Melbourne

Liana & The Perolas

Direct Underground Festival feat Marduk + Gorguts + MGLA + Ulcerate + Departe: Corner Hotel, Richmond Slippy Mane + Lalic + Kandere + EN V: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Raw Comedy State Final with Various Artists: Howler, Brunswick Antelodic + Ronny Ferella: La Mama Theatre, Carlton Amy Shark + Timberwolf + Nyck: Northcote Social Club, Northcote Paul Williamson’s Hammond Combo: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy The Daryl McKenzie Jazz Orchestra + Nina Ferro: The Apartment, Melbourne

LTP, Yeah You Know Me

Lake Minnetonka + Fulton Street: The Curtin, Carlton

Liana & The Perolas blend a rare combination of influences and instruments, blending harp, Indian tabla, trumpet, guitar and electronic soundscapes in a captivating ambient sound. Catch them at Compass Pizza & Bar, Friday.

Danika Smith: Edinburgh Castle Hotel (Beer Garden), Brunswick Afternoon Show with Scott & Charlene’s Wedding + Deaf Wish + Bitch Diesel + Moon Ritual: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Motley + The Stranger Suite + Kmodo & Cadet X + Jimmy Flipshyt: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy The Ruby Rogers Experience: Fox Hotel, Collingwood Luka Lesson + Omar Sakr + Amy Bodossian: Howler, Brunswick Backwood Creatures: Labour In Vain, Fitzroy Marty Kelly & Co + Andy Baylor’s Banksia Band: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East The Bob Dylan Songbook with Kate Ceberano + Joe Camilleri + Paul Grabowsky: Monash Academy of Performing Arts (MAPA) (Robert Blackwood Hall), Clayton Firewire + The Great Unknown: Mr Boogie Man Bar, Abbotsford

Postblue

Six60

PB Away Postblue are going on “indefinite hiatus”, but they aren’t making us go cold turkey. They have a final show at The Workers Club on Thursday with Smoke Rings and Bends to launch their goodbye EP, Deprogammed. International Velvet + Eat Man + Dicey’s Pizza House Band: Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford

Tue 28 Smiling Politely: Comedy Open Mic: 303, Northcote Uncomfortable Science with Lachlan Mitchell: Boney, Melbourne Sienna Wild + Press Club Band + Cash: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Sons of Rico: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Tom Tom Tuesday feat Divide & Dissolve + Sewercide + Vacuum + Axillism + Papaphilia: Howler, Brunswick Gawurra: Kew Court House, Kew Amy Shark + Timberwolf + Nyck: Northcote Social Club, Northcote Liam Linley + Mallee Songs + Sam Reiher: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs), Collingwood

The Pardoners: Royal Oak Hotel, Fitzroy North

Rabbit Legs + Lovision + Dogood + Yukumbabe: The Old Bar, Fitzroy

Esstee Big Band: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick

Tetrahedra + Cool Explosions + Lewis Coleman: The Toff In Town, Melbourne

La Bastard + Saint Jude + Local Coward: The Old Bar, Fitzroy

Melbourne’s Turn

Afternoon Show with Deep Scene + General Men + Pink Harvest: The Old Bar, Fitzroy

Super soulful vocals and funkdriven drums await you at The Prince this Thursday night. After selling out their Brisbane show and wowing punters in Perth, Six60 are taking to the stage in Melbourne for what’s set to be a killer show.

Moreland City Soul Revue: The Post Office Hotel, Coburg The Hired Guns: The Standard Hotel, Fitzroy The Pheasantry + Jim Stewart’s Foor Door Shit Box: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Astral Plane + Foreign Cargo + DJ Cooper + more: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Maureen + Olsen Twins + Astral Skulls: The Tote (Front Bar), Collingwood Matinee Show with The Canyoneros + Mount Defiance + The Belafontes: The Workers Club, Fitzroy

The Football Club + Sugar Teeth + Georgia Maq + Dead Planet 1964: The Workers Club, Fitzroy The Waifs + Jordie Lane: Ulumbarra Theatre, Bendigo PB & Jam: Wesley Anne (Band Room), Northcote

The Beths + Swim Team + 19th Century Strongmen: The Old Bar, Fitzroy Music Never Dies feat Almost 12 + Lucy & Co + Jaz & Will + Hailey & Adam: The Workers Club, Fitzroy THE MUSIC • 22ND MARCH 2017 • 39

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