The Music (Melbourne) Issue #208 by TheMusic.com.au

27.09.17 Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Issue

208

Melbourne / Free / Incorporating

A L L

T H E

C I T Y â&#x20AC;&#x2122; S

S T A G E

2 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 3

M E L B O U R N E CO N S E RVATO R I U M O F M US I C | 2 0 1 7

N O D E 0 : LO U N G E B E ATS THE INTERGALACTIC EDITION

MCM Interactive Composition presents the next installment of Node 0: Lounge Beats. This time we’re intergalactic, space lounge, moon beats and starship treats! Interplanetary Entertainment:

BUOY Eilish Gilligan Cool Explosions IC Galaxy Lounge:

Honorarium Moonwalkers Saturday 7 October, 7.00pm $10 Full / $8 Concession Lionel’s Lounge, Grant Street, Southbank

FRIDAY 29TH SEPT THE ROCHY SATURDAY 30TH SEPT TAGO MAGO

4 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

250 High st, Northcote Hill 94

Wesley Anne

Bar, Restaurant, Etc.

Thu 28 September

Fri 29 September

Sat 30 September

Ryan Sterling

Trio Agogo

Nomadic The Quad Jurassic Squad

6pm free front bar

WEDNESDAYS

Sun 1 October

4pm free front bar

TRIVIA with SPARKS 7.30pm

Tue 3 October

Thu 5 October

Fri 6 October

Sat 7 October

Sunday 8 October

The Moulin Beige Band room 7.30pm

Rat Child 6pm free front bar

Fat cousin Skinny 6pm free

Grain of Truth 1.15pm free band room

Sunday Jazz Jam 3pm band room

Ruby Boots 8pm $17+BF /$20 door

The First Baboon Civilization Trio 6pm free front bar Simon Marks 8pm $17 pre /$20 door

$15 Jugs of Coburg Lager Mon - Fri before 6pm

Open from 2pm Mon - Thu, 12pm Fri - Sun 250 High st, Northcote Hill / wesleyanne.com.au /9482 1333 THE

FREE

THU 28 SEPT

W/ OLIVER IMOGEN PEMBERTON DOWNES FRI 30 SEPT

PUB BINGO WITH TREV & SPARKS 7PM

BEER O’CLOCK PAY THE TIME FOR PINTS BETWEEN

DJ MARNI LA ROCCA

6PM-9.59PM

EDINBURGH C AHS TLE OT E L WEDNESDAYS

M R S S M I T H T R I V I A , 8PM FRIDAY 28 SEPTEMBER

G E O R G I A F I E L DS W/ H O L L I E J OYC E 8PM FREE

FREE

MES HICKEYFREE JA & FRIENDS 6.30PM

+CHIPS & SALAD DJ’S 9PM

JA M E S & T H E J E A LO U S G U YS 6.30PM FREE

DJ D U ST I N M C C L E A N 9PM FREE

MONDAYS

ROO &WINE $14.99 TUESDAYS

$12 BURGERS $12 PIE NIGHT

WEDNESDAYS

THURSDAYS

$12 PARMA

$15 COBURG LAGER JUGS BEFORE 6PM

27 WESTON ST, BRUNSWICK MON-THU 3PM TO LATE

FRI-SUN NOON TO LATE

CHARLES WESTON HOTEL@GMAIL.COM OR GIVE US A BELL ON 9380 8777

SATURDAY 30 SEPTEMBER

DJ STEELY ANN 9PM FREE

MONDAYS ROO & WINE $14.99

WEDNESDAYS $12 PIE NIGHT

TUESDAYS $12 BURGERS

THURSDAYS P OT & PA R M A - $ 1 5

$ 1 5 J U G S O F CO B U R G L AG E R M O N - F R I B E F O R E 6 P M

L I V E DJ ’ S

Pizza & Bar a

zaight Monday Two for One Pizza!

Piano Residency: Damon Smith 7pm

FRIDAY 29 SEPTEMBER

ER SAT 1 OCTOB

W E E K LY

681 SYDNEY RD. BRUNSWICK, (03)9386 7580 WWW.EDINBURGHCASTLE.NET.AU

Tuesday Piano Karaoke w/ Lisa Crawley 7.30pm $12 Jugs Wednesday Open Grand Piano Night 7.30pm $12 Vege Night Thursday Trivia with Conor 7.30pm Pizza & Wine $11.99 Friday Jack Beeche Trio 7.30pm free 319 Lygon st East Brunswick

9387 6779

THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 5

Lifestyle Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Rollin’ Dys

Venerated singer-songwriter Mia Dyson is returning to the fore with new single Gambling and an accompanying eponymous national tour with dates in November and December in support of the fresh cut.

Mia Dyson

Small Falls

Ever have that awkward moment where you watch a sex scene with your parents and you can’t help but think wow, nice moves, mom

With Falls Festival tickets going like hot cakes, fear not slow pokes. Liam Gallagher, Foster The People, Fleet Foxes, DRAM, The Kooks, Jungle, Everything Everything, Run The Jewels, Vince Staples and Flint Eastwood have all announced side shows in January.

@IvoryGazelle

Eccanacea Melbourne’s Ecca Vandal has let loose with a massive dollop of news, announcing a 20 Oct release date for her self-titled debut album, as well as a tendate national tour in November.

6 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

Ecca Vandal

Naughty By Nature

e / Cultu Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Credits

Publisher Street Press Australia Pty Ltd

Larry Heard

Abstract Concepts

Group Managing Editor Andrew Mast

Freedom Time Festival is back on the road this December/January. Coming to Perth, Melbourne and now Sydney, headliners include House pioneer Larry Heard aka Mr Fingers, Rhythm Section’s Bradley Zero and Sassy J.

National Editor – Magazines Mark Neilsen Editor Bryget Chrisfield

Arts & Culture Editor Maxim Boon

Gig Guide Justine Lynch gigs@themusic.com.au Editorial Assistant Sam Wall, Jessica Dale

Liam Gallagher

Cherry On Top

Horrorshow

Senior Contributor Jeff Jenkins Contributors Annelise Ball, Emily Blackburn, Luke Carter, Anthony Carew, Daniel Cribb, Cyclone, Guy Davis, Joe Dolan, Dave Drayton, Mikaelie Evans, Guido Farnell, Tim Finney, Bob Baker Fish, Neil Griffiths, Tobias Handke, Kate Kingsmill, Tim Kroenert, Chris Maric, Fred Negro, Obliveus, Paz, Natasha Pinto, Sarah Petchell, Michael Prebeg, Paul Ransom, Dylan Stewart, Rod Whitfield

Recreating their most beloved songs in an entirely acoustic setting, Sydney hip hop faves Horrorshow are set to embark upon the Cherry Blossom acoustic tour with gig dates in November and December.

Senior Photographer Kane Hibberd Photographers Andrew Briscoe, Cole Bennetts, Jay Hynes, Lucinda Goodwin Advertising Dept Leigh Treweek, Antony Attridge, Brad Summers sales@themusic.com.au Art Dept Ben Nicol, Felicity Case-Mejia vic.art@themusic.com.au Admin & Accounts Loretta Zoppos, Ajaz Durrani, Meg Burnham, Bella Bi accounts@themusic.com.au

Jess Locke

Distro distro@themusic.com.au Subscriptions store@themusic.com.au Contact Us Tel 03 9421 4499 Fax 03 9421 1011 info@themusic.com.au www.themusic.com.au 459-461 Victoria Street Brunswick West Vic 3055 PO Box 231 Brunswick West Vic 3055

— Melbourne

Party like it’s ‘90 to ‘99 Locke Jess Songster Everyone’s favourite decade is returning thanks to the I Love The ‘90s Tour: The Party Continues, featuring Naughty By Nature, Blackstreet, Montell Jordan, All 4 One and heaps more.

After recently signing to The Smith Street Band’s Pool House Records, Melbourne multi-instrumentalist Jess Locke will be undertaking a nationwide tour this November in support of her latest full-length album entitled Universe. THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 7

Music / A Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Fat Freddy’s Drop

Pleasure Principle

The free spirits of Victoria better plan to stick around this December as The Pleasure Garden music, performance and art gala has just announced their initial lineup. Artists include Montaigne, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Opiuo, Remi, Stickybuds, Chant Down Sound and more.

Robert Plant & The Sensational Space Shifters

It Starts Bluesfest have dropped their first lineup announce, revealing Robert Plant & The Sensational Space Shifters up the pointy end. Among the others headed to Byron Bay next Easter are First Aid Kit, Tash Sultana and Lionel Richie.

Darren & Sally Seltmann

Screen Music Awards The annual Screen Music Awards are returning to Melbourne. Celebrating the composers behind your fave films and shows, this year the ceremony takes place 13 Nov at Melbourne Recital Centre featuring host Denise Scott and Musical Director Jessica Wells.

Kylie Auldist

The Big(gest) 21 Corner Hotel is turning 21 this year and they’re celebrating with a suitably ridiculous series of gigs. From November to December, catch Kylie Auldist with Public Opinion Afro Orchestra, The Vasco Era, Cosmic Psychos and Amyl & The Sniffers just for starters. 8 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

Melbourne Festival

All The City’s A Stage A Welcome From Melbourne Festival Director Jonathan Holloway.

e need to talk about Seventeen. Actually, scratch that... we need to change the subject, take a break, indulge in some rejuvenating joy, and get some perspective. Welcome to Melbourne Festival 2017. When we confirmed the program back in June, we wanted to create a month of the most exciting collaborations, most fiercely burning talent, and experiences to help us remember how amazing we can be when we really put our minds to it. We wanted to pull back for a wide shot, see the whole picture. We all feel even more committed to this three months later.

That is what inspired us. In the first Magnetic Fields visit for a decade, Stephin Merritt and the band perform 50 of his songs, one for each year of his life, 25 per night over two nights, in an Australian exclusive. Don’t feel left out though — your own birthday can be the star of the show in the brilliant and immersive theatre party that is All My Friends Were There. I’d tell you more, but then I’d have to kill you (and that would screw up 2017 good and proper). First breathy words lead (as always) to the complete destruction of the stage and an electro-music-theatre finale in the performance hurricane that is Germinal, before a wider lens yet trumps the whole thing, and the cinematic genius of Terrence Malik’s Voyage Of Time is shown with a 100-piece live orchestra, charting the

universe from Big Bang to Kim Jong-un. A good programming maxim is “Don’t F*** It Up For The Kids”, and the gloriously gothic refractory experience that is House Of Mirrors will walk the line, dividing fairground attraction and Lynchian dystopia. Almost all “do you remember where you were when...?” moments come out of the blue, but I can say now, without any doubt, that in 20 years time the subject of this in Australia will be Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History Of Popular Music. It’s long, like Glastonbury is long. It’s all-consuming and constantly surprising, like that amazing New Year’s Eve party you never went to. Taylor Mac sings 246 great songs over four nights with a delivery that swings from Bowie to Franklin (Aretha, not Benjamin), backed by a big band from New Orleans, Detroit and New York City. The show has more drama than Game Of Thrones, and is the perfect series of binge watches. All that, plus you get to hang with 800 incredibly attractive people in the Forum, and re-enact the American Civil War by throwing 4,000 ping pong balls at each other. If you can’t meet the love of your year and get laid after that, we just can’t help you. The resulting time-crunch after so many long (loooong) shows means we need to simultaneously see our favourite titans of music (Jamie xx), visual art (Olafur Eliasson) and dance (Wayne McGregor) all at the same time, in the blistering phenomenon that is Tree Of Codes. Finally, don’t be a sook, come to our 19th-century North African takeover of the Forum as our Festival Lounge, open every night until late (Melbourne late, not Sydney late). We want to give you a whole head-full of new memories, 19 days of different unforgettable experiences, a new 2017. Enjoy your international arts festival: go early, go hard and go often, indulge in what you love and discover some things that you don’t. November is for sleeping. October is for heroes. I’ll see you there.

[ Formerly The Hi- Fi Bar ]

SAT 30 SEP

CALIGUL A’S HORSE TUE 10 OCT

NAPALM DEATH, BRUJERIA , LOCKUP & BL ACK RHENO FRI 13 OCT

( GL AM SL AM ) APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION / POISON’US SAT 14 OCT

SHOCKONE SAT 21 OCT

JOEYBOY & GANCORE CLUB FRI 27 OCT - SOLD OUT

MAMMAL

SAT 28 OCT

THE ULTIMATE MICHAEL JACKSON EXPERIENCE THU 02 NOV

WINTERSUN FRI 03 NOV

THE RED EYES 15 YEAR REUNION SHOW

SAT 04 NOV

BILLY DAVIS & THE GOOD LORDS WED 08 NOV - SOLD OUT

THE MELVINS FRI 10 NOV

MONO

SAT 18 NOV

GZ A - THE GENIUS USA - (of WU TANG CLAN)

TUE 21 NOV

PERTURBATOR FRI 24 NOV

MISS MAY I

“THE SHADOW INSIDE” AUSTRALIAN TOUR

SAT 25 NOV

BABY ANIMALS SUN 26 NOV

BLACKBEAR FRI 01 DEC

NAI PALM

SAT 09 DEC

THE HARD ROCK SHOW EXTR AVAGANZ A with special guests ELECTRIC MARY & TERAMAZE

SUN 31 DEC - NEW YEARS EVE -

FRENZ AL RHOMB & THE BENNIES SAT 20 JAN - SOLD OUT

SLEEP USA

FRI 16 FEB

PRLJAVO K AZALISTE SAT 03 MAR

BICEP (LIVE)

FRI 09 MAR

POP WILL EAT ITSELF UK

+ JIM BOB

(CARTER USM)

TIX + INFO

MA X WATTS.COM.AU 1300 843 443

125 SWANSTON ST, MELBOURNE

THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 9

Melbourne Festival

Taylor Made W H AT: A 24-Decade History Of Popular Music WHEN & WHERE: 11, 13, 18 & 20 Oct, Forum Theatre

10 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

American drag icon Taylor Mac is liberating the unheard stories of our queer communities from two and half centuries of Western pop-culture. Queer Aussie chanteuse Mama Alto joins the ranks of the Dandy Minions. Cover image and feature pic by Little Fang.

ueer is not just an identity, it’s a verb. Taylor Mac, performance artist, LGBTIQA+ icon and activist, lives and breathes queering as a verb: as an action, as a process, and as a subversion. Mac’s very choice of pronoun — not he, not she, not they, but judy — indicates the camp self-awareness and subversive undermining of social constrictions lying at the heart of the queering process. To queer something is to radically reinterpret existing materials, to shift the focal gaze, to measure by a different framework, to view through a different lens. It rejects the dominant, mainstream, normalised and supposedly objective understanding of the world and approaches it instead through self-aware subjectivity, from the margins into the centre, from the grassroots upwards, and with a freedom born of pluralities and multiple layers of meaning and connotation. And judy’s magnum opus, the 24-Decade History Of Popular Music, does precisely that. Acknowledging explicitly that popular culture, music, and indeed, Western society itself, has been built by and from the margins, Mac puts those margins back into the centre of a historical record which too often erases, silences or ignores them. Sexuality, race, gender, class and more collide with the myth of the mainstream through the vehicle of an archive of popular song transformed and reinterpreted in a “radical faerie realness ritual.” It is not so much the re-writing of history as the revelation of elements that have been there, hidden, all along. The ritual element is partly tied to the extravagant costumes, the flamboyant reimagining of songs, and the nature of a collective and participatory audience experience, but one of the keys to the success of this work is its durational nature. Twenty-four decades are re-enacted and re-envisioned over 24 hours, in a unique,

marathon experience of sustained communal focus. While the performance is now divided into four chapters of six hours, performed on separate days, as it will be in Melbourne, it has been staged once in a single continuous, non-stop, delirious day and night. But even in its four-part form, such an epic work of temporal and visual excess is a transformative and ecstatic experience. For that very reason, many critics have compared Mac’s 24-Decades to Wagnerian opera, anointing it as “a Ring Cycle for the 21st century.” And the comparison is pertinent not only for the piece’s epic form but also for its mythological nature. Mac puts forth a fabulous, maximalist and expansive vision of divine queerness: a reverent and holy reliquary that bestows sainthood upon the marginalised of society and history. In this alternative understanding of our world and culture, judy allows queer people to rise to recognition as the central divinities and creative forces of our own mythical beginnings — no longer the minor roles in a history of white heterosexual men. Thematically that’s certainly true, and these values are embedded in the very fabric of the performance. While Taylor Mac is very much the auteur of this work, judy is not presenting a one-person show: 24-Decades features a cast of over a hundred. The core members of Mac’s sublime orchestra, the central figures of judy’s supporting cast, and the costume team headed by the iconic Machine Dazzle, travel with Taylor from the United States. The rest of the performers are magnificent locals sourced through an artist call and extensive word-of-mouth endeavour by the Melbourne Festival and 24-Decades teams. The Melbournian contingent includes a spectacular menagerie of burlesque dancers, marching bands, choral singers, classical musicians, and a crew of multidisciplinary

performance artists who fulfil the role of Dandy Minions. And that’s where I come in. The Melbourne coterie of Dandy Minions includes some of our underground stars of cabaret, circus, burlesque, and drag, including the smoky Agent Cleave, the subversive Creatrix Tiara, the raucous Dandrogyny, Australian drag icon Karen from Finance, and the stars of Yummy — including James Welsby, Beni Lola and Rolly — among many others. What, you might ask, is a Dandy Minion? In the words of Timothy White Eagle, a First Nations American who is the leader of Taylor Mac’s merry cohort, “We are here in service to the Spirit of Dandy... in the belief that art and truth can heal.” In their words, it is about being a bridge to the audience, about opening hearts, about twinkling eyes and the role of human connection within epic artworks. The Dandy Minions must “cast a spell” to celebrate difference, and create “a world where there is no gay shame, no slut shame, no gender shame, no colour shame... a world fuelled by love and individuality.” What better message could the Melbourne Festival present in the midst of Australia’s current ideologies-atwar climate, where the real lives of vulnerable people become the targets of a political shooting gallery? With the divisive and problematic postal survey on marriage

We are here in service to the Spirit of Dandy, in the belief that art and truth can heal.

THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 11

Melbourne Festival

Mama Alto

equality allowing the amplification and spread of hateful rhetoric on the validity and dignity of queer people and LGBTIQA+ relationships, the inhumane and destructive incarceration of asylum seekers based purely on xenophobia, the growing class warfare of the political and wealthy elite against the working class and those requiring welfare or experiencing homelessness, alarming rates of domestic violence against women coupled with structural misogyny such as the disparity of a gendered wage gap, and the continued disempowerment of this country’s Indigenous peoples, Australia in the early 21st century is often a place of complex discriminations, heartbreaking cruelty and perplexing sociopolitical conflicts. The dominance of white heteronormative patriarchal power structures, which positions itself as the “normal” and “natural”, too often 12 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

obscures, harms and disadvantages the diversity of this country — and the same can be said of the United States. Taylor Mac’s 24Decade History Of Popular Music was birthed as a response and challenge to these issues and this climate, an immediate and contemporary work with resounding and deep relevance. While we must be wary of too often transposing American-centric understandings of sociopolitical issues onto Australian contexts, within the Melbourne Festival’s mission of bringing unique and groundbreaking international art to Australian audiences, it is fabulous to see such a brave political choice take centre stage: may the queering commence.

Mama Alto is a gender transcendent diva, jazz singer, cabaret artiste and community activist; she features as one of the Dandy Minions in the Melbourne Festival and Pomegranate Arts presentation of Taylor Mac’s A 24-Decade History Of Popular Music.

MAC ON MAC A 24-Decade History of Popular Music was performed in its entirety for the first time last October, but just because it premiered doesn’t mean it’s finished. In fact each time we do it, it is a workshop, premiere, and small part of a long run. At its core, it’s about commitment to the long haul. It’s about “the arch of the moral universe bending towards justice” rather than arriving at it; it’s about how communities are the ones who bend the moral universe towards justice; and about how we transform the thing that tears us apart into the thing that brings us together. A 24-Decade History Of Popular Music is a reenactment of how the individual may lose the long game but communities and movements, if continually brought together, have the potential to thrive. One thing I like to say during the shows is that, “I’m not a teacher.” I assume most people know at least as much as I do about most of the things I’m talking about, if not more. My job is to be a reminder. I’m reminding the audience of the things they’ve forgotten, dismissed, or buried (or that other’s have buried for them). It seems to me, in this time of obstacle, of political cynicism, amnesia, polarisation, oppression, and upheaval that we are in desperate need for a physical, emotional, sensorial, and intellectual reminder that we can use the obstacles to strengthen our bonds and communal actions.

ON SALE NOW VIA

WWW.CORNERHOTEL.COM AND 1300 724 867

57 SWAN ST, RICHMOND, 3121 27/09 - SWOLLEN MEMBERS 28/09 - ‘THE GREAT ROCK ‘N’ ROLL PIE NIGHT’ FT. DALLAS CRANE + MORE! 29/09 - KIM CHURCHILL SELLING FAST 30/09 - THE REPLACEMENTS ‘PLEASED TO MEET ME’ 30TH ANNIVERSARY CANADA

+ BIG STAR’S ‘#1 RECORD’ 45TH ANNIVERSARY FT.

VAN WALKER, EVIL DICK + HEAPS MORE! 01/10 - SHONEN KNIFE JAPAN + SENYAWA INDONESIA 03/10 - PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT UK - SELLING FAST 05/10 - WAFIA SELLING FAST 06/10 - AGAINST THE CURRENT USA - SELLING FAST 07/10 - ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMES USA - SOLD OUT 08/10 - ONE OK ROCK JAPAN - SOLD OUT 09/10 - ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMES USA - SOLD OUT 12/10 - PETER HOOK & THE LIGH T UK - SOLD OUT 13/10 - PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT UK - SOLD OUT 14/10 - PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT UK - SOLD OUT 15/10 - SON VOLT USA 17/10 - ALEX LAHEY SELLING FAST 18/10 - ALEX LAHEY SOLD OUT 19/10 - THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN USA - SOLD OUT 20/10 - THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN USA - SOLD OUT 21/10 - SASKWATCH 22/10 - HAVANA MEETS KINGSTON SOUND SYSTEM FT. MISTA SAVONA 25/10 - THE KITE STRING TANGLE SELLING FAST 26/10 - THE BRONX USA - SOLD OUT 27/10 - THE KITE STRING TANGLE SOLD OUT 28/10 - THE SCIENTISTS 01/11 - THE VASCO ERA SELLING FAST 03/11 - PACES WITH SPECIAL GUEST WOODES 04/11 - BUSHMAN JAMAICA 05/11 - JAMES REYNE MATINEE - SELLING FAST 05/11 - SEVERED HEADS + SNOG SELLING FAST

06/11 07/11 09/11 10/11 14/11 16/11 17/11 18/11 -

JAMES REYNE COSMIC PSYCHOS MATINEE - SELLING FAST THE BLACK SEEDS NZ TONIGHT ALIVE SELLING FAST KYLIE AULDIST WINSTON SURFSHIRT SELLING FAST WINSTON SURFSHIRT SOLD OUT THE AINTS PLAY THE SAINTS (’76 -’78) SOLD OUT

CORNER 21ST BIRTHDAY SHOWS SELLING FAST

SELLING FAST

THE VASCO ERA

COSMIC PSYCHOS

KYLIE AULDIST

CLARE BOWDITCH + ADALITA

SELLING FAST

19/11 - CLARE BOWDITCH + ADALITA MATINEE 22/11 - HORRORSHOW SELLING FAST 23/11 - DEAN LEWIS SELLING FAST 24/11 - DEAN LEWIS SOLD OUT 25/11 - ECCA VANDAL 26/11 - THE CORONAS 30/11 - NEVER SHOUT NEVER USA 03/12 - FAT NICK USA 05/12 - ARCHIE ROACH 07/12 - PISSED JEAN S USA 08/12 - DON BROCO UK 09/12 - BLOOD DUSTER (R.I.P SHOW) - SOLD OUT 10/12 - THE ACACIA STRAIN USA 15/12 - KLLO 16/12 - PARADISE LOST UK 06/01 - CIGARETTES AFTER SEX USA - SOLD OUT 07/01 - CIGARETTES AFTER SEX USA - SELLING FAST 10/01 - FOUR YEAR STRONG USA 14/01 - FUTURE OF THE LEFT WALES - SELLING FAST 20/01 - THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS SELLING FAST 02/02 - THE MAINE USA + WATERPARKS USA - SELLING FAST 03/03 - CUB SPORT SELLING FAST 04/03 - CUB SPORT U18’S MATINEE SHOW - ALCOHOL FREE - SELLING FAST 17/03 - BIG COUNTRY SCOTLAND

+ AMYL & THE SNIFFERS MATINEE 07/11

01/11

+ PUBLIC OPINION AFRO ORCHESTRA

MATINEE 19/11

14/11

SELLING FAST

HORRORSHOW

PLUS HEAPS MORE AT W W W.CORNERHOTEL .COM

22/11

ARCHIE ROACH 05/12

ON SALE NOW VIA

WWW.NORTHCOTESOCIALCLUB.COM AND 1300 724 867 301 HIGH ST, NORTHCOTE, 3070

MIA DYSON 15/12

VOID OF VISION + GRAVES USA 25/11

27/09- CARUS THOMPSON + LOREN

15/10 - THE BOÎTE PRESENTS

30/09- AMBER ISLES

15/10 - DYLAN JOEL SELLING FAST

29/09- DONNY BENÉT

SELLING FAST

01/10 - SAL KIMBER & THE

DYLAN JOEL

DONNY BENÉT

SELLING FAST

15/10

THE GOOCH PALMS

29/09

CUSTARD 14/10

06/10

SELLING FAST

THE ORBWEAVERS M AT INEE - 22/10

LINDI ORTEGA CA N A DA 23/11

ROLLIN’ WHEEL MATINEE ‘WIND IT UP’ WITH KANE 02/10 STRANG (NZ) / FERLA / LONGTERM ROMANCE 05/10- SONS OF THE EAST 06/10 - THE GOOCH PALMS SELLING FAST 07/10 - CITIZEN KAY 08/10 - AMAYA LAUCIRICA MATINEE 09/10 -‘WIND IT UP’ WITH SPECIAL GUESTS 13/10 - LAKYN 14/10 - SHE FOLK: SONGWRITERS IN THE ROUND MATINEE 14/10 -CUSTARD SELLING FAST

‘RHYTHMS OF LIFE 2’ MATINEE

1 7 / 1 0 - TRAVELLER

(JONNY FRITZ, ROBERT ELLIS & CORY CHISEL)

+ THE DESLONDES USA 20/10 - JOYRIDE 2 1/10 - POLARIS SOLD OUT 22/10 - THE ORBWEAVERS SELLING FAST MATINEE

28/10 - THE SNOWDROPPERS SOLD OUT 1 1 / 1 1 - LIME CORDIALE 1 8 / 1 1 - TAMMY HAIDER

23/11 - LINDI ORTEGA CANADA

25/11 - VOID OF VISION + GRAVES USA 30/11 - WALLIS BIRD IRELAND 06/12 - SPIRAL STAIRS USA 15/12 - MIA DYSON

09/01 - PARCELS SELLING FAST

PLUS HE A PS MORE AT W W W.NORTHCOTESOCI A LCLUB.COM THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 13

Melbourne Festival

How To Fest For Free

Are you a culture vulture on a budget? Want your Festival fix without the price tag? As Australia’s longest running free street press title, we know a thing or two about keeping life gratis. Here are our top tips for finding frugal fun at this year’s Fest. ART IS SMART Almost all this year’s visual art offering is free to enter. Don’t miss Ayoung Kim’s double mini-retrospective, celebrating the Korean artist’s uniquely cerebral approach, at The Gym, Collingwood Arts Precinct, and the Mueller Hall Herbarium in the Royal Botanic Gardens. The neon light installations of American artist Joseph Kosuth, housed at the Anna Schwartz Gallery, also explore the methods by which artists transmute the

ephemeral into the physical, while French artist Kader Attia’s simple but poignant installations receive a major showing at ACCA. Singaporean artist Sam Lo offers a playful response to the geopolitical turbulence in the world today, with her Jenga-esque installation Progress: The Game Of Leaders, housed at this year’s MPavilion, designed by Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten.

TAKE TO THE STREETS As per this issue’s cover line, all the city’s a stage during Melbourne Festival. There is a whole program of artistic delights taking to the great outdoors, and you won’t have to spend a red cent to catch them. Two such shows bookend this year’s events. Now in its fifth year, Tanderrum has become one of the most important

events of the Festival, resurrecting an almost extinct cultural practice from Melbourne’s First Peoples. The five clans of the Kulin Nation come together at Federation Square to celebrate and share Indigenous lore on the opening day of the festival, 4 Oct. Closing this year’s proceedings, Our Place, Our Home offers another cultural diaspora, celebrating the diversity brought to Australia by immigrant communities at the MPavillion 22 Oct.

NOT EVEN A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS The proverb might claim that great minds think alike, but as the Artists In Conversation program invariably proves, nothing could be further from the truth. Delve deeper into the process of the world-class practitioners that converge on our fair city every year with a series of discussions and lectures, chaired by the editorial

14 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

staff of The Saturday Paper and The Monthly. At Theatre Works, the Directors Lab will examine how directors and performance makers are responding to the zeitgeist, under the provocative theme: Manifesto! Art lovers also have a chance to explore the intricacies of creative minds at this year’s Visual Arts Day. At venues across the city, a special program of showings and talks uncover the thought processes behind this year’s spread of visual art exhibitions.

Grand Final Holiday Eve

THUR 28/9

Grand Final Holiday Eve

SAT 11/11

ANVIL

GREEN VELVET D

SOL

OUT

(CAN) 40th anniversary tour

SAT 30/9 SAT 2/12

DJ LUCK & MC NEAT AND THE ARTFUL DODGER (UK)

ELSEWHERE FOR 20 YEARS

with special guests

THURS 19/10

MAISON BURLESQUE LESS THAN JAKE sun 8/10

AUCTION FOR KIDS CULTURE 2017

FUEL

(USA)

fri 22/12 WEDS 1/11

HERMITAGE GREEN

Feat Tex Perkins & Charlie Owen plus MC Brian Nankervis

free live entertainment every week!

SAT 9/12

W/ SPECIAL GUESTS BODYJAR & FOXTROT

wed 18/10

PRINCE PUBLIC BAR NOW AN OZTIX RETAILER

A SOMETHING FOR KATE CELEBRATION

(IRE)

@PRINCEBANDROOM

THE ORIGINAL WAILERS (JAMAICA) 29 FITZROY STREET, ST KILDA

#THEPRINCEBANDROOM

/THEPRINCEBANDROOM

INFO - PHONE 9536 1168

tight ass Tuesdays

WEDNESDAYS

fridays

saturdays

FREE POOL $3 POTS BOAGS $5 BASIC SPIRITS $5BBQ WINGS

SHIT PUB TRIVIA

ROMY TOBIN MUSIC

WATTS ON PRESENTS

* ALL FROM 6PM ONWARDS

saturdays late

P.P.B DJ’S PLAYING YOUR FAVE TUNES UNTIL LATE! FREE ENTRY • PARTY UNTIL LATE

sundays

ELWOOD BLUES CLUB every sunday!

SELL

ING

FAST

29/09

02/02

HAKEN

MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA

USA

06/10 SOL

ON SALE NOW

03/11

HANDS LIKE HOUSES T

SELL

ING

FAST

13/10

05/11

MAYDAY PARADE USA

BOO SEEKA

16/10

06/11

6LACK

RONI SIZEUK + FABIO & GROOVERIDER

D OU

SELL

SOL

D OU

USA

ING

SELL

ING

FAST

NORTHLANE

SELL

10/11

ING

24/11

SOL

D OU

FAST

BRITISH INDIA

SELL

17/11

ING

FAST

OCEAN COLOUR SCENE

SELL

06/12

ING

FAST

ING

22/11

‘THE AFTER PARTY’

FAST

TEXAS SCOTLAND

SELL

16/02

ING

FAST

THY ART IS MURDER SELL

23/02

ING

FAST

DAVID DUCHOVNY USA

15/12

09/03

ANATHEMA UK

KING PARROT

VERUCA SALT USA

10/12

05/01

NONAME

DRAM

The Age Music Victoria Awards, RRR and PBS present

FAST

USA

13/12

D OU

ING

NONAME SELL

12/11

SOMETHING THE FOR GROWLERS USA KATE

20/10

11/12

DANCE PARTY VIA - DISCO WWW.170RUSSELL.COM INFERNO

D OU

SOL

SELL

SOL

D OU

USA

+ HEAPS MORE!! see WWW.170RUSSELL.COM for more details

170 RUSSELL ST, MELBOURNE, 3000

THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 15

In Focus Like Running Wa ter

Pic: Briannagh O’Loughlin

Undoubtedly one of the jewels in Melbourne Festival’s crown this year, Like Running Water is a one-night-only musical event that sees Ella Thompson (GL, Dorsal Fins) teaming up with fellow Victorianbased musical geniuses Clio Renner and Sui Zhen. Like Running Water explores aquatic themes and also features a string and woodwind quartet. And with Prue Stent and Honey Long in charge of the visuals, you’re bound to be completely transported by this selfdescribed “multi-sensory experience”. It all goes down on 20 Oct at Melbourne Recital Centre.

16 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

VOTE

YES The Music Supports LGBTQ musicians and their right to equal dignity.

THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 17

Melbourne Festival

Prince is obviously a master of the instrument

Piano Man Currently playing his own solo Piano shows, Alexis Taylor tells Bryget Chrisfield he considered flying out to Australia for one of Prince’s final Piano And A Microphone concerts and now wishes he had. To read the full interview head to theMusic.com.au

WHEN & WHERE: 12 & 14 Oct (6pm & 9.30pm), Melbourne Recital Centre

18 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

hen told the last time this scribe saw an artist perform a show solo on piano was one of Prince’s final Piano & A Microphone shows in February, 2016 — just around the corner from where Alexis Taylor is scheduled to play his upcoming Piano shows — the man known best as Hot Chip’s frontman inquires, “How was it? I even considered trying to get out to Australia for one of those. I saw ‘im quite a few times on other tours; I was lucky enough to see him in, you know, pretty small venues as well as massive stadiums and things but, yeah! I always wondered how those were. And it was a funny coincidence for me, ‘cause I’d just made my solo Piano record and then was about to go out on tour, and did go out on tour. And it was a nice idea that Prince was also playing Piano & A Microphone so, yeah! I wish I’d seen some of those [shows].” There’s bound to be a few more audience members attending Taylor’s upcoming Piano shows who also saw Prince’s Australian Piano & A Microphone shows — no pressure, though. Taylor laughs, “The thing about those Prince shows — I’ve heard recordings of them and, I mean, he’s obviously just such a wonderful musician and pianist that it’s effortless for him to play any of his songs in that context, you know? Whereas some of us mere mortals have to kind of just focus on the things that we feel, like, really translate to the piano based on our limited ability to play it really well. But Prince is obviously a master of the instrument, so it’s nice hearing him do those more rhythmic tracks as well.” Since the release of his Piano album

in 2016, Taylor has toured the UK and a few festivals in solo mode. He also recently played in Lithuania and adds, “I’m also gonna be in New York playing, this week, a coupla times. “It’s been really good, because [the show’s] been well received and it’s a very different feeling from any other gigs I’ve done — including Hot Chip and other solo shows — just because of the nature of it being often kind of seated venues with a grand piano, and people calling out for requests and things so, yeah! It’s been really fun.” On whether anyone’s ever requested something completely random that’s not even part of his back catalogue, Taylor admits, “Yeah, there was one where I was playing in Bristol and somebody called out for a song that we had covered in Hot Chip, by Fleetwood Mac, called Everywhere. And I pointed out that it had been a while since I’d played that one, but I could probably remember most of it, but if the person in the audience knew any better than me they could come up and play it with me. So I didn’t really expect that they would, but they did! They rushed up on stage and made some space on the piano stool, sat next to me, and launched into a very sort of technically brilliant performance of this Fleetwood Mac song, which made me feel like the last 80 minutes of the gig hadn’t really been worthwhile, ‘cause I can’t really play the piano as good as them. And then I sang along with them and, yeah! That was quite fun until we both didn’t really know how the last third of the song went so it came to a bit of a sort of disastrous end but, yeah! That kind of thing happens every now and again; I suppose that’s the danger of being open-minded to requests, including members of the audience getting on stage.” Taylor had originally intended to add some strings to Piano and long-time Hot Chip collaborator Vince Sipprell was on board, but then the violinist sadly passed before the work was done. This must have been quite a shock for Taylor. “It was,” he allows, “because he’d worked on every record that I’ve made, pretty much — in one way or another, whether it’s Hot Chip or solo things, he’s always contributed and I just always had him in my mind as somebody that would come in and maybe play on two of those tracks, or more than that. And I knew he would write something very sensitive to the music I’d made that wouldn’t suddenly mean that, well, by adding strings I would then wanna add loads more layers. You know, I thought he would do something very, very perfect to go with that kind of simple, bare setting I’d made with the record and he said he was up for doing it, but then by the next time I would’ve been wanting to get in touch with him that wasn’t possible anymore ‘cause he was no longer very well and, yeah, then he died. So I had made most of the record before that happened, before he passed away. But one of the tracks I recorded; I only recorded it after he passed away and that was one of his brothers’ songs... and that was a song called Just For A Little While. So he still had quite an influence on the record in a strange kind of way, ‘cause I’d been thinking about him — and thinking of including him — and then when he wasn’t able to be included I put that song on as a tribute to him.” We’ve just gotta ask whether there’s any new Hot Chip brewing. “We will be brewing some soon, but we’ve not reeeeaaally put the kettle on yet,” Taylor teases.

Melbourne Festival

Still Life Ahead of The Magnetic Fields’ exclusive performance of 50 Song Memoir for Melbourne Festival, Stephin Merritt tells Steve Bell to embrace looking ridiculous.

tephin Merritt has always been fond of a good concept to tie his songwriting together, but his most recent project, 50 Song Memoir — the 11th recording released under The Magnetic Fields banner — is by far his most ambitious outing yet in both scope and execution. Having recently hit his half-century, Merritt set out to write a song correlating to each year of his life thus far, following a proposition from his label who’d been impressed with his efforts scoring and writing songs for a well-known American podcast. “I musicalised an episode of This American Life — or a segment of This American Life — using a news story that they had done about a Mormon cult member who left his religion and in the process lost his wife and family and job and all his relatives,” Merritt explains. “So I needed to say only true things that he’d told [podcast host] Ira Glass, so it was good practice as it turns out for writing this album because I became essentially a particularly respectful journalist.” The project brought its own peculiar challenges, not least being that despite the size of his discography Merritt had little experience writing from a first-person autobiographical perspective. “Two or three years ago, Rolling Stone asked me to make a list of 15 autobiographical songs that I had written and I couldn’t really come up with 15 of them — and I have a lot of records out,” he smiles. “I don’t look at my own life as the automatic source of rhymed lyrics, for the good reason that most of the things that I do and places that I live in don’t rhyme. “[But the process] wasn’t painful. I didn’t want to write about anything painful, I didn’t want to be bursting into tears on stage. And I didn’t want to be miserable in the process. It’s not that I only wrote about happy things, but I didn’t write about anything that was going to destroy my life for the whole touring arc.” In terms of eras of his life it was the bookends that he found most challenging to chronicle (“my first two years and my latest two years were both unprocessed,” Merritt reflects) but things get fascinating when covering his bohemian childhood, the singer having been raised in cult-like surroundings in Vermont commune. “I didn’t have a normal childhood, so for me normal childhoods are fascinating,” he chuckles. “Having slept on a mattress on the floor for much of my life I regard bed frames and couches and things like that as hopelessly bourgeois and I feel kind of guilty whenever I look at my bed with an actual headboard on it. And I remember that some people have whatever they’re called ‘footboards’, and some people have matching bedspreads and curtains.”

Things get meta in Be True To Your Bar, which finds Merritt sitting in a drinking establishment writing his 1999 conceptual opus 69 Love Songs. “I still do that, I have never stopped doing that,” he tells of writing in bars. “I stopped drinking for a calendar year around 2013 — I stopped drinking for a year to see if it would have any influence on my health, and other than gaining ten pounds it didn’t have any influence on my health. “I recommend it though, it’s interesting. What’s interesting about it is how boring it is, of course. As with anything you do habitually you realise that you’re doing it to cover up how bored you are. Since nothing particularly happened I went back to drinking — probably not as much as before, but it’s hard to tell. “But during the year that I wasn’t drinking I only wrote two songs — which is a lifetime love for me — so it is clear that drinking helps, at least for me, to turn off that nasty internal editor who says that everything has already been done and that everything that is mildly amusing is not hilarious and doesn’t need to be turned into a song.”

I didn’t have a normal childhood, so for me normal childhoods are fascinating.

Such humour is rife in Merritt’s writing, with even the most serious topics broached using deft wordplay. W H AT: “I think the great lesson of Bob Dylan 50 Song Memoir that everyone should have learned 55 years WHEN & WHERE: ago by now is to not be afraid be to be silly,” 21 & 22 Oct, Hamer Hall he smiles. “You can have all the freedom that you want if you’re not afraid to appear ridiculous. Not too many people seem to have paid heed to that but that’s ok, I’m all in favour of everyone being a terrible lyricist because that way I corner the market by being reasonable with words.” THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 19

Melbourne Festival

Art Of The Feels When artists apply their skills to set design, the results can be show stealing. Maxim Boon explores the breathtaking art behind two of Melbourne Festival’s headline events, Under Siege and Tree Of Codes.

ny act of expression — a dance, a recited line, a painting or sculpture — is defined not only by its content but also by its context. Economic, moral, social and cultural influences can upend and transform the impact and relevance of a work of art, just as removing it from those empowering associations can rob it of that potency. Take, for example, the world’s most famous street artist, Banksy. His subversive and satirical guerrilla artworks are innately powerful because of their urban contexts, and how nefariously cool that makes their creation. The rebellious ‘fuck you’ spirit of his modus operandi and the satirical politics championed in his trademark stencils have only captured the popular imagination because they are created without permission, daring to tame spaces that ordinarily resist art. When former Banksy collaborator Steve Lazarides brought his unauthorised touring exhibition of the street artist’s work to Melbourne last year, housed in an awkwardly staged pop-up gallery, the paintings and prints on display were frustratingly stifled by the jarringly safe curation. Trying to make an anti-establishment and anti-capitalist icon fit within a conspicuously commercial space was a gamble fated to fail; context and credibility go hand in hand, and without one, you cannot hope to have the other. The same is true on stage. Here, the worlds conjured by set designers can make or break a production, although the skill and importance of good design can often take a backseat to the plaudits earned by performers. This might well explain why so few visual artists have applied their talents to the theatre, although there are, nonetheless, several impressive historical examples of such collaborations. Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Edvard Munch and Andy Warhol, to name just a handful, were all contributors to stage productions. More recently, megastar artists like Tracey Emin, Antony Gormley and Anish

Tree Of Codes

Under Siege

Kapoor have also created for the theatre, and in doing so have revealed an intriguing quid pro quo relationship between art from different fields. Just as an accomplished set can imbue a performance with a richness of context, a theatrical muse can provoke and challenge an artist to produce work that pushes them beyond their usual comfort zones and into exciting new territories. And of the various mediums of the stage, dance is perhaps the most successful at nurturing these soaring collaborative exchanges. Two such examples are by far the most technically audacious events at this year’s Melbourne Festival. Firstly, a partnership between two of China’s most celebrated artists, choreographer Yang Liping and designer Tim Yip, best known as the father of “new orientalism” and the visual visionary behind Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Yip is the natural choice for Liping’s Under Siege, a piece

Survival Skills For MELBOURNE F E S T I VA L M U S T- S E E IDEAS

20 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

Desperate Times The end of the world might be just around the corner, but fear not, these witty lectures will provide you with everything you need to know for the apocalypse. When & Where: 7 & 8 Oct, Arts House

Tim Yip

exploring a chapter of China’s ancient history, not unlike the Oscar-winning designer’s cinematic ventures. However, far from the luscious, albeit stylised, naturalism found in Crouching Tiger, Yip’s concept for Under Siege opts for striking symbolism as the frame for Liping’s dance. An ominous cloud of steel scissors hangs as an oppressive mass from overhead. These burnished blades, clattering on high, are a constantly present threat to the vulnerable flesh of the dancers below. This expression of danger is counterpointed by drifts of blood-red feathers, fluttering and falling in great drifts through which the performers carve and disappear. These are visual statements that work on both extremities of scale, as grand gestures that encompass the entire stage and as detailed, nuanced flourishes around individual performers. There’s a telling synergy between Liping’s choreographic approach, portraying the story of the climactic battle between Chu and Han armies that would mark the birth of the Chinese nation, and the corresponding response from Yip. While Under Seige is Liping’s fifth major production, it is the first which has embraced contemporary dance genres alongside the traditional Chinese dance she is famous for. Folk technique is mingled with avant-garde expressionism and even elements of hip hop like popping and locking. “I searched within the past and present for connections between human beings,” Liping says of her approach, and this is clearly mirrored in Yip’s design. “The pages of history are turned, but our imagination lasts,” Yip explains. “I followed the dancers’ footsteps to look for the voices of struggle in the richness of this history.” Taking his cue from the diversity of different dance aesthetics, stark contemporary

Melbourne Festival

design interlaces with aspects of traditional Chinese art, in a production that is as evocative of the past as it is responsive to the now. However, Yip and Liping’s fruitful partnership is still relatively conventional as far as the notion that the design should serve a narrative. In Tree Of Codes, any semblance of that typical dynamic is surpassed entirely. This dynamite collaboration between three artists at the height of their powers — contemporary dance icon Wayne McGregor, electro art-pop sensation Jaime xx, and revered installationist Olafur Eliasson — breaks new ground in virtually every way possible. It stands to reason that such a radical collective should adopt an equally radical methodology. Drawing its inspiration from American novelist Jonathan Safran Foer’s book-cum-sculpture-cum-thought experiment of the same title, the trio of collaborators adopted various forms of intellectual rigour, enshrined within Foer’s Tree Of Codes, as a kind of unifying plurality, intrinsically linked to the other elements of the production, yet creatively distinct. But crucially, at the heart of their exchange is a common understanding of the way in which art of every medium can only exist in the moment in which it is experienced by an audience. “Both Wayne [McGregor] and Jaimie [xx] work in ways with which I identify — they embrace abstraction and complexity in contemporary languages while giving their output a form and a tone that are accessible to broader audiences,” Eliasson shares. “Producing reality is always about a relationship, between you and a space, you and a thought, a proposition, an object; between you and other people.”

Producing reality is always about a relationship, between you and a space, you and a thought, a proposition, an object.

W H AT: Tree Of Codes WHEN & WHERE: 17 & 18, 20 & 21 Oct, State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne

W H AT: Under Siege WHEN & WHERE: 5 - 8 Oct, State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne

The Festival Of Questions

Ayoung Kim

Brought to you by the Wheeler Centre, some of the sharpest minds around are being let loose on the big questions about cultural, class, climate and the crises of our political reality to get the neurons firing. When & Where: 15 Oct, Melbourne Town Hall

Take a walk through a walk though this Korean artist’s fascinating imagination as she invites an audience to explore her unique world. Uplifting and curiously brainteasing, meet a creative mind like no other. When & Where: 9 Oct, State Library Of Victoria THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 21

Melbourne Festival

Let’s Talk About Sex Are we a sexually liberated culture, or do we suppress our bodies to fit the expectations of our peers? AnneMarie Peard discovers two shows — All The Sex I’ve Ever Had and 7 Pleasures — that ask the questions others fear to utter.

hile we repair this glitch in Australia’s humanity when anyone’s sex life and sexuality are apparently open to public opinions and surveys, two shows at the Melbourne Festival appear — at first glance at least — to use sex to make their audiences feel uncomfortable. This discomfort promises to be brief. In fact, these productions are about engaging the complexities of pleasure, feeling at ease in our own skins, and remembering that sex and sexuality can always be part of our paths to joy. Twelve young fit naked bodies intertwine in the only publicity image for 7 Pleasures by Danish choreographer Mette Ingvartsen. It’s a sexy photo, where the performers seem happy and comfortable being naked together. By contrast, the photo for All The Sex I’ve Ever Had by Canadian-German company Mammalian Diving Reflex is the wrinkled face of a woman, maybe in her 80s. Is the thought of her being naked and writhing with other naked bodies a bit too squicky to even imagine? The director of All The Sex I’ve Ever Had is Darren O’Donnell, who knows that audiences might approach a performance “thinking it’s disgusting” to hear people over 65 years old talk about sex — “but they’ll get over that”. A lot of his work is about getting over ingrained beliefs and perceptions. O’Donnell, who founded the company in 1993, is 52 — “you can tell them that”. I’m 49 and we both laugh because younger people already think we “don’t get any action”. He explains how the performance uses this kind of discomfort — the idea older people aren’t sexual — as a way to increase social intelligence and engagement. It’s like using weights to build physical strength or figuring out puzzles to build intelligence. He uses other people to create discomfort and “when

you get used to the other people, your social intelligence starts to rise”. At last year’s Melbourne Festival, Mammalian Diving Reflex questioned our trust and the abilities of younger people with the aptly named Haircuts by Children (with a similar theme to the Children’s Choice Awards they brought in 2008). I was far too sensible (cough, uncomfortable) to book an appointment, but I regretted that choice almost as soon as I began watching people getting their new look and talking with their young hairdressers. I still wish I’d done it. All the Sex I Ever Had develops comfort by its six performers telling the stories of their lives. This festival production, whose Melbourne cast first met with the company three weeks before the performance, will be the thirteenth of the work since it premiered in 2010. The 2016 Sydney Festival cast are travelling to Melbourne to see this production together. Each script is developed from four-hour long interviews that take each performer through every year of their life that they can remember. O’Donnell says that each cast begins thinking that “’there’s nothing interesting about my life’”, but they leave with “the understanding that not only is their life quite interesting but it’s interesting to a whole room of people who will approach them afterwards and treat them like rock stars”. 7 Pleasures initially is arguably less personal, even though it’s visually explicit and uses images and ideas of sexualised bodies that are more socially acceptable because they are young, able, slim and fit. It premiered in 2015 in Graz, Austria, and is the second part of a cycle of work where Ingvartsen explores the relationship between sexuality and the public sphere. She uses naked dancers to “problematise” reactions to the work.

A Requiem For Cambodia MELBOURNE F E S T I VA L M U S T- S E E MUSIC

22 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

Memorialising the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge, this heartbreaking and beautiful new work by Him Sophy is the first to commemorate the fall of Phnom Penh and the massacres of the killing fields. When & Where: 13 & 14 Oct, Hamer Hall

Darren O’Donnell

All The Sex I’ve Ever Had

Melbourne Festival

The initial discomfort comes from personal responses to the naked bodies on the stage. Ingvartsen knows her work generates “pleasure, excitement, and frustration”, but by exploring desire — especially sexual desire — she asks if that yearning is something that’s really personal or if it’s something created externally by our society. 7 Pleasures asks how our responses to seeing naked bodies in public is different to how we’d respond to them in private? Do we react differently when a body is presented on a stage as art? And is our public response authentic or something we’ve learned from experiencing thousands of public responses to naked bodies? By confronting our own response, Ingvartsen hopes her audiences are able to see naked bodies from a new perspective and use the “joyful potential” of her exploration of pleasure to “disrupt cliched images attached to nudity and sexuality”. As we drop the idea of what a sexual body is meant to look and act like, perhaps we can be more open to the joy of being sexual? As when we remember that older people are vital and sexually alert, perhaps we can look forward to discovering joy for a longer time than we might assume? But are these shows really about sex? O’Donnell doesn’t hesitate to answer: “It’s not about sex at all. It’s about all the things that spin off of that; sex — sexuality and romance — is just a sort of metronome that’s a constant in our lives but it produces so much other drama.” He reminds us that older people have learned to “sweat the small stuff last” and hopes that it’s a revelation for audiences to see, or remember, that they can survive their “stupid love life”. As 7 Pleasures hopes to affirm that naked bodies are not the beginning or end of pleasure, All the Sex I Ever Had generously shares the joys that come from finally being comfortable in your own skin.

Sex — sexuality and romance — is just a sort of metronome that’s a constant in our lives but it produces so much other drama.

W H AT: All The Sex I’ve Ever Had WHEN & WHERE: 12 — 15 Oct, Arts Centre Melbourne

W H AT: 7 Pleasures WHEN & WHERE: 18 — 22 Oct, Arts Centre Melbourne

7 Pleasures

Joep Beving

Lambchop

This Dutch pianist and formerly amature pianist recorded an online album to share with his family and friends. But when it received more than 85 million plays, the record industry came a calling. When & Where: 14 Oct, Melbourne Recital Centre

These Nashville icons are musical polymaths who refuse to rake over old coals. No two of their 12 albums to date sound remotely the same, exploring post-rock, electronica, folk and more. When & Where: 18 Oct, Melbourne Recital Centre THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 23

Melbourne Festival

Two’s Company The essence of all it means to be human can be found in one of the most basic forms of communication: a simple conversation. Stephen A Russell explores the little shows with big ideas at this year’s Melbourne Festival.

wo souls can hold an audience captive, breath caught in the space between them, captured by a dance of ideas. Some of the most powerful theatre is found in the intensity of this duality. Jonathan Holloway’s second program as artistic director of the Melbourne Festival captures this magic in a handful of magical two-handers, three of which are driven by that most dramatic subject of all, family. Gideon Obarzanek and Brian Lipson’s Two Jews Walk Into A Theatre... imagines an explosive meeting between their highly opinionated fathers. Nicci Wilks and Susie Dee inhabit the roles of mother and daughter, smothered in the claustrophobic space of their Caravan, while TZU’s Joel Ma — aka Joelistics — and James Mangohig’s In Between Two explores their childhoods set against the backdrop of race relations in Australia. Obarzanek, known predominantly for his impressive work in the field of dance, leaps out of his comfort zone in the dialogue-driven Two Jews. Springing from an improvised imagining of what it would be like if their fathers came to see their show, Lipson (whose father is sadly no longer with us) and Obarzanek instead stepped into their skins. “So my father,” begins Obarzanek, “we have very different views on Jewish identity, on Zionism, on immigration. On a whole lot of things, and so this argument erupted in an incredible screaming match basically, to the point where people came in and intervened, not realising that we were actually acting.” That explosive initiation allowed the pair to tackle, through the binary nature of the work, big picture stuff about family and also the fraught political situation in the Middle East, a theme also explored in Malthouse stable-mate We Love Arabs, another twohander featuring Jewish choreographer Hillel Kogan and Arabic dancer Adi Boutrou.

Two Jews Caravan allowed Obarzanek and Lipson to interrogate those ideas from viewpoints quite different to their own. “Both of our fathers are quite extreme, colourful personalities in that sense, so they don’t have much nuance,” Obarzanek offers. “That makes it a much easier way to navigate what is actually a whole series of shades of complexity.” As the argument unravels, the piece morphs into something closer to We Love Arabs Obarzanek’s dance background. “What begins as something quite straightforward becomes more nuanced and abstract as they begin to discuss aspects about themselves and their regrets, and about being a parent.” Parenthood is prime fodder for fraught theatre. Taking over the Malthouse forecourt in the shadow of ACCA, Caravan once more unites Wilks with regular collaborator Dee, who last directed Wilks in the Patricia Cornelius-written, award-winning SHIT. Cornelius has a writing credit here too, with Susie Dee and Nicci Wilks parlaying the frustrated clash of forgotten dreams unravelling in a trailer park. “It’s such a particular relationship, a mother and daughter,” Wilks says. “It’s so specific. That inherent bond that can be shit, but it’s still always linked.” Drawing on that complexity and her own lived experience, Wilks has found in Dee someone with whom she can venture into difficult spaces through a mutual bond of trust. “We have a very similar sense of humour, so we have a similar rhythm,” Wilks says. “If you can find that rhythm with your fellow performers on stage, that’s so pleasurable, to be able to bounce off each other. You don’t have to find your feet with each other, because it’s already there.” Wilks hopes that the intensity of familial drama playing out in Caravan, which has been in development

In Plan MELBOURNE F E S T I VA L M U S T- S E E DANCE

24 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

Dance maker Michelle Heaven and designer Ben Cobham are playing their cards very close to their chest where their latest collaboration is concerned. All we know is that it’s a piece that has to be seen to be believed. When & Where: 12 – 22 Oct, Malthouse Theatre

Melbourne Festival

In Between Two tackles their war stories about growing up during the ‘90s era of Hanson and Howard, which the duo shared on the road. The twoman show fuses family photos with their trademark hip hop in the amphitheatre of Arts Centre Melbourne’s Fairfax studio, mapping out fascinating family histories, including Ma’s nightclub-owning, Sinatra and Basseyknowing, mob-connected grandma’s open marriage. “If anyone in gets a chance to research their lineage, I guarantee, every single person will find something that is just mind-blowing,” he laughs. Describing In Between Two as “taking our family secrets and lobbing them like hand grenades at the crowd”, Ma sees a lot of similarity with TZU. “When you hear someone rap, they’re trying to give it to you as straight up as possible. One of the reasons James and I were attracted to hip hop is that the art of sampling is like the art of storytelling in that you are taking old records and using them to make new music. In a grander sense, we are taking our family stories and using them to tell our stories.” As Ma sees it, he and Mangohig are telling an Australian story, not an immigrant one. “Most of my friends have connections to another homeland, although they would call themselves 100% Australian and you know, unless you are Indigenous Australian, really that’s what’s up.”

If you can find that rhythm with your fellow performers on stage, that’s so pleasurable, to be able to bounce off each other.

for almost two years now, will suck audiences into their characters’ strained symbiotic relationship. “You’re going to get this real slice of life between these two people that need each other to survive. You see the good, the bad, and the ugly, I suppose. It’s quite in your face.” There’s wry humour in Joel Ma’s voice when the halfChinese musician reveals he was regularly mistaken for James Mangohig, who is half-Filipino, while the pair toured the country with TZU. “You know, that Australian inability to recognise any faces that aren’t white really kicked in while we were on tour,” he chuckles.

W H AT: Two Jews Walk Into A Theatre... WHEN & WHERE: 18 — 22 Oct, Malthouse Theatre

W H AT: In Between Two WHEN & WHERE: 11 — 15 Oct, Arts Centre Melbourne

W H AT: We Love Arabs WHEN & WHERE: 18 — 22 Oct, Malthouse Theatre

W H AT: Caravan WHEN & WHERE: 5 — 22 Oct, Malthouse Theatre Forecourt

Ever

Backbone

The brainchild of a true great of Australian dance, Philip Adams, this immersive production will surround and envelop its audience with sound and movement. It features costumes by fashion guru Akira Isogawa, When & Where: 6 – 21 Oct, Temperance Hall

Heralded as one of the most remarkable circus productions of recent years, this show is powerful for both its extraordinary physicality, effortless lyricism and its heartbreaking poignancy. When & Where: 4 – 8 Oct, Arts Centre Melbourne THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 25

Melbourne Festival

Freak Shows

Think you know theatre? There’re a few productions headed to the Melbourne Festival that beg to differ. If you’re in search of a boundarybusting experience, these are the trailblazing shows that have thrown out the rulebook to toe the bleeding edge of the art form’s future. GERMINAL To say that this show is a bit ambitious would be a bloody big understatement. French theatre makers Halory Goerger and Antoine Defoort attempt to conjure the universe on stage in just one hour, in a show that offers both wisdom and whimsy in plentiful supply. The cosmic vastness of time and space stands shoulder to shoulder with the intimate, insular prism of human thought; prepare to step out of this performance with a spring in the synapses and more than a few questions on your lips. When & Where: 19 — 22 Oct, Malthouse Theatre

MORE UP A TREE Theatre is voyeurism with permission, but the relationship between a performer and their audience can be a hugely influential aspect of a show. So, what happens when you sever that connection? Drummer Jim White of the Dirty Three and Claudia de Serpa Soares of legendary European dance outfit Sasha Waltz And Friends, become living museum exhibits, sealed within a glass box. Inside, there are one-way mirrors; we can see them but they can’t see us. The pair let rip in a gloriously uninhibited duet — this is what it looks like when someone dances like nobody’s watching. When & Where: 12 — 14 Oct, The Substation

PLEASE CONTINUE (HAMLET) The courtroom is not only a place of law and order, it’s also a kind of theatre, where reason, morality and intellect take centre stage. In Yan Duyvendak and Roger Bernat’s ground-breaking experiment, they take this notion to the next level. Real barristers, a bonafide judge, and fully qualified professional court psychologists, stenographers, and QCs, all sourced from Australia’s legal system, will try Shakespeare’s troubled Danish prince Hamlet, charged with murdering Ophelia’s father Polonius. A jury of Melburnian peers will then debate the sentence to a reach a verdict that changes with every performance. When & Where: 5 — 9 Oct, Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne

ALL OF MY FRIENDS WERE THERE We’ve all got one, but how they make us feel varies dramatically from person to person. Whatever your personal stance on birthdays, Aussie theatre mavericks The Guerrilla Museum are ready to throw a happy return like no other. At each performance, real experiences of birthdays, sourced from the evening’s audience, become the building blocks for a show-cum-birthday bash extravaganza. Touching, utterly original, and uproariously uplifting, getting older has never been so entertaining.

When & Where: 5 — 11 Oct, Theatre Works 26 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

Music

Frontlash Ausmonauts

At A Glance: Jeremy Costa

Australia is getting its own space agency! We expect to see a tinnie that can conquer the stars by 2020, please and thank you.

Describe your sound:

Safe Milk

Retro rock, Motown and soul

We’ll like your music if we like... The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Black Keys, Prince, D’Angelo

Number of releases?

Jeremy Costa took to music like a bird to flight, as The Music discovers.

ordan balled, Picasso painted and Tesla designed death-rays. Across every branch of human endeavour, there appear rare people who fit their chosen vocation like they were 3D printed for each other. Jeremy Costa makes music. “Music is the only thing that comes naturally to me,” tells the Sydney-based singer-songwriter. “Since I was young I could pick up virtually any instrument and make music, so it only made sense that I pursue a career doing something that I love.’ Costa has been doing so for the last six years, acquiring and blending a cornucopia musical styles from retro rock to neo soul in the process. Now, after working with Lenny Kravitz collaborators Henry Hirsch and “childhood hero” Craig Ross, he’s reaching out to a wider audience. “I have an EP coming out October/November so people can start getting a taste of what we do,” shares Costa, before dropping that the EP will be quickly followed by their debut album, which is set for a February 2018 release. When asked what fuels his output, Costa says it’s the “sound”. “[It’s] what drives me. Right now I am very focused on analogue recording, the sound is better when you record to tape, and it forces you to play the music better. I want music to have melody, and to mean something.” The EP will be accompanied by a string of shows, which Costa promises will be “something very different but at the same time familiar. Real music with lots of melody and soul, bass lines that will make you want to move and harmony that’ll make you want to sing. We all have a great time at our shows.”

Zero, I have yet to release anything.

If you could ask for any item on your rider, what would it be?

The ACT Government have given Spilt Milk fest the thumbs up for free pill testing, the first time ever in Australia. How good is sensible policy?

Updog The trailer for Wes Anderson’s latest super-twee effort Isle Of Dogs is out and it looks as weird and whimsical and full of dogs as a pound run by Willy Wonka. Needless to say we’re sold.

Honey, because honey makes any vocal smoother.

What’s the live scene needs more of? Bands that are serious about making music, playing shows and promoting them.

Charles Bradley

What are you currently drawing inspiration from? ‘60s/’70s rock and soul, there is something so rich there that it is hard to not be inspired.

Who would be your dream

Lashes

Only Natural

Backlash Go Jaguars

Give us weird fact about yourself:

While Trump was pretty much silent on violent white nationalist protests in Charlottesville and a stern response had to be dragged out of him, a peaceful protest by athletes during the national anthem has him calling them “son of a bitch”.

Apparently I can bromance with anyone. Ladies beware, I’m your BF’s next BFF!

Head Case

support gig? The Rolling Stones. Those guys just really get me =)

Where do you see yourself in five years time? On tour and missing being in the studio, or in the studio and missing being on tour.

When & Where: 29 Sep, The Rochester Hotel; 30 Sep, Tago Mago, Thornbury.

Hey, we know violence is never cool. But what’s with the ex-PM once again turning the marriage equality debate into something else? He claimed he was headbutted by a “Yes” campaigner, when the perpetrator has said it was “nothing whatsoever” to do with the SSM vote, he “just wanted to nut the cunt”.

Vale Charles Bradley The late-blooming funk and soul singer has passed away following a year-long struggle with stomach and liver cancer. THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 27

Album / E Album/EP Reviews

Winston Surfshirt Sponge Cake Sweat It Out!

★★★★

Album OF THE Week

On the cover of Sponge Cake, sun-bleached images of a dreamy Venetian holiday, a lush green golf course and lounging summer bodies are collaged with faceless heads. This artwork is fitting for an album that is soaked in sunshine, a weird, off-kilter sensibility and a compelling melange of pop, hip hop and West Coast rap. On the one hand, there are tracks like Be About You that hark back to retro R&B’s unabashed bedroom songs and brass sections, and then there are tracks like FreeForYou that are framed by samples and dreamy, California riffs filled out with hushed, whispered croons and a flow that aims to tribute none other than Kendrick Lamar. Overall, the sound is buttery, cool and moreish, inviting the kind of easy dancing that comes with day drinking. That Lamar tribute is in sound only, though. Sponge Cake doesn’t even try and approach Lamar’s lyrical density, urgent politics and psychological pivots, instead characters seem to always be on the crest of love, sitting back and waiting: “Been sinking in you too many times/You won’t say any sign... When I was on the back seats sayin’.” This is a summer album through and through, and will be making the rounds on Sunday afternoons at the pub. Samantha Jonscher

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

Wolf Alice

Superscope

Dirty Hit Records/Liberator

Visions Of A Life

★★★★

Sunday Best/[PIAS]/Inertia

★★★ Rolling around in their antiquated sounds, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis have landed far more than they’ve missed, and they’ve always played with distinctive mirth, but their fourth time out feels flat as hell, almost as if they had nowhere else to go after Smoking In Heaven. Pinpointing that lack in Superscope is as easy as finding a hole in the dark, all you can do is say that something’s missing. Structurally the pieces are there, but they lock together with the dry joie de vivre of a Swedish construction manual. Despite a few standout tracks, and the Durham girls outshining their brother, most of the songs feel dutiful rather than doting. Oh, Lewis still lets out the odd exceptional wail and there’s a whole lovesick redemption through-line to enjoy if you care 28 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

to construct the narrative, but Kitty, Daisy & Lewis really make you work for that emotional oomph, then they even spoil that by serving Broccoli Tempura as the last track. It sounds roughly as delicious as it sounds and works wonderfully as something for venues to play while rousting patrons after last call. Superscope lacks some intangible element, but still serves a small plate of passable tracks. Unfortunately just having the right ingredients doesn’t default to making meals taste great. Nic Addenbrooke

Following the success of their debut LP, 2015’s My Love Is Cool, London four-piece Wolf Alice are back with Visions Of A Life. Ellie Rowsell (vocals, guitar), Joff Oddie (guitars, vocals), Theo Ellis (bass), and Joel Amey (drums, vocals) mix it up and display plenty of range on this record. Written about the death of a friend, shoegazey opener Heavenward’s floating, reverberant vocals contrast heavily with the fast-paced, hard-hitting Yuk Foo that follows; the lead single’s raw, assertive sound reminiscent of Riot Grrrl bands like Heavens To Betsy and Bikini Kill. Beautifully Unconventional proves Wolf Alice can do catchy, light indie-rock and After The Zero Hour takes the band back to their folk-ish beginnings with fingerpicked acoustic guitar, strings and vocal harmonies.

Wolf Alice constantly jump from moments of softness, fragility and warmth — slow, ethereal Don’t Delete The Kisses and it’s soaring chorus — to powerful, energetic songs such as Space & Time. But on St Purple & Green they manage to get moments of both, opening with some hauntingly beautiful, church-style layered vocals before distorted guitars and the rhythm section come crashing in. They save the best for last with the closing title track — almost eight minutes of epicness. Wolf Alice deliver a polished alternative-rock album with the perfect amount of grit. Madelyn Tait

EP Reviews Album/EP Reviews

Vessels The Great Distraction Different Recordings

Kamasi Washington

Ibeyi

Morning TV

Ash

Sun

Harmony Of Difference

XL/Remote Control

Habit Music Company

Young Turks/Remote Control

★★★★

★★★½

God bless the recent career revival of Vessels, a mostly instrumental UK quintet who are clearly far too gifted to drift down the plughole of history. While The Flaming Lips adorn the single Deflect The Light, irresistible pressurebuilder Mobilise is just as good, as again Vessels prove to be masters of the slowly administered adrenaline shot. Intrepid sonic explorers, Vessels’ journeys in sound stretch to new heights on Radiart and level off on high plateaus such as Glower and Radio Decay. If this doesn’t precipitate bigger things, nothing will.

The man who might still be best known as Kendrick Lamar’s sax player follows up his marathon debut The Epic with a quickie. At only 31 minutes, Harmony Of Difference occasionally reprises the same signature riff over different tracks. The heart-stopping finale Truth is nonetheless as close to perfection as is imaginable; in parts a cry for help, in others a prayer. Washington’s music can get overly ornate at times, but this is pure, focused passion and scans like a pretty accurate portrayal of where humanity’s heading in 2017.

Singing in mixed English, French and Yoruba, Ibeyi have a unique voice, but their position as a potential voice for an ostensibly outsider perspective and the dignified potency they wield it with makes them distinct. Ash is both persecuted and powerful in equal measure, something that feels less like balancing than soaring. Sparse and otherworldly percussion interspersed with found sounds and hypnotic harmonics, it’s sonically sumptuous but thematically sharp enough to cut you from the first chord. This is not just good music, it’s important.

Sydney’s Morning TV have found a knack for producing layered, surfy sounds and presenting them in a lo-fi package. Echoed vocals and scratchy productions make it sound as if some of Sun was recorded in a bedroom, but this only adds to the charm of catchy numbers Get It Right and Let It Lie. Shifting between upbeat tunes and drawn-out experimental songs demonstrates Morning TV are not willing to be pigeonholed easily and offer the diversity that some of their peers lack. While it might not grab you on the first spin, Sun rewards listeners who persevere when every repeat play reveals something more.

Christopher H James

Nic Addenbrooke

Lewis Isaacs

More Reviews Online Propagandhi Victory Lap

theMusic.com.au

Metz Strange Peace

Tricky ununiform

THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 29

Live Re Live Reviews

Listen Out

Catani Gardens 23 Sep

30 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

Wandering along Jacka Boulevard we must duck out of the way of a skateboarder who holds his GoPro in the air to film some fast panning footage from the outside of Listen Out’s temporary fencing. A crowd assembles on the hill overlooking Catani Gardens, raising occasional cheers when daredevil fence jumpers make a break for it and security guards give chase. As we enter the festival site, Malaa lures us over to 909 Stage with his piano-led, upbeat, banging-house vibe and when Chuck Roberts declares, “Let there be HOUSE!” (from one of the most sampled speeches in history), there’s some wild dancing going on. Maala must be sweltering up there in that black balaclava! And when he sneaks in another well-known snippet, “You want this party started, right!?” It’s a rhetorical question. Over on 3rd Base stage, Alice Ivy wears an absolutely sick T-shirt that reads: “Peter Andre 3000.” Was it just last year at this very festival that we first experienced the wonder that is this Annika Schmarsel (that’s Alice Ivy for those who have snoozed). Yes, it was! Schmarsel’s genuine enthusiasm and impressively quick instrument switches make her super-fun to watch. A group of mates engage in some kind of dance-off during this set and the dude with a buzz cut everywhere except for the crown of his head, from which a bouquet of dreadlocks sprouts, easily takes out this competition. As the breeze picks up and the temperature drops, those who chose to bare a lot rather than a little flesh start to shiver — betcha they sell out of Listen Out hoodies at the merch! On Atari Stage, Safia bring more chilled vibes and their singles (particularly Make Them Wheels Roll, although

many punters can’t hit the high notes — ouch!) summon mass singalongs. Ben Woolner’s vocals truly are magnificent and it’s great to mix up DJs and solo artists with a full band for textural variety. Oh, that’s right! The Listen Out VIP toilet queues move at a snail’s pace! Wouldn’t it be sensible to label one row of cubicles the Powder Room? There’s a pleasing amount of vintage threads on bods this year, but sadly some revellers still favour Oompa Loompa spray tans — have we learnt nothing from Snog Marry Avoid?. Winner of best dressed today must go to the gent sporting an all-over print collared shirt in cream hue featuring alternating images of Toadfish Rebecchi’s head, a panel van and Ramsay Street sign. Back at 3rd Base, we admire Nyxen, who brings bleepy goodness while somehow managing to instil some funk. The sweet Sweet Disposition remix this Sydneysider drops is exactly what is required for a sunset slot. Dancers sing along blissfully with this hit by The Temper Trap as nature throws up the most glorious art exhibition in the sky, showing off this beachside festival site to perfection. Punters are smiling, dancing and flirting during Nyxen’s set — job done. There’s some dish-plate sized pupils in this area and one munter even indulges in a spinal roll in the middle of the dancefloor. Nyxen is all smiles up there, she’s well aware she’s rocking it. Would definitely rush out to see her again. We can hear Green Velvet over on 909 Stage so hightail it over, timing it perfectly for the noodle-smoking La La Land: “Somethin’ ‘bout those little pills/Unreal/The thrills/They yield/Until/They kill/A million brain cells” — manifesto for the munted. The man himself, Green Velvet (Curtis Jones to his nearest and dearest), is beaming up there; he knows he’s the shit. Who else could pull off a fluoro

eviews Live Reviews

green mohawk!? The way Jones dances to his own squelchy beats is infectious; the shapes he pulls perfectly illustrating each track and helping us hear it through his ears. We can’t believe our luck when a remix of Yazoo’s Don’t Go barnstorms the mix, complete with Green Velvet spinning around repeatedly with a maniacal smile on his dial to demonstrate the following repeated lyrics: “I turned around when I heard the sound/I turned around when I heard the sound...” — he’s having a blast up there. Merrymakers break through barriers into a fenced-off section around a tree. Security guards don’t intervene until a dude on

The man himself, Green Velvet (Curtis Jones to his nearest and dearest), is beaming up there; he knows he’s the shit. Who else could pull off a fluoro green mohawk!? shoulders tries to scale the majestic tree. Hardrive ft Barbara Tucker’s Deep Inside (“Deep, deep down inside!”) is a genius inclusion, steeped in soul. With Green Velvet manning the decks, the promise of “longer hours on the dancefloor” would win any election. The Chicago native easily secures Set Of The Day. It’s always gross seeing dudes pissing within the crowd and there are many sightings of this unacceptable behaviour on this day. What So Not definitely takes out the award for Most Elaborate

Stage Set at Listen Out this year; there’s some kind of life-size horse rearing up through the stage (and of course laser beams of various colours shoot from its eyes) plus camo netting aplenty. “It’s good to be home, Listen Out!” the internationally touring Sydney producer who goes by the name of Chris Emerson in everyday life enthuses. The vibe is high here at Atari Stage and we’re stoked to see What So Not’s “Remember To Vote” message on the cyc, but it’s almost Pnau o’clock so we scoot over to 909 Stage. Pnau appear later than scheduled, which is extra shitty when you’re at a festival happily watching an act but drag yourself away to prioritise another who then keeps you waiting and staring at an empty stage. When the eventually appear, lead singer Nick Littlemore tells us he hopes we’re “properly lubricated” by this stage of the night. He wears some kind of long black smock and looks like a shaman up there. Littlemore complains he can’t hear himself, Pnau open with their new single Into The Sky and it sounds rough. Wild Strawberries strikes a chord with the festivalheads, but Peter Mayes also seems dissatisfied with volume levels as he touches the speakers to feel the vibration but then shakes his head, dissatisfied. Littlemore introduces Kira Divine, who guests on Chameleon, to the stage and she’s here all the way from the States. Pnau utilise a live drummer and extra samples/ keys player alongside Mayes, Divine and Littlemore (who often plays a peculiar woodwind instrument). With You Forever’s divine “I love you” chorus perfectly channels our euphoria and reminds us of the pivotal part Littlemore also plays in Empire Of The Sun. Newsflash: if you ask someone to take a photo of you and your friends, it’s actually not compulsory. That person is perfectly entitled to decline in favour of dancing and watching the band so there’s no need to glare rudely when you don’t get

the response you expected. Closing 3rd Base is One Puf (yep, with one ‘f’) and we immediately feel as if we’ve had one puff of an embalming fluidlaced joint too many. These are the kinds of sounds that would make sense at 6am after three days of continuous partying. But for 8.36pm? Not so much. So we mosey on over to investigate Future. There’s much sweeping and towelling down of the stage in preparation for the American rapper whose real name is Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn. The sound of a phone call being made takes over the speakers and then it’s as if some kind of alien takeover interrupts. An old school, “Are you ready for FU-TUUUUUUUURE!?” intro turns into a demand: “Make some muthafucking NOOOOOOIIIISE!” It sounds like Future is rapping from some kind of underground sewer, so we’re drawn to 909 Stage once more. Overheard en route: “When we walked in there was a girl wearing a diaper.” The playful rolling bass of Duke Dumont (aka Adam George Dyment — see what he did there?) doesn’t disappoint. Watermat’s Bullit is exactly what we fancy dancing to right now — what an on-point selection! The only thing that could improve on this vibe would be if the actual smoke cannons from Amnesia in Ibiza were on site, detonating to punctuate the blasting beats. There’s a gazillion gyrating bodies on friends’ shoulders and all celebrate the coming summer festival season. Dumont’s own I Got U (“As long as I got you, baby!”) ft Jax Jones, complete with debilitating steel drums, gets a strong reaction from the punters and it’s all hands in the air. Judging from the jubilant, gurning faces in the crowd, Listen Out’s after-parties are gonna be well attended tonight. Now when’s Green Velvet’s sideshow again? The Prince on Thursday night. Done deal. Bryget Chrisfield

More Reviews Online theMusic.com.au/ music/live-reviews

London Grammar @ Margaret Court Arena Pond @ Corner Hotel Dream Theater @ Palais Theatre Shonen Knife @ National Gallery of Victoria Angus & Julia Stone @ Palais Theatre You Me At Six @ Forum Theatre

Live Pic credits 1. Alice Ivy @ Listen Out Pic: Michael Prebeg 2. Maala @ Listen Out Pic: Michael Prebeg 3. Pnau @ Listen Out Pic: Michael Prebeg 4. Future @ Listen Out Pic: Michael Prebeg 5. Green Velvet @ Listen Out Pic: Michael Prebeg 6. Crowd @ Listen Out Pic: Michael Prebeg THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 31

Arts Reviews Arts Reviews

Kingsman:

shrug. And there’s also an unfortunate sense of repetition at play here, as if Vaughn and his team take what worked in The Secret Service (or at the very least what got audiences talking), and double down on it. I mean, you liked that one-take scene of carnage where a gun-toting Colin Firth blew away everyone in the room, right? Here you go, have a few variations on that sequence. You were amused (or maybe scandalised) by the previous film’s allegedly sexy innuendo, weren’t you? Here, have some more! ‘Here, have some more’ seems to be The Golden Circle’s guiding principle, and while a little indulgence can be pleasurable once in a while, loading up on this movie’s empty calories may leave you strangely hollow. Our hero, former car thief and street thug ‘Eggsy’ (likeable, talented Taron Egerton), is now a fully-fledged member of the well-tailored, well-armed and rather posh independent spy agency Kingsman, even inheriting the code-name of his late mentor Harry (Firth) - ‘Galahad’. But having found his place in the world, Eggsy suddenly finds all stripped away when nearly every other Kingsman operative is blown to bits by Poppy (Julianne Moore), an alarmingly chipper drug baron eager to legitimise her multi-billion-dollar narcotics business by way of global poisoning and Presidential blackmail. Enter the Statesmen, the Kingsman agency’s American counterpart. Based in a Kentucky bourbon distillery and led by a Stetson-wearing Jeff Bridges, they’re hightech cowboys armed with state-of-the-art six-shooters, lassos and bullwhips. Oh, and they also have a special guest in their sick bay - none other than Harry, because why should the bullet he took to the head in the previous movie keep him from taking part in the sequel? It’s nice to see Firth back, and Moore has great fun playing a monstrous megalomaniac with a butterwouldn’t-melt sweetness.

The Golden Circle Film In cinemas now

★★★ Director and co-writer Matthew Vaughn, making his first sequel, is an accomplished enough showman and ringmaster to keep things moving along briskly and energetically (seriously, for a two-and-a-half-hour movie, The Golden Circle is pacy). But he also has some issues with taste, it seems. There are a fair few moments here that are cynically, calculatingly outrageous, to a degree where you can almost sense the creators sniggering behind the camera at how inventively irreverent they are. Sometimes it works, and works great. But there are far more occasions when The Golden Circle’s go-for-broke moments inspire little more than a

Guy Davis

32 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

Let’s Play Two Film In cinemas, 4 Oct

★★★★ 2016 was a big year for Chicago. It was a year of hope — an audacious hope that their beloved Cubs go all the way to win the baseball World Series for the first time since 1908. Halfway through the season, Pearl Jam returned to Wrigley Field to play over two nights in August, for their second stint at the hallowed grounds. Firstly, it’s important to clarify from the start, if you’re walking into this with the expectation that this will be a film showcasing the band’s performance, you’ll be disappointed. The same if you’re expecting this to be a documentary about the band and where they’re at in their career. If you want those, please refer back to Live At The Garden and PJ20. Instead, what’s offered is a film about frontman Eddie Vedder and his lifelong relationship with his beloved Cubs. Directed by photographer Danny Clinch, Let’s Play Two begins with Vedder’s distinct baritone sweeping in over the top to explain that walking into Wrigley for the first time is “like stepping into Oz.” It’s not long before the 2016 concert footage is introduced, bringing in a mix of the band’s better known hits and some deeper cut fan favourites. Whereas previous films have had a stronger focus on fan experience, Clinch has chosen to focus on just two fan stories throughout; one American named John and one Australian named Jason. What Clinch achieves with Let’s Play Two will challenge Pearl Jam fans, and you know what, after 25+ years maybe we need it. “It’s not all about winning or losing. It’s not. It’s about the journey,” says Vedder of his Cubs before their triumphant Game 7 victory. Maybe that’s the message to take along with you throughout Let’s Play Two; go on the journey, ride the wave and maybe you’ll be rewarded with a trophy in the form of a new perspective about a man and band you thought you knew so well already. Jessica Dale For the full review, head to themusic.com.au

OPINION Opinion

Howzat!

Local Music By Jeff Jenkins Keep Rockin’ Our music community is made up of many people. Some are players. Some are punters. Some are both. Phil Lawrence played in many bands over the years. He was one of the most naturally gifted people Howzat! has known. Phil, known as Lorro to his mates, was also a graphic designer and a photographer. But most of all, he was a lovely bloke. Imagine your favourite gig buddy; that was Lorro. Howzat! will treasure every photo Lorro took and every email he sent — all of which were signed: “Keep rockin’” Lorro died recently of a lung disease. He was 53. Howzat!’s best mate, Cory O’Bryan, wrote this tribute: “Lorro was by no means a household name, but I know that a lot of readers would have rubbed shoulders with him at a venue over the past few decades. Lorro started his gigging career playing guitar in Stage Plays in the early ‘80s, playing venues like the Seaview Ballroom with his schoolmates Neil Crocker, Dave Ralph and Craig Murray. The great Australian record producer Victor Van Vugt got

his start doing sound for Stage Plays, and they did gigs with INXS, Hunters & Collectors and Real Life. Lorro then moved on to play bass in The Sometimes with his dear friend Peter “The Buzz” Poumbourios, releasing a few singles. An accomplished artist, Lorro also helped many bands with their record covers, and took photos at live shows, famously still holding a grudge against a drunken Spencer P Jones who smashed Lorro’s camera at a Johnnys gig when Lorro was politely snapping away. I have been playing with Lorro for the last 18 years, in Hedge and Airhorn. He also managed my band Interstater, and played drums in Slacquer, with his partner, Mel, and Merry Prain, releasing a couple of great, sassy records. Lorro was so talented, he could play anything. His ear for music was uncanny, and he

Phil Lawrence with Airhorn

could also kick beautifully and accurately on both feet, like his hero Kelvin Templeton. A memorable night for Airhorn — me, Lorro, John Cain and Karen Horsley — was playing to a packed room that included Ron Peno, Hugo Race and Blondie’s Clem Burke, who told us he really liked the band! Our last gig was Anzac Day eve at The Workers Club, which our number one supporter, Paul Window, recorded for posterity. It was a wild night, with crazy girls groping us onstage. I’ll always remember Lorro coming off stage, beaming: ‘That was the best gig of my life.’ Thank you, Howzat! for introducing me to one of the great blokes. To quote you, ‘Phil Lawrence is the nicest man in the world’.”

THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 33

OPINION Opinion

Jordan Rakei

O G F l ava s

Urban And R&B News With Cyclone

he Australian soul scene is hot right now. This year Melbourne groove futurists Hiatus Kaiyote have been sampled by both Drake and Kendrick Lamar. Next month, frontwoman Nai Palm will drop her first solo album, Needle Paw. The singer-songwriter has recorded alternative versions of Hiatus Kaiyote faves plus new songs like Homebody — all centring on her vocals and acoustic guitar. Intriguingly, she covers David Bowie’s Blackstar in a medley with the Grammy-nominated Breathing Underwater. In fact, Australia has long had soul stars — Renee Geyer and Marcia Hines household names in the ‘70s. Hines’ daughter Deni later generated serious buzz in the UK. One of our most compelling newcomers is Jordan Rakei — the singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer hailing from New Zealand but (snatch!) raised in Brisbane. Moving to London circa 2015,

Galtier. Pic: Kajeera J

Business Music Eco Trip ydney-based Needs A Boss record label Eco Futurism With Paz Corporation are making a foray into horror themes and grind tunes. A recent package titled ECOPRIMITIVISM Pt I, shows the label’s desire to showcase an Eco predator, forcing entities into hiding and bleeding them back to their primitive form. Hiding and Bleeding are actually two tracks composed by artist SHYQA, and the

When Your Club

34 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

ECOPRIMITIVISM package invites other artists to find their personal primitive, remixing the tracks. Business Music was led to this package by the futuristic casting of Melbourne artist Galtier, the founder of record label Nostro Hood System. Galtier’s ability turns Hiding into a shrill, intense soundtrack for the future Ghost Dog sequel. It punches with batucada drums and sings with the piercing steel of techno-style ride cymbals. It sits somewhere between moombahton and trap in the bpm, and is sparse enough to fit any kind of high you are on. NLV Records has found the millennial version of croon tunes for the summer. Heralded by label artist Strict Face and partner in crime Tarquin, their track Afterparty features guest vocals from Yayoyanoh and, “Afterparty at Yayoyanoh’s house!” is the generation’s war cry. It’s a loose affair, drinking, romancing, even proposing trips to Malawi and hitchhiking in Brazil. Synths simply float over the beat, akin to the thin layer of tonic you add to your gin in summer. This is the future of Australian pop/hip hop/club, something we have been wanting from Australian Music.

he monumentally cameo-ed on Disclosure’s Caracal — performing the balladic Masterpiece. (He’s aired deep house himself as Dan Kye.) In 2016 Rakei independently released his debut Cloak — Remi and Ngaiire guesting. Rakei has signed to Ninja Tune ahead of a swiftly delivered second album. The stellar Wallflower has inflections of acid jazz, peak neosoul, Kiwi Mark de Clive-Lowe’s broken beat and, inevitably, James Blake’s avant ‘n’ B. Rakei writes about overcoming profound social anxiety — the lead single Sorceress not about a literal femme fatale. The sublime Goodbyes (featuring The Invisible’s Dave Okumu on guitar) radiates the dark drama of cult Brit soulster Lewis Taylor. Yet the songs Eye To Eye and Clues Blues have dub-reggae overtones. Lucid sounds like Jeff Buckley doing psychedelic kosmische. Expect to see Wallflower in those Best Of 2017 lists.

Andy Skopes

Dance Moves New Currents

fter half a decade of With Tim Finney thrilling, hyperspeed mutation (1993 - 1997), jungle/drum’n’bass quickly settled into a pattern that will be broadly familiar to anyone who has checked in on the scene at any point these past two decades, caught in an endless tug-of-war between the riff-driven headbanger “2-step” (not garage)

OPINION Opinion

sound that emerged and took over in the late ‘90s, and rhythmically complex outliers who mostly throw back to the style’s early golden age. The only real question is how marginalised the latter group are at any given point in time. It seems we’re in an upswing period for experimental drum’n’bass at the moment, given a swag of recent on-point signings to (and single releases on) Goldie’s Metalheadz label. While this sound never really goes away, the strong support of a prestigious mainstream label for intricate leftfield productions is rare. In most cases, the producers involved - such as Om Unit, Detboi, Mako and Andy Skopes - have been kicking ‘round for about a decade, forever finding slightly different ways to chop their beats like it’s 1995 or 1996, but this renewed focus means there’s rarely been a better time for sceptics to reacquaint themselves. The new Metalheadz EP Speechless from Andy Skopes is a case in point: heavy on both percussive density and classy atmospherics, the tracks offer a variety of angles on mid’90s revivalism. Let Go features a stuttery, stop-start groove, clouds of atmospherics and a diva’s desolate wail to evoke the early work of Photek or Peshay; Seance homes in on rippling triplet beats that sound like they’re being tapped out on the inside of your skull; the title track and Heroin Wash both circle around stalking, mid-tempo grooves somewhat (but not fully) reminiscent of the drum’n’bass/dubstep fusion being pursued by the Autonomic label at the beginning of the decade. Some of Skopes’ previous work has suffered from a certain compositional flatness Dance Moves associates with occasional lesser efforts from old jungle heroes like J Majik and Paradox, the intricate percussion sort of rattling away to no real purpose; so it’s pleasing to hear a new sharpness and sense of space in these new productions, none of which could remotely be called flat. Even better in this scribe’s opinion are recent Metalheadz releases from OneMind, a duo comprising producers Mako and DLR (Mako responsible for 2015’s brain-destroying Do You Feel The Same?). Last year’s EP1 and this year’s EP2 are both viciously physical outings that call to mind the best late-’90s/ early-’00s work of Norwegian producer Teebee. On EP2, Late Addition (featuring longterm scene stalwarts Total Science) and Quiet

Fire both contrast a loping, angular-butspare central rhythm pattern, which drives the groove with unexpected clusters of percussive extravagance, perfectly dramatising the central rhythmic logic of the best drum’n’bass: namely, that tension between the expected and the unexpected, between beats that land where your feet expect them to and those that smack you from out of leftfield. Best of all is Early Daze, which takes the same idea but dresses it in hazy, amorphous synthesiser patterns that sound like they’ve emerged from a hallucination of old rave tracks. Throughout, OneMind’s drum sounds have a crispness so immaculate and succulent that they almost sound moist. Entrancing but also energising, OneMind’s rhythms recall that this music’s magic is not derived from either hard-driving riffy fervour or from complexity for its own sake, but from the tense, alchemical interplay of the two.

the

with Maxim & Sam

introducing your new podcast obsession

Does it grind your gears or earn your cheers? new episodes streaming every wednesday

THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 35

Comedy / G The Guide

Wed 27

Habits

Lo-Res + Koi Kingdom + Edel Plastik: 303, Northcote Caitlyn Shadbolt + Melanie Dyer: Ararat Live, Ararat

Facemeat + Alon Ilsar: Bar Open, Fitzroy

Alt-J

The Music Presents At The Drive In: 28 Sep Festival Hall Caligula’s Horse: 30 Sep Max Watt’s

Muddy’s Blues Roulette with +Paul Slattery: Catfish (Front Bar), Fitzroy Dellacoma + The Mercy Kills + Rusty: Cherry Bar, Melbourne Swollen Members + Mastacraft: Corner Hotel, Richmond

Mono: 10 Nov Max Watt’s

Creature Fear + The Jive: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy

Diana Anaid: 12 Nov, World Vegan Day

Bryson Tiller: Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Alt-J: 7 Dec Sidney Myer Music Bowl

Street Hassle + Singing Lessons + Culte: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood

sleepmakeswaves: 7 Dec Howler

Arj Barker: Lithuanian Club, North Melbourne Lomond Acoustica feat. +Jimi Hocking + Bill Jackson + Pete Fidler: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East Dave Hughes + Dilruk Jayasinha + Naomi Higgins: McKinnon Hotel, McKinnon Carus Thompson + Loren: Northcote Social Club, Northcote BitterFruitt: Open Studio, Northcote George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic: Palais Theatre, St Kilda La Dance Macabre with +Brunswick Massive: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy

New Habits Come and get messy with Habits as they launch their single Shame/ Desire at The Curtin with support from Huntly and Sexistential Waterfall. Get ravey and gross and dark with them all on Thursday. For The Jumper: AFL songs by your favourite musicians with +Mark Monnone + Liam Linley + Fraser Gorman + Royce Akers + Emily Ulman + Alexander Gow + Mick Thomas + Siobhan McGinnity + Kim White + Nic Kerton + Nic Imfeld + Jo Roberts + Liam McGorry + Kit Warhurst + Phil Gionfrido + Tom Lyngcoln + Pat Bourke + Dan Luscombe (The Drones) + Mark Wilson + Jordan Barczak + Perrin Date + Cameron Stops + Patrick O’Neil + Dave Mudie + Ben Michell + Nick Cooper + Aaron Gocs + MC Stew Farrell: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood

The Great Rock n Roll Pie Night feat. +Dallas Crane + Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk + Draught Dodgers + The Pretty Littles + DJ Davey Lane: Corner Hotel, Richmond Maya + Belove + La Hazel + Darcy Justice: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy At The Drive In + Le Butcherettes: Festival Hall, West Melbourne Barefoot Spaceman: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood Tommy Emmanuel: Hamer Hall, Melbourne

Lubulwa + Hayley Couper + Dark Water: The Old Bar, Fitzroy

Ferla

Carli James + Qualia + Abbey Rose: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Jungle Breed + Cracker La Touf + Hannah Kate: The Tote (Front Bar), Collingwood Mermaidens + Empat Lima + Swim Team: The Tote (Band Room), Collingwood

Sal Kimber & The Rollin’ Wheel

Roll Up Sal Kimber & The Rollin’ Wheel are bringing their indie-folk roots back to Melbourne with a headline show at Northcote Social Club. Kick-off is 2.30pm on Sunday, so even your nanna can make it.

Rocking Out The Stigma feat. +Harry Permezel + The Kuek Family Reunion: The Workers Club, Fitzroy Trivia: Wesley Anne, Northcote

Thu 28 Kickin The B at 303 feat. +Artie Styles Quartet: 303, Northcote Buried Feather + Earth Tongue + The Sun Blindness: Bar Open, Fitzroy Khaled Khalafalla: Bella Union, Carlton South

Fer Cote Northcote Social Club are bringing Ferla up from the underground for Wind It Up along with NZ’s Kane Strang and Longterm Romance. Get in early to catch some guilty-pop pleasures on Monday.

Thando: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne

36 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

Declan O’Rourke: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick

Oliver Huntemann + Charlotte De Witte: Brown Alley, Melbourne

Tram Drivers + Lukewarm Ice Tea: The Bendigo, Collingwood

Declan O’Rourke: Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh

Wine, Whiskey, Women feat. +Jorja + Lauren Hart: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne

Sunnyside: Cherry Bar, Melbourne

The Bombay Royale: Hawthorn Arts Centre, Hawthorn Yahtzel + Akouo + Tentendo + Nam: Howler, Brunswick Josh Batten: Hume Blues Club, Fawkner

Gigs / Live The Guide

Rat Hammock + Tali Mahoney + Porpoise Spit: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs), Collingwood

Rob Muinos + Al Parkinson + Quang Dinh: The Old Bar, Fitzroy Green Velvet: The Prince, St Kilda

Double Trouble with +DJ Jank Facques: The Toff In Town (Ballroom), Melbourne

Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk

Midnight Express with +DJ 123 + DJ Edd Fisher: The Toff In Town, Melbourne

Clucking Around

Shady Bliss: The Tote (Upstairs), Collingwood

Head down to Corner Hotel Thursday for The Great Rock’N’Roll Pie Night. Ring in Grand Final weekend with Aussie legends Dallas Crane, Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk, The Draught Dodgers and more.

Port Royal + Green Hollows + The Deadlips: The Tote (Band Room), Collingwood

Caitlyn Shadbolt + Melanie Dyer: Hysteria Lounge, Lilydale

Boogs: Blue Diamond Club, Melbourne

The Funk Buddies: Open Studio, Northcote

After Work Drinks with +Manchild: Boney, Melbourne

Made In Paris + Jamie Stevens + Craig McWhinney + Simon TK + DJ Kiti + Machete + more: Penny Black, Brunswick

In Oakleigh Tonight - Grand Final Eve feat. +Jon Von Goes + Billy Miller + Fiona Lee Maynard + Simon Madden + Ian Bland + Jack Howard + Loretta Miller: Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh

Jules Boult: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy The Rechords + DJ Grandmaster Vicious: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick

Safari Motel: Catfish (Front Bar), Fitzroy

Zerafina Zara + Alleged Associates: Smokehouse 101, Maribyrnong

Grasshole + Arrowhead + Khan + Mojo Pin: Cherry Bar, Melbourne

Clowns + Pagan: Sooki Lounge, Belgrave

Caligula’s Horse

Lastlings: The Workers Club, Fitzroy Louis Valentine + Kev Walsh: Tramway Hotel, North Fitzroy Ryan Sterling: Wesley Anne, Northcote The Hum Drums + Cosmos + Hollywood Real Thoughts: Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East Parading + Contrast + Hollow Everdaze + Bananagun: Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford

Grand Final Eve Eve Heave+Press Play + Rowan + Simo + Tom + Coxy: Kay St, Traralgon

Fri 29

Arj Barker: Lithuanian Club, North Melbourne

Haken + Orsome Welles + Teramaze: 170 Russell, Melbourne

King Puppy & The Carnivore: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East

Tom Cartoonist + Dom Purdey + Looks Like Rain + Four in the Morning: 303, Northcote

Horseplay

Pavlov’s Dog + Sim Victor + Umbra: Mr Boogie Man Bar, Abbotsford

Phil Para Band: Baha Tacos, Rye

Caligula’s Horse are taking their fourth record In Contact around Australia and make one stop in Melbourne at Max Watt’s. The Brisbane boys are bringing their powerhouse energy to us on Saturday.

Klangkuenstler + Jay Ramon + Boyblewe + Various DJs: Onesixone, Prahran KeKoSun & the Cuban Sounds: Open Studio, Northcote

Citrus Jam: Bar Open (Front Bar), Fitzroy Ganga Giri + Dayelle & The Substance + Skyrocku: Bar Open, Fitzroy

Evangeline: Penny Black, Brunswick Clowns + Pagan: Pier Bandroom (Pelly Bar), Frankston This Way North + DJ Mermaid: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick

The Seven Ups + Jalapeno Baby: The B.East, Brunswick East Birthdavaganza with +Mesa Cosa + Zombitches + The Burnt Sausages + Sophisticated Dingo + Purple Duck: The Bendigo, Collingwood DJ Max Mannix: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Cloud Control + Tiny Little Houses: The Croxton, Thornbury Habits + Huntly + Sexistential Waterfall: The Curtin, Carlton Ben Carter + James Damien: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne Red Bull Sound Select feat. +The Orwells + Good Boy + Press Club: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood

The Senegambian Jazz Band: The B.East, Brunswick East

Crap Music Rave Party with +Tomas Ford: Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne

Break Ya Neck Fest with +The Fckups + Ganbaru + SouthpawHC + Wolfpack + Drexler + Organ Donors + Armoured Earth + Bombs Are Falling + Beef + The Beggars’ Way: The Bendigo, Collingwood

Earth Rot + Mason + Blackhelm + Cordell: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy

Kisstroyer + Sisters Doll + Pearl Jam Experience: Sandbelt Hotel, Moorabbin The Grouches: Temperance Hotel, South Yarra

Kim Churchill + Ayla + Taj Ralph: Corner Hotel, Richmond

James Ellis & The Jealous

Green Eyes With the recent release of their debut single Have You Ever Seen Her, James Ellis & The Jealous Guys are taking their country Americana sound to Edinburgh Castle Hotel. Check them out on Friday.

Jam The Funk: Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick Dune Rats + Wavves + Hockey Dad + WAAX: Forum Theatre, Melbourne Classic Deep Purple with +Glenn Hughes: Hamer Hall, Melbourne Maja: Handle Bar, Bendigo Arj Barker: Lithuanian Club, North Melbourne Barb Waters & The Mothers of Pearl + Max Teakle: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East Incrypt + Chaingun + more: Mr Boogie Man Bar, Abbotsford Abolicion: Musicman Megastore, Bendigo

Phaedo: Barwon Club Hotel, South Geelong In Store with +Arsenic & Old Lace: Basement Discs, Melbourne Alfie Arcuri: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne

NGV Friday Nights feat. +GL: National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Southbank Donny Benet + Spod + Geoffrey O’Connor: Northcote Social Club, Northcote

Three Quarter Beast + Littlefoot + Rathead + The Nicoteenagers: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Til Death Do Us Party with +Various DJs: The Carlton (Hasti Bala), Melbourne Sascha Klave: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne Plague Doctor Mini Fest+Silver City Highway + The Tiny Giants + Empat Lima + Ferla + Exotic Snake + Lovers of the Black Bird + Cracker La Touf + Moody Beaches + DJs Riche 1250 + Birds of Steele + Joe Brnadic: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood Litember+Nite Fleit + Otologic + Pjenne + Myles Mac + Common Nocturne + Juicy Romance: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs), Collingwood Anchor BMX Bday Party with+Batpiss + Golden Helmet + Cascades + DJ Louie: The Old Bar, Fitzroy

THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 37

Comedy / G The Guide

The Dorks + Gee Seas: The Post Office Hotel, Coburg

Motez + Mickey Kojak + Tigerilla: UNO Danceclub, Geelong

Lazertits

Sleazy Listening with +Arks + Various DJs: The Toff In Town (Carriage Room), Melbourne

Nomadic Jurrasic: Wesley Anne (Front Bar), Northcote

Afternoon Show with +Pete Akhurst + Rob Patton + Gordon Holland: Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East

Poprocks At The Toff with +Dr Phil Smith: The Toff In Town (Ballroom), Melbourne The Stevens: The Tote (Band Room), Collingwood

Arrowhead + The Balls + Smoke Witch + Motherslug: Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East

The Burbs + The Deadpans + Pseudo Mind Hive: The Tote (Upstairs), Collingwood

Wayne Kelly Trio + Kallidad: Yah Yah’s, Fitzroy

Tracy McNeil & The Good Life: The Westernport Hotel, Phillip Island

Sun 01

Silent Treatment Festival with +Jacky Winter + Lewis Hodgson + Rogue Wavs + more: Tramway Hotel, North Fitzroy Will Sparks + Tyron Hapi: Universal Nightclub, Bendigo Trio Agogo: Wesley Anne (Front Bar), Northcote Rat Ta’Mango + Smoke Stack Rhino + A Basket Of Mammoths: Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East

Darebin Songwriters Guild: 303, Northcote Jazz High Tea with +Stevenson’s Rockets: Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne

Yas Grrrl Drop your shit and get to The Old Bar Friday. Lazertits, Wurst Nurse, Plaster Of Paris, Body Parts and plenty more sick Vic outfits are breaking the Bolly on the inaugural voyage of Rebel Grrrl Fest.

Emmanuel Pahud + Australian Chamber Orchestra: Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne Knights of the Dub Table with +Various Artists: Baha Tacos, Rye Chibcha: Bar Open (Front Bar), Fitzroy

Press Club

The Replacements ‘Please to Meet Me’ 30th Anniversary feat. +Van Walker + Evil Dick + JP Klipspringer + JMS Harrison + Claire Birchall + Danny McDonald + Nathan Seeckts + Dave Challinor + Michael Plater + Marilyn Rose + Big League + more: Corner Hotel, Richmond Momentum: Chapter Seven Feat.+Jesswar + Kwasi + Band Of Brothaz + P-Unique + Soreti + Sadiva + Wolves In The Cellar + The Coretet + Danny Osx + Cosi + Walla C: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy

Attitudes Out Fresh Brunswick natives Press Club, dirty-ass rockers The Orwells and catchy fuckers Good Boy are bringing the goods to The Gasometer Hotel for this month’s Red Bull Sound Select. Head along on Thursday.

Yarrafest #1 Grand Final Eve with+Hexdebt + Tankerville + Loobs + Synthetics + Piss Factory + Jules Sheldon + Magpie + Warplane: Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford

Sat 30 Sound Dimensions IV: 303, Northcote Slow Grind Fever feat. +DJ Richie 1250 + Mohair Slim + DJ Pierre Baroni + Shio Otani: Bar Open, Fitzroy Primitive Calculators: Barwon Club Hotel, South Geelong The Shuffle Club: Bird’s Basement, Melbourne Goat Control: Catfish, Fitzroy Destrends: Cherry Bar, Melbourne

This Show Has Been Cancelled+Ministry + Filter: Forum Theatre, Melbourne Traut: Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood Kim Churchill + Ayla + Taj Ralph: Karova Lounge, Ballarat Arj Barker: Lithuanian Club, North Melbourne The Ramblin’ Roses: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East The Vamps + New Hope Club: Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne Caligula’s Horse + I Built The Sky + Branch Arterial: Max Watt’s, Melbourne AFL Grand Final with +The Killers + Dami Im: Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Richmond Amber Isles + Wild Meadows + Middle Management: Northcote Social Club, Northcote Knights of the Dub Table: Penny Black, Brunswick The Dandy Jonestown Massacre: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy The Excellent Smithers: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick Omnipresence + Obsidian Monolith + Internal Nightmare + Amaros: Reverence Hotel, Footscray Muska + Tahl: Sooki Lounge, Belgrave

38 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

Rock n Roll Rally with +Latreenagers + The Braves + The Black Heart Death Cult + Boxcrunch + Dead End: Spotted Mallard, Brunswick Hanksaw: Surabaya Johnny’s, St Kilda

Kaku + Pollen + Battle Stations: Bar Open, Fitzroy Woody Guthrie: Songs of Freedom with +Bruce Hearn & The Machinists: Caravan Music Club, Oakleigh

Jeremy Costa + Keggin + The Nicoteenagers: Tago Mago, Thornbury

Blues Alley: Catfish (Front Bar), Fitzroy

Winter Moon + Creek: The B.East, Brunswick East

Edit the Empire + Mama Golem + Stripping on Sunset + Jon S Williams: Cherry Bar, Melbourne

The Fireballs + The Hybernators + The Yard Apes + The Rogues: The Bendigo, Collingwood

Shonen Knife + Senyawa + Parsnip: Corner Hotel, Richmond

Grand Final Day Spectacular with +A Basket Of Mammoths + Planet of the 8’s + Inloeman: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Chris Wilson: The Drunken Poet, West Melbourne Tijuana Cartel + Kallidad: The Gasometer Hotel, Collingwood

Port Royal + Honeybone + The Jives + Goldsocks: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Afternoon Show with +Off The Leash: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy

Parsnip

Rebel Grrrl Fest feat.+Lazertits + Wurst Nurse + Plaster of Paris + Body Parts + The Second Sex + Long Holiday + Root Rat: The Old Bar, Fitzroy Elvis To The Max: The Palms at Crown, Southbank UK Garage Legends feat. +DJ Luck & MC Neat + The Artful Dodger: The Prince, St Kilda Ojikae + ZK + Gremlns + Playback 808 Kingdom + more: The Toff In Town, Melbourne Culte + Cracker La Touf + Hotel Fifteen Love + Slow Job: The Tote (Upstairs), Collingwood Milk Teddy + Pikelet + Qwerty + DJ Marconi: The Tote (Band Room), Collingwood Olly & Scuzzi: The Westernport Hotel, Phillip Island The Stranger Suite: The Workers Club, Fitzroy

#SeeTheNip Head down to Corner Hotel this Sunday as Parsnip will be jamming down with Indonesian traditional/experimental outfit Senyawa and Japanese sugarpop legends Shonen Knife on their Australia Adventure tour.

Gigs / Live The Guide

This Show Has Been Cancelled +Wheatus + Alien Ant Farm + Hoobastank + Lit + CKY: Festival Hall, West Melbourne Performing “Blonde on Blonde” +Old Crow Medicine Show + Valerie June: Forum Theatre, Melbourne

Gallie & Co: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East Tracy McNeil & The Good Life: Martians Cafe, Deans Marsh Matinee Show with +Sal Kimber & The Rollin’ Wheel + Pina Tuteri: Northcote Social Club, Northcote

Beersoaked Sundays with+Rhysics + Jungle Breed: The Old Bar, Fitzroy

Passionate Tongues Poetry+Various Artists: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick

The Sunday Set with+DJ Andyblack + Mr Weir: The Toff In Town (Carriage Room), Melbourne

Mundane Mondays with+Kelso: The Old Bar, Fitzroy

Down The Rabbit Hole with +Nigel Last: The Toff In Town (Carriage Room), Melbourne Bahdoesa Tote Takeover with +DJ Ayna + Various DJs: The Tote (Upstairs), Collingwood Carus Thompson: The Westernport Hotel, Phillip Island

The Slipdixies + Unpainted Prospects + Greg Steps: Open Studio, Northcote

Matinee Show with +BOM + Ben Laguda + Sonic Moon: The Workers Club, Fitzroy

Jules Boult: Rainbow Hotel, Fitzroy

Longterm Romance + Stationary Suns: Tramway Hotel, North Fitzroy

Afternoon Show with +Shadowboard: Retreat Hotel, Brunswick

Catfish Voodoo: Union Hotel, Brunswick

Yahtzel

Kaz Garaz + Hotel 15 Love + Dave Connor + Middlemarch: The Workers Club, Fitzroy

Tue 03 Klub MUK: 303, Northcote Emmanuel Pahud + Australian Chamber Orchestra: Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne

Tom Walker & The Sick Individuals + Yes Yes Whatever + Housecats: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Irish Session: Lomond Hotel, Brunswick East The Rhythm Hunters + Ben Kelly: Open Studio, Northcote Sorority Noise + Slowly Slowly: Reverence Hotel, Footscray Brunswick Discovery feat. +Various Artists: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Ro + Batts + Jackson McLaren: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs), Collingwood

Or Else Head over to Howler on Thursday to see the electronic stylings of Yahtzel and you’ll probably hear him performing his most recent release, Someone Else. Last chance before he heads out to support Snakehips on their North American tour!

Afternoon Show with +Colour Dazed + Bill + Frayhound + The Yeah Bears: Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East

Large No 12s: Royal Oak Hotel, Fitzroy North

Taylar Paige + Rosie & Githmi + Colour & Shade: Whole Lotta Love, Brunswick East

Chris Wilson + Mike Elrington: Satellite Lounge, Wheelers Hill

Lava Lakes + 808s & The Greatest Hits + China Beach: Yarra Hotel, Abbotsford

Kim Churchill: Sooki Lounge, Belgrave Afternoon Show with +The Constables + The Monikers + Altivo + Sapphire Street: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick The Engagement + One More Weekend + In Other Words: The Brunswick Hotel, Brunswick Company 17: The Gasometer Hotel (Upstairs), Collingwood Sunday Arvo with+Alastair Mattcott + Tyson Slithers: The Old Bar, Fitzroy

Mon 02 Jam Night with +Yarra Banks: 303, Northcote Cherry Jam: Cherry Bar, Melbourne The Lovely Days + The Avenue: Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy Wind It Up with +Kane Strang + Ferla + Longterm Romance: Northcote Social Club, Northcote

WINNER’S

First Annual Australian Americana Honours Night with +Bernard Fanning + Busby Marou + Kasey Chambers + Shane Howard + Catherine Britt + Henry Wagons + Emily Barker + Ruby Boots + Kevin Welch + Jordie Lane & The Sleepers + Old Crow Medicine Show + Valerie June: Thornbury Theatre, Thornbury

‘Unknown Pleasures’ & ‘Closer’ performed in full by+Peter Hook & The Light: Corner Hotel, Richmond

A Day On The Green feat. +Elton John + Busby Marou + Chris Watts: Rochford Wines, Coldstream

THE

Trio Agogo

It’s Ago-Go It’s all go at Wesley Anne with Trio Agogo coming out to share their beautiful music. They will play all the Brazillian hits on Friday. Free in the front bar.

Rack Jones + The Slingers + Four in the Morning: The Workers Club, Fitzroy

Emily Wurramara

CORNER The Corner Awards are back to celebrate talented, hard working outfits for the second year — and you can’t fault their taste. The 2017 nominees are… Airling Jack River Orb The Beautiful Monument All Our Exes Live In Texas Jade Imagine Power The Teskey Brothers Cable Ties Jazz Party Rolling Blackouts CF Two People Darcy Baylis Jesse Redwing RVG Two Steps On The Water Emily Wurramara Mall Grab Southern River Band Wallace Gabriella Cohen Manu Crook$ Stella Donnelly Winston Surfshirt Habits Oh Pep! Terry Yirrmal For more info about the artists in the running, head to corneraward.com

Seattle: Tramway Hotel, North Fitzroy Moulin Beige: Wesley Anne, Northcote

Stefano Mangiola Duo: Open Studio, Northcote

THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017 • 39

AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE

8–10 DECEMBER Palais Theatre Presentation licensed by

40 • THE MUSIC • 27TH SEPTEMBER 2017

BOOK NOW MSO.COM.AU