12.07.17 Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Sydney / Free / Incorporating
Issue
197
11–17 SEPTEMBER 2017 ON SALE MONDAY 17 JULY
KEVIN BRIDGES
JOEL McHALE
13 & 14 SEPTEMBER SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, CONCERT HALL
RHYS DARBY 18 AUGUST • ENMORE THEATRE
15 SEPTEMBER SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, CONCERT HALL
MY FAVORITE MURDER
11 SEPTEMBER • ENMORE THEATRE
GAD ELMALEH 18 & 19 SEPTEMBER • CITY RECITAL HALL
BERT KREISCHER 13 SEPTEMBER • ENMORE THEATRE
ON SALE MONDAY 17 JULY
TOFOP HOSTED BY HOST
DAVE HUGHES H 16 SEPTEMBER SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE
WITH WIL ANDERSON & CHARLIE CLAUSEN 15 SEPTEMBER SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, PLAYHOUSE
ON SALE MONDAY 17 JULY
CLAIRE HOOPER & MEL BUTTLE 13 SEPTEMBER SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, PLAYHOUSE
ON SALE MONDAY 17 JULY
THE LITTLE DUM DUM CLUB
14 SEPTEMBER SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, PLAYHOUSE
14-16 SEPTEMBER @ 7:15PM & 9:30PM • SOH, STUDIO
#jflsydney BOOK AT justforlaughs.sydney 2 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
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BASEMENT
THU 6TH 8PM
BASEMENT
FRI 7TH 9PM
“RIDE FOR RAIN” SINGLE RELEASE
SANCTUARY NIGHTCLUB PRESENTS: BASEMENT
WITH SUPPORT FROM “SCUM SHUVIT”, “DOWN FOR TOMORROW”, “DISCLAIMER”
SAT 8TH 8PM
HARDCORE PUNK NIGHT
WITH: “TWO FACED”,”THE CRAPENTERS”, “DIRTBAG”, “STRAIGHT TO A TOMB”, “SPEEDBALL”, “DECRIER”
LEVEL ONE
SAT 8TH 10PM
SANCTUARY IN JULY
SYDNEY’S PREMIER ALTERNATIVE CLUB NIGHT FEATURING BEST ALTERNATIVE DJ’S AND PERSONALLY RECOMMENDED BY IAN ASTBURY OF “CULT”
STEPH’S 21ST MOULDY MEME PARTY WITH DJ’S DANEJER, KENAZ, ALTERCATE, LITTLE RAVEN, ACIDTIXX
DREAMTIME EVENTS PRESENTS: LEVEL ONE
FRI 7TH 10PM
THE OFFICIAL NAIDOC AFTERPARTY
BASEMENT
WITH DJ’S TIKELZ, PETER GUNZ, AYCUZ, MC SUGA SHANE
SUN 9TH 5PM
NO QUARTER ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS:
STONE DEAF SUNDAYS
WITH “METAK”, “BLACK KNUCKLES”, “WILDHEART” (BRISBANE)
COMING UP
Thu 13 July: 8pm Basement: “We Are Not Robots” presents Rock Show with support from many special guests; Fri 14 July: 8pm Basement: “COFFIN” presents 11.5 Years On The Gronk with support from “White Dog”, “Flight To Dubai”, “Ebolagoldfish”, “The Culture Industry”, “The Darrens”; 10pm Level One: Freaquency Events presents Launch Party, Hardstyle, Reverse Bass, Raw, Hardcore, Psystyle, Freestyle, Hard dance, Psy trance with DJ’s Activist, Linxar, Rockit, Vendetta7, Darth Faderz, ToniQ, Re-Code, Kaptcha, Ajay, Telepathy; Sat 15 July: 8pm Basement: The Elements Of tech And Bass presents: The Elements Of Thierry, Drum’n’Bass/ Jungle party not to be missed; 10pm Level One: DeepSpace Sydney and ESF Records presents; Secret Obsessions feat: Renegade DJ (South Africa), Camila Concha (Columbia), DJ Batz, Professor Purn, Zac Slade, Penumbra; Sun 16 July: 5pm Basement: Generic Pop Punk with “Banter”, Oaks”, “Sixteen Days”, “Holding”, “Skank Daddy”
Broadbeach plus special guests
KASEY CHAMBERS TROY CASSAR-DALEY THE WOLFE BROTHERS - SARA STORER
JULY 28-30, 2017
SHANE NICHOLSON - TRAVIS COLLINS CAITLYN SHADBOLT - DREW MCALISTER - FANNY LUMSDEN TOMATO TOMATO - THE VIPER CREEK BAND - JETTY ROAD LACHLAN BRYAN AND THE WILDES - THE WEEPING WILLOWS AND MANY MORE
FREE EVENT broadbeachcountry.com
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 5
Music / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Race Against Russo
Michelangelo Russo & Hugo Race
Hugo Race and Michelangelo Russo are set to embark on a headline tour to support their John Lee Hooker tribute album, John Lee Hooker’s World Today. The pair will cover Hooker’s biggest hits when their tour commences on 11 Aug.
Broad City
Yas, Queen Before Broad City makes its glorious return for a fourth instalment of hilarity later in the year, Ilana and Abbi’s Season 3 shenanigans are heading to Stan. Pull a sickie and binge the entire series (so far) on 19 Jul.
Rise Against
I have seen SpiderMan rebooted more times than I’ve seen a police officer convicted for murdering a black person @amoudouNDiaye 6 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
All Rise Politically charged punk legends Rise Against have just announced their return to Australia for a seven-stop headline tour next February. California rock outfit SWMRS will be jumping on for the entirety of the Australian/NZ tour. Stay tuned for dates.
Arts / Li Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Credits
Publisher Street Press Australia Pty Ltd
Meg Mac
Mac Attack
Meg Mac’s debut album is right around the corner and the Aussie artist has unveiled a massive headline tour to celebrate. Her album Low Blows is out on 14 Jul, while her tour kicks off in September.
Group Managing Editor Andrew Mast
National Editor – Magazines Mark Neilsen Arts & Culture Editor Maxim Boon
Gig Guide Justine Lynch gigs@themusic.com.au Contributing Editor Bryget Chrisfield
Editorial Assistant Sam Wall, Jessica Dale Contributors Anthony Carew, Ben Nicol, Brendan Crabb, Carley Hall, Chris Familton, Daniel Cribb, Chris Maric, Christopher H James, Cyclone, Daniel Cribb, Dave Drayton, Dylan Stewart, Guido Farnell, Guy Davis, James d’Apice, Liz Guiffre, Mac McNaughton, Mark Hebblewhite, Matt MacMaster, Matt O’Neill, Melissa Borg, Mitch Knox, Neil Griffiths, Mick Radojkovic, Rip Nicholson, Rod Whitfield, Ross Clelland, Sam Baran, Samantha Jonscher, Sara Tamim, Sarah Petchell, Shaun Colnan, Steve Bell, Tanya Bonnie Rae, Tim Finney, Uppy Chatterjee
Melvins
Walk On The Melvins Side Melvins are back Down Under for a slew of shows in November. After releasing A Walk With Love & Death, the music veterans are ready to give Australia another dose of punk. LA’s Redd Kross are set to support.
Photographers Angela Padovan, Cole Bennetts, Clare Hawley, Jodie Downie, Josh Groom, Hayden Nixon, Kane Hibberd, Munya Chawora, Pete Dovgan, Peter Sharp, Rohan Anderson, Simone Fisher Advertising Dept Brad Edwards sales@themusic.com.au Art Dept Ben Nicol, Felicity Case-Mejia, Alex Foreman Admin & Accounts Ajaz Durrani, Meg Burnham, Emma Clarke accounts@themusic.com.au Distro distro@themusic.com.au Subscriptions store@themusic.com.au Contact Us PO Box 2440 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012
The Game
Suite 42, 89-97 Jones St Ultimo Phone: (02) 9331 7077 info@themusic.com.au www.themusic.com.au
Game Set Match
— Sydney
Westside Story marks The Game’s last album before his impending retirement from music, so it’s fitting that he has just announced his last-ever(?) tour of Australia. His farewell tour is set for September, with tickets on sale 10 Jul. THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 7
Music / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Riding In Cars With Boys
The Incredible Here And Now
The Incredible Here And Now, a play “about cars and boys and having to grow up too soon” is coming to Riverside Theatre on 13 Jul. The show will only be running until the 22 Jul, so grab your tickets ASAP!
Classic Throsby Playing sold-out shows back in March must have had quite the impact on Holly Throsby, as she’s planning a slew of solo gigs (her first since 2009!) around NSW from October through to November.
theMusic.com.au: breaking news, up-to-the-minute reviews and streaming new releases
Holly Throsby
49 The number of speakers added to BIGSOUND 2017 in their ridiculous second line-up announcement 8 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
Take Flight Samsung Galaxy S8 and Boiler Room have teamed up for an audio-visual feast like no other at a secret warehouse location TBA. Artists in attendance include Flight Facilities, Jacques Renault, Kllo and Adi Toohey, so RSVP for your chance to attend on 16 Jul.
Flight Facilities
Arts / Li Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture
Frontlash Eggscellent
Hole In One
Holey Moley
Dust off your tiny clubs, Holey Moley opened its doors at Newtown Social Club on 6 Jul. Having already made quite the impact on Melbourne’s bar scene, the new alcohol-serving mini-golf venue is sure to ruffle some feathers.
Tiny Little Houses
Your favourite burger bar, Mary’s, is now serving up breakfast. The Mary’s CBD store will be serving up everything from crumpets, pancakes and coffee, to (of course) a signature brekky burger.
Bookended
City of Sydney libraries for dropping all existing (and yet to occur) fines for their members. That’s right, you can now return that book that’s been on your shelf for three years without fear.
What’s In A Name?
Tiny Little Bins Tiny Little Houses are launching their latest single, Garbage Bin, at The Lansdowne on the 17 Aug. In the meantime, you can check out the accompanying video and rewatch it loads while you wait until the big night.
Backlash Hot & fresh
GOT Pay TV?
Game Of Thrones
Lashes
Shoutout to photographer Matt Warrell who will be henceforth known as Matt Walter after taking his wife’s last name after their recent nuptials.
Ladies and gentlemen, ratings juggernaut and pop culture phenomenon Game Of Thrones is finally returning to our screens for Season 7. If you haven’t done so already, mark 17 Jul in your calendars and strap yourselves in - winter has arrived.
Just when you thought everyone had calmed their farm on Ryan Adams, there’s a hot new beef to be had with Benjamin Booker laying into Adams over the weekend about his diva-like antics at a festival.
Yummy?
Have we really hit the point that we’re so content hungry we’ll watch baby showers on TV? Apparently so after the launch of Yummy Mummies...
Big Red Nah
Even The Wiggles aren’t safe from scalpers. The skivvy-sporting children’s entertainers recently spoke out against scumbags shuffling their tickets on at a hugely inflated prices. THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 9
Music
What, you weren’t in a family band growing up too? Este, Danielle and Alana Haim explain to Uppy Chatterjee that having Saturday family band practice was just the norm.
“I
t’s almost past my bedtime! I’m the grandma of the family; I go to sleep around 9pm. We need our beauty rest!” chatters Alana Haim, the youngest of the family. Sisters Alana (guitars and keys), Danielle (guitars, drums and vocals) and Este (bass) are all seated around the speakerphone tonight, sometimes speaking in perfect unison, sometimes calling out from a little farther away, but on the whole in a chipper, talkative mood as they divulge the details of their upcoming second effort, Something To Tell You. It’s a slog to tell them apart sometimes so we get the ladies to identify themselves when they’re speaking, but in their eagerness to speak, sometimes they forget and their voices blur into a collage of Californian accents. And it’s their upbringing in Los Angeles, California - and one key component of it - that has subconsciously coloured their euphoric ‘90s jam of a single, Want You Back. Like the lovechild of Hanson’s Mmbop and maybe a Spice Girls hit, the one-shot video for the track features the siblings cheesily sauntering, grooving and fingerclickin’ their way through the LA suburb of Sherman Oaks. The band boil the ‘90s vibes down to one thing: the radio. “I was born IN the ‘90s and I am a ‘91 baby. The ‘90s WERE my life,” admits Alana. “I think we were just really inspired by the music that we grew up with. We’re from LA, so all we do is listen to the radio. We have so many different radio stations - we have the pop stations, the oldies stations... [the
‘90s influence] must be subconscious at this point because we grew up in the area.” “Back in the day our family car was this van and we didn’t have a tape deck or CD player or an aux cable for that matter, way before aux cables existed in cars, so we could just listen to the radio,” Este describes. “So there were a lot of singalongs in the car, like your typical road-trippin’ family. That’s just what you did. Instead of I Spy, it’d be Let’s Listen To Donna Summer For A Minute.” Growing up in the back of said family van, the sisters travelled around LA to play a slew of charity shows with their mother and father in their family band, Rockinhaim. Their father Mordechai ‘Moti’ Haim was on drum duties while mother Donna took on vocals, the five playing charity shows, fairs and malls before the girls started a band of their own. Often they played charity gigs for people suffering diabetes - like Este, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at 14. “I think we grew up thinking that everyone’s family had a family band! So I just assumed - it was one of those things where my friends and I would be talking and they’d be like, ‘oh yeah, I’m going to the mall on Saturday,’ and I’d be like, ‘well, when are you fitting in family band practice?’” Este describes in hilarious detail. “They’d be like, ‘what... what do you mean family band practice?’ And I’d be like, ‘’Cause my family band practices on Saturdays.’ It was the most casual thing like, ‘of course, of course I have family band practice on the weekends.’ Then I quickly realised, I had a rude awakening, that no - just my family has a family band.” Led by eldest sister Este, middle child Danielle and “baby” Alana found their musical footing - and sisterly bond - going to gigs all around LA as soon as Este got her driver’s licence at 16. “Este was the oldest so we all kind of looked up to her music taste. Pretty much whatever Este liked, me and Danielle thought was really cool,” Alana remembers. “So when Este was 16, we would go to venues and we’d have to go to venues that were all ages and there was like, two, but we would go every weekend and see live music and it was kind of a huge part of our growth as sisters.” One of the others calls from the back, “Oh my gosh, now you’re taking me back!” “I think the first concert we all went to was a Rilo Kiley concert, which is Jenny
Lewis’ band. I remember seeing Jenny and being like, ‘whooooa!’ Like, jaw to the ground, in awe of this powerhouse woman playing music,” Alana details. This early introduction to Jenny Lewis would see Danielle start her musical career touring with Lewis and later Julian Casablancas as a guitarist. When the sisters finally decided to try writing a song together, they pulled the guitar their mum had been given at 13 into the living room. “This is not a story where we wrote our first song and it was the best song ever and it went straight on our playlist,” Alana warns. “It was a fucking awful song, it was not a good song. “When I think about the songs that we wrote, they weren’t good songs but we really just wanted to play live and see what it felt like just being a band. We played in LA for five years before we went to our first SXSW and in those five years we played every venue we could, any time; it didn’t matter if it was a square of concrete, or a stage, or a petting zoo, or playing at 2pm. It didn’t matter what show it was; if there was a stage, if there was an amp, we’d play.” Haim’s DIY attitude was pervasive - they ended up demoing their debut, Days Are Gone, on GarageBand, much of it going onto the final product. Danielle says they “love the way that it sounds” on GarageBand. “Some [GarageBand demos are] on this [new] record too,” she says. In contrast to the glistening Want You Back, Right Now is a slow-burner, which the girls released as a live video in late April. Featuring dueling drum solos from Este and Alana, Danielle says, “We wanted a song to build ... keep adding layer to layer to layer, then have this big moment. The concept was to have this big moment in the second verse then come down. We just wanted to write a really dynamic song.” Meanwhile, jazz-pop second single Little Of Your Love was created with help from Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij, a friend and producer on the album. “He was our biggest cheerleader,” Danielle tells. This July, Haim will return to Australia for Splendour In The Grass, the sisters name-checking The xx and Pond as bands they’re stoked to see. “We went on tour with Cameron Avery for a while and he is so talented. That was honestly the party tour,” Alana laughs. We joke that we’re glad we made a good enough impression for the girls to return, and one of them chirps, “The best impression! The best, best impression!” Who said that? They yell, “All of us! United!”
It didn’t matter what show it was; if there was a stage, if there was an amp, we’d play.
What: Something To Tell You (Polydor/Universal) When & Where: 20 Jul, Enmore Theatre; 21 Jul, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands
GIRL
POWER
When Haim aren’t gracing the stages of Glastonbury, Coachella or Splendour, they’re often seen on a certain superstar’s Instagram, Taylor Swift, at events like the Met Gala or Swift’s A-list Fourth Of July party. By association the Haim sisters also hang with many of Swift’s powerhouse female friends such as Ellie Goulding, Selena Gomez and Cara Delevingne. The ladies stay dutifully tight-lipped about Swift, only sharing, “She’s awesome, and we kinda do like what regular friends do! Whatever your friends do, we do too!” Well, we’re still waiting for our invite to the $30,000 per head Met Gala. Do they send each other silly memes and text messages? “Maybe not like send stupid text messages, but definitely like gifs.” Haim have also been seen chilling with Lorde, even covering a Sheryl Crow song together for VH1. All three express excitement for Lorde’s newest album, Melodrama. “We’ve heard all the singles, they’re so good! She’s so talented.” Being surrounded by so many successful female musicians, Alana says, “It’s really inspiring to see so many bands of women doing it for themselves and being CEOs of their company and unapologetic powerhouses in the music industry. It’s a VERY inspiring time to be a girl in music. There’s something brewing.” Danielle adds they’re currently loving Solange’s new record, A Seat At The Table, as well as Angel Olsen and CHVRCHES. THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 11
Music
Mac & Cheese Cyclone has a chat to Australian songstress Meg Mac about the production behind latest release Low Blows, and the cathartic nature of songwriting.
M
elbourne soulstress Meg Mac (aka Megan McInerney) has long been hailed as a ‘next big thing’ in Australia and the US. Now she’s delivering a rootsy debut album, Low Blows. And, auspiciously, McInerney describes it as “the next chapter of me.” McInerney is an inherently grassroots singer-songwriter. Raised in an Irish-Australian family, she was exposed to folk and legacy soul - Sam Cooke a childhood favourite. The Sydney-native studied music at the Western Australian Academy Of Performing Arts. On graduating, she coyly uploaded songs composed on piano to triple j’s Unearthed platform - the ensuing praise culminating in her winning 2014’s ‘Unearthed Artist Of The Year’ award. McInerney signed to the independent LittleBIGMAN Records, her eponymous EP revealing a modishly glitchy cover of Bill Withers’ ‘70s classic Grandma’s Hands. She’d be nominated for two ARIAs. Meanwhile, McInerney generated
If I’m struggling with something, or feeling something strongly, I’ll write about it.
buzz Stateside, where she’s gigged extensively since 2015’s SXSW. Hip hop mogul Lyor Cohen nabbed her for 300 Entertainment. McInerney’s pop(ular) single Roll Up Your Sleeves was even synced for the hit TV show Girls. Still, McInerney received the greatest validation when she supported neo-soul icon D’Angelo as he toured North America behind his #BlackLivesMatter-themed Black Messiah. “He’s really nice,” she drawls of their exchanges. McInerney closely observed the Virginian live. “I feel like I just soaked it all up - and I got so inspired... I think the biggest thing was probably his interaction with the audience. You can really feel how powerful his music is and how much it means to the audience. It wasn’t just them watching him as a singer on stage. It was like this magic thing that just happened in the room and everyone was a part of it. Every night was special.”
12 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
McInerney has an aura of bashfulness, being a reticent interviewee. Yet, creatively, she is boss. McInerney lauds her indie status - she’s free of commercial “pressures”. If Low Blows has taken ages, it’s because she sought the “right” (read: empathetic) collaborators. Though McInerney had previously recorded with M-Phazes, she decided to hire the US crew Niles City Sound - comprised of former White Denim members Josh Block and Austin Jenkins, plus Chris Vivion. She’d admired their production on Leon Bridges’ Coming Home. Initially, McInerney travelled to Fort Worth, Texas for a day to “test out” the musicians’ vintage studio. “We recorded one of my songs live to tape,” she recalls. “I’d never heard my voice on tape before - and that whole experience of playing live, it’s a live band, it was so much energy. That’s what got me really excited - and that’s why I ended up making my album with them. I think working with them definitely has influenced the sound of the album.” Ironically, McInerney penned the LP’s title-track (and lead single) back in her Melbourne bedroom as a reminder to be assertive. “I’m a pretty quiet person,” she shares. “Sometimes, when I really need to say something or speak up for myself, I just say nothing - and then later I’m like, ‘Ohhh.’” Indeed, McInerney’s lyrics are largely confessional - and cathartic. “A lot of the songs are really personal to me or from my point of view and about how I feel,” she notes. “I guess each song is kinda a bit different, but [it’s] usually something I’m dealing with. If I’m struggling with something, or feeling something strongly, I’ll write about it. It helps me to get through it or to understand something or let it out. So most of the songs have some sort of emotion, ‘Meg emotion’, attached to them.” Oddly, Low Blows manages to evoke both Adele and Courtney Barnett. Contemporary R&B (and soul) is predominantly electronic - and, as such, old school purists have welcomed McInerney’s organicism. However, she’s reluctant to participate in any cultural debates about music. “I tend to always love vocals and singing and the feeling of a song - and the song,” McInerney states. “If I feel like it’s a cool song, or if there’s an attitude to it, that’s what I react to more than maybe the stylistic stuff.” In fact, she doesn’t necessarily classify herself as ‘soul’. Lately, McInerney has been listening to Father John Misty - and the perennial Bob Dylan (“I really like his songwriting and how he can tell a story”). Brisbane’s Grace Sewell - aligned with RCA and residing in the US - has struggled to break through without an in-depth Australian success story. In contrast, McInerney is adamantly, and wisely, retaining her local base. As it happens, this festival regular will return to Splendour In The Grass fresh from another international jaunt. “I just live to do shows - and that kinda keeps me sane,” she enthuses. “I write songs so that I can sing them. When I don’t get to sing them, it feels really weird.”
What: Low Blows (EMI) When & Where: 23 Jul, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands; 22 Sep, Enmore Theatre
ORLD FAMOU EW S TH
SHO WCASE
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 13
Music
UBER
Looking Inwards
BLOOPER Cast your mind back to 2014, back to a time when few people had heard of Uber. I know, it’s almost impossible to imagine, but indeed, there was a time when Uber was just a teeny tiny baby bird of an app and technically what it was doing was just a little bit illegal. Now, most of us have better things to do with our time than kicking up a stink about easily accessible, cheap, pleasant transport – with complementary water and mentos, obvs. But not so for Russell Howarth, a cranky Sydney-based vigilante who decided to hail Uber drivers on his Uber app, take a ride with them and then perform a citizen’s arrest for breaching the NSW Passenger Transport Act. We shit you not. Needless to say, this fucked Uber right off, and if you come for Uber, Uber is coming right back for you, mate. Uber brings the PAIN! In April, Howarth was slapped with a restraining order, permanently banning him from harassing Uber drivers, followed by an order to cough up 60% of Uber’s legal fees – a bill running up to about $400k. Now that’s justice as swift as a promptly arriving Uber driver. Being the legal beagle he clearly believes himself to be, Howarth represented himself in court, so at least he saved a few pennies there.
14 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
WAAX frontwoman and songsmith Marie DeVita tells Steve Bell how a subtle shift in writing approach has paid handsome dividends.
R
ising Brisbane rockers WAAX have made a huge sonic progression with their second EP Wild & Weak, taking their distinctive brand of melodic punk-tinged indie-rock to a whole new level. Teaming up with Brisbane/LA producer Miro Mackie (Major Leagues, Jeremy Neale), the recently reconfigured WAAX sound far more ambitious and assured than on 2014 debut EP Holy Sick, an evolution frontwoman/ chief songwriter Marie DeVita largely attributes to a new range of influences. “I think we wanted something really contemporary, and something really angular,” she reflects. “We wanted to have a bit more of a post-punk influence for this record, so that informed a lot of the writing and production. And also just experimenting a lot - I think we really wanted to find our sound and really hone in on it. “We take a lot of inspiration from bands like Gold Class and even local Brisbane bands like DZ Deathrays and [Violent] Soho - just anything really. We were always just looking for a contemporary sound, and I was really inspired by Kurt Vile’s latest record [2015’s B’lieve I’m Goin’ Down...] as well - when he put out [lead single] Pretty Pimpin’ I remember thinking, ‘I want to write a song like that!’ Then I started thinking, ‘Okay, maybe I’m ready to start singing about
more internal issues and what I’m going through’, so it was a bunch of things.” The lyrics on Wild & Weak are indeed extremely personal, far different in tone than prior WAAX missives. “It’s the most personal thing I’ve ever done,” DeVita affirms. “The last record was very external and about wanting to change the world and all this stuff, but this record’s more about how I want to save myself from going insane, and I want to find a way to overcome this. “I had a lot of personal issues that came up in-between the records - especially with changes in line-up and problems in my personal relationships - and I went down a bit of a spiral, so I thought I’d document it with this EP. Each song represents a stage that I went through in that process, and the whole EP’s kind of a diary and a story with each track as a chapter. “Moving away from what I felt comfortable was difficult, but we were doing so many different things that it just came out naturally. I was singing more, I was feeling comfortable with my vocals and with my songwriting, plus I felt like I had a lot more to give on an emotional side. “I really wanted to show that sense of vulnerability because I think it’s a completely different side of my personality - a really vulnerable side - whereas on the last record I put up a more tough exterior. It was something that needed to happen, and I think it’s helped form more of our story.”
What: Wild & Weak (Independent) When & Where: 12 Jul, Beach Road Hotel; 13 Jul, Proud Mary’s, Erina; 14 Jul, Brighton Up Bar; 15 Jul, Rad Bar, Wollongong
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 15
Music
Catfish If You Can Catfish & The Bottlemen were always destined for greatness, although, as frontman Van McCann tells Anthony Carew, they already knew that.
“W
hen we first started,” recounts Catfish & The Bottlemen frontman Van McCann, “the van broke down at the side of the road. We were sat there, talking to each other, and to pick each other up we were like, ‘mate, we’re going to be selling out big arenas in fuckin’ Australia in a couple of years, let’s not worry about this! We’re gonna be sweet!’” When Catfish & The Bottlemen began, in Llandudno, Wales, McCann was 14. He’d grown up in Widnes, before his family moved to Wales. They were all Irish and musicians (“my grandad’s nearly 90, and he’s on tour in Ireland as we speak, playing fiddle”), so the young
We wrote a plan like we were writing a film. And it’s all played out the way we thought it would.
McCann was fed his namesake - Van Morrison, the Chieftains, and the Dubliners - from birth. A childhood love of The Beatles, Kinks, T-Rex, and The Doors led to an adolescence in thrall to Oasis, Arctic Monkeys, Sterephonics and Kings Of Leon. “I always loved [music],” McCann says. “The way that, if you’re havin’ a lousy day, you can put a tune on and make you feel class.” Like “that kid who’s just got into football, and wants to be a footballer [who’s] kickin’ a ball up against the wall all day, and when their mum says ‘come in for your dinner!’ they stay outside, still kickin’ a football”, McCann would spend all day on his guitar. He started writing “poor” songs at 13, but, by the time the band began a year later, he already was turning out songs that’d end up
16 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
on Catfish & The Bottlemen LPs. “I’d play them and people would be like: ‘Kid, you’re fucking ace! You’re mint!’” McCann recalls. “Everyone around us could see we were lovin’ it, they encouraged us. So we just threw ourselves into it. We found a new way of life: we’d write these songs, get in the van, drive around the country, and play ‘em, even if there was nobody there, or if it was sold out. We never played a gig where we didn’t think we blew the place away. We’ve felt like we’ve always been good... Me and the lads have been doing this for ten years, and we’re still coming off stage, side by side, buzzin’ every night, laughin’ our heads off.” McCann has reason to laugh. After Catfish & The Bottlemen’s debut, 2014’s The Balcony, cracked the UK Top 10, their second record, 2016’s The Ride, went to #1, and #6 in Australia. He’s about to head to Moscow to play with Richard Ashcroft (“never been, mate, I’ve only seen it in the Rocky films”), before playing a headlining show for 35,000 people in London. After returning to Australia for Splendour In The Grass and more arenasized shows, they’re supporting Green Day on a stadium tour in the US, “we’re doing one at the Rose Bowl, in Pasadena in Los Angeles, which is like where the fuckin’ Stones play. It’s just a mad feelin.” Anyone else in McCann’s shoes might find the whole thing surreal. But the 24-year-old - who enthusiastically offers “I love this business [the music industry]” - sees all this as the natural evolution of his band. From the very beginning, before their tour van ever broke down on the side of the road, Catfish & The Bottlemen were conceived with grand ambitions. “We wrote a plan like we were writing a film. And it’s all played out the way we thought it would,” McCann offers. “It’s nice for your folks to see you sat there as a kid in your backyard saying ‘don’t worry about me, I’m gonna do this, go here, have a #1 album, get a Brit award’. It’s weird to have said something out loud, then have it play out exactly as you said it would.” The band are keeping their nose to the grind, too: their forthcoming album is already done, the rest of their 2017 is filled with shows, and there’ll be no downtime. “There’ll be no disappearin’ and coming back, no stoppin’ and having those big long breaks where you have to grow beards and change your sound and all that. We’ve never done anything different from the start. When we write songs, we always just do it by: ‘Is it hittin’ you? Is it proper hittin’ you? Does it feel like it’s pinnin’ you to the back wall?’ That’s the way we do it. I just love playin’, and writin’ fuckin’ massive tunes. So, we’re just gonna keep plowin’ through. The next album’s in the back pocket. It’s class. We’re already plannin’ next year, plotting with management. It’s only gonna get bigger, mate. We feel like we’re just getting’ warmed up, like we’re still in second gear. There’s a lot there for the taking. We’re just gonna carry on. Keep smashin’ it.”
When & Where: 22 Jul, Splendour In The Grass, North Byron Parklands; 23 Jul, Hordern Pavillion; 25 Jul, University Of Wollongong
- WEDNESDAY JULY 19TH -
F REE
8P M- EV ERY W ED
SAM SPARRO ROLAND TINGS (DJ SET) ELKI Viberia Bernie Dingo Hobophonics
W W W. B E A C H R O A D B O N D I . C O M . A U THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 17
Opinion
For The Love Of Hate
“I
We’re living through the golden age of schadenfreude, but can something that feels so right actually be doing our society wrong? According to Maxim Boon, yes it can. Illustrations by Felicity Case-Mejia. To read the full interview head to theMusic.com.au
can stop anytime I want.” That’s what I told myself. “I’m in control here, I make my own decisions.” How wrong I was. It started innocently enough — the odd YouTube video of someone falling over, an occasional titter at a celebrity scandal or two. But then things started to get out of hand. As the world slowly stumbled to the right, as the new normal of politics was warped into a funhouse mirror of oh-no-he-di’nt absurdity, I became well and truly hooked on the hard stuff. Now I’m ruled by it — I can’t stop myself and I know I’m not alone. My name is Maxim Boon, and I am a schadenfreude addict. But then again, who isn’t? If you’re not familiar with those four foreign syllables, you should be. Schadenfreude — a handy compound adjective gifted to the world by the Germans — describes that thrum of smug, lip-smacking satisfaction when something unfortunate happens to someone else, especially those with an overabundance of elite, arrogant bravado. This is nothing new, in fact humans are universally hardwired to take pleasure in the misfortune of others — if democratic morality is an invention of the intelligent mind then schadenfreude is surely the amoral compass of our lizard brains. We find it enshrined in virtually every culture since the dawn of civilisation. It’s the bedrock of spectator sports, celebrity gossip and our baser modes of entertainment, from Greek theatre to bawdy Shakespearian comedies, vaudevillian slapstick to contemporary stand-up. With the advent of media sharing sites came the birth of the fail video, and as the countless millions of views racked up by these delicious morsels
Donald Trump
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of schadenfreudery delight prove, humankind just can’t restrain its glee at the ball-busting, belly-flopping, face-planting comeuppances of others. As the proverb tells us, pride comes before a fall, and most of the time, that’s a relatively harmless thing. But as the geopolitical landscape has been shattered along the fault lines of opposing ideologies, as grandstanding populism by cartoonish, buffoonish neophytes has stirred-up a cauldron of bile that routinely boils over into toxic Twitter streams, as the chasm between left and right has widened to an unbridgeable abyss, old mate schadenfreude has turned from a pleasant pastime to a global epidemic. Herein lies the rub: the business of government deals with the fates of millions controlled by the decisions of a few. Despite our subjective gratification, the fluffs and fumbles of a handful of political boogiemen can often mean objectively terrible consequences for many, many ordinary folks. Schadenfreude is an almost reflexive response, a knee-jerk beyond our conscious control. But in a world where social media portals have become open manholes to a river of unfiltered, opinionated shit, reactions that might have remained safely locked away in our skulls, now flow freely into the world. As expressions of schadenfreude pour forth, it emboldens the like-minded, and thanks to the likes of Donald Trump, Pauline Hanson and Nigel Farage, the volume of polarising events primed for schadenfreude is at an all-time high. It would be oh so convenient to lay the blame for this entirely at the Trump White
Katie Hopkins
Opinion
As schadenfreude is increasingly fuelled on an industrial scale by media on left and right sides of the political purview, its toxic influence is becoming more and more invasive. House’s door, but while there is certainly a correlation between Donald’s rise to power and the spread of this psychological rot, it is, in fact, an ecumenical crisis. As Exhibit A, I submit myself into evidence. Over the past 18 months or so I have cemented a daily ritual. As soon as I wake up, before I’ve bid good morning to my partner, before I’ve taken a piss, brushed my teeth or even set foot out of bed, I immediately reach for my phone. I follow the bookmarked links to several news sites to get my first fix of the day, with the heady anticipation of the dumpster-fire of right-wing gaffes I will be greeted with. I greedily hoover up news items, opinion pieces, and live blogs, hungry for any and all details from the sushi-train of political blunders that give me that schadenfreude high. Big deal, you might say, but the problem arises when you boil this routine down to its constituent emotions. It is, of course, entirely expected that supporters of right-wing politics should feel happy about the rhetoric of rightwing politicians. But in our golden age of schadenfreude, the left-leaning are reflecting that same happiness, as they bask in the naked idiocy of the political farce, luxuriating in the yummy, yummy outrage. Like many,
Milo Yiannopoulos
I experience genuine disappointment if there isn’t a juicy scandal in the offing, and this is a fact that’s powering a radical change in the media. As current affairs have become the most binge-worthy form of entertainment, the news media has pounced on an opportunity to cash in on our schadenfreude addiction, flooding the airwaves and crowding the internet with tailor-made articles designed to feed our habit. If schadenfreude really was a drug, the news editors of the world would be the Heisenbergs. Such is the potency of the schadenfreude effect, it has given a troubling level of kudos to a particularly odious breed of journalist. The rankest pundits of the alt-right, prepared to put their by-line to opinions so eyewateringly sick-making they’d make Joseph Goebbels blush, have reached rock star levels of celebrity — or more accurately, infamy. These individuals boast a necrotic mix of narcissism, shamelessness and ego, brazenly flaunting their right to free speech while spewing hate tarted-up as commentary. But perhaps their most dangerous alignment is an insatiable need to be in the spotlight at any cost, coated in a thin, tenuous gloss of middle-class intelligence.
In their assaults against political correctness, these commentators play chicken with the public appetite for ever more shocking conservatism, pushing the extremes of their ugly message to breaking point, and sometimes beyond that. Breitbart’s now disavowed wunderkind, Milo Yiannopoulos, only fell from favour after casually advocating for child sex offenders. The Daily Mail’s resident harridan of hate, Katie Hopkins, was finally scolded (although she kept her job) for evoking Nazism in a tweet calling for a “final solution” to Muslim extremists. And yet, those writers willing to be the chum tossed into the media feeding frenzy are intentionally baiting readers across the political spectrum — any reaction less than a total, face-cracking, pearl-clutching blitzkrieg would be deemed a failure. As schadenfreude is increasingly fuelled on an industrial scale by media on left and right sides of the political purview, its toxic influence is becoming more and more invasive. Even as Trump launches attacks on the “fake” media, he is simultaneously ensuring his longevity in the headlines. Even as Pauline Hanson’s corrupt wheeling and dealing is smeared across the tabloids, her isolationist goals are still given oxygen by the attention. What was once an amusing sideshow of implausible clowns has become the main event. The world is enthralled by this political circus, but even after Trump’s demise, our addiction to the entertaining spectacle of super-charged schadenfreude will no doubt have altered the mechanics of power for the foreseeable future.
Pauline Hanson
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 19
Music
Trump Dumped In Viral Spiral
It wasn’t the first time a journo said an unkind word about Donald Trump, and it sure as shit won’t be the last. But for a few brief moments, as the G20 summit came to a close, Australian political pundit Chris Uhlmann unleashed a glorious torrent of face-melting criticism so deliciously brutal, the whole world clutched their god damn pearls! Speaking to ABC’s Insiders from Hamburg, Uhlmann’s wrap on the two-day meeting of major world leaders became the TV News equivalent of that time Tyra Banks got really pissed off on America’s Next Top Model. “He was an uneasy…” BOOM! “… lonely…” BOOM! “awkward figure at this gathering and you got the strong sense that some of the leaders are trying to find the best way to work around him. He has no desire and no capacity to lead the world.” BOOM BOOM BOOM! And Uhlmann didn’t stop there, oh no. That, friends, was the kind bit. “Donald Trump is a man who craves power because it burnishes his celebrity… He barks out bile in 140 characters and wastes his precious days as President at war with the West’s institutions like the judiciary, independent government agencies and the free press.” As if the ‘FINISH HIM’ cue had flashed up on this Mortal Kombat style report, Uhlmann signed off with: “Donald Trump has pressed ‘fast forward’ on the decline of the United States as a global leader. He managed to isolate his nation, to confuse and alienate his allies and to diminish America.” Drop the mic. Flip the table. Uhlmann out.
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world. And, then, we ended up doing that. [This album], there’s a lot of songs about geography and movement and travel, the experiences of doing that and how that effects your life, we’re talking more about that in the songs.” After Japandroids broke out with their 2009 debut, Post-Nothing, the duo have spent most of their lives travelling. King grew up in tiny Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island on Canada’s Pacific Coast, a place that was “very isolated and very small”. But, in the past decade, he’s been all over the world; playing not just through North America and Europe, but in Asia, Australia, and South America. It was all that touring that contributed, in part, to the five years between their last two albums; Near To The Wild Heart Of Life taking long enough to be called a ‘comeback’ album. “Five years seems like quite a long time, but we were busy that whole time,” King states. “There was no comeback. I understand that to an outsider it might seem like we went away. I think part of that is that we don’t have a particularly heavy online presence. We don’t really do social media: I’ve never had a Facebook page, never been on Twitter or Instagram; I’m just not that interested in having that be how I spend my days. While I understand the importance and practicality of having that with the band, I always appreciate it when we can preserve a little bit of distance, and a bit of mystery. So, when people say to me ‘you’ve been gone five years’, I say: ‘Well, we played 300 shows around the world, then wrote and recorded a new record; is that really being gone?’”
King Of The Non-Comeback
Japandroids’ Brian King catches up with Anthony Carew on everything from Trump’s America to the band’s seeming fiveyear disappearance.
B
rian King, guitarist/vocalist of Canadian rock duo Japandroids, has spent the last three years living in Mexico City. Given that his “life revolves around the two countries that border America”, King has taken the rise of Trumpism hard. “The Peso tanked when Trump was elected, and that has a tangible day-today effect on people’s lives here in Mexico,” he offers. “It makes things that aren’t from here more expensive, it makes travelling more expensive, and it makes things of value, here, worth less.” King moved to Mexico City between the release of Japandroids’ second LP, 2012’s titled Celebration Rock, and their third, 2017’s Near To The Wild Heart Of Life. With a continent’s distance suddenly between he and drummer/vocalist Dave Prowse who’d spent 20 years living in the same city, from Victoria to Vancouver to Toronto - the working ways of Japandroids were suddenly starkly different. “It had a very profound impact on the way that we wrote songs,” says King, “And it also had an impact on the kinds of things we were writing about. A lot of the songs that we wrote in our early days were part of this idea of living in the same city and wanting to break free of it, to get out and see the
When & Where: 14 Jul, Factory Theatre; 15 Jul, The Small Ballroom, Newcastle
Music
What A Wonderful World Anthony West and Josephine Vander Gucht of Oh Wonder chat about the band’s accidental inception, the weirdness of their rise to fame and touring life with Anthony Carew.
“I
think the technical term is ‘fake it ‘til you make it’,” deadpans Anthony West. He’s one half of English electro duo Oh Wonder, a band who, at conception, was never meant to be a band, let alone a wildly successful one. “It began as purely a writing idea,” explains Josephine Vander Gucht, Oh Wonder’s other half. “We came together for songwriting, building a portfolio of songs that we could present to other artists, labels, managers, and say ‘hi, we’re a writing duo, we’d love to write with your artist’. The whole thing was conceived from a behind-the-scenes perspective. There wasn’t any intention of going on tour
There wasn’t any intention of going on tour or making albums. That’s all been a total accident...
or making albums. That’s all been a total accident... When strangers ask ‘what do you do?’ and I say ‘I’m in a band’, that still feels alien to me.” When the pair decided to upload their first song, Body Gold, online in 2014, everything changed. “It immediately started resonating with people on this unexpectedly global level,” West recounts, “we [were] getting messages from people in Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Australia. Within the first week, we knew we’d latched onto something different and more exciting than anything we’d ever done.” “Normally when you’re in a band,” Vander Gucht offers, “you’re sending the [Soundcloud] link around to all your family and friends, saying ‘Please listen to my song! Let me know what you think of it!’ You’re hoping you’ll get, like, 50 plays out of it. But with [Body Gold], we didn’t tell
anyone about it, we just uploaded it. And it was going into the hundreds of thousands of plays in the first few days, which we thought must’ve been a mistake. It felt like such a fluke, compared to everything else we’ve ever done. But, it just continued to happen that way. So, immediately we knew that [Oh Wonder] was different to anything else we’d ever done before.” From that auspicious beginning, they’ve felt as if Oh Wonder has had its own momentum. “It feels like it’s constantly pulling us, we’re never pushing it,” West says. “It doesn’t feel like we’ve been in charge of anything,” says Vander Gucht. For the next year, they released a song a month; cuts they recorded on a computer, in a studio space they’d built in a granny-flat at the bottom of the garden at Vander Gucht’s parents’ house. The songs would, eventually, add up to the self-titled Oh Wonder LP; the duo estimating that they spent £400 on the entire thing. “We never felt like we were making an album,” Vander Gucht says. “There was no self-awareness. There was no plan.” Despite being conceived with no great ambition, Oh Wonder’s 2015 debut cracked the Top 20 in Canada, and hit #26 in the UK. With its successes, the pair hit the road, hard. This was natural for West, a born traveller whose childhood was split between the Isle Of Man, Canada and England, and involved an annual trip to Australia to visit relatives. Vander Gucht, however, is a homebody, a lover of routine, more used to spending days in her parents’ garden. “Touring is very alien to me, and I’m still learning to deal with everything it entails,” Vander Gucht says. This includes moving in a gang, and effectively relinquishing your privacy for extended stint. “The 12 of us,” West says, of Oh Wonder’s touring party of musicians, managers, and sound techs, “we all wake up together, we’re all travelling together. You’re experiencing these emotional highs and lows together. These aren’t the people that you love, they’re not your close friends or family, it’s this weird little community united by the band.” Dealing with life on the road — “we love touring, but it’s not our natural habitat,” says West — became a key theme for the second Oh Wonder album, Ultralife. The follow-up to their self-contained debut pushes into bigger things: it was half-written in New York, partly recorded in things ‘proper’ studio, and is built on live takes featuring the a ‘prop band’s touring drummer. “We had the opportunity to put project in a whole new place, both figuratively and this pr physicality,” Vander Gucht says. physic “The overarching theme” of Ultralife, Vander Gucht “T offers, “is the extremes of emotion that we all feel as human-beings. Feeling invincible one day, then completely trapped and isolated the next... That’s what touring is for us. Touring is the perfect environment for an emotional roller coaster. You’re experiencing the highest highs: performing songs that you’ve written for thousands of people in a foreign country is ridiculously incredible. But, then you’re back on the bus, in your pyjamas, eating tortilla chips covered with cheese that you’ve made in the microwave. And, that happens on a daily basis. We’re always trying to work our way through that, and make sense of that.”
What: Ultralife (Dew Process/Universal) When & Where: 26 Jul, 170 Russell
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 21
Music
Giant, If True The Jungle Giants’ Sam Hales shares with Jessica Dale why album number three has changed everything.
F
or Sam Hales, The Jungle Giants third album always needed to be something different from their first two — what he didn’t expect was that his whole working philosophy would need to shift to make the change. “The process was completely different. That kind of shaped everything else to change. I would say more time and thought went into everything but with a more relaxed attitude. In terms of the process, I started doing nine to five, as opposed to writing here and there,” Hales explains.
I was being easier on myself. Just kind of getting back to playing around. It made me really happy.
“I kind of reshaped how I write and that changed how I look at things, in turn, it changed how much I output as well. What I was doing was I was starting at the same time every day and working on a song until I didn’t know where to take it. “I also screwed off that idea that it’s ‘delivered down to you’ from some exterior source. For me, I fucking hate that. I used to definitely think that was the case, and so I was less responsible for my own output, so I could be like, ‘Oh, fuck today then because nothing is coming to me,’ but then in terms of how I matured was like, ‘Well, I’m responsible for what I’m putting out so if it’s a shit day at least I’m doing something.’ “I was just able to push it every day, and then even if it was for nothing, I was being easier on myself. Just kind of getting back to playing around. It made me really happy.” 22 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
Quiet Ferocity marks another change for Hales. This time ‘round he took total control and took to the producer’s chair for the first time. He enjoyed the process so much that he now wants to work with other groups. “Yes, I would love to do that! I love that. Heaps of my favourite bands, writers, they do their own production. You can always tell, too. Chairlift’s Patrick Wimberly, I love that guy because he’s an awesome writer, awesome producer, then he does this really cool thing for other bands. It’s not always specifically what he would do for Chairlift but you can tell there’s an angle he’s bringing. I like that. “What it used to be was all writing for me then I would think, ‘Aw, screw the production, that’s just another thing.’ But then after a little while, I realised that it has to be happening at the same time for what I want to be doing now, or else it’s just all up in the air. “It took me a while to figure out how to slow down, so I could just be like, ‘Oh well, I know this song needs this ride sound.’ But in the past I would be like, ‘I’ll just do that later.’ But then now it’s like, ‘I have to do the ride sound because it’s going to dictate what’s the next part,’ and so I love that and that’s just another thing that I love doing now.” Hales and the band will be taking Quiet Ferocity on the road this August and September. Previous tours weighed on Hales heavily during the recording stage, as he tried to create an album that translated just as well live as in studio. “We’ve already started rehearsing it and it is freakishly easy for some reason, which feels weird to say. It feels like I’ll jinx it. “Every record we do, it’s then like you just have to go figure it out again, but with this one there was one thing I had in mind when I was writing it. A lot of the production I was influenced by was from writers that condense, you could have like 15 guitars but actually you can make one guitar louder and more effective, so playing with that idea about just condensing things and maybe just say, ‘What’s the thing that’s making all the things good?’ And then slowly starting to take out the things that don’t. “It’s all seemed to work and click and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a big shit fight. Like with Speakerzoid, we had to add a touring member. And for the first record, we just had to figure out how to do anything,” he laughs. “But then with this one, it’s more just, ‘Aw, cool, we have the set-up, it’s perfect, we just have to learn the parts properly.’”
What: Quiet Ferocity (Amplifire Music) When & Where: 25 Aug, Enmore Theatre
Theatre
Independent Women Playwright Patricia Cornelius offers Maxim Boon a starkyet-poignant window into the lives of the SHIT women of Australia’s underclasses.
P
laywright Patricia Cornelius can boast many notable creds. She’s been awarded a string of awards for her theatre, including Australian Writers’ Guild awards, the 2011 NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Drama and a sizable haul of Green Room Awards. Her plays have also consistently earned critical praise from both the arts media and theatre professionals. However, it’s another more dubious honour that, until recently, stood Cornelius apart from many of her theatre-writing peers as the nation’s most accomplished playwright never to have been presented by Australia’s biggest theatre companies. The paradox of why such a decorated writer should be neglected by the country’s top presenters is easy enough to trace. For 30 years, Cornelius has used the theatre as a political pulpit, championing the stories of those living on the fringes of our society and challenging the apathy and social ignorance of the ruling classes. A brilliant, fiercely uncompromising polemicist, Cornelius has always maintained her belief that theatre should not merely be entertainment for the affluent. It’s a position that has put her theatre at odds with the accessible programming strategies - and the often hefty ticket prices that go with them - found at many state theatre companies. Fortunately, this is a value shared by Australia’s independent theatre scene. One of the biggest successes of the 2016 Green Room Awards, the Susie Dee-directed production of SHIT, which scooped four gongs including the award for Best New Writing, opens its fourth encore season at the Seymour Centre after two runs at Fortyfivedownstairs in Melbourne and a subsequent run at this year’s Sydney Festival. It tells the story of three women on the fringes of society. Foul-mouthed, downtrodden and discarded, these hard-faced females believe they’re scum and that their lives are meaningless.
The most important thing for me is to write without considering who I might be writing for.
But does that mean that they - as living, thinking, feeling people - are entirely without value? Gender is a subject Cornelius has explored thoroughly in the past, most notably in Savages, her examination of the persistent misogyny that exists in contemporary Australia loosely inspired by the death of cruise liner passenger Dianne Brimble in 2002. But through her uncompromising portrait of urban femininity in SHIT, Cornelius sought to address a corner of our modern gender stereotypes that has rarely come under the spotlight. “I had felt for a long time that women in the theatre had been silenced because we’d apparently had our day, we were over the gender divide and should be content,” she notes. “So I felt like there was an opportunity to go back to this topic, but through the most powerful lens I could think of: these three dreadful women.” Spelt out deliberately in capital letters, the pungent strength of the play’s provocative title is anchored to its intellectual nucleus, Cornelius explains. “One of the direst statements about women is that we’re shit; and we’re not shit, of course we’re not. But if you’re treated in that way, then you begin to behave in that way. So I became really fascinated with this idea, especially the notion that these women could and do exist. They’re not the kind of women you would ever see in a theatre, but they are women that we see on the street, and who we openly hate, and from a theatrical perspective I found that intensely exciting.” Within the independent theatre scene, Cornelius has long been recognised as one of our most important talents, but she has finally caught the attention of the state-funded Melbourne Theatre Company who announced Cornelius last month as one of the playwrights commissioned through the $4.6 million Next Stage Writers’ Program. It’s a change in fortune that’s left Cornelius in a reflective frame of mind. “It’s fantastic to be allowed to write something entirely of my liking, nothing attached,” she offers. “But my heart is with independent theatre. It’s always been the vibrant heart of the theatre world because it cares about the substance and not the context. The most important thing for me is to write without considering who I might be writing for. Because I don’t - I just write.”
What: SHIT When & Where: 18 - 29 Jul, Seymour Centre THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 23
QUEER + CABARET + EXORCISM created and performed by tom christophersen July 27 + 28 + 29 7pm @ Gallery, Bondi Pavilion tickets $20 bondifeast.com.au/businessunfinished
24 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
In Focus M a r y ’s CBD
Pic: Sam Brumby and Hollywood
Mary’s CBD is here to save all of our hopeless hungover souls with the launch of their brand new breakfast menu. Between 6.30am — 10am Monday to Friday, Mary’s is offering up a range of glorious food to soak up last night’s bad decisions, and Loggerhead Coffee Co will be serving up your choice of caffeine until 2pm to sort you out for that arduous afternoon grind.
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 25
Bondi Feast Bondi Feast
Business Unfinished
Answered by: Tom Christophersen What is unique about your Bondi Feast event? Lip sync, installation, occult ritual and live song mix together to create a queer theatre experience that is terrifying one moment, hilarious the next. What first stood out to you about this show? Business Unfinished feels like an Australian horror movie, packaged as a video clip and performed as a drag show — without the drag. This blend of mediums spoke to me as an unusual combination for a Sydney theatre audience, and is the perfect way to share my ghost stories. As a performer do you have a pre-show ritual? I warm up to Tool, sing a playlist of songs to warm my mouth up, I salute the sun, I txt my Mum, I drink water and smoke cigarettes, and envision the whole show in my mind — in fast forward — and I’m executing the performance with ease and energy. What do you love about Bondi? I love the lonely feeling the beach has at odd times of the night. Who else are you excited to see at Bondi Feast? Harriet [Gillies] and Pierce [Wilcox]’s show They’ve Already Won — we’ve performed our shows in the same festival season in the past so these two feel like family. I’m also looking forward to The Ethics Of Paediatric Haircut For Long Hair. The line-up for this year is stunning and is a who’s who of makers you should be watching in Sydney.
Bomb Collar
Answered by: Nick Delatovic What is unique about your Bondi Feast event? Bomb Collar imagines what pop concerts will be like in the post-apocalypse. Short answer — hilarious, brutal and oddly moving. What first stood out to you about this show? No matter how bleak the dystopian future is there will still be popular entertainment. Bomb Collar is a direct attempt to imagine how that entertainment might work, and like all great sci-fi it does so by mirroring the pop culture of today. As a performer do you have a pre-show ritual? My entire sound and light show is built into my costume, so my preshow ritual involves a good deal of being plugged into a wall charger! Also listening to Tina Turner’s We Don’t Need Another Hero; the ultimate postapocalyptic anthem. What do you love about Bondi? This will be the most time I’ve ever spent in Bondi so I’m excited to immerse myself in its charms! Who else are you excited to see at Bondi Feast? Apocalypse Fatigue is the perfect companion show to Bomb Collar, I’m so pumped for it. I can also highly recommend Animorphed and They’ve Already Won, plus I’m excited to also be performing in Aerobicide: Feel Better.
The Ethics Of Paediatric Haircut For Long Hair
They’ve Already Won
Answered by: Antoinette Barbouttis & Isobel Yeap
Answered by: Harriet Gillies & Pierce Wilcox
What is unique about your Bondi Feast event? This is our first play. Antoinette has worked in theatre as a designer and Isobel is a doctor who writes very niche film reviews.
What is unique about your Bondi Feast event? Um, Harriet Gillies and Pierce Wilcox full stop! If that’s not good enough then be quiet and eat the free Mars bar you get at the end.
What first stood out to you about this show? This is a difficult question to answer because we wrote the show, but what we really love about the show is that its focus has been driven by form — something that is often unseen in written Australian Theatre. Narrative is only subsequent, and meanwhile characters have been developed.
What first stood out to you about this show? Harriet: What first stood out? Well, I made it so... everything? Pierce: Harriet was spending a lot of time on social media in a Third World country. She felt weird and bad — hence the show. I think my dancing stands out to everyone. From a distance. It burns so bright.
What do you love about Bondi?We grew up in this area, and love Bondi to Bronte walk. The SupremeXLouis Vuitton popup has caused Antoinette’s inner hype-bae to emerge. Who else are you excited to see at Bondi Feast?Oh, so many things! Tom Christopherson is one of the most honest practising artists. Business Unfinished (what a team!), MKA’s The Eternity Of The World (Parts Missing) and By My Brother’s Gun. I (Antoinette) want to give a shout out to these specific artists for their support. They encouraged me to tread new ground and held my hand emotionally. The art goes hand in hand.
As a performer do you have a pre-show ritual? Harriet: I put on headphones and rap in the mirror like Eminem does in 8 Mile. Eminem is pretty much my spirit animal. Pierce: We are both good rappers.I like Iggy Azalea’s Mo Bounce. What do you love about Bondi? Harriet: Can we just do a string of ocean emojis? Wave emoji, that’s my truth. Pierce: I get a lot of reading done on the bus ride. Who else are you excited to see at Bondi Feast?Tom Christophersen is our unproblematic fave and we’re psyched to see him get spooky with it in Unfinished Business. Simon Vaughan’s show Animorphed is gonna rock our childhoods. The Eternity Of The World (Parts Missing) is made by a cool queer lady and a guy on the terrorist watch list. It sells itself. Also all the hot audience members.
Bondi Feast Bondi Feast
Pussy Play
For Love Or Money
have been loving too. And as a performer, I just love being on stage with the other three girls. They’re hilarious and so talented, and we have so much fun!
together. It’s 2017 — it’s time for the ‘Revulvalution’.
Answered by: Strawberry Siren What is unique about your Bondi Feast event? It’s not every day you get to make a plasticine pussy with a group of strangers. What first stood out to you about this show? My cousin Rural Ranga contacted me wanting to create a show that’s fun, playful and educational. We decided to get people to understand the female anatomy, so you get to make a pussy out of plasticine and practice techniques
As a performer do you have a pre-show ritual? I’m usually making plasticine, doing this with Britney Spears pumping in the background.What do you love about Bondi? Skinny dipping at the beach with my goji smoothie.
Answered by: Jane Patterson
Who else are you excited to see at Bondi Feast? Clara Cupcakes’ The Worst. I missed it at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival so it would be great to see it.
What is unique about your Bondi Feast event? We sing completely a cappella, and our humour is pretty quirky. Add some badass girl power, and you’ve got one unique show! What first stood out to you about this show? I’m really proud of how we have created four strong, distinct female characters in this show, and that’s something audiences
I D N BO T S A E F18-29 July A festival of COMED THEATRE, MUSIC & F Y, OOD AT BONDI PAVIL ION bondifeast.com.au
As a performer do you have a pre-show ritual? I slap on a face, go over our opening dialogue, and make multiple trips to the toilet. Sometimes I do some high kicks to get myself pumped up. As a group, we always do a team hand stack right before we go on stage. What do you love about Bondi? We’re from Melbourne, so we can’t wait to soak in some of those Bondi rays! Who else are you excited to see at Bondi Feast? Tessa Waters and Clara Cupcakes!
TIX $10
c ic “An eclect un fortnight of f n er.” and wond
OPINION Opinion
Trai ler Trash
Jay Z
Get It To g et her Hip Hop
T
here was a time when Jay Z was the best rapper in the world. No joke! He managed to traverse With James the territory between hipness and commercial success; he was mainstream and countercultural. He D’apice threatened retirement on 2003’s Black Album but he’s managed to resist the urge. In the following years, few realistically challenged his status as best rapper alive. Weezy? Andre 3000? Eminem? 50 Cent for the split second he mattered? Maybe, but none quite matched our J-Hova. The decline followed, as is inevitable. Magna Carta Holy Grail (2013) and its awful branding collaboration with Samsung, was the nadir for some. Blueprint 3 (2009), the nadir for others. Whatever the watershed moment was, Jay Z has faded as a cultural force and is now better known for his choice of streaming service to run, than he is for bringing us his genre-shaping debut Reasonable Doubt. Now, we have 4:44. Wait, sorry: now those of us who have access to the right streaming service have 4:44. The reviews are warm, but there’s no one with an opinion worth stealing who’d suggest Jay Z is anywhere near poised to come back for a second reign. A minor redemption would seem fitting for the man who won our hearts all those years ago. But, as a cultural force, time’s up.
Wa ke The Dead
Incendiary
Punk And Hardcore With Sarah Petchell
N
ow that we’re halfway through the year, it might be an idea to recap some of the excellent punk and hardcore releases that have been getting some high rotation in my world over the last six months. First and foremost is the new Mindsnare album Unholy Rush. It came out of nowhere: for the lucky few who got their hands on it first, it came with two 7”s that were available to pre-order. It then got a general release
28 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
Geostorm
a little over a month later and proved to everyone why Mindsnare are the best at what they do. Thousand Mile Stare by Long Island hardcore outfit Incendiary is the first straight-up hardcore album Wake The Dead has been obsessed with in a fair while. It’s lyrically political (in the best sense of the word) and musically engaging. The vocals have changed a little since 2013’s Cost Of Living, but Incendiary have improved. While not strictly punk or hardcore, Algiers’ The Underside Of Power is definitely a record to check out. Vocally, it sounds like gospel or Motown, but musically there are so many influences at work that it’s hard to pin down what they actually sound like. Punk and hardcore are definitely in the mix, though. And there’s still more to come. Comeback Kid have released a new track, which will be on their forthcoming album Outsider. The track is called Absolute and features Devin Townsend (of all people) doing guest vocals. Perth’s Cursed Earth will release Cycles Of Grief Volume 1: Growth in August, which will definitely make my bestof-the-year list.
OPINION Opinion
Dives Into Your
M
uch like Fifty Screens And Shades Of Grey bondage Idiot Boxes enthusiast Christian Grey, Trailer Trash’s With Guy Davis tastes are very singular. And while they don’t run to bringing all manner of kinky accoutrements into the bedchamber, they are, one might say, just as shameful and therefore not up for discussion in one’s semi-regular magazine column. But we now live in the era of full disclosure, where it is mandatory to fly your dirty laundry as proudly as you would your freak flag, so allow this columnist to try to explain why, in a year full of miracles and wonders on screens big and small, I am extremely hyped for a motion picture titled Geostorm. There was once a time when a movie marketed as ‘years in the making’ meant that a great amount of painstaking effort was going into every conceivable detail of the production. Nowadays we know that actually making a release date is the goal of many a big-budget blockbuster and is frequently preferable to making a good movie. Reshoots are generally regarded as part of the process, even though they sometimes signal that things may have gone off the rails (just look at the recent kafuffle with the Han Solo project), but when a movie begins production in 2014 and is only just now getting ready to surge into cinemas? Well, that hints that said production has jumped the tracks and is now heading full-tilt towards a kindergarten. Geostorm was never gonna be a gold medallist. I mean, it was co-written and directed by the half of the Independence Day team that’s not Roland Emmerich (Dean Devlin) and its leading man is Gerard Butler at his beefiest and sweatiest (which, if you’ve caught the recent oeuvre of Mr Butler, is really saying something, although I for one eagerly welcome the actor’s ongoing shift into Oliver Reed/Richard Burton hambone territory). And as far as Trailer Trash can discern from its trailers, it has something to do with futuristic weather-modulating satellites causing planetary superstorms after being hijacked by some nefarious bastards, meaning that Butler has to pull off some kind of tricky combo of system hacking and manual repair IN SPACE! Meanwhile, Butler’s little bro Jim Sturgess has to KIDNAP THE PRESIDENT assisted by his sexy Secret Service agent gf (Australia’s
own Abbie Cornish, who really deserves better) in order to get the secret codes Butler needs to hack the satellites. All of this while the whole world is getting smacked around by some really inclement weather. HOW ARE YOU NOT LINING UP FOR THIS RIGHT NOW? Geostorm seems to be a movie out of time. (It’s hitting our screens around October.) After all, we’re still aware that climate change is probably gonna be the thing that fucks us all up in the end. But in the time between this movie beginning production and getting a release, the most prevalent threat to the planet and everything on it has become... well, in a word, Trump. (Effective shorthand for a dangerous combo of ideology, ignorance and rapidly dwindling standards. And that’s the end of the sociopolitical commentary for today.) Quite frankly, meeting our maker at the hands of a monster tsunami, as depicted in Geostorm, seems downright quaint when stacked up against the current options for our collective demise. Plus, you know, Butler just might save the world in at least one of these scenarios.
FILM FESTIVAL Submit your short environmentally-themed films before 31 July for your chance to be selected to screen at the Footprints Ecofestival on Sunday 27 August.
There are loads of great prizes up for grabs, such as: vouchers for photography equipment, bicycles, movie tickets and more.
ENTRIES CLOSE 3 1 J U LY 2 0 1 7 More information at: footprints@innerwest.nsw.gov.au or call (02) 9367 9381 www.innerwest.nsw.gov.au/footprints-films
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 29
Album / E Album/EP Reviews
Album OF THE Week
Waxahatchee Out In The Storm Merge
★★★★½
Katie Crutchfield’s strike-rate is something of a marvel. Exceptionally prolific but remarkably consistent, Crutchfield’s songwriting hasn’t even faltered throughout the runaway success of her most celebrated and scrutinised project. If anything, Waxahatchee has only grown more ambitious and rewarding with every release. Out In The Storm continues that streak. Easily the project’s most polished effort, their fourth album was largely tracked live with Crutchfield’s collaborators under the ears of veteran alt-rock soundman John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth) and sounds absolutely beautiful. A remarkable evolution, given the bedroom studio of the project’s first effort.But, in a testament to Crutchfield’s unflappable songwriting, Out In The Storm retains the bruising honesty and intimacy of the band’s rawer recordings and performances. It’s a truly expressive piece of work. Whether awash with distortion and drums in stellar single Silver or floating on a tidal swell of organ in Recite Remorse, it’s an album that swings and moves with true feeling. Crutchfield’s collaborators (which include sister Allison Crutchfield and Sleater-Kinney’s touring guitarist Katie Harkin) are commendably tasteful in their contributions. There’s a great, shuddering sense of space to Sparks Fly, but this never overwhelms the song’s hook.In short, it’s another high watermark from an artist who probably owes the world a dud. Matt O’Neill
The Kite String Tangle
Meg Mac
The Kite String Tangle
EMI
Low Blows
★★★½
Exist. Recordings
★★★★ For an artist who emerged from the notoriously eclectic and spontaneous group Pigeon, The Kite String Tangle’s Danny Harley has always been remarkably precise in his work. In some cases, almost overly so. While understandably widely embraced, Harley’s early solo work seemed almost too delicate and beautiful; bordering on fragile.But his long-gestating debut solo album redresses that potential shortcoming. While equally as considered and precise as his early successes, The Kite String Tangle has a beautiful undercurrent of business ebbing and flowing beneath Harley’s golden vocals. It was hinted at in single The Prize — which moved from a stripped-back pulse into a blissful explosion of shivering electronics with each chorus 30 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
— and the album’s remaining tracks deliver on that promise. Harley has a knack for crafting irresistible, unique grooves from small fragments of colour and percussion. Combined with his yearning vocal style and an eclectic sense of dynamics, this creates an album that’s simply a joy to explore. Opener Waiting has a clean, UK-funky snap to its old-school breakbeats, but Know By Now is decorated with Floydian/Flaming Lips textural flourishes. It’s a record that’s consistently surprising but never jarring.One of the best Australian electronic albums in some time. Matt O’Neill
Meg Mac, aka Megan McInerney, seems to have been on a constant upswing since Every Lie snagged triple j’s Unearthed Artist Of The Year in 2014. Her debut EP got a Best Female Artist nod from the 2015 ARIA Music Awards, the same year that McInerney toured the US with D’Angelo, and she’s definitely aiming higher again with her debut LP. Track Grace Gold makes an instant impression with a mix to match McInerney’s impressive vocal - driven by chest-rumbling drums and bass and shot through quick electric stabs of funky guitar. It would almost be enough to make you wonder how close this album was to being named after the opener if the subsequent title-track Low Blow wasn’t packed with all the same qualities in equal measure.
They are both mega catchy and, most importantly, big without being bombastic. It’s a quality that McInerney has shown from the start and she seems to have just about perfected at Niles City Sound in Texas, showing the confidence and experience to rely on her abilities instead of trying to blow them out of proportion. McInerney keeps delivering on all the neo-soul promise of those first two singles - if this isn’t the cut that makes her an international household name the one that does likely won’t be far off. Sam Wall
EP Reviews Album/EP Reviews
Frankenbok Vicious, Lawless Fair Dinkum Records
Charles Jenkins & The Zhivagos
Oh Wonder
The Vamps
Ultralife
Wake Up
The Last Polaroid
Dew Process/Universal
EMI
Silver Stamp
★★★
★★★★
★★★
★
Perhaps formerly among the most derided of Aussie metal acts, Frankenbok have ignored the sniping and noisily plied their trade for 20 years. Only a couple of original members remain, however, the Melburnians’ modus operandi (hard-hitting grooves, a sizeable leaning towards thrash and occasionally death metal) packs a sonic gut-punch. Some tracks struggle to differentiate themselves from one another and Vicious, Lawless proves a few genuinely incisive hooks shy. Overall the album’s done and dusted in just 34 aggressive minutes, thus, a track like Fuck Off Or Destroy’s as subtle as the title suggests. Ugly, bare-knuckled fare with zero pretension, the ‘Bok can still ock.
Although he often goes off on interesting tangents (like albums built around a 20-piece string section or historical anecdotes about Melbourne), former Icecream Hands member Charles Jenkins here offers a collection of his classicist pop that occasionally longs for simpler times and technologies (such as the instant photographs of the album’s title and the venerable TDK D90 cassette of No Electronic Devices). Elsewhere, there’s the nearperfect suburban romanticism of Barkly Square, the wry self-cautionary tale of Everyone Loves Me and the closing Winter Ball — where sometime Zhivago Davey Lane (yes, the You Am I one) offers a splendid Brian May-inspired spiral for the guitar break.
British baby-faced popsters The Vamps are back with their second album and while their vocal talents can’t be faulted, squeaky-clean production has once again clearly been at their disposal. Whatever additional touches the four lads might have brought to the table have been smothered by Wake Up’s awful lyrics and mundane song structures, then smeared with character-less varnish. The self-titled single is anthemic and probably the most easily digestible, then the ridiculously worded Volcano follows (“Give me a tear drop/I’ll give you an ocean”) and it’s one quick descent into hell from there. One-dimensional at best just about sums up Wake Up.
Brendan Crabb
Ross Clelland
Ultralife is the second album from London-based alt-pop duo Oh Wonder. Josephine Vander Gucht and Anthony West’s voices combine seamlessly on each and every track, complemented by the familiar musical sound that helped earn them their large following — warm analogue synths mixed in with some live instrumentation, driving keys, solid beats and clean production. Album highlights include quirky, upbeat High On Humans; hauntingly beautiful, pianocarried My Friends; and building album-closer Waste. With their eloquence and knack for brilliantly simple and catchy melodies, Vander Gucht and West further prove that together they’re a force to be reckoned with.
Carley Hall
Madelyn Tait
More Reviews Online Integrity Howling, For The Nightmare Shall Consume
theMusic.com.au
Dear Seattle Dear Seattle
Listen to our This Week’s Releases playlist on
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 31
Live Re Live Reviews
Grinspoon @ Enmore Theatre. Pic: Jodie Downie
Grinspoon, Hockey Dad, Good Boy Enmore Theatre 6 Jul
Grinspoon @ Enmore Theatre. Pic: Jodie Downie
Grinspoon @ Enmore Theatre. Pic: Jodie Downie
Steve Gunn @ The Basement. Pic: Angela Padovan
Steve Gunn @ The Basement. Pic: Angela Padovan
Grinspoon @ Enmore Theatre. Pic: Jodie Downie
32 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
Enmore Theatre is the venue (and a great one at that) for the passing of the baton in Australian rock tonight. And with strong sets from Good Boy and Hockey Dad, Australian rock is in good hands for the future. Brisbane’s Good Boy deliver an excellent set of slack, garage-rock tracks that are relatable without being too angsty before Illawarra’s Hockey Dad, with just two of them, rock out hard in their surfrock style. Their quirky humour plays out well on stage as lead singer and guitarist, Zach Stephenson, forgets a bridge and Billy Fleming, the crazygood hard-hitting drummer, makes sure we all know. “I’m not even drunk!” Stephenson exclaims before continuing, “We’ve got a new record coming out, but no one here gives a fuck.” I think we actually do. They are great fun to watch. Playing albums in full may be a gimmick, but it’s a great gimmick, especially when it comes to Grinspoon’s debut, Guide To Better Living. It’s an album that represents the time, a rough and raw pub-rock/punk sound that defined a fresh style in the late ‘90s. Frontman Phil Jamieson is in a great mood and fine form. Having been through a horrid patch in his life, it’s great to see him enjoying himself in front of all his mates, on stage and off. The shortness of the tracks on this album makes its replication all the better. Pressure Tested kicks it all off — fast, raw and visceral — and then they flow straight into a trio of hits: Grinspoon’s Unearthed alumni track Sickfest being the highlight with its monumental
The band perform Guide To Better Living to perfection, sounding better than they ever have.
opening riff. The band is extraordinarily tight having come off a lengthy hiatus — Joe Hansen, on bass, stalks the stage while Pat Davern holds down the guitar solos for the majority of the album. The band perform Guide To Better Living to perfection, sounding better than they ever have. After a short break, Jamieson appears at the sound desk to present the acoustic secret track, Protest. It’s a nice touch. Jamieson doesn’t talk much, he doesn’t need to; except to say, “We never in our wildest dreams thought we’d be here.” They belt out a greatest-hits selection of the rest of their catalogue to a sweaty, adoring crowd: Ready 1, Lost Control, Hard Act To Follow — they’re all there. More Than You Are finishes the night proving that Grinspoon still have it. We should be demanding new music from them, because Grinspoon are in their prime. Mick Radojkovic
eviews Live Reviews
Pallbearer, Illimitable Dolor, Hashshashin Manning Bar 4 Jul
Sydney prog metal wizards Hashshashin (Persian for “assassin”) opened and, as usual, their set was too short. Their mathematical arrangements have many hidden avenues to explore, but their impressive technicality never feels sterile and their use of Middle Eastern sounds as a fulcrum never feels like a gimmick. It was a reliably great spot; evocative and intensely invigorating.
They were content to pound us into submission through riffage. Illimitable Dolor (dolor is Spanish for “pain”) were far more straightforward. They were content to pound us into submission through riffage and while they had the conviction, they lacked panache. Arkansas doom lords Pallbearer were a towering presence, a force to be reckoned with that eclipsed their previous show in every way. With new material and an energised approach, the group left very little room to breathe. At less than a dozen songs, each track boasted enormous reserves of power and the stamina and control involved in maintaining such a colossal, inhuman noise while still retaining their trademark lucidity was impressive.
One of the best metal gigs of the year so far from a band truly in their prime.
The band have ripened with age. They arrived with confidence in 2012 (Sorrow And Extinction) and since then they’ve built up their skill set, honing their harmonies and opening up their melodic structure while still fully embracing their doom heritage. Vocalist Brett Campbell has never sounded better. His pitchperfect falsetto is one of metal’s most underrated assets. The mix respected this and gave us full access to his agile keening. Opening with Thorns (a track boasting an unusually light clip), they ploughed through several dramatic minutes of chewing granite before dropping the mic with a devastating rendition of The Ghost I Used To Be. It was astonishing. They covered a good portion of their career (Fear And Fury and Worlds Apart stand out) and left without an encore (in true style). Thus ended one of the best metal gigs of the year so far from a band truly in their prime. Matt MacMaster
Steve Gunn, Angie The Basement 6 Jul Up first, Angie (Circle Pit, Straight Arrows) entranced the sparse-but-attentive crowd with songs from her current solo album Shyness. With just a Roland piano and her melancholic voice, she built
songs that wove in and out of moody melodies and quietly insistent chords. It was quite ethereal stuff that found a fine balance between a low-key meandering aesthetic, and a unique and complete style. Hypnotic music can take many forms: it can be ambient and soothing, heavy and droning or purely fuelled by repetition. Steve Gunn sits right at the nexus of all of these and he took The Basement audience on a varied and dextrous musical journey.
The exceptional music and consummate playing alone was a transportive experience.
effects that added another dimension to the music. There were exquisite moments aplenty and a number of segues between songs that were impressively subtle and seamless, generating wideeyed ripples of applause as the audience cottoned on that they were now immersed in a new song. Gunn’s voice is a key part of his sound, it has been for a few albums, but it rarely deviates from the same honeyed tone, peppering short phrases and thoughts throughout his mind-expanding instrumental excursions. The audience response between songs was reverential and enthusiastic, and although Gunn had little in the way of stage banter or stories, it didn’t matter all. The exceptional music and consummate playing alone was a transportive experience. Chris Familton
Gunn unassumingly moved about the stage, setting up his acoustic guitars and minimal pedals before giving the thumbs up, quietly greeting the room and easing into Old Strange from his 2013 album Time Off. It was like gently opening a door to another world. Slightly mystical, pastoral and calming like a plaintive dreamscape. Lilting acoustic notes gently cascaded in small flurries, Gunn’s fingers always in perpetual motion. Wildwood and the title track off Way Out Weather showcased his more traditional folk playing while (from his most recent record) we were treated to Ancient Jules, Night Wander and Park Bench Smile — songs that took on psych and drone elements with occasional
THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 33
Arts Reviews Arts Reviews
as a matchmaker. The plot revolves around her hapless efforts to match her best friend Harriet to a succession of mismatched contenders. The dialogue is sharp, witty and imbued with commentary on the mores of the time and the timeless imperfections of the human condition. Adapting any novel — let alone one by Austen novel — to film or stage is always tricky. Although rich in dialogue, Austen’s novels are invariably crowded with characters and meticulous detail. For Whalan to have staged so many Austen adaptations is no mean feat. Keeping faithful to the original material is obviously important — especially for an Austen aficionado — and Whalan has retained much of the plot and text of the book. However, sometimes this may just be at the expense of a smoother audience experience. Reading about complex family and friendship connections, and the intrigues of a town is one thing, but listening to it is another. The first ten or 15 minutes of the play suffers a congestion of information provided through long, rapidly delivered monologues. It’s a lot to take in and perhaps some theatrical devices could be explored to help deliver the information in a way that doesn’t require so much mental rigour from the audience. Once all of the characters have made their appearances and the plot starts unfolding, the play becomes more entertaining. Many among the cast have performed together before and as such they have a natural rapport on stage. Each one of them is, at the very least, adequate; some are more than that, but one who is undoubtedly destined for greater things is Emma Wright in the lead role. From the moment Wright steps out from the wings she is mesmerising. Confident and convincing, Wright has a clear, strong voice and an almost supernatural presence onstage. It’s not overstating the fact to say that Wright is the gravitational core of the play. Emma
Emma Theatre Until 19 Aug, Genesian Theatre
★★★ This is the fifth adaptation of a Jane Austen novel by noted member of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, Pamela Whalan. Prior works, Mansfield Park, Sense And Sensibility and Pride And Prejudice, have also been staged by Genesian Theatre company. Emma is a quintessential Jane Austen novel replete with 19thcentury society archetypes among whom Austen mischievously places misfits, oddities and gentle rebels. Emma, the central character, is a young lady who belongs to the upper echelon of a very class-driven society. She is naive, impetuous and intrusive, deluded about her intuitive powers and skills
Rita Bratovich
34 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Film In cinemas now
★★★★ After 15 years, five solo movies, one scene-stealing supporting appearance and three actors donning the skin-tight spandex suit, it’s safe to assume we’re all up to speed with our friendly neighbourhood SpiderMan, correct? We know the origin of the Marvel Comics superhero — nerdy high-schooler Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider that passed on its array of arachnid abilities. We know what motivates him — Parker’s beloved Uncle Ben, who told Peter that “with great power comes great responsibility”, was shot and killed by an armed robber. Spider-Man: Homecoming, the latest movie to feature the wisecracking web-slinger, knows that you know this and as such is free to shift its focus to a part of the character’s life only briefly explored in the previous films. That is, how a teenager with more enthusiasm than expertise when it comes to his new superhuman powers learns to wield them wisely without harming anyone, including himself. What’s more, ...Homecoming offers a refreshing alternative to the majority of superhero movies by positioning itself as a high-school comedy with the spirit of John Hughes, Back To The Future and the much-loved TV series Freaks And Geeks in its veins. Don’t worry, action fans, our hero gets into his fair share of scrapes as he takes on a ruthless arms dealer. But while these scenes are exciting in a competent kind of way, the real enjoyment is watching Spidey navigate the world of superheroism... and Parker navigate the even more treacherous world of adolescence. It’s a charming detour of sorts, even in a year that has seen superhero stories move in a variety of new directions. And much of its appeal stems from young UK actor Holland in the lead, bringing an earnest, enthusiastic, bumbling and bewildered authenticity to a character. Guy Davis
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THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017 • 35
Comedy / G The Guide
Wed 12
Dope Lemon
Rhys Nicholson + Luke Joseph Ryan + Mates: Bank Hotel (Waywards), Newtown
SOSUEME feat. Dope Lemon + Jack Beats + WAAX: Beach Road Hotel, Bondi Beach
Two Door Cinema Club
Jordan Kenny + Dande & The Lion + Linc Phelps: Cronulla RSL, Cronulla Craig Calhoun: Frankie’s Pizza By The Slice, Sydney
The Music Presents Two Door Cinema Club: 21 Jul Hodern Pavilion The Lemon Twigs: 22 Jul Oxford Art Factory Sigur Ros: 25 Jul Hodern Pavilion Vera Blue: 28 Jul The Academy Canberra; 29 Jul Metro Theatre; 31 Aug UniBar Wollongong; 1 Sep The Beery Terrigal; 8 Sep Bar On The Hill Newcastle Sarah McLeod: 24 Aug Factory Floor Sydney Guitar Festival: 23 27 Aug, Various Venues Dan Sultan: 28 Sep The Academy Canerra; 29 Sep Bar On The Hill Newcastle; 30 Sep Metro Theatre At The Drive In: 29 Sep Hodern Pavilion Vintage & Custom Drum Expo: 8 Oct Factory Theatre Alt-J: 9 Dec ICC Sydney
Luke Collings & Greasy Lake + Mysterious Universe + Alister Marshall: Gasoline Pony, Marrickville Me Last & The You Can Have Its: Hamilton Station Hotel, Islington Still Got The Blues - The Gary Moore Experience: Heritage Hotel, Bulli The Locals: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville In The Round feat. Taryn LaFauci + James Morrison + Hayley Lyon + Leroy Lee: Leadbelly (formerly The Vanguard), Newtown Chris Cooke: Orient Hotel, The Rocks
Sour Tooth Dope Lemon (aka Angus Stone) dropped the bangin’ EP Hounds Tooth earlier this year, so if you’ve been itching to hear it live, head down to Sosueme at Beach Road Hotel. Support Jack Beats and WAAX guarantee a cracking night.
Thunder Fox + Breizers + Kimono Pool: Rad Bar, Wollongong The Teskey Brothers: Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst
Harrison Storm: Marlborough Hotel (Marly Bar), Newtown
Dope Lemon: Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle West
Steve Tonge: Observer Hotel, The Rocks
Michael Kopp: The Bourbon, Potts Point Joe Pug + Courtney Marie Andrews: The Bunker (FKA Coogee Diggers), Coogee
Chris Abrahams: Camelot Lounge, Marrickville
Lulo Reinhardt + Bart Stenhouse: Venue 505, Surry Hills
Michael Fix: Camelot Lounge, Marrickville
Leah Senior + Charm of Finches: Smiths Alternative, Canberra
John Chesher + Pete Scully + Gavin Fitzgerald + Paul B Mynor + Paul McGowan: Old Fitzroy Hotel, Woolloomooloo Greg Byrne Duo: Orient Hotel, The Rocks
The World Famous Comedy Store Showcase: Comedy Store, Moore Park
Castlecomer
Glenn Esmond: Fortune of War Hotel, The Rocks
Body Type
James Mustafa Jazz Orchestra: Foundry 616, Sydney Golden Age of Ballooning: Frankie’s Pizza By The Slice, Sydney The Drey Rollan Band + D Henry Fenton: Gasoline Pony, Marrickville Didirri: Golden Age Cinema & Bar, Surry Hills
Lower The Drawbridge
Jackie Brown Jr + Rachel Maria Cox: Hamilton Station Hotel, Islington
Castlecomer have ticked off SXSW and now they’re keeping it local at Hotel Steyne this Thursday. The Sydney-natives will be joined by the brotherly duo The Ruiins for a night of bluesy folk rock.
Russell Neal + Kenneth D’Aran: Harbour View Hotel, Dawes Point
Thu 13
Castlecomer + The Ruiins: Hotel Steyne (Moonshine), Manly Ladi6 + The Goods + Diola: Hudson Ballroom, Sydney Ainslie Wills + Merpire: Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale
Body Type have been scoring high profile support slots left, right and centre at the moment, and the latest to add to their repertoire are Japandroids. They’ll be wowing the crowd when the Vancouver-natives hit up Factory Theatre on Friday.
Wrong Direction: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville
Kitty Flanagan: Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, Bathurst
The Safety Of Life At Sea + The April Family + Crazy Old Maurice : LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville
Porch Light Sessions with Leroy Lee + Martha Marlow + Sam Newton: Petersham Bowling Club, Petersham
Casey Donovan + Joel Leffler: Brass Monkey, Cronulla
Kiara Taylor: Manly Leagues Club, Brookvale
The Cosmic Xpress: Play Bar, Surry Hills
Larger Than Lions: Marble Bar, Sydney
36 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
Body At Work
WAAX: Proud Mary’s, Erina
Gigs / Live The Guide
Drown This City
Bastille Day Celebration with Baby Et Lulu: Camelot Lounge, Marrickville
Mirella’s Inferno + The Grouches + Vinny Lunar: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville
Soul Nights + DJ Kitsch 78: Rock Lily, Pyrmont
Hello Tut Tut + Baltic Bar Mitzvah: Camelot Lounge (Django Bar), Marrickville
Hitmen DTK: Leadbelly (formerly The Vanguard), Newtown
Shannon Noll: Rooty Hill RSL, Rooty Hill
Henry Saxby: Campbelltown Catholic Club, Campbelltown
Casey Donovan: Lizottes Newcastle, Lambton
Jimeoin: South Sydney Juniors, Kingsford
Michael Kopp: Chatswood RSL, Chatswood
DJ Jack McCord: Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly
Cath & Him: St George Leagues, Kogarah
Finn: Chisholm Tavern, Chisholm
Brown Sugar: Marble Bar, Sydney
Cass Greaves: Surly’s, Surry Hills
Next Best Thing: Club On East, Sutherland
Bag Raiders + Polographia: Metro Theatre, Sydney
Remember the Time: A Tribute to Whitney Houston & Michael Jackson: The Basement, Sydney
Adrian Joseph: Ruby Hotel, Rozelle
Drown Your Sorrows
Khaled Khalafalla: Comedy Store, Moore Park
Melbourne post-metal outfit Drown This City have enlisted Save The Clock Tower and We May Fall to help them on their winter tour, which kicks off in Brisbane to promote their single Bend/Break. Catch them at Factory Theatre Saturday.
The World Famous Comedy Store Showcase: Comedy Store, Moore Park
Goodnight Japan + Louis Donnarumma + The Last Exposure + The Nah: Rad Bar, Wollongong Brown Sugar: Rock Lily, Pyrmont Georgia Fields + Phia: Smiths Alternative, Canberra Tom Redwood + Paul Mason + Luca Martellotti: Staves Brewery, Glebe Dean Michael Smith: The Bourbon, Potts Point Isabella Kearney-Nurse: The Foxtrot Inn, Crows Nest Jessey Napa + Jasmine Beth + Jowe E Blues: The Louis (formerly Lewisham Hotel), Lewisham DJ Graham M: The Newport, Newport
KP: Coolibah Hotel, Merrylands West Whelan & Gover: Crown Hotel, Sydney In Hearts Wake + Crossfaith + While She Sleeps + Polaris: Enmore Theatre, Newtown Japandroids + Body Type: Factory Theatre, Marrickville The Ahern Brothers: Flow Bar, Old Bar Glenn Esmond: Fortune of War Hotel, The Rocks Virna Sanzone: Foundry 616, Sydney Low Down Riders: Gasoline Pony, Marrickville Yes Commissioner: Grand Junction Hotel (The Junkyard), Maitland Sandie White + Esmond Selwyn: Hotel Blue, Katoomba Chase City + Marvell: Hotel Steyne (Moonshine), Manly West Thebarton (FKA West Thebarton Brothel Party): Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale
Adaptors: The Record Crate, Glebe The Double Up Lounge with DJ Dan Phelan: The Stag & Hunter Hotel, Mayfield
A Breach Of Silence: Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt Pirra + Doctor Goddard + MVRKS: Bank Hotel (Waywards), Newtown Fountaineer: Botany View Hotel, Newtown WAAX: Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst Australian Trilogy: Bull & Bush, Baulkham Hills
Cos + Zeek + Shots Fired: Oatley Hotel, Oatley
Law Of The Tongue + Bog + Wrong: The Basement, Belconnen
Peter Gabrielides + Benj Axwell: Observer Hotel, The Rocks
Onshore: The Beach Hotel, Merewether
Matt Lyon: Oriental Hotel, Springwood Slowdancer + Poppongene + Daggy Man: Oxford Art Factory (Gallery Bar), Darlinghurst
Cath & Him: Wentworthville Leagues Club (Wenty Lounge), Wentworthville
Toni Childs: Anita’s Theatre, Thirroul
Metro Theatre is the destination to be if you missed out on Splendour tickets and still want to see Bag Raiders. The Sydney duo, who just recently cracked the US charts with Shooting Star, will be jamming out on Friday.
Elevate + The Wizard of Oz Show: Orient Hotel, The Rocks
Thug Mills + Collapso: Vic On The Park, Marrickville
Jessica Says + Gussy + Sunscreen: 107 Projects, Redfern
Baggage Not Included
Ainslie Wills
Vanishing Shapes: The Temperance Society, Summer Hill
Fri 14
Bag Raiders
Eat Your Heart Out + Sundown State: Coogee Bay Hotel (Selina’s), Coogee
Just A Gent + Moza: Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst
Blame It On Ainslie Ainslie Wills is winning big this year. Besides releasing her new single Running Second and wrapping up a 20-date tour of the UK, the singer-songwriter has also snagged the supporting slot for George Ezra at the Enmore Theatre this Tuesday.
Vanishing Shapes + Witches Leap: Paragon Cafe, Katoomba Blake Tailor: Penrith Panthers (Squires Terrace Bar), Penrith Kool Vibration: Play Bar, Surry Hills Spenda C + TXNK: Proud Mary’s, Erina The White Bros: Quakers Inn, Quakers Hill Charlie Marshall & The Curious Minds + Justin Frew & The Loose Intentions: Rad Bar, Wollongong
Michael Gorham: The Bourbon, Potts Point Owen Campbell: The Bunker (FKA Coogee Diggers), Coogee Strangers + Creo: The Chippendale Hotel, Chippendale DYLANesque: The Concourse, Chatswood The Squeezers: The Merton Hotel, Rozelle DJ Meem + DJ MK-1 + DJ JR Dynamite + Max Marvel: The Newport, Newport The King Hits + Bad Bags: The Phoenix, Canberra AJ Dyce: The Push, The Rocks Leadfinger + The Delta Lions: The Stag & Hunter Hotel, Mayfield Glory Days - The Boss Experience: Toongabbie Sports & Bowling Club, Toongabbie The Upbeats: Towradgi Beach Hotel (Sports Bar), Towradgi
Revel: Revesby Workers (Infinity Lounge), Revesby
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Comedy / G The Guide
Golden Age of Ballooning: Transit Bar, Canberra City
Uptown Funk + DJ Sasha Moon: Rock Lily, Pyrmont
Dope Lemon: Uni Bar, Wollongong
Michael Kopp: Ruby Hotel, Rozelle
11.5 Years on The Gronk with Coffin + White Dog + Flight To Dubai + Ebolagoldfish + The Culture Industry + The Darrens: Valve Bar (Basement), Ultimo
Vanishing Shapes: Smiths Alternative, Canberra
Alice Terry + Ben Panucci: Venue 505, Surry Hills
7 Wonders - The Fleetwood Mac Show: The Basement, Sydney
Maia Marsh + Goodnight Japan: Vic On The Park, Marrickville
Trataka: The Beach Hotel, Merewether
Matt Ross: Surly’s, Surry Hills
Jess Locke + Ainsley Farrell + CKDJ: The Bearded Tit, Redfern
Sat 15
Felicity Robinson: The Belvedere Hotel, Sydney
DYLANesque: Anita’s Theatre, Thirroul Taryn La Fauci Darkhorse + Bog + Law Of The Tongue + Wrong + Offensive Behemoth: Bald Faced Stag, Leichhardt A Breach Of Silence: Born2Rock Studios, West Gosford Acoustic & Intimate with Original Sin INXS Show: Brass Monkey, Cronulla Woodes + Ash Hendricks + Polarheart: Brighton Up Bar, Darlinghurst
Blaming Vegas + Tara Favelle: The Bourbon, Potts Point
In The Round
Red Slim: The Bunker (FKA Coogee Diggers), Coogee
Curated by Taryn La Fauci, Leadbelly’s In The Round brings together four musicians to mix it up for an evening of collaborations. The other three artists sharing the stage on Wednesday are James Morrison, Hayley Lyon and Leroy Lee.
Willow Beats: The Chippendale Hotel, Chippendale
Cyclone Rose: Bull & Bush, Baulkham Hills Glenn Esmond: Coogee Bay Hotel, Coogee
Hitmen DTK: Leadbelly (formerly The Vanguard), Newtown
Kerrie Sweeney: Corrimal Hotel, Corrimal In Hearts Wake
Angie: Long Jetty Hotel, Long Jetty Rotarydisco feat. Somerville & Wilson + DJ Andy Donaldson + DJ Tony Garcia: Crane Bar, Potts Point CJ Fairleight + The Iron Horses + Dave Barbosa + Katherine Vavahea + Friends: Cronulla RSL, Cronulla
Michael Fryar: Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown DJ Graham M + DJ Jack McCord: Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly Soul Empire: Marble Bar, Sydney
Ted Nash Duo: Crown Hotel, Sydney Cath & Him: Dee Why RSL (Scores Sports Bar), Dee Why
The New Christs + James McCann & The Vindictives: Marrickville Bowling Club, Marrickville
Wake Up
The Dirty Earth + Simple Stone: Dicey Riley’s Hotel, Wollongong
Shannon Noll: Mingara Recreation Club, Tumbi Umbi
In Hearts Wake cracked the US album charts just last month, so it’s fitting that their next step to world domination is playing at the Enmore Theatre. Crossfaith, While She Sleeps and Polaris will all be in tow this Friday.
Bliss N Eso + Dylan Joel: Enmore Theatre, Newtown
Tongue & Groove: Oatley Hotel, Oatley
Drown This City + Save The Clock Tower + We May Fall + Our Anchored Hearts: Factory Theatre (Factory Floor), Marrickville
Cover Me Crazy: Campbelltown Catholic Club (Club Lounge), Campbelltown Press Play + Sammy Boyle + Coby Watts: Candys Apartment, Potts Point The Australian Blink 182 Show: Caringbah Hotel (Saloon Bar), Caringbah Battered & Bluesed: Carousel Inn, Rooty Hill T Williams: Chinese Laundry, Sydney The World Famous Comedy Store Showcase: Comedy Store, Moore Park Seaton Smith: Comedy Store, Moore Park
38 • THE MUSIC • 12TH JULY 2017
Ministry of Sound Club feat. Tyron Hapi + John Course + DJ A-Tonez + Lucille Croft: The Ivy, Sydney The Royz: The Merton Hotel, Rozelle DJ Frenzie + Paper Parade + DJ Sam Wall + Orly: The Newport, Newport Hello Tut Tut + East Row Rabble + Guyy & The Fox: The Phoenix, Canberra Japandroids + Paper Thin: The Small Ballroom, Islington The On & Ons + Monkey Pig: The Stag & Hunter Hotel, Mayfield Georgia Fields + Phia: Tomerong Hall, Tomerong Afternoon Show with Traces + Drowning Atlantis + Windwaker + Ghosts of Pandora + Dimension: Valve Bar (Basement), Ultimo
Rick Fensom + Zac Coombes + Adrian Joseph: Observer Hotel, The Rocks Harrison Storm Songs On Stage feat. Lance Aligannis: Orange Grove Hotel, Lilyfield
Renata Arrivolo Trio: Foundry 616, Sydney Toe To Toe + Maggot + Junkhead: Frankie’s Pizza By The Slice, Sydney Charlie Marshall & The Curious Minds + El Duende: Gasoline Pony, Marrickville
Just A Gent + Moza: Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle West
Holy Balm + Enderie + Matthew Brown + Tru: The Gaelic Club, Surry Hills
Afternoon Show with Soul Messengers: Gasoline Pony, Marrickville De’May + Katie Brianna: Grand Junction Hotel (The Junkyard), Maitland
Wildcatz + Alex Roussos: Orient Hotel, The Rocks Coming Up, Not Down feat. Jack River + Green Buzzard + Mossy + Brightness + Body Type + Shearin’ + Sunscreen: Oxford Art Factory, Darlinghurst Shows on Stage feat. Cassidy Rae-Wilson + Gabriel Levin: Paddington RSL, Paddington Kiara Taylor: Panania Hotel, Panania
The Radiators: Heritage Hotel, Bulli The Three Handed Beat Bandits: Hotel Blue, Katoomba KP: Kellys on King, Newtown Gold Class + Flowertruck + Neighbourhood Void: Lansdowne Hotel, Chippendale 4th Birthday Party feat. The Strides + Garfish + Haze Trio: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville
Sam Lyon Duo: Penrith Panthers (Squires Terrace Bar), Penrith Jellybean Jam: Penrith RSL (Castle Lounge), Penrith Soul Train feat. DJ Juzzlikedat + DJ Makoto + DJ Benny Hinn: Play Bar, Surry Hills Salsa Kingz: Revesby Workers (Infinity Lounge), Revesby
Eye Of The Storm Bursting out of the sleepy seaside area of Mornington, Harrison Storm is taking his latest single Change It All to Marlborough Hotel to let fans have a cheeky listen. Thursday night will also include Ruby Whiting and Fraser Telfer.
Gigs / Live The Guide
Jessica Says
Sloom + Jermango Dreaming: Vic On The Park, Marrickville
Munro: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville
Toni Childs: Lizottes Newcastle, Lambton
Jimeoin: Wentworthville Leagues Club, Wentworthville
Stephanie Lea: Wentworthville Leagues Club (Wenty Lounge), Wentworthville
Sun 16
Chase City
Dean Michael Smith: Macarthur Tavern, Campbelltown
Blake Tailor: Manly Leagues Club (Menzies Lounge), Brookvale Amy Hansen Trio + DJ Stuart B + DJ Black Cashmere: Manly Wharf Hotel, Manly
Satellite V: 4 Pines Public House, Newport
Touch Your Toes Nurse, trained cellist and overall badass Jessica Says is heading to 107 Projects this Friday to support her second studio album, Do With Me What U Will. Snag tickets to also see Gussy and Sunscreen opening.
Blondebears + Jaguar Club + The Buoys: Brass Monkey, Cronulla Jed Zarb: Bull & Bush, Baulkham Hills
Swing Night with Greg Poppleton: Camelot Lounge (Django Bar), Marrickville Nathan Cole: Crowne Plaza Terrigal, Terrigal Owen Campbell: Flow Bar, Old Bar
Secret Obsessions with Renegade DJ + Various DJs: Valve Bar (Level One), Ultimo
Lazy L + Narrownecks + Stillhouse Union: Gasoline Pony, Marrickville The Ahern Brothers + Ahlia Rain: Grand Junction Hotel (The Junkyard), Maitland
Casey Donovan: Venue 505, Surry Hills The Strides: Hotel Steyne (Moonshine), Manly
Chase The Dream Since forming in 2013, Chase City have toured Australia sevenodd times. They’re planning on adding to that number when they head to Hotel Steyne this Friday, accompanied by indie-rock outfit Marvell.
Fay Sussman & The Klezmer Divas: Camelot Lounge, Marrickville
Darker Half + Toxicon + War Rages Within: Frankie’s Pizza By The Slice, Sydney The Elements of Thierry feat. Various DJs: Valve Bar (Basement), Ultimo
Just A Gent
Jolly Good Just A Gent is heading to Oxford Art Factory this Friday to play some absolute bangers. Just a gent, his music, a jam-packed room and his special guest Moza. What’s not to love?
Soul Messengers: Wayward Brewing Co, Camperdown
Mon 17 Rick Robertson: Foundry 616, Sydney Songs On Stage feat. Russell Neal + Michelle Benson + Paul Ward: Kellys on King, Newtown
The JP Project + Ryan Enright: Observer Hotel, The Rocks Kitty Flanagan: Orange Civic Theatre, Orange Fun House: Pittwater RSL (Distillery), Mona Vale Traces + Drowning Atlantis + Windwaker + Lowgazer: Rad Bar, Wollongong
The Bootleg Sessions with Rumblr + Neon Highways + Suburban Haze + Neon Violence + The Guitar Cases: The Phoenix, Canberra Songs On Stage feat. Andrew Denniston + Pauline Sparkle + more: The Unicorn Hotel, Paddington
Tue 18
Zen Robotic + Extramentalist + Swansea Hit & Run + Galraedia + Klaus Bass: Red Rattler, Marrickville
Phantom MkV: Dicey Riley’s Hotel, Wollongong
DJ Troy T + Suite Az: Rock Lily, Pyrmont
Open Mic Night with Champagne Jam: Dundas Sports Club, Dundas
Ethan Conway: Rooty Hill RSL (Corona Terrace), Rooty Hill Charlie Marshall & The Curious Minds: Smiths Alternative, Canberra Misbehave: The Beach Hotel, Merewether Phantom MkV: The Bridge Hotel, Rozelle Spike Flynn & The Open Hearted Strangers: The Merton Hotel, Rozelle
George Ezra + Ainslie Wills: Enmore Theatre, Newtown Greasy Chicken Orchestra: Foundry 616, Sydney Songs On Stage feat. Russell Neal + Chris Brookes + Pauline Sparkle: Gladstone Hotel, Dulwich Hill
Michael Gorham: The Mill Hotel, Milperra
Songs On Stage feat. Stuart Jammin + Jenny Hume + more: Kellys on King, Newtown
DJ Phil Toke + Venna Rao + DJ Cool Hand Luke + Rick Robertson: The Newport, Newport
Acoustique with Chris Carrapetta + Loretta D’Urso + more: LazyBones Lounge (Level 1), Marrickville
Mark Crotti: The Push, The Rocks
Steve Hunter Band: LazyBones Lounge, Marrickville
Dan Mullins: The Village Inn, Paddington Co-Pilot: Orient Hotel, The Rocks The Sicarios: Towradgi Beach Hotel (Sports Bar), Towradgi
Sofar Sounds: Play Bar, Surry Hills
Banter + Oaks + Sixteen Days + more: Valve Bar (Basement), Ultimo
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