The Music (Brisbane) Issue #139

08.03.17 Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Issue

139

Brisbane / Free / Incorporating

“THERE ARE SO MANY P OTENTIALS AND P OSSIBILITIES T H AT I SEE IN THINGS”

T O U R : H O L LY T H R O S B Y C O M E DY: H A N N A H G A D S BY TOUR: THE JERRY CANS

2 • THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017

FRI 12TH MAY | HUDSON BALLROOM SYDNEY FRI 19TH MAY | HOWLER MELBOURNE FRI 26TH MAY | BRIGHTSIDE BRISBANE SAT 27TH MAY | BIG PINEAPPLE SUNSHINE COAST FRI 2ND JUNE | ROCKET BAR ADELAIDE SAT 3RD JUNE | JACK RABBIT SLIMS PERTH TICKETS AVAILABLE @ ALEXLAHEY.COM.AU

THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017 • 3

JONSON STREET BYRON BAY FRIDAY 10 MARCH

WAXHEAD, CINEMA WRISTYS, THE VIOLENT MONKS SATURDAY 11 MARCH

BEC SANDRIDGE, ELKE, PIRRA THURSDAY 16 MARCH

TAMAM SHUD, THE WINDY HILLS, BLISTER FRIDAY 17 MARCH

See an everchanging line-up See an everof indie, pop, changing line-up folk, alternative, of indie, country and rock pop, folk, at each Sunday alternative, Livespark. country and rock each Sunday Mix it up on at Livespark. the last Sunday of each month October features with Mixtape, a unique Jo Meares, collaboration LS Philosophy, between Graeme singerMoes, songwriters.

Sean Sennett + more.

SUNDAYS SUNDAYS FROM 3.30PM

FROM 3.30PM

DUSTY BOOTS, VANDERAA, ADAM HARPAZ SATURDAY 18 MARCH

TROPICAL ZOMBIE, SEA LEGS, SEASIDE SUNDAY 19 MARCH

THE LIVING END, THE BENNIES, GOOD BOY FRIDAY 24 MARCH

LOS LAWS, ILL EAGLES, TOSIAC SATURDAY 25TH MARCH

THE RUMINATERS, MYLEE AND THE MILKSHAKES, GALAXY GIRLS THURSDAY 30 MARCH

THE VANNS FRIDAY 31ST MARCH

PRESENTED BY BRISBANE POWERHOUSE, BRISBANE AIRPORT AND APRA/ AMCOS. BRISBANE AIRPORT IS KEEPING THIS FREE.

FREE

BRISBANEPOWERHOUSE.ORG

4 • THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017

URTHBOY

9TH MARCH

THE IRON EYE 10TH MARCH

BEC SANDRIDGE 11TH MARCH

ASTA 14TH MARCH

CHAIN & THE GANG 16TH MARCH

YOUNG HENRYS PRESENTS: WAAX 17TH MARCH

BLESS - WAX’O PARADISO 18TH MARCH

DORSAL FINS 19TH MARCH

STORM THE SKY (ALL AGES)

SATURDAY 1 APRIL

GUY SEBASTIAN

TICKETS AVAILABLE ONLINE WWW.THENORTHERN.COM.AU

WWW.THEFOUNDRY.NET.AU THEFOUNDRY.OZTIX.COM.AU 228 WICKHAM STREET, FORTITUDE VALLEY

3 Mar: The Fly Trap, Fremantle 5+6 Mar: Nannup Festival 8+9 Mar: Grace Emily Hotel, Adelaide 10-12 Mar: Port Fairy Folk Festival 15 Mar: Northcote Social Club, Melbourne 16 Mar: Sooki Lounge, Belgrave 17-19 Mar: Blue Mountain Folk Festival 22 Mar: The Rails, Byron Bay 23 Mar: Solbar, Maroochydore 24 Mar: Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane 25 Mar: Darwin Railway Club

Direct from Arctic Canada. The Hit Of WOMADELAIDE 2016!

MARCH AUSTRALIAN TOUR DETAILS www.thejerrycans.com Proudly Presented By

IVY & THE BIG APPLES LIVE THE COMPLETE ALBU ALBUM FROM START TO FINISH WITH SPECIAL GUESTS

THE MEANIES MAJOR LEAGUES

THU 30 MAR TIVOLI THEATRE 7–11PM

OUT! 1ST SHOW SOLD OW SH 2ND & FINAL

ON SALE NOW

THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017 • 5

Lifestyle Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Nightmare On Smith Street

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

2009 The year Bag Raiders’ Shooting Stars was released, yet it has only recently found its way onto the US dance/electronic charts thanks to the “Lady Gaga Superbowl Dive” meme.

The Smith Street Band

Celebrated Melburnian rockers The Smith Street Band have announced a six-date national run of shows this May and June to support their impending fourth album, More Scared Of You Than You Are Of Me.

Texas In The Fall Sydney alt-folk band All Our Exes Live In Texas have announced a national tour in support of their debut album When We Fall. The four-piece, who will be playing this year’s SXSW, cross the country in June/July.

At The Dakota

Heading South, Dakota Darwin-based indie-pop groovers At The Dakota have much to celebrate at the moment, with their second EP, Melt, set to land early next month and a national tour set to kick off in tandem.

6 • THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017

e / Cultu Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

RocKwiz

Wiz Bang

Having recently gone on a Christmas(ish) tour together, the lovable RocKwiz Live! gang have already got itchy feet and have announced a solid 29-date tour that’ll start early June and run all the way to late July.

THUR 16 MAR

All Our Exes Live In Texas

Mallrat

HEART OF IRELAND

FRI 17 MAR

TIGERLILY & TENZIN

FRI 24 MAR MEGA 90ÊS

SAT 1 APR

6TH ANNUAL RODEO

SAT 1 APR

B&S AFTER PARTY

MON 3 APR

Coming Of Age

ALTER BRIDGE

MC Mallrat has been making waves since she dropped her debut EP Uninvited last year.

Now she’s heading out on a trifecta of headline shows this April with her mates Sidechains and Oh Boy.

SAT 8 APR COG

FRI 21 APR

PUPPERTRY OF THE PENIS

THUR 27 APR THE DARKNESS

Def FX

THUR 27 APR YG LIVE & GUESTS

THUR 11 MAY STRASSMANÊS iTEDE

WED 17 MAY ERIC ANDRE

THUR 15 JUN ADAM HARVEY & BECCY COLE

Northlane

SAT 12 AUG

NEW FOUND GLORY

Heavy Intuition Hardcore heavyweights Northlane have unveiled news that they’ll be setting off on a huge national tour this year with their newest single, Intuition.

Hands Like Houses will be joining the band on their May run.

Def Kult Twenty years after they called it quits, Def FX have announced the Heaven & Hell Australian tour. Joined by My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult the electronic surf rockers will hit stages in July.

(07) 3325 6777 TICKETS & INFO GO TO: EATONSHILLHOTEL.COM.AU EATONSHILLHOTELPAGE 646 SOUTHPINE RD EATONS HILL

THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017 • 7

Music Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

Chewing Dreams

Tame Impala/Pond member Jay Watson - aka GUM - is heading home following a successful sold-out sojourn in London and New York, announcing an east coast run of shows in March and April.

Gum

Horrorshow

State To State With their latest album Bardo State reaching #4 on the ARIA charts, Horrorshow are hitting the road to play their biggest venues to date. Joining the duo on their June/July tour are NZ’s David Dallas and Turquoise Prince.

me: you might say I’m a cunning linguist date: haha I get it. like “cunnilingus” me: what is that @DanMentos 8 • THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017

Redlands Rockabilly R

c / Arts / Music / Arts / Lifestyle / Culture

evival

Break Out The Dapper Dan

Eyes On The Road

It’s time for round two of Redlands Rockabilly Revival (Re-Revival?) at Cleveland Showgrounds. Head down on 12 Mar to catch hot rods, markets, good eats, pin-up parades and a heaps of acts like A Band Called Twang.

Having literally just finished a huge run of sold-out shows around Australia, Newcastle favourites Trophy Eyes have announced that they’ll be packing their bags again to do it all over later this year in August.

Trophy Eyes

Neil Finn

Blues And Blues As well as adding Neil Finn, Vintage Trouble, Nic Cester, Remi and more to the festival, Bluesfest has announced a heap of sideshow supports such as Luka Lesson opening for Nahko & Medicine For The People (check theMusic.com.au for full list).

What Lies Bello

Ed Kuepper

Summer is gone but don’t be too bummed out, Bello Winter Music Festival has announced its (massive) July Lineup for the third year.

This time around there’ll be performances from Ben Ottewell, Tinpan Orange, Bec Sandridge and many more.

Highly Strung

Bello Winter Music Festival

He’s been a Saint , a Laughing Clown and an Aint, but for the first time this 25 Mar at The Tivoli Ed Kuepper is going to lead an Orchestra, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra to be precise.

THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017 • 9

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Music

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Laura Mvula doesn’t want to be an “artist that writes music to make people cry”. She tells Cyclone about the sonic and personal expansion that accompanied The Dreaming Room.

10 • THE MUS MUSIC IC • 8TH MAR MARCH CH 2017 2017

ult English avant-soul artist Laura Mvula has long dreamt of visiting Australia. Now she’s headlining Bluesfest 2017 behind an album symbolically entitled The Dreaming Room.

“I remember when I was maybe 16 or 17, my dad took a business trip to Australia,” Mvula reminisces. “Nobody in my family had been before. We just waited with baited breath to hear about his adventures. He could not stop going on about how amazing it was when he came back. So since then I’ve always been like, ‘I can’t wait to experience it.’” Alas, that tale will have a poignant twist.

Mvula is surely one of the boldest contemporary act on this year’s Bluesfest roster. But, having magicked her own genre from gospel, symphonies and pastorals, Mvula is as likely to beguile fans of Jethro Tull as Mary J Blige. The singer, who idolises Nina Simone, has been adopted by the jazz fraternity. Transcending classification, Mvula is the most innovative and imaginative British female star since Kate Bush - with Dame Shirley Bassey’s vocal prowess.

Mvula’s career has been serendipitous.

She grew up Laura Douglas in Birmingham her Caribbean family devoutly Christian and musical (Mvula’s siblings are in her band).

She sang in church and learnt piano and violin. Mvula eventually studied composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire. She joined choirs - notably her aunt Carol Pemberton’s renowned Black Voices. And she fronted a neo-soul outfit, Judyshouse.

Mvula encountered her future husband Themba Mvula in college. He encouraged her to create music on a laptop as she gigged miserably as a relief teacher and receptionist. Mvula circulated demos, piquing the interest of Rumer’s producer Steve Brown. In 2013, amid much buzz, she debuted on RCA with Sing To The Moon - which, bearing the serene psychedelia of Green Garden, cracked the UK Top Ten. Nominated for her first Mercury Prize, Mvula lost to James Blake.

Mvula re-recorded Sing To The Moon with The Netherlands’ Metropole Orkest at Abbey Road Studios. Between solo projects she consistently collaborated - even liaising with two other Bluesfest draws, Gregory Porter (whom Mvula calls “Uncle Gregory”) and Snarky Puppy. She appeared on soundtracks, laying down a spare, piano-led rendition of Little Girl Blue for the John Legend-curated 12 Years A Slave.

In 2016 Mvula aired The Dreaming Room, a lavishly ambitious sequel to Sing To The Moon - assisted by new co-producer Troy Miller. “I realised that I still have that childlike adventurous spirit when it comes to making new music,” Mvula says. “There are so many potentials and possibilities that I see in things.” She utilised the London Symphony

Orchestra and her emerging studio capability for a fuller sound. “Sing To The Moon felt like a really virgin studio experience for me,” Mvula explains. “I didn’t grow up in studios.

I didn’t work hard enough to sort myself out with studio equipment like a lot of my friends were doing and recording their own songs. When I did Sing To The Moon, that was new to me... So, when it got to the point where I actually had a full-size orchestra, it was a no-brainer.

I just wanted to do all of the things I could possibly think of. And then with The Dreaming Room I wanted to do that, but harder.”

Mvula introduced other sonic elements - funk, disco and breakbeat. Indeed, she sought to challenge those who would curtail her.

“I got frustrated in the end with being put in a box with Sing To The Moon,” Mvula divulges. “I remember a fan once said, ‘Keep getting your heart broken so that you write these incredible songs.’ At the time, I remember thinking, ‘Oh gosh, am I just this artist that writes music to make people cry?’ While I see value in that, I hope that’s not who I am. So with The Dreaming Room I wanted to widen the spectrum.”

Though Mvula considers Sing To The Moon “a song cycle”, which she might play on piano,, The Dreaming Room reveals more complex arrangements. There are even electric guitars. Coincidentally, Nile Rodgers tweeted Mvula, pleading for a collab - and he added his funky licks to the single Overcome.

“It felt like [the guitar] took it into a new

place that wasn’t so singer/songwriter-y - which I don’t have anything against but, as soon as someone goes, ‘That’s who Laura Mvula is, we’ve got it,’ I get nervous. I wanna go somewhere else.”

Surprisingly, the grime MC Wretch 32 brings his urgent street poetry to People - about the African Diaspora, racism and, ultimately, affirmation. Mvula decided that the song needed a male voice. “At the beginning, I was like, ‘Well, this is my chance to approach Idris Elba,’” she says playfully, “’cause I’m obsessed with him - and he unsuccessfully hides from me because I’m obsessed with him!”

But Mvula’s manager suggested Wretch, a close industry friend.

The rapper furnished his part in 36 hours. “He understood the song, he knows me, he understands where I’m at,” Mvula observes.

Mvula is continually diversifying. She remade The Delfonics’ Ready Or Not Here I Come (Can’t Hide From Love) via the Fugees for a House Of Fraser Christmas campaign. Mvula’s label subsequently repackaged The Dreaming Room - complete with her sublime BBC Live cover of Tame Impala’s Same Ol’ Mistakes, post-Rihanna. Lately, Mvula has composed music for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Antony & Cleopatra.

Still, Mvula has had her trials. She’s disclosed a history of depression, anxiety and panic attacks. This was triggered by her parents’ shock separation - Mvula penning the sorrowful Father, Father about the man who related his Antipodean adventures, only to become estranged.

Mvula’s struggle intensified with growing celebrity. Her own marriage ended amicably in 2015.

Today, musicians are opening up about mental illness - from Lady GaGa to KiD CuDi to Melody Pool. Mvula has received peer support - especially from the US side. “I think British artists are generally more reserved, because we have unfortunately that part of our culture that doesn’t permit us to [talk about depression] - it’s the age-old ‘keep calm and carry on’ thing,” she says. “Everybody kinda shuts up and gets on with it... [Destiny’s Child singer] Michelle Williams has probably called me two or three times in a year, just to say, ‘I understand’ - ‘cause she’s been very outspoken about her depression. We’ve never actually met, but she felt so moved by what she’d read and listened of my music... For artists overseas I’ve definitely noticed a different kind of attitude when it comes to solidarity and coming together and being supportive of one another and just being a listening ear. Eric Benet more recently has been that for me.

I think we’re getting there. Emeli Sande and I have talked quite a bit. Lianne La Havas. I think as women, as young black women, in music, in our country, that it’s important for us and for others that we’re seen to be supporting one another and for it to be authentic - which it is.”

As women, as young black women, in music, in our country, that it’s important for us and for others that we’re seen to be supporting one another.

When & Where: 15 Apr, The Triffid; 16 & 17 Apr, Bluesfest, Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm

T H E M O U S E T H A T R O A R E D Laura Mvula’s trailblazing take on soul music defies any routine ‘urban’ classification. But, while collaborating with jazz artists like Gregory Porter, Snarky Puppy and Robert Glasper, Mvula has also made forays into grime. She cameoed on Tinie Tempah’s celestial breakbeat soul Heroes.

More recently, she featured on Wretch 32’s sentimental Something after he blessed her single People.

“I’ve always been in love with Wretch,” Mvula says. “The first time I met Wretch was at a party - one of the first label parties that I’d been to. I was like a mouse in a corner. I couldn’t talk to anybody, I was so shy. I felt out of place because I didn’t feel fashionable enough. I think it was for the BRIT Awards.

So everybody who was anybody in British music was there. He came up to me, said ‘hello’, introduced himself, and then sang one of my songs from Sing To The Moon to me. It was a really loud room, so he had to sing it in my ear. I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, this brother listens to my music? How is that possible! He’s a rapper.’

Then I realised [that], behind my own sort of small-mindedness, music, when it truly connects, transcends above all the boxes we want to put things into. And Wretch and I became friends from then.”

THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017 • 11

Music

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

“Y

eah, it was pretty literal,” Holly Throsby says by way of introducing and explaining her new album After A Time. “I’ve always enjoyed naming my albums. I think all artists would enjoy that process. When I was thinking about it I had some titles milling around in my head and it has been such a long time, really, it’s been six years since my last record.”

Throsby sits outside on a stupidly hot Sydney day at the relative beginning of the ‘launching a new record’ cycle. She’s cool in the best way, seemingly untroubled by the weather or about revisiting the process behind

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

the album that’s taken so long to germinate. Opener Aeroplane, she explains, is “a really old song [that] was always going to be a centrepiece for the next record, but it didn’t have any friends. I wasn’t feeling them, literally”.

Rather than banging her creative head against a brick wall (or studio floor), Throsby switched outlets.

“For me the solution [for a creative block] is doing something like a children’s record or writing a novel,” tells Throsby. “I’m always challenging myself creatively and I’d rather move to different media forms to do that.”

After A Time may have shifted genres, but there’s familiarity in the approach that Throsby has purposefully maintained even as her creative spark has morphed.

“There’s a really solid line through all of my records,” 12 • THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017

she continues. “I’ve had the same font for every album cover and I have had the same width and boarder for every album and each release too — I’ve had the same intention as when I started. I’m interested in reflecting on what is in front of me in this time in my life. And I’m interested in song as a form and what the use of that is.”

Although this is a solo record, fans of Throsby’s collaborations will find plenty to sink their teeth into.

While her previous joint output is hard to top — the magnificent Seeker Lover Keeper’s self titled album (with Sarah Blasko and Sally Seltmann) or her duet with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy on Would You?, for example — she’s certainly had a good crack at it. In addition to a fabulous group of players, there are some amazing feature musicians; Dirty Three’s Mick Turner, long-time collaborator Bree van Reyk (Paul Kelly, Seeker Lover Keeper), Marcus Whale and feature vocalist Mark Kozelek (Sun Kil Moon, Red House Painters).

“It’s not necessarily that hard to organise,” she says of getting the group together. “Bree has played drums for me forever, since 2005 or something. And as for playing with Mick, I went to a Dirty Three show the last time they played at the State Theatre in Sydney, and I was particularly thinking about him playing on a song called Gardening on this record.

“So after the Dirty Three show I was backstage and I said, ‘I have this song,’ and he was so generous. He said, ‘Absolutely, send it to me,’ and after hearing what he did with that one song I said ‘There’s another four,’” she laughs. “And Marcus Whale has become a close friend, he’s kind of a family member of mine, his saxophone playing on the record was just fantastic. I just asked for what I thought the songs needed and invited people in.”

A particular gem is What Do You Say?, an unexpected but striking duet with Kozelek that tells the story of a perhaps doomed love. It’s almost impossible to listen to without reaching for the repeat button. “I started writing that song in my head, without a guitar,” says Throsby. “The idea of ‘what do you say?’ for the chorus just wrote itself extremely quickly, and as the song goes through and develops it’s this real conversation between people. And just as I was going through it in my head I could hear Mark’s voice on it. I finally just emailed and said, ‘I’ve got this song and I can hear you on it,’ and he essentially said ‘Yes’ without even hearing it. And he was really into it, which is great. He really loves the song and I think you can hear that in his performance. And he loves the tension in it, I think you can hear that.”

Although now firmly back on the musician track of her creative life, Throsby’s work as a novelist with recent debut Goodwood has also received much acclaim. While she says she sees those sides of her creative life as “very separate”, it’s too tempting not to ask if she might score a soundtrack for the novel one day and bring everything together for a short time. “I’d love to do the soundtrack — and I hope that it happens, I’ve heard some rumours,” she laughs. Get out your cheque books, potential backers — let’s make this happen.

What: After A Time (Spunk) When & Where: 16 Mar, Black Bear Lodge

MELBOURNE SKA ORCHESTRA’S

TOUR

featuring:

MELBOURNE SKA ORCHESTRA FUNADDICTS THE UPSTEPPERS KINGSTON STOMPERS DJ’s Troy Destroy Tim Hellofahat DJ RudeKat DJ Greazer Kilmarnock Steve

SAT MAR th 25 THE TRIFFID

FOOD, DRINKS, SUN, SCOOTERS, A WHOLE LOTTA SKA AND SKAN KIN!

Brisbane 6PM TICKETS AT MELBOURNESKAORCHESTRA.COM THETRIFFID.COM.AU

THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017 • 13

Music

Reaching Into The Past It’s not often you hear an album sung in Inuktitut.

Andrew Morrison from Canadian group The Jerry Cans tells Brynn Davies about evolving native traditions to encourage their children to embrace their ancestry.

A

shiver of Arctic wind carries the bark and howl of huskies through the speakers, a crisp crunch of snow underfoot melts away the summer heat from whatever stifling room you’re sitting in and replaces it with vast expanses of rolling tundra. “We wanted to really make an album that transports people from wherever they are to the Arctic and we did that in Intro - we wanted to find the coldest-sounding wind you can find, which is very challenging!” laughs Andrew Morrison.

“Everyone in the band grew up in Iqaluit, Nunavutin, in the Arctic of Canada... It’s an Indigenous community,

He had a lot of rifles and it was like, ‘If you’re gonna date my daughter you’re gonna speak Inuktitut’.

the people where we live [were] formerly known as Eskimos, but we don’t use that term any more because it’s now considered a derogatory term... It’s a beautiful spot, there’s no trees, it’s all rolling hills and tundra and mountains. Usually they get three hours of light in the winter, 20 hours of darkness and in the summertime there’s 24 hours of light - so it’s quite a different world,” he enlightens.

Canadian outfit The Jerry Cans are committed to preserving the language and culture of their northern roots, dispelling misrepresentations of native communities and modernising the Inuktitut tongue, traditional instruments and folk songs as a way to encourage the younger generation to embrace their 14 • THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017

ancestry. “We wanted our daughters to communicate in their own language and be proud of speaking in their own language,” Morrison explains of the decision to embrace the Inuktitut dialect on their third record Inuusiq/Life. “For young people there’s a lot of pressure growing up in this global world, and we wanted to tell young people they should be proud of who they are, proud of knowing their ancestral language.”

“I started to learn the language because Nancy [Mike, throat singer/accordionist]’s father couldn’t speak English. He had a lot of rifles and it was like, ‘If you’re gonna date my daughter you’re gonna speak Inuktitut.’ It was an extra level of motivation,” he laughs heartily. The Jerry Cans pass on his story in Tusaavit (Can You Hear?): “Nancy’s father was born out on the land before there was even a community. He was born in a snow house an igloo, a very iconic symbol of the north. So he lived his life out on the land and had to provide for his family. And similar to Australia, there was a system of government schools - they took children away and made them go to school and learn English and learn a trade - and it was very traumatic for a lot of families and communities.

He was very much punished, he refused to go to school and he lived a very basic life. Sometimes it’s hard for young people to have any kind of understanding of what life was like back then. Sometimes I think that young people think the old ways have no value, but we wanted to switch that around and really honour the strength and endurance and ability to survive under really grave circumstances.”

The group not only want to reinvigorate passion for their culture within young Indigenous fans, but also “demystify” the western idea of the north for a broader audience. “It’s hard, we like to talk about these issues but we also like to tell it in a way that shows the world that we’re doing something about it,” he impassions.

“To me, mental health and suicide is one of the big ones for young people. Everyone in our band has lost family members or old friends to suicide and I think that’s just one example of an issue that’s really challenging for people. And violence; within relationships, families, within communities. And that’s what I wanted to remind my daughters; all these things that we need to focus on, to build on; I’m getting a bit emotional from it,” he confides, “Especially with the world now, the people in power - it’s dangerous. It’s an especially important time to rally and find each other and remind each other that we’re beautiful and strong no matter what.”

Mike - the only Inuk member - is the featured throat singer on tracks such as Ukiuq - a tradition that, while “not formally outlawed, was very strongly discouraged”, Morrison explains. “It was seen as backwards, and Christianity really trumped tradition. But it’s gone through a very cool revitalisation over the last 20 to 25 years.”

What: Inuusiq (Aakuluk Music) When & Where: 22 Mar, The Rails, Byron Bay 23 Mar, Solbar, Maroochydore; 24 Mar, Black Bear Lodge

QUEENSLAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Contemporary Music Series

ED KUEPPER RESTRUNG SAT 25 MAR 8.30PM The Tivoli Ed Kuepper joins QSO to perform his latest release & old favourites

One night only! $39*

THE AUSTRALIAN VOICES: TYPEWRITERS IN SPACE SAT 25 MAR 6.30PM QSO Studio, South Bank A sonic adventure with the finest voices in town $10*

qso.com.au/qsocurrent *a transaction fee applies

THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017 • 15

Music

Star-Spangled Shredder Many new sets of ears have been turned onto the artist known as Harts, Darren Hart, through the use of his latest single in the Powerless trailer, he’s secured a deal with Razor & Tie and now it’s time to “really concentrate on America”, he tells Bryget Chrisfield.

To read the full interview head to theMusic.com.au

I

f you didn’t manage to catch any of Harts’ summer festival sets, the mastermind behind the moniker, Darren Hart, posted a couple of videos onto his Facebook page to exacerbate FOMOS. “I’ve been getting more into photography and videography over the last year or so, um, and I just got a new camera for Christmas,” Hart explains. During their Beyond The Valley appearance the heavens opened and torrential rain poured down for almost the entirety of Harts’ set. Hart laments, “We didn’t get any of the moments where, like, the rain just

I know that I’m gonna be spending a lot of time in the US over the next few years.

came to hit and they had to put the storm warning on the screen and stuff; there was literally thousands of people that just walked away and it was, like, the most heartbreaking thing. I was like, ‘Oh, man!’”

Hart’s backing duo comprised of bassist Abel Mazo and drummer Craig Luekber for these shows.

Has he been working with these gents for a long time?

“No, I haven’t! You know, it’s funny - those two guys are literally, like, childhood friends of mine: the bass player I went to high school with since, like, Year Seven; the other guy went to another school but we used to jam when I started learning how to play instruments other than drums. But we never played properly as a band or anything before until, like, literally a few days before the 16 • THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017

Power single tour, which was ‘round September/October last year.

“But it is definitely a stronger live show than I’ve ever had before - just because of stronger musicians, I think, and there’s a stronger connection between us; we understand where each other comes from, ‘cause we literally saw each other grow up, and we know what styles of music each other likes, and we know how to use that to an advantage when we play live. And, you know, for example, when I bring out all the Jimi Hendrix blues licks and stuff like that I just get, like, smiles from the bass player ‘cause he just knows where all that stuff comes from.”

This year is already shaping up to be a corker for Harts with his latest single Power featuring in the trailer for NBC’s upcoming DC Comics workplace comedy, Powerless. So how did that all come about? “Well NBC actually reached out to my management and said they really liked the song Power - I don’t know how they discovered it ‘cause it’s not even available in America; we haven’t released the album there yet. But they discovered it and they were like, ‘We think this would be perfect for a new show... called Powerless,’ and they pitched the show and I was like, ‘Yeah, sounds cool,’ and then I read, like, the synopsis or the plot for the show and I was like, ‘Man! It’s like a perfect fit for the lyrics to this song, but nothing [like] what I was thinking when writing it’,” he laughs. “So I was like, ‘Yeah! This is actually a really strong match, let’s do it!’... I’m hoping that, you know, it turns into a hit for them and they keep using my song to help me promote in America.”

At the time of our chat, Hart is just about to jet off to the States, specifically New York and LA. “I just finished negotiating a deal with a label there to release the next few Harts albums,” he enlightens, particularly proud of the “amazing” deal he negotiated. “They give you free opportunity to do whatever [you] want, like, you know, and kudos to them - and it’s Razor & Tie, the label - ‘cause labels never give their artists the copyrights or any of their ownership, and let them have creative control and still fund and pay for everything; so they’re really breaking the whole model of what the record label and artist relationship’s supposed to be... I still own all the music and, you know, when the TV shows and stuff wanna use it they still have to ask my permission and things like that... So that was something that I’ve been fighting for a while, which is why it’s taken so long for me to really concentrate on America.”

Given that he was flown over to work with Prince (RIP), we wonder whether Hart managed to catch any of Sheila E’s Down Under shows at the end of last year.

“No, I didn’t,” he laments, before admitting he hopes to catch one of her Stateside shows “sometime this year or maybe in the next year or so”. “I know that I’m gonna be spending a lot of time in the US over the next few years so, yeah!” Catch Harts on home soil while you still can.

When & Where: 11 Mar, The Triffid

Music

Power Of One

Kurt Vile is returning Down Under without his trusty band, but he tells Steve Bell that we’ll still be able to get lost in the haze.

P

hiladelphian guitarist and songwriter Kurt Vile has been no stranger to Australian shores in recent years - he’s traipsed down here numerous times with his band The Violators in tow, nonchalantly doling out hazy soundscapes with nary a care in the world.

Now he’s upping the ante considerably, returning on his lonesome for the first time.

He’s played sporadic solo shows here in the past amid band gigs, but he’s mainly given courage by the fact that he plays a solo section during most shows anyway.

“I used to play solo a lot, and you could say that I at least get practice every night when I have a gig, there’s always at least a couple solo jams in the middle,” he explains. “[The Australian solo shows in the past were] pretty raw and simple, but I’m excited to be showing a more refined, more contemporary version of the solo side; you’ll get a little something extra, you’re going to get a more special performance.”

Does he feel that presenting the songs stripped-back puts more focus on the lyrics?

“I’ve never thought about it that way,” Vile ponders. “Just because it’s coming out of my head and I’m hearing everything in my skull every night I hear the lyrics plenty either way. But I think I’ve tapped into some kind of hypnotic style for a while now, so I think

Credits Publisher Street Press Australia Pty Ltd

you can get equally lost in the guitar or the vocals, whatever you prefer.”

Vile explains that most of his songs started life in stripped-back form.

“That’s the thing, it really just does usually start on an acoustic guitar anyway, although I definitely can hear other things going on,” he tells. “I think when I was younger I could imagine there was going to be this exact thing here or there, but now I’ve embraced a more abstract approach - I’ll hear things but I won’t know what they are. But ultimately that’s why playing solo won’t be a problem, because you can kinda get lost in the guitar itself.”

And excitingly since we last saw him he’s been working on a follow-up to 2015’s b’?lieve i’m goin down... “I’m always obsessing on music - whether new music or getting back into what I’ve always been into or whatever - but ultimately it’s like an extension [of the last record],” Vile offers. “I definitely don’t want to repeat myself and I always want to outdo myself, but not in an overstretching way. Not trying to go too grand too soon or something.

“That said I do think it’s going to be a little more epic in some form than the last record. American roots are definitely always sort of in there, combined with that sort of psychedelic, epic thing. It’s going to sound familiar and new, and I think that’s the way it’s always going to be.”

When & Where: 9 Mar, Queensland Performing Arts Centre

Group Managing Editor Andrew Mast National Editor – Magazines Mark Neilsen Editor Mitch Knox Arts & Culture Editor Maxim Boon Gig Guide Editor Justine Lynch gigs@themusic.com.au Contributing Editor Bryget Chrisfield Editorial Assistant Brynn Davies, Sam Wall Senior Contributor Steve Bell Contributors Anthony Carew, Benny Doyle, Brendan Crabb, Caitlin Low, Carley Hall, Carly Packer, Chris Familton, Cyclone, Daniel Cribb, Dylan Stewart, Georgia Corpe, Guy Davis, Jake Sun, Liz Giuffre, Neil Griffiths, Nic Addenbrooke, Rip Nicholson, Roshan Clerke, Samuel J Fell, Sean Capel, Sean Hourigan, Tom Hersey, Tom Peasley, Tyler McLoughlan, Uppy Chatterjee Photographers Barry Schipplock, Bec Taylor, Bobby Rein, Cole Bennetts, Freya Lamont, John Stubbs, Kane Hibberd, Markus Ravik, Molly Burley, Stephen Booth, Terry Soo Sales Nicole Ferguson sales@themusic.com.au Art Dept Ben Nicol, Felicity Case-Mejia, Alex Foreman Admin & Accounts Meg Burnham, Ajaz Durrani, Emma Clarke accounts@themusic.com.au Distro distro@themusic.com.au Subscriptions store@themusic.com.au Contact Us Phone: (07) 3252 9666 info@themusic.com.au www.themusic.com.au Street: The Foundry, 228 Wickham St, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 Postal: Locked Bag 4300 Fortitude Valley QLD 4006

— Brisbane

THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017 • 17

Music

The Other Wainwright Martha Wainwright assures Anthony Carew that she was not a “child prodigy” and chats about growing up in a family that writes songs about each other.

“I

don’t have very much musical talent,” says Martha Wainwright, not with any sense of self-effacement, but only honest self-appraisal. The 40-year-old Canadian sees her songbook as a work of emotion over composition, her career one of slow, steady refinement.

It’s something, Wainwright says, that has never come easily.

“I’m not a musical genius, nor am I particularly a natural musician,” she explains. “I’m a good singer, but I worked on it a lot. I’ve worked on my craft, practiced the guitar, gotten better. I was never some child prodigy, I didn’t look at a piano and know how to play it. I think I’ve had to fight for my music, in a way, because it wasn’t so natural. I think you can hear that fight in my music, especially in my early music.”

I was never some child prodigy, I didn’t look at a piano and know how to play it. I think I’ve had to fight for my music.

Wainwright’s perceptions of her own musical abilities are entirely informed by the fact that she was raised in a family of talented musicians, and, still, is routinely compared with her brother Rufus, who very much was — and is — the musical prodigy. Her father is the oddball singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, her mother the late Kate McGarrigle, of the McGarrigle sisters. She grew up split between the “toughness” of New York and the “innocence” of Montreal, moving between her largely absent father, and her mother and aunt.

“I was pretty goofy, pretty quirky, always a little bit different. Being different was applauded in my family growing up; not being too normal was a good thing,” 18 • THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017

Wainwright offers. “Playing music was very nurtured, and very normalised. That’s what my parents did. In a way, my choice is very uncreative, very predictable.”

The Wainwright-McGarrigle clan is famous for writing songs about each other; her parents trading barbs through song following their acrimonious divorce. The song that put Martha on the map, from her 2005 debut LP, was an ode written to her father called Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole, enshrining her in the family tradition of songwriting confession and candour.

“There’s certainly not much of a persona that I’ve created that I hide behind,” says Wainwright. “I tend to be very open and candid on stage, there’s storytelling that’s very open and autobiographical. My family, we’ve been known to write songs about each other, and in and around each other. In that way, we let people into our stories, it’s a real window into our lives. It’s not a whole picture, but a view through a window that I’m allowing people to look into, to see a nakedness. It’s a willingness to expose myself. I don’t say that in a grotesque way, this idea of exposing my naked self. It’s more that I always wanted to be on stage, to be seen, to be heard, to have people notice me.”

On stage, Wainwright says, she feels at home; able to project her feelings, and her life, in grand gesture. “I have a tendency to be very emotive in my music. To be very forward in the way I sing, the way I express myself. I don’t know if that’s a reflection of who I am and how I am in real life -I’m far more shy off stage than on stage — but it’s a part of me, and they’re certainly things that I’m feeling. I use music in a really aggressive way, to be quite emotional and quite exposed.”

Wainwright’s latest album, Goodnight City, seems as if it is a step aside from that incredibly personal approach; especially after her last solo LP, 2012’s Come Home To espe Mama, was made in the wake of her mother’s death. For Mam her ffourth album, Wainwright outsourced the writing of half the songs, to people like Glen Hansard, Tune-Yards, Beth Orton, and even the novelist Michael Ondaatje. But, half the songs are still hers, and boast confessions like “I used to do a lot of blow” and “we made love in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth”. And even those songs by others were Adel written specifically for her, and even about her. writt “I wanted people who knew me, so that they’d be thinking about me, putting themselves in my head,” think Wainwright says. “I think the best example of that, and Wain the m most obvious example of the two artists melding, is brother’s song. It’s partly because we’re related, I’m my b sure. Rufus wrote this song about Francis, my son, who is sure two and a half. Rufus wrote this song, clearly, for me; it’s written itt as me singing to my son. But, at the same time, it sounds like such a Rufus Wainwright song. He’s playing the piano, I’m singing, it’s this pure fusion of the two of us. It’s like, if someone is a fan of both Rufus and myself — some people like both of us, though some are adamant about only liking one or the other — then this is their dream come true.”

What: Goodnight City (Inertia) When & Where: 19 Mar, The Triffid

Holly Throsby • After a Time Includes What Do You Say? & Aeroplane features guests Mark Kozelek & Mick Turner

“A meandering stream of textures that conjure their own world of dappled light and boundless hope. + + + + ” – Rolling Stone “Simple and gorgeous. + + + +” – The Music “Shadowy...tender...understated...beautiful” –Stereogum

New Studio Album Out Now National Australian Tour during March www.hollythrosby.com

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TY SEGALL

NADIA REID

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Preservation

With Purple Orchestra

THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017 • 19

Music

Frontlash Power To The People

As It Comes

In case you missed it, voting is now open for the BOQ People’s Choice Qld Music Awards – have your say on the state’s Most Popular Male, Female and Group at themusic.com.au/qldmusicawards.

Raiders Of The Top Chart Breaking into the top 20 across three US Billboard charts with an eight-yearold song is close to unheard-of, but Bag Raiders did it anyway with Shooting Stars, all thanks to the power of memes.

Lashes Magic In The Air

Legendary outfit Pixies brought their twisted, transportive force to Riverstage last week. Check out our review from the show, plus more, in the Live section.

Beauty And The Beast

Backlash

Beastly Behaviour So Beauty And The Beast features talking housewares, witchcraft and a woman-onmanimal relationship... and LeFou being into Gaston is getting pilloried for being ‘unnatural’? People are just the worst.

Southerly Lessons Good thing our government scrapped its lockout plans, because it evidently doesn’t decrease violence - it just moves it around according to recent NSW stats.

Derailing The Doomsayers Seems like the predictions of a public transport apocalypse courtesy of Adele’s shows were an overreaction.

20 • THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017

One-time “gun-for-hire” Ella Thompson has found “a whole support network” in Dorsal Fins. Anthony Carew discovers that even with nine people on stage things are pretty cozy.

D

orsal Fins, says singer Ella Thompson, “is like a whole support network in one band”. The Melbourne collective was founded in 2014 by three “best buddies” - Thompson, Liam McGorry, and Jarrad Brown - but their live combo has boasted up to 15 people and currently sits at a cool nine. They all play in other bands - Thompson as a solo act and in electro duo GL - and likes it that way.

“Because we’re all friends and all busy [with] other things, it’s always been ‘let’s do this while it’s fun, and when it becomes a pain in the ass then we won’t do it anymore,’” laughs Thompson. “We wanted to do something with two singers, so there wasn’t all this pressure on one of us to be the frontperson, and the ‘face’ of the band.

No one has to take on all that pressure, it’s like we’re all in it together. If shit gets hard or annoying, you’ve got your friends there with you.”

Before starting Dorsal Fins and GL at “roughly the same time”, Thompson - who was named after Ella Fitzgerald and grew up dreaming of being a singer - had “never been in a band band”. She’d only operated at two extremes: as a “gun-for-hire” singing with The Bamboos, and as solo artist, where all

responsibility fell on her. “It takes a lot of strength to be able to do that on your own; being able to take the critique of your work, and being able to take on the financial burden and pay for shit.”

Dorsal Fins put out their first LP, Mind Renovation, in 2015, and followed it up last year with Digital Zodiac. They made their first record in a week, knocking things out almost entirely live.

For their second, the band hoped to make an album that was more of a studio creation. “The kind of music people respond to in a live setting doesn’t always translate to what they want to hear in their lounge room,” says Thompson. “I wanted to pull it back a little bit, make it a little less frenetic, less full bore all the time. To play with the waves of density and dynamic. At times on the record it’s really just stripped-back to one or two instruments, and just the two voices.

I wanted to make it as minimal as we could whilst still including everyone.”

On stage, Dorsal Fins are more maximal, with many members crammed together.

“We’ve played on a lot of stages where we can barely fit,” Thompson says. “It’s a different energy to a lot of stuff I’ve done before. There’s no pre-programmed or electronic bits. Everyone is just doing it as it comes, and they all bring a lot of energy on their instrument... Everyone is so keen to play. No one’s like: ‘give me this much money, and a bottle of Moet, and then I’ll turn up.’ Everyone just really wants to be there, is excited about playing this music with their friends.”

When & Where: 17 Mar, Beach Hotel, Byron Bay; 18 Mar, The Foundry

Music

Coeur Brisé

Ahead of their Australian return, multi-instrumentalist David Lewis explains Paris Combo’s delicate balance and Rip Nicholson discovers what octopus traps and heartbreaks have to do with each other.

P

aris Combo derives a deep richness and texture through its eclectic core members; chanteuse Belle du Berry’s post-punk vocals, the mononymous Potzi’s Django Reinhardt-inspired Romani guitar and banjo, and drummer Jean-Francois Jeannin’s diverse grooves. Drawing on a spectrum arching from American to gypsy jazz, chanson, cabaret and Middle Eastern rhythms, this Paris-based outfit is the sum of its parts in the truest sense.

So when Australian-born trumpeter and pianist David Lewis joined the band in the mid-’90s, he felt its direction shift. “Because I was coming from a more general jazz and classical background, it was big,” recalls Lewis. “It was also when we started working on original material, which was a watershed.”

Something else that has shifted Paris Combo’s direction over the years is their revolving line-up of bassists. They’ve seen four come and go in their two decades, with each bringing a unique personal influence to the recordings and live output of the group. The latest is double bass virtuoso Benoit Dunoyer De Segonzac who “has had a really interesting experience playing

with The Jacques Loussier Trio,” says Lewis, commending his bandmate.

“He’s a very interesting freelance bass player.”

As they close in on their 20th anniversary, the quintet continues to excel at a distinctly cosmopolitan brand of world music yet, despite their locale, Lewis explains they never set out to make ‘French music’ per se. “I don’t think we’ve made a concerted effort to make it sound French. That’s part and parcel of who we are and the band members are based in France and of course with Belle singing in French, which is very important in that mix.”

During the ‘00s Paris Combo took a four-year hiatus, finally reuniting in 2010.

They spent a year writing, rehearsing and rediscovering their je ne sais quoi. This therapeutic pause resulted in their fifth album, 2013’s acclaimed 5, and a rekindling of the band’s union. “It’s a bit like a couple breaking up and getting back together again, instead of just plugging along and getting to a stage where you can’t ever work again.

We’d done ten years from when I came into the band until we had a break. That’s fuelled the fact that we’re able to get back together again and resume the career, which was obviously a result of having that time off.”

After extensive touring in years since, Paris Combo have dropped their sixth album Tako Tsubo. The title comes from a case of cardiomyopathy (that’s heart disease), named after Japanese octopus traps, which is brought on by emotional stress and known colloquially as Broken-Heart Syndrome. The medical condition correlates directly to the concept of their latest work: “The idea of the lyrics on the album is how the body reacts organically to stress and emotional states,” explains Lewis.

When & Where: 20 Mar, Queensland Performing Arts Centre

Netflix And Thrill

13 Reasons

Kiss your social life good bye. Netflix has just announced a metric fuck-ton of original telly headed to a screen near you in the coming months.

Here’s the binge bonanza.

Mindhunter Gone Girl‘s David Fincher helms this creepy new crime thriller about two FBI agents who consult with bangedup serial killers to solve cases.

War Machine Brad Pitt stars in this original movie about a charismatic and highly decorated four-star general taken down by a scandal-making expose.

13 Reasons Why This gripping drama, based on the bestselling book of the same name, tackles the thorny issue of teen suicide.

GLOW Allison Brie stars as a struggling actress in ‘80s LA who tries to jumpstart her career by joining a women’s wrestling circuit.

Bright In a parallel universe where humans have always lived alongside orcs, elves and other fantastical creatures, Will Smith plays an LA cop with a dark past.

THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017 • 21

Comedy

Hilarity And Heartbreak Every Brilliant Thing is one of the biggest theatre hits of recent years. Maxim Boon meets the new man at the helm, James Rowland.

A

ttending a play about depression might not readily spring to mind as a rib-tickling night out, so given its themes, those in search of pleasant distractions on the stage might well overlook playwright Duncan Macmillan and comedian Jonny Donahoe’s exploration of depression and suicide, Every Brilliant Thing. Ironically, they would be missing out on one of the most powerfully life-affirming and uplifting new dramatic works of recent years — a show which has become a global smash hit, touring all over the world. Indeed, this oneman production is now so well-travelled it is entering its second epoch. After being driven exclusively by Donahoe since its premiere in 2014, this one-man-show is now, for the first time, due to be helmed by another performer, James Rowland. The British actor has some advantages in this instance: “Jonny and I are really good friends, and in the grand scheme of humanity, we have an awful lot in common,” he explains.

At the nucleus of this production is a list of brilliant things, compiled from childhood by the show’s sole performer. It’s a gloriously daffy catalogue, including everything from “staying up late,” to “rollercoasters”, “people falling over” and “kind old people who are not weird and don’t smell.” But it’s the way

22 • THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017

this weird and wonderful inventory tackles the thorny stigma of mental illness that is perhaps the most brilliant thing of all.

Members of the audience are tasked with reading out these items, eliciting giggles and guffaws along the way and generating a galvanising sense of community. So far, so silly, but the purpose of this list is soon revealed. We meet our protagonist aged six. His mum’s in hospital. His dad says she’s ‘done something stupid’. She finds it hard to be happy, and even harder to go on living. So our hero starts a list of everything that’s brilliant about the world. Everything that’s worth living for. By turns hilarious and heart-breaking, this touching, achingly beautiful show is that rarest of productions that jerks tears of both joy and sorrow, often simultaneously.

The audience participation is one of the aspects Rowland is particularly excited by.

“People expect a separation between the audience and the performer, but when you take that distance and formality away is has the double effect of waking people up and relaxing them at the same time.”

What: Every Brilliant Thing When & Where: 8 — 11 Mar, Cremorne Theatre, Queensland Performing Arts Centre

Me, Myself & I Frank Woodley has chosen a tough subject for his latest show — himself. He tells Joe Dolan about the decade of personal history he’s cramming into I, Woodley.

F

rank Woodley manages to cram a lot of ideas into his shows, but not even he is entirely sure where his inspiration originates. “I honestly can’t say I can remember where the show came from,” he laughs. “It’s a whole narrative about doing these trial shows — and it’s been a bit weird because we’re doing trail shows now — but when it’s finally on stage we’ll be like ‘This is the show, and I’m going to tell you about the horrific experiences I had doing the trial shows that lead up to this.’ So it’s ended up being that kind of structure and I honestly can’t tell you where that idea came from.”

The results of this existential experiment, I, Woodley, has fellow comedian Bob Franklin in the director’s chair. “I’m just so wrapped that I got Bob involved,” Woodley says.

“He’s got this really fantastic comic mind and he appreciates all different genres of comedy… It just seems like one of the more effortless processes that I’ve had over the years. I wrote up a kind of draft based on what we’d been talking about, and then he edited it like a maniac — he just went at it with a chainsaw! I had written a draft that was about 15,000 words and in that first editing session it got cut down to 8,000 words. It was brutal but so good.”

Woodley says that almost all of the instances in the new show are drawn from reality. “Although they weren’t chronological, they were sort hijacked to serve this one narrative. The incidents all happened over a ten or so year period and I’ve just sort of cherry picked them.”

One such story is that of a run-in with a homeless man who is clearly not a fan of the comedian. “That’s completely based

Comedy

Grand Old Dame Comedian Hannah Gadsby is giving up the stage after her new show Nanette. She talks finding peace, with Maxim Boon.

on a true story!” he laughs. “This homeless guy was on the footpath, he looked pretty stoned and he even had some sort of drug paraphernalia around him. And as I walked past he goes ‘Can I have some money?’ And I was sort of put on the spot so I went ‘Oh, sorry mate,’ and kept walking. Then he goes ‘Ohh, you! You’ve never been funny! The only thing funny about you is that you think you’re funny!’ It was just this sensational thing where suddenly this drug addicted homeless man just had all the higher status, this weird moral superiority over me! It was just sensational.”

As a staple of the Aussie comedy scene for nearly 30 years, Woodley says that being one of the nation’s most loved physical comedians has taken a bit of a toll. “I feel like, at this stage, I can still fall over if I need to but I’m certainly not as keen to do that as when I was younger. Even from really early on, from about 25 years old, falling over became the kind of thing where you’d fall over and you’d just want to stay on the ground and have a little sleep after.” While he is a master of pratfalls, Woodley also says “I think the point of leverage is an idea. It’s not some sort of great display of physicality; it’s about having an idea that when you communicate it, it just goes straight into people’s brains because there’s not even the obstacle of words there.”

Nevertheless, even as Woodley heads towards three decades of making people laugh, he can still pull out a few surprises for I, Woodley. “I reckon it’s got the best ending of any show I’ve ever done. Let’s put it that way — a little enigmatic.”

C

omedian and writer Hannah Gadsby has never been one to conform. It’s not that she’s an anti-establishment rebel, stickin’ it to Charlie Big Potatoes. Nor does she view herself as a brave, bold trailblazer — although her many fans certainly see the queer comedy icon as one. For Gadsby, being different just came naturally. “I’ve always known I wasn’t normal. It’s only recently that I’ve had the realisation that I’m never going to not be,” she shares. “It was like, ‘Ohhhh, this doesn’t end’.

“Like right now, I’m converting the cubby house out the back of my rental into this proto-Renaissance church. And I just keep thinking, ‘Hmmm, I don’t think this has been done before.’ Not in a ‘I’m so fucking original’ kind of way. It’s more of a ‘shiiiiiieeeet! This is fucking unusual’ kind of way. Apparently it’s called individually, and it’s something I’m told people strive for. But it’s not all that fun being unique — it’s quite lonely out here.”

Since Gadsby’s formative years, flying under the discrimination radar in her native rural Tasmania, times have changed and attitudes have softened, although the spectre of the marriage equality debate and the prospect of a plebiscite prove Australia still has a long way to go. It is at least a little heartening that a vanguard of LGBTQ comedians have brought queer stories into the mainstream, as Gadsby’s appearance in Josh Thomas’s wildly successful sitcom

Please Like Me can attest. Ironically, it’s this prime time recognition that Gadsby sees as her most anarchic contribution to queer culture. “It really amuses me that I’m viewed as accessible. People in the mainstream find me incredibly accessible, even though I don’t at all attempt to pander,” she notes. “I reckon that’s pretty damn cutting edge, isn’t it? I mean, even bogans like me!”

With a solid gold track record, a celebrated TV turn and a nationally recognised profile as a comedy stalwart under her belt, Gadsby kicks off this comedy festival season at the top of her game, so it will no doubt be gutting for her fans to learn this will be her swansong tour. Whether or not this means a total retirement from the standup stage is yet to be seen, but for Gadsby, reaching a career peak, with all the validation that comes with it, has been the signal for her to step out of the spotlight. “I’ve never gone, ‘Phwoar, I can’t wait to get out on stage again.’

That’s not a thing I say. Don’t get me wrong, I really do love performing, but I’ve had to hang out with a lot of straight white men over the years. I don’t mind them at all, but it’s not my safe space. It’s not that I’ve ever thought, ‘Fuck men. I hate ‘em.’ I don’t! But I am tired of the scene, and I’m not desperate for the attention anymore,” she candidly offers. “I just feel more content these days and that just doesn’t belong in comedy, does it? I’m like, ‘Gosh, I really need to nurture my miserable side, because that’s what people want to hear.’ But surely, that’s not healthy? People don’t want to pay to hear me talking about how I’ve found inner peace. They’d just tell me to fuck off.”

What: Nanette When & Where: 6 & 17 Mar, Ithaca Auditorium; 18 & 19 Mar, Brisbane Powerhouse

When & Where: 16 — 19 Mar, Brisbane Powerhouse

THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017 • 23

Music

Resident Alien

Woman Of The World

The second trailer for Alien: Covenant, Ridley Scott’s follow-up to the often baffling Prometheus, has finally dropped (sqeee!). Here’s what we learned:

Elizabeth Who? At the end of Prometheus, Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw and a partly dismantled Michael Fassbender are seen getting the hell out of dodge on an Engineer space craft. However, the dynamic duo are nowhere to be seen in this latest trailer. Will we find them in the final film?

Dead Quiet With signs of agriculture and other clues of humanoid habitation, the planet the crew of the Covenant arrive at should be teeming with life. In fact, it’s devoid of wildlife save for two distinct breeds of Xenomorph. The implication is that the Engineers’ black death goo got out and a planetary infestation of sharp-toothed horror ensued.

Monsters’ Ball There’s a veritable smorgasbord of Xenomorphic delights on offer, with fan favourites such as the Facehugger, shoulder to acid-blooded shoulder with new additions to the Alien zoo.

Xenopmorphs can erupt from the chests of virtually any animal, acquiring specific traits. Could these new kids on the Alien block be from the missing animals of the Engineer home world?

24 • THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017

Eddi Reader sings to the beat of her own drum, even when the words are from a writer “200 years dead”. Anthony Carew discovers Gang Of Four took the piss out of her “something awful”.

T

he first time Eddi Reader came to Australia she was 26, yet to embark on a solo career and singing back-ups for Alison Moyet, and her trip became instantly memorable. “We were out on Sydney Harbour on a boat with Tony Bennett,” recounts Reader, now 57. “My family loved The [Great] American Songbook, and Tony Bennett was one of their big heroes. I couldn’t believe it.”

Reader “never made it” back to Australia fronting Fairground Attraction, who had a number one single here with 1988’s Perfect and then famously broke up while making their second LP. But beginning in the early naughties she became a regular visitor; her first-ever Australian solo show was at Melbourne’s Cornish Arms, where she was asked by the venue to take a mid-set break “because no one was buying any drinks. They were all just sitting still, listening to me sing songs and talk about Scotland”.

Reader was born in Glasgow, but her family were relocated from their tenement - “they called them slums, but to me they weren’t slums, they were castles” - in the mid’70s, moving to the tiny seaside town of Irvine.

It was a culture-shock (“Irvine had two streets in it: Bank Street and High Street”), but it was there Reader discovered “Scottish cultural

music” and started playing in folk clubs.

After school she set off to see the world, first hitching to London then busking her way through France, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany. “I learnt to sing in the street, all these different songs to play: Loudon Wainwright, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Paul Brady, The Chieftains.”

Returning home she ended up working a factory job. “I was driven demented,” Reader recounts. “I felt like I was a woman of the world by then. I was 20, and here I was stuck knitting jumpers for golfers in a factory. I didn’t want to kowtow to the norm, which was, in Irvine, getting married at 21 and having a shitload of kids.”

Plotting her escape, she started answering singer-wanted adverts from London music mags. Her first gig was singing back-up vocals for Gang Of Four on a US tour. “They took the piss out of me something awful. I was so naive, I thought you could buy cocaine in bags from the supermarket freezer.”

After singing for Moyet and Eurythmics, Reader found fame with Fairground Attraction and her eponymous 1994 LP marked the beginning of solo success. But 2003’s Sings The Songs Of Robert Burns is her most notable record, reconnecting Reader with the Scottish tunes she cut her teeth on. “I’m leaning on ancient texts and I’m leaning on ancient ideas, but... I don’t want it to be like going to a museum; I want it to be like putting on a Harry Nilsson record. Every musician leans on these song-forms that’ve been around forever; you can’t just play a minor chord and call it your own. Olivia NewtonJohn did Banks Of The Ohio [in 1973]. With me, it’s just more obvious, because in the case of Robert Burns’ songs, the writer has been 200 years dead.”

When & Where: 16 Mar, Queensland Performing Arts Centre

In Focus Pint Of Origin

For the first time, Brewsvegas is rolling out a Festival within a Festival – how very meta of them! Craft Pint’s Pint Of Origin started life as a humble sideshow at Melbourne’s Good Beer Week in 2012. Since then it’s cemented a reputation as one of the must-see events at Australia’s great beer festivals. For this special Brisbane edition, some of Queensland’s best brewers will be pulling some quality pints from ten taps, including some brand new, exclusive, limited edition releases.

Catch Pint Of Origin, 10 – 19 Mar at Bloodhound Bar

Eat / Drink Eat/Drink

Brewsvegas viva

Brisbane’s beer bonanza is taking over more than 70 venues citywide, with over 100 events celebrating Brissie’s booming bar culture, from 10 — 19 Mar. As the fourth year of Brewvegas kicks off, The Music has taken a look at some of the best the fest has to offer.

Free Hair Of The Dogs

Brewvegetarian... Root To Leaf

Atticus Finch, 11 Mar from 2pm What could be better than an afternoon with man’s two best friends — beer and dogs?

Sample a range of craft brews with your furry friends in tow.

Bosc, 18 Mar from 5pm Beers and BBQs are fine bedfellows, but enjoying a cold one needn’t be just for the carnivores. Tuck into some meat-free treats by the veggie masters from Yulli’s.

Two Loves Reggae And Craft Beer Mini-Fest Cardigan Bar, 12 Mar from 3pm North Brisbane brewery, Hub Brewing Co, have partnered with the good people at Cardigan Bar to bring a slice of Caribbean cool to Sandgate.

Under $100 Aquila’s Bridgevegas Aquila, 10 Mar from 6pm, $59 Bridge Road Brewers have teamed up with the talented chefs at Aquila to create the ultimate beer degustation. It’s totally cordon beer.

Brewers Choice Goes Ballistic Ballistic Beer Co Brewery, 11 Mar from 10am, $75 Brisbane’s newest brewery has partnered with one of the city’s best homebrew stores to share the secrets of the perfect barrel. A must for any homebrew hobbyist.

Four Seasonals In One Day Brisbane Brewing Co, 12 Mar from 3pm, $50 Come see the battle of the brews as four seasonally inspired craft beers fight it out. Brisbane Brewing Co’s Sketchy As will go head to head against four QLD challengers.

26 • THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017

$100 Plus City 2 Surf Bosc, 11 Mar from 10am, $130 No designated driver? No problem! Sunshine Coast Craft Beer Tours will get from Bosc in the West End to Brouhaha in Maleny for the ultimate beertasting crawl, plus lunch.

West End Massive —

Brewvegas Beerlympics ‘17

Progressive Dinner

Newstead Brewing Co, 19 Mar from 10am, $100 Wondering how you’ll work off all the extra calories you’re chucking back during Brewvegas? Register and come take on a giant inflatable obstacle course, and win some prizes to boot.

Archive/Brisbane Brewing Co/ Catchment/Bosc, 16 Mar from 6.30pm, $120 Four of the West End’s iconic venues join forces for this brewers’ showcase complete with top-notch eats from some of the area’s best eateries.

Brewsvegas

Aether Brewing visit our venue. We want to take them on a journey, the journey of two guys who risked everything in the pursuit of beer perfection.

Are you making any special brews for the event? We have a number of collaborations at Aether for Brewsvegas as well as some pretty exciting one-off beers including an experimental called The Hop Controller that will be served at Pint Of Origin (QLD) and across our bar for the week.

Answered by: Dave Ward - The Brewer What will make your brew stand out from all of the rest on offer at Brewsvegas? Aether is more than a brewery, beer or bar. Everything we do is about providing an experience for people who drink our beer or

Why do you think Australians are starting to favour boutique and craft breweries over mainstream beers? Flavour and range aside, engagement and connection with the people and brands that create the beer is what drinkers are seeking. Offshore multinational brands are difficult to relate to. Not so for the large number of amazing breweries in Australia that were started by friends over a few beers.

What kind of food do you think your beer(s) would be best paired with? Our beers match perfectly with shared food and good conversation. Cheese, charcuterie, BBQ, seafood, snacks and of course good times!

What exactly do you think makes a good beer? Passion, high-quality ingredients and a nice, balanced flavour profile are all necessary to make good beer.

When and where can people sample your wares at Brewsvegas? Newstead Brewing Co, Bloodhound Brew and Brisbane Brewing Co all have events with some of our beers, with The Scratch Bar having our collaborative brew Milton Mango, otherwise they will all be available at our brewpub in Milton.

Website link for more info: aetherbrewing.com.au

THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017 • 27

Brewsvegas

Stone & Wood Brewing the laid-back lifestyle of the Northern Rivers, which is just over the border (an hour south of Brissy).

Are you making any special brews for the event? In addition to beers that are available year round, we’ll also have a special Pilot Batch brewed especially for Brewsvegas.

To suit the QLD climate, we’ve brewed a Berliner Weisse with tropical fruits pineapple and guava.

Answered by: Jasmin Daly Creative & Community Manager What will make your brew stand out from all of the rest on offer at Brewsvegas? We brew approachable, sessionable handcrafted beers that are simply good to drink, using quality ingredients. They reflect

28 • THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017

Why do you think Australians are starting to favour boutique and craft breweries over mainstream beers? I believe there are two reasons. Firstly, it is about the quality and consistency of beer that isn’t mass-produced and is brewed by brewers, using quality ingredients; people are done with flavourless, watery beer. Secondly, Australians are seeking out local, independent producers and makers.

What kind of food do you think your beer(s) would be best paired with? The variety you can find within our range of beers lends itself to a diverse array of pairing options.

For us it’s more about pairing our food with fresh, organic, locally sourced ingredients.

With our Pacific Ale, you really can’t go past fresh seafood.

What exactly do you think makes a good beer? It make you want another! Quality ingredients, approachability and love.

When and where can people sample your wares at Brewsvegas? Jump on our website and check out the events we’re involved in and see where we’re on tap and stocked.

Make sure you grab a ticket to our event at the Old Museum, 18 Mar, where The Belligerents will be playing and the beer will be flowing!

Website link for more info: stoneandwood.com.au

Brewsvegas

Netherworld

Answered by: Benjamin Nichols Address: 186 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley What events are you hosting for Brewsvegas? The Wizard on 11 Mar, which is a Super Mario Bros 3 championship with the prize being a Power Glove and Kaiju

I N T H E B AC K YA R D FRE E EVE NT

5 P M – 11 P M FOOD TRUCKS, STA L L S , L I V E A RT BY D R A P L , V I N Y L D J ( YO U R M AT E S D J S ) STO N E & WO O D B E E R S

@stoneandwood

Beer. Then To The Tavern! We Quest For XP on 16 Mar, a live action first level RPG Tavern full of fantasy, quests and rewards.

Japanese and American diner-inspired menu that caters for all kinds of diets. Bites, buns and bowls.

What beer would you recommend for taste buds who are new to craft beer and why? The Kobold that Green Beacon Brewing Co brewed for us. It’s an extremely approachable pale ale that still has plenty of flavour and goes down a treat. It’s a great first step into local beer.

Will you be bringing out special brews or taps just for Brewsvegas? Sure are - Kaiju has created the Savage Wizard, a passionfruit and guava pale ale. The Grifter Brewing Co from Sydney have created Moloch’s Tavern Ale, a ripper of an English bitter that’ll be served from a cask during our Tavern event.

And what would you recommend to impress someone who thinks they’ve tried it all?

I’d recommend to relax and revisit the favourites, whether that be beer OR games.

Do you have competitions or entertainment planned for Brewsvegas? Just our two events! Beyond that, we encourage everyone to go out and get involved in whatever they can around Brisbane. Especially if you’ve never been to that venue before.

All good beer should be accompanied by a good feed; do you have particular meals you have paired up? Sure do, the Hellmouth Diner operates out of Netherworld. It’s a

SAT 18 M A R C H RAISI NG F U N DS F OR OZ H A RV E ST

JOIN US FOR A FEW BEERS IN THE GARDEN 480 GREGORY TE RRAC E, BOWE N H I LLS, BRISBAN E

www.stoneandwood.com.au

Website for more info: netherworldarcade.com

I N TH E MUSE UM TIC KETE D EVE NT

LIVE MUSIC

THE BELLIGERENTS

TIC KETS: $20 VIA EVE NTBRITE TIME: 9PM AC C E S S TO F R E E B AC K YA R D E V E N T

Stone and Wood Brewing

THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017 • 29

Album / E Album/EP Reviews

Cameron Avery

Album OF THE Week

Ripe Dreams, Pipe Dreams Spinning Top

★★★★½

Having been an ever-present force in Perth’s abundant music scene for nearly the past decade, sharing stage space as one part of Tame Impala, Pond and alt-rock group The Growl, it’s a surprise — a pleasant one — to hear the dulcet croons of Cameron Avery lilt over the gospel and soul-infused rock of his debut solo LP Ripe Dreams, Pipe Dreams.

Avery’s former exposure to the silky sounds of the golden age has clearly left its mark, but he’s steered this ship away from sounding derivative fairly well with a gentle fusion of genres, and ultimately he could have gotten away with anything with that honeydipped voice of his.

Those pipes work their magic from the get go. Do You Know Me By Heart lets Avery’s breathy yearning unfold over a waltzing, dark dance hall atmosphere and trilling motifs. Dance With Me and Wasted On Fidelity are a bit more playful, fleshing out and softening philosophical subject matters with pretty strings and gentle, sparse percussion. Big Town Girl and Disposable dip back into Avery’s big bag of vintage nuances and echo Father John Misty’s tongue in cheek drawls. C’est Toi’s haunting melodic line, piano strikes, big sentiment and stacked vocals seal the deal as the album closer. It’s an impressive debut from an as yet unplucked talent.

Carley Hall

Laura Marling

The Shins

Semper Femina

Heartworms

More Alarming/Kobalt

Sony

★★★½

★★★★

At the time of release, many critics viewed Laura Marling’s Short Movie as an attempt by the singer-songwriter to expand beyond her acoustic sound into something noisier and rockier.

Semper Femina, following up that record, doesn’t really fit comfortably into that narrative.

While it’s hardly a return to those acoustic traditions, it’s not exactly a clear-cut move in a specific direction.

Really, it’s just a little bit weirder. Overall, Semper Femina maintains Marling’s typical sound as a songwriter — but, scattered throughout, there are consistent flickers of leftfield production and unusual instrumentation that lend a surprisingly odd miasma to the album. The mournful vocals of Don’t Pass Me By float atop a bed of mumbling electric guitar, fuzzed-out drum machines

Heartworms is somewhat contradictory. At times, The Shins sound as youthful and as energetic as ever. At others, James Mercer and co create an almost quintessential ‘adult contemporary’ sound; lyrically rich yet musically safe pop.

Luckily for fans of the band, the record leans more towards the former. “I took the drugs but the drugs didn’t take” (album highlight Half A Million) is just one of the many lines Mercer shares that speak to an exuberance he and his band have retained.

If Heartworms was the first Shins record you’d heard, you’d be surprised to know that the band has been around for more than 20 years. For long-time fans though, a close listen reveals a different sound to their first two records, 2001’s Oh, Inverted World and 2003’s Chutes Too

30 • THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017

and swooping strings that feels almost Lynchian. Opener Soothing wraps a rich, romantic folk song around a collection of tiny electronic rhythms.

It’s not a startling transformation, but it gives the album a unique personality and speaks to an increasingly intriguing future for Marling.

Whereas many saw her moving towards a more rock-oriented identity after her last album, Semper Femina feels like a prelude to a more idiosyncratic direction. More Waits circa ‘83 than Dylan circa ‘65.

Matt O’Neill

Narrow. In fact, scrolling through the band’s back catalogue Heartworms follows the general trend and a natural progression from 2012’s Port Of Morrow. As they’ve matured they’ve added layers of density to their sound, like the doubled vocal lines on the title track, consistent ride cymbals in The Fear and an overall slightly slower tempo.

While these elements make Heartworms a less innocent than The Shins we’re used to, they make it no less enjoyable.

Dylan Stewart

EP Reviews Album/EP Reviews

Circa Waves

Hurray For The Riff Raff

Rolling Blackouts Roland Tings Coastal Fever Each Moment A

The Navigator

The French Press

ATO/[PIAS] Australia

Ivy League

Sony

★★★★

★★★★

★★★½

★★★★

Talk about aiming high. All facets of Different Creatures, the second album by UK outfit Circa Waves, have been dialled in one direction: up.

From volume to political commentary, the band have built a record that should — nay, will — force promoters and DJs to not just notice them, but put them on a pedestal for the masses. In the same way Bloc Party, Foals and The Wombats have done over the past decade; Circa Waves have graduated to stadiumworthy, headline act material.

What’s more, Different Creatures is brimming with diversity. It’ll be a treat to see live.

Hurray For The Riff Raff’s latest album is an ambitious but focussed concept piece in which the titular character The Navigator acts as frontwoman Alynda Segarra’s (somewhat autobiographical) alter ego.

As the character’s genesis story unveils the early nomadic wanderlust subsides and there’s a pivotal reconnection with her roots. This is echoed in the album’s sonics, which extend the band’s usual Americana tropes by delving into a variety of retro influences as well as subtle exotica. A cinematic masterwork in both scope and execution that’s equally fun and philosophical.

There’s a sunniness that washes through your ears as you press play on The French Press EP, the latest drop from Melbourne five-piece Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

Combined with an unashamed eagerness across the handful of songs, a driving rhythm that pushes tracks like Julie’s Place and Colours Run ahead, it makes for a rollicking good time. It’s crisp and unadulterated by excessive distortion or production. With two solid EPs now under their belt and a US tour kicking off soon, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever are ready to take on the world.

Steve Bell

Dylan Stewart

Following his acclaimed selftitled debut in 2015 Melbourne’s Roland Tings quickly followed up with his single Hedonist.

An enticing taste of things to come, Tings then went quiet for over a year. Now he delivers the main course with his new EP Each Moment A Diamond, which includes the epic and incredibly mature Hedonist beside a suite of equally impressive tracks.

They are lengthy — two sitting around the eightminute mark — but they are kaleidoscopic, whimsical and never seem to tire. Refined and densely layered, the EP’s six tracks feature an attention to detail and exquisite, Four Tet-like pacing that reveals just what Tings is capable of.

Different Creatures Dew Process/Universal

Dylan Stewart

Diamond

Samantha Jonscher

More Reviews Online Bush Black And White Rainbows

theMusic.com.au

Greg Graffin Millport

Listen to our This Week’s Releases playlist on

THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017 • 31

Live Re Live Reviews

Pixies @ Riverstage. Pic: Stephen Booth

Pixies, The Murlocs Riverstage 2 Mar

Pixies @ Riverstage.

Pic: Stephen Booth

Pixies @ Riverstage.

Pic: Stephen Booth

Warpaint @ The Triffid. Pic: Stephen Booth

Warpaint @ The Triffid. Pic: Stephen Booth

32 • THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017

Warpaint @ The Triffid. Pic: Stephen Booth

If they weren’t holding instruments, you’d think The Murlocs were riff-raff who’d somehow blagged their way on stage but, as it turns out, the gang can jam. The limited performance space they’re gifted with keeps things intimate, and the continually shifting vocal lines whet the appetite for what’s soon to come.

We watch as black clouds swirl in the distance, then a little smoke does a similar dance in front of some industrial-strength lighting rigs. It’s a cinematic scene for Pixies to walk out to and, as soon as they kick into gear with Cactus and The Holiday Song, we’re instantly removed from Brisbane, to be taken on a twisted, acid-fuelled trip along the coast, south of the border and beyond.

Black Francis is the same tortured voice he’s been for the past 30 years. He howls and snarls, yelps and stutters - uncomfortable one moment, emotional the next. Guitarist Joey Santiago and drummer David Lovering ensure every passage of every song features some flair, while bassist Paz Lenchantin lays down magic on the lower end of the scale.

When her vocals soar parallel with Francis’ on Where Is My Mind? - surfing on Santiago’s lingering notes - you couldn’t imagine another bassist filling the void of Kim Deal. She crushes it during Here Comes Your Man and Gouge Away as well, her body bowing with every bending note.

The frontman is having none of Havalina, however, cutting the tune early because he botched something during the intro.

There’s mild shock that the legend is in fact a mortal like us.

What’s nice, though, is it forces Francis to speak to the crowd

- the first time any of the band have done so tonight. Shortly after, Monkey Gone To Heaven is the all-in singalong we hoped it would be, before Head Carrier and Planet of Sound add to an essential set that still has plenty of gaps.

We’re taken on a twisted, acidfuelled trip along the coast, south of the border and beyond.

The four band members track the stage, waving and tapping their hearts with their hands. They take a number of group bows, but don’t leave.

Instead, they spin on their heels, grab their tools, and open up one last time for the jagged Into The White.

Less than 20 words have been spoken to us in 90 minutes, but there’s something powerful in that. The experience shared never feels impersonal or phoned in - rather, it drives home the fact that, when the songs are great, that’s more than enough.

Benny Doyle

James Vincent McMorrow The Triffid 3 Mar Keeping trend with the headliner’s love of Brisbane acts, Moreton have found their way onto the east coast run of dates for this tour. Frontwoman Georgia Potter’s voice is made to be accompanied by red wine and dimly lit lamps and, although their style of moody lounge music is hard to position above the sound of the crowd, they have

eviews Live Reviews

everyone’s attention by set’s end.

A short while later, orangeand-red light blankets the room as beloved Irish son James Vincent McMorrow comes out to the strains of Roy Ayers’ Everybody Loves The Sunshine.

Sporting a Panama hat and a sharp wool suit - a borderline insane outfit choice on a muggy Queensland night - he positions himself under a single spotlight and begins Red Dust before his four-piece backing band drop in behind him and flesh out the delicacies of the music.

With a voice as pure as McMorrow’s, it’s no surprise that the vocals surrounding him are equally on the level. All players sway and nod in unison, and they work in beautiful cohesion, though McMorrow is very much the star on show. He steps away from the microphone to croon during I Lie Awake Every Night, and his voice still gets picked up by every transducer in the vicinity.

Initially, Gold is barely recognisable - given a spry calypso working over - with strange synth tones adding new layers to the uplifting experience.

Soon after, Rising Water sees

A revelatory evening of music.

McMorrow go full southern preacher, as he strides around the stage, arms reaching and legs dropping, while Evil’s pulsing, clap-laden breakdown wouldn’t be out of place in a festival dance tent. The lights and effects, meanwhile, continue to play into the lyrics, creating a truly immersive experience.

“No way am I taking this suit jacket off - it’s a fucking nightmare under there,” McMorrow exclaims with a smile.

We’re unperturbed though - in this moment, everything is gorgeous.

We Don’t Eat and Surreal tie up the main proceedings, before a demanded and deserved encore celebrates a revelatory evening of music. By now, the entire room has found its collective voice, making If I Had A Boat and Cavalier even more emotive and impactful than usual. It’s a stunning end to an evening spent with one of the great voices of our generation.

Benny Doyle

Warpaint, Jonti The Triffid 22 Feb There’s a surprising amount of people in The Triffid (for a Wednesday) as the first act starts. Jonti is a man who defies all genres in some form or another, layering tracks from his laptop with live guitar vocals, adding different notes and effects using looping pedals. He’s humble, and a little awkward, but it’s charming — and understandable, as he explains that the recent run of shows with Warpaint have been his first live performances in some time.

There’s a little bit of break between acts and, within minutes, the room is packed.

After some time and several false starts, Warpaint wander onto stage, grins already plastered on their faces. As the first few chords play, the room is almost deadly quiet, and we’re treated with a few beautiful minutes of a glimpse of what their practices might look like.

The band move around the room with comfort and grace and, after a brief pause for applause, launch into fan-favourite Keep It Healthy.

The use of sample pads by both drummer Stella Mozgawa and guitarist Theresa Wayman sets the crowd ablaze, as guitarist/vocalist Emily Kokal serenades us with her otherworldly voice. Bassist

Jenny Lee Lindberg can be seen rocking out, having a great time, and it sends us into a frenzied dance. Every song is eerily beautiful and equally mesmerising, each of the members layering their harmonies together to sound like a chorus of angels, almost floating across the stage.

They end the set on a laugh as Kokal accidentally drops her last, lingering note, and they depart the stage as fans wail with despair. The howls turn to chants and pleas for an encore and, after an agonising five

Every song is eerily beautiful and equally mesmerising.

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

Adele @ The Gabba RUFUS @ Shamrock Hotel Porter Robinson & Madeon @ Riverstage Explosions In The Sky @ QPAC

minutes, Kokal walks back onto the stage, a solitary figure, and plays a special request for us all; the soft, almost devastating lyrics of Baby flow around the room, and not a breath is heard anywhere else.

The rest of the band appears back on stage and once again we are blown away, this time by the hypnotising, erratic drums of Bees. With our last burst of energy, the room is filled with dancing, waving bodies. It all comes to an end too soon and, with a final wave goodbye, Warpaint depart the stage once again, leaving us all to wander outside and enjoy the crisp night air, spent and sated.

Carly Packer

THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017 • 33

Arts Reviews Arts Reviews

tech-infused set design; Matthew Marshall’s rich, imaginative lighting; the integrated, impressive video work of optikal bloc; and the live recreation of the albums’ songs under the guidance of comusic directors Nik Pringadi and Glenn Moorhouse, the latter of whom also plays guitar as part of the exemplary stage band - are unarguably magnificent, all executed, per the vision of veteran director Craig Ilott, with precision, style and a wonderful sense of imagination. Those aural and visual components ably serve to build the world of Jingletown, USA, where we find our protagonist, Johnny (Ben Bennett) and his best friends, Will (Alex Jeans) and Tunny (Cameron Macdonald), whiling away their late adolescence in a haze of beer and frustration with their circumstances and the wider state of the nation.

The trio determine to set off for The City to chase their dreams, but it isn’t to be: Will finds out his girlfriend, Heather (Ashleigh Barlow), is pregnant, and remains behind, while Tunny soon forsakes the rock’n’roll dream to join the army. Johnny, feeling abandoned and alone, strikes up a relationship with Whatsername (Phoebe Panaretos) while balancing a budding heroin addiction enabled by the darkest parts of his psyche, which manifest as the seductive and dangerous St Jimmy (The Living End’s Chris Cheney).

If you’re not an existing or prospective fan of Green Day’s music or the albums from which it takes its song list in particular, it’s safe to say there’s very little here to recommend for you, as the songs make up the overwhelming majority of the show’s material, and come hard and fast with minimal reprieve (be warned: there is no intermission). Otherwise, the company at shake & stir theatre co have pulled together an exceptionally polished, faithful and cohesive narrative staging of the American Idiot LP and parts of its follow-up and it’s absolutely more than worth your time to experience it.

American Idiot

American Idiot Theatre Queensland Performing Arts Centre to 12 Mar

★★★½ Green Day’s American Idiot is not a stage musical.

Not really.

Yes, there’s a stage, and music too. But the show, if everyone’s being honest with themselves, is really a pair of pseudo-concept albums brought to life: a breakneck run-through and choreographed mash-up of both the titular rock opera of 2004 and selections from its largely unconnected spiritual sequel, 21st Century Breakdown (2009).

That’s not to say that this show isn’t still a production, of course, and a seriously wellexecuted one, at that. On the contrary, many of American Idiot’s practical elements - Josh McIntosh’s clever,

Mitch Knox

34 • THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017

Luke Heggie

Luke Heggie: Rough Diamante Comedy Brisbane Powerhouse (Finished)

★★★★½ Another brilliantly confrontational offering from Brisbane-bred funnyman Luke Heggie, Rough Diamante finds him skewering a dozen occupations, mindsets and sensibilities during the intro alone. He then ramps up the offensive from there so prepare to be assaulted.

Fortunately, Heggie’s trademark deadpan demeanour means it’s hard to take things personally, even when the barbs hit close to home. His default droll delivery masks a routine dripping with sarcasm and cynicism (although these traits are often adroitly deflected by being attributed to some nebulous third party).

Heggie’s everyman Aussie persona somewhat conceals his top-notch observational skills and some brilliant turns of phrase (such as the throwaway line about someone having attended the “above ground pool school of English”), and while he delights in cutting people down to size, there’s no real feel of arrogance or hubris as he packs in plenty of self-recrimination to square the ledger.

He plays the hometown card perfectly (despite being Sydney-based these days) with a life hack about mowing toads, delivers an amazing take on mortality with a shrug, and then strums a mandolin for the last ten minutes which allows him to shed longer anecdotes for one-liners (a la Demetri Martin). He ends with a flourish of off-kilter song seemingly designed to push people from the room in a hurry. Affably scathing blue collar philosophy with no punches pulled but plenty to love.

Steve Bell

www.datsonhughes.com

M

DATSO D ATSON H HUGHES UGHES whispering highway tour BRISBANE 18 MAR Phase 4 Records MULLUM 26 MAR Poinciana Cafe MAITLAND 2 APR House Concert TAREE 7 APR Flow Bar NEWCASTLE 8 APR

SYDNEY 9 APR

CANBERRA 15 APR

MELBOURNE 29 APR Open Studio SYDNEY 13 MAY Fairlight Folk Illawarra Folk Club SYDNEY 20 MAY Annandale Hotel ! "# Little Red Kitchen

theMusic com au: theMusic.com.au: breaking news, up-to-the-minute reviews and streaming new releases

THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017 • 35

Comedy / G The Guide

Guy Sebastian

Wed 08

Bec Sandridge

Waxhead + The Violent Monks + Touch: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads

Adam Harpaz: El Capitano, Noosa Heads CW Stoneking + Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley Teenage Fanclub + The Goon Sax: The Triffid, Newstead

The Music Presents CW Stoneking & Nathaniel Rateliff: 8 Mar The Tivoli

Thu 09 Jamie Hogg + Elliot Cox + Belrose: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley

Holly Throsby: 16 Mar Black Bear Lodge

Ewan Mackenzie + Swing Dynamique + Kelsey Lu + Kristin Berardi: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point

The Jerry Cans: 22 Mar, The Northern Byron Bay; 23 Mar, SolBar; 24 Mar, Black Bear Lodge

Black Rabbit George: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads

Guy Sebastian: 31 Mar The Triffid; 1 April The Northern Byron Bay The Waifs: 6 Apr The Tivoli; 8 Apr Miami Marketta; 9 Apr Muro Martin Parlands Bluesfest: 13 – 17 Apr, Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm

Cobra + Indica + Three Wise Monkeys: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Acoustic Set with Lagerstein: Crowbar (Crowbar Black), Fortitude Valley

Fog Stomp Bottle-blonde babe Bec Sandridge will be bringing an excellent vibe to The Northern with Elkie and Pirra as part of the In The Fog tour.

Head down 11 Mar to bounce about to their electro-indie-pop sets.

M.E. Baird + Skye Staniford + Hannah Jane: Junk Bar, Ashgrove

Laura Mvula: 15 Apr The Triffid

Kurt Vile + Mick Turner: Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), South Brisbane

At The Dakota: 22 Apr The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar

Asta + Austen + Felivand: Solbar, Maroochydore

Jeff Lang: 5 May Imperial Hotel Eumundi

Tay Oskee: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore

Luca Brasi: 30 Jun The Triffid

Fresh Thursdays with DJ Brett Allen + DJ James Toddman: The Beer Garden, Surfers Paradise

Baltimore Gun Club + Monsters of the Midnight Sun + Snake Bite Whisky + Locus + Ironside: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley The Iron Eye: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley Domini Forster + O’ Little Sister: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Busby Marou: The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba Frightened Rabbit + The Trouble With Templeton: The Triffid, Newstead Cookies & Cream with Vincent & Jules Show: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley

Forevr

Soul Clap: Laruche, Fortitude Valley Soul Cutz: Logan Diggers Club, Logan Central Chocolate Strings + Luke Pauley: Miami Marketta, Miami Ann Vriend: Night Quarter, Helensvale Kate Miller-Heidke: Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) (Concert Hall), South Brisbane Rumblefish: Royal Mail Hotel, Goodna Fat Picnic: Solbar, Maroochydore

Fri 10

Speakeasy: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore

Raave Tapes: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley

Kiasmos: TBC Club (The Bowler Club), Fortitude Valley

Sharny Russell: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point Diplo: Brisbane Showgrounds, Bowen Hills

Who The Hell?

Bearfoot + DJ Kurt.is: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads

Forevr are a part of the line-up for the should-be-wild Who The Hell tenth birthday bash at Woolly Mammoth, 10 Mar. Joining them to celebrate the long-lived music blog are electronoise distorters Various Asses, Ultra Material and Pull Out Kings.

Metal of Honor feat. Magnertron + Lavidius + more: Chardons Corner Hotel, Annerley

Buffy 20 Year Anniversary Trivia: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley

Crowbar Cover Series #1 feat. The Way We Were + Shutup Shutup Shutup: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley The Gutterbirds + Adam Nigro: Crowbar (Crowbar Black), Fortitude Valley The Byzantines + Mary Handsome + Atticus Champs + The Goldhearts: Currumbin Creek Tavern, Currumbin Waters Red Axes + Multi Culti + Garzen + Israel + Audun + Giv + more: Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise Bistrotheque feat. Outside The Academy + Scraps + Papperbok: Empire Hotel, Fortitude Valley Rob Brown + Mark McConville: Imperial Hotel, Eumundi

36 • THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017

Damien Cowell’s Disco Machine

Funk! At The Disco Out from behind the mask of TISM, Damien Cowell is bringing his Disco Machine to Queensland this weekend. Head down to Woolly Mammoth on 11 Mar to feel the funk of this Aussie legend.

Gigs / Live The Guide

Schoolfight + Sun In Alchemy: The Boundary Hotel, West End

Asta

Datson+Hughes

She Cries Wolf + Staunch + Life’s Ill + more: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Asta + Austen + Felivand: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley The Byzantines + Mary Handsome + Youngsmith: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Meshuggah + Thy Art Is Murder: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley Harts + Yeo: The Triffid, Newstead

Time To Shine Performing throughout the month, Tasmanian youngster Asta will be bringing her poppin’ party mixes to The Foundry this 11 Mar on the Shine EP tour and she’s bringing Austen and Felivand along for the good times.

Rosie MissChief + The Skankstarz: The Boundary Hotel, West End Kiasmos: The Flying Cock, Fortitude Valley Bec Sandridge + Elki + OK Badlands: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley Hollow Coves: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Thunder: The Triffid, Newstead Toro Y Moi: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley Screamfeeder: Villa Noosa Hotel (The V Room), Noosaville Busby Marou: Wharf Tavern, Mooloolaba Who The Hell 10th Birthday Show

with Various Asses + Forevr + Ultra Material + Pull Out Kings: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley

Sat 11

Answered by: Annette Hughes

Sun 12

How many releases do you have now? Three singles: Poor Time, Thief If Sky (with B-side Planet) and Sweet Mathilda Waltz. Our debut album is out early 2018.

Brisbane Big Band: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point Asta + Austen + Felivand: Coolangatta Hotel, Coolangatta

Kiko + DJ Jimmy D + Audun: Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise Jordan Merrick + Sian Evans: Junk Bar, Ashgrove

Busby Marou: Bay Central Tavern, Urraween

The Out Of Towners: Lefty’s Old Time Music Hall, Brisbane

Ann Vriend: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point

The Treehouse Children: Miami Tavern (Shark Bar), Miami

Pat Capocci + DJ Jasti: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads

Adventure Time LIVE: Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), South Brisbane

Ceres + Jess Locke: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Laura Mardon + Millie Ivaschenko: Crowbar (Crowbar Black), Fortitude Valley Hussy Hicks + Electrik Lemonade + Jack O’Leary + Munster Bucks: Currumbin RSL (Waterside Event Room), Currumbin

A Day On The Green with Don Henley + Jewel + Richard Clapton + Melody Pool: Sirromet Winery, Mount Cotton Lee Hardisty + Trey Cooper: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore Amela: Sonny’s House of Blues, Brisbane

Huntly: Empire Hotel, Fortitude Valley Oh Pep!

The Double Happiness: Junk Bar, Ashgrove

C W Stoneking & Nathaniel Rateliff

18+ Show with Kerser + Jay + Rates: Max Watt’s, West End

Wayward Suns + Dinner for Deux: Miami Marketta, Miami Raave Tapes: Miami Tavern (Shark Bar), Miami

Following their success at showcases around the world, folk heart-breakers Oh Pep! are set to captivate audiences when they join the iconic Martha Wainwright on her Australian tour. Be swept away this 19 Mar at The Triffid.

Blues In The Night with Mojo Webb + Dezzie D + Bluescorp: Night Quarter, Helensvale Blues Arcadia + Byron Short & The Sunset Junkies: Palmwoods Hotel, Palmwoods The Floating Bridges: Solbar, Maroochydore Dan & Arnhud: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore Mayhem County Boys: The Bearded Lady, West End

EP Title? Whispering Highway

Was anything in particular inspiring you during the making?

We just wanted a recording of our live sound, but our production team MEJU raised our understanding of music by some orders of magnitude. They dismantled and reassembled our sound with a new harmonic integrity.

What’s your favourite song on it? I Only Come Here. In it I hear David Bowie’s Starman, fallen to earth, on his way home.

We’ll like this EP if we like...

Gillian Welsh, Bob Dylan, The Incredible String Band. Hurray For The Riff Raff, Tim Buckley, Big Star.

When and where is your launch/ next gig? 18 Mar, Phase 4 Records. It’s free but if you register, you take home a download of our recent single.

Under 18’s Only Matinee Show with Kerser + Jay + Rates: Max Watt’s, West End

Pep Wright

EP Focus

Damian Cowell’s Disco Machine + Tony Martin: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley

Toh Kay: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley The Treehouse Children: The Bearded Lady, West End

Indie

Songs You Know & Love with Will Anderson: The Triffid (Beer Garden), Newstead

Howlin’ For More

Website link for more info? datsonhughes.com

Smooth bluesman CW Stoneking is co-headlining a massive national tour with American R&B sensations Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats. They’ll be swingin’ by on 8 Mar at The Tivoli.

THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017 • 37

Comedy / G The Guide

Yeo

Thu 16

Holly Throsby + Tom Cooney: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley

Jesse Taylor: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads Pete Rock & CL Smooth: Chardons Corner Hotel, Annerley Eddi Reader: Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) (Concert Hall), South Brisbane

Have A Heart Electro indie-pop artist Yeo has joined fellow Melbournian guitar wizard Harts on his national tour.

The next stop is a funk-fuelled evening of rock’n’roll this 11 Mar at The Triffid.

Georgia Rose: The Bearded Lady, West End The Sunday Habitation with Sarah Haigh + Paul Hanna: The Henderson, South Brisbane The Monroe Affair + Nix: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Midge Ure & India Electric Company: The Triffid, Newstead

James Bennett: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore Closet Disco Queen + Barge With An Antenna On It + Belligerent Goat + Swamp Jenson: The Bearded Lady, West End In For The Krill - Sea Shepherd Fundraiser with Sensaii + Vitals + Vaela + Endless + Crave Death: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Cassette: The End, West End

Fri 17 Saatsuma: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley Wood & Wire + Elly Hoyt: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point DJ DTroyt: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads Silence The Sun + Locus + Collisions + Dirty Liars + Middle Earth + Postcard

Americana Sunday Session with Thomson: The Triffid, Newstead

Mon 13

The Living End

Marduk + Gorguts: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Gian: El Capitano, Noosa Heads Glenn Skuthorpe: Oxford Hotel, Cunnamulla

The Damned: The Triffid, Newstead Triffid Acoustics with James Bennett: The Triffid, Newstead

The Live End The Living End will raise the roof of The Northern on 19 Mar with Melbournian party animals The Bennies and Brisbane’s Good Boy. Throw legendary Aussie rock into a blender with party anthems and punchy indie-rock and viola: Enjoy the show!

Musique: Logan Diggers Club, Logan Central

Emma Pask: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point

Hang Massive: Max Watt’s, West End

Sensaii + We Set Signals + Trojans + Promethean: Chardons Corner Hotel, Annerley

Iluka + James Bennett: Miami Marketta, Miami

President + Parametres + Ella Vice: Chardons Corner Hotel, Annerley Blister + Bantha Fodder + The Cutaways + John’s Not Mad: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley James Reyne + Felicity Lawless: Currumbin RSL, Currumbin

Bistrotheque with ADKOB: Empire Hotel, Fortitude Valley

Blister + Bantha Fodder + John’s Not Mad + The Cutaways: Crowbar, Fortitude Valley Tamam Shud + The Windy Hills: Imperial Hotel, Eumundi Asa Broomhall + Luke Pauley: Miami Marketta, Miami The Living End + The Bennies + Good Boy: Night Quarter, Helensvale

Akova: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore Sex Drive + Dagz + Bloodletter: The Bearded Lady, West End Cheap Fakes: The Boundary Hotel, West End Valhalore + Dragonsmead + Amicable Treason + Seraphic + Harvey Djent: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley Mija: The Met, Fortitude Valley Kudos: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane Baby Animals + Palace Of The King: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley

Tesla Coil + Simi Lacroix + Wren Klauf: Elsewhere, Surfers Paradise

38 • THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017

Roo Panes + Annabelle Kay: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley

Tropical Zombie + Sea Legs: Solbar (Main Stage), Maroochydore

Homegrown Battle of the Bands feat.

Moves + Vertigo + For The Wolves + Bixby Canyon: The Brightside, Fortitude Valley The Specials: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley

Istoria feat. Andrew Bayer + Ben Nicky: Family Nightclub, Fortitude Valley

The Living End + The Bennies + Good Boy: Racehorse Hotel, Booval

Abaddon Incarnate + Shackles + The Dead + Awful Noise: New Globe Theatre, Fortitude Valley

The Gatsby Gamble: Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley

Melbourne’s Storm The Skies are dropping in at The Foundry on 19 Mar with Stepson and The Comfort to perform the final show of the all ages headline tour for their 2016 album Sin Will Find You.

St Patricks Day with The Barleyshakes: Night Quarter, Helensvale

Tue 14

Wed 15

Storm Chasers

Tamam Shud + The Windy Hills: New Globe Theatre, Fortitude Valley

Justin Bieber + Martin Garrix + Sheppard: Suncorp Stadium, Milton

Chain & The Gang + I Heart Hiroshima: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley

Storm The Skies

St Patrick’s Day with The Flangipanis + Paddy McHugh: The Triffid, Newstead Aether Sessions #5 feat. Pool Shop + McKisko + Amaringo + Johnny Cyrus: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley

Sat 18 Eazy-E Tribute with E3 + more: Amped, Fortitude Valley

Sampology

Sample This Sampology has been making his name known around the globe and now his shit-hot electronic productions will be back in Australia, heating up the Woolly Mammoth on 18 Mar as the support act for international alternative producer Jordan Rakei.

Gigs / Live The Guide

Datson & Hughes: Phase 4 Records, Fortitude Valley

Jordan Rakei + Sampology + Street Rat: Woolly Mammoth, Fortitude Valley

Cooly Beachfest with The Rubens + The Beautiful Girls + Dorsal Fins + Bec Sandridge + The Vanns: Queen Elizabeth Park, Coolangatta

Sun 19

The Goon Sax

Mark Pradella & The Late Shift Big Band: Brisbane Jazz Club, Kangaroo Point

DJ Lincoln: Racehorse Hotel, Booval

Dosed: Cafe Le Monde, Noosa Heads

Kudos: Solbar, Maroochydore

Bart Thrupp + Bri Green: Solbar, Maroochydore

Tom Dibb: Solbar (Lounge Bar), Maroochydore

Tamam Shud + The Windy Hills + Andrew Kidman: Soundlounge, Currumbin

Chocolate Strings + Essie Thomas: The Boundary Hotel, West End Dorsal Fins: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley

The Sunday Habitation with The Wicked Messenger: The Henderson, South Brisbane

Amela: The Kitchens, Robina Iluka: The Milk Factory Kitchen & Bar, South Brisbane

Martha Wainwright + Oh Pep!: The Triffid, Newstead

Beenie Man + Ras George + Terry Moyaz + DJ Lvee + DJ Wade + DJ Bone: The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley Taking Back Sunday + Acceptance + Endless Heights: The Triffid, Newstead Songs You Know & Love with Will Anderson: The Triffid (Beer Garden), Newstead The Culprit Club + Babylon + Falls Barbershop + Studo + The Zoo: The Zoo, Fortitude Valley

All Ages Show with Storm The Sky: The Foundry, Fortitude Valley

Americana Sunday Session with Alys: The Triffid, Newstead

Goony Tunes

Mon 20 Paris Combo: Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) (Concert Hall), South Brisbane

The Goon Sax will be bringing the good times and goony tunes to The Triffid on 8 Mar as they support old skool indie rockers Teenage Fanclub on their upcoming shows this month.

LISTEN TO ‘A DEFINING COMMITMENT’ NOW

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DEBUT ALBUM COMING SOON

HOBBLEDEHOY RECORD CO

THE MUSIC • 8TH MARCH 2017 • 39

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