The Kooks – Live at Festival Hall: Gig Reviews

I couldn’t have been happier than to spend my first gig of 2012 at Festival Hall with a band that has been a favourite since the release of their first album Inside In/Inside Out. Fans were spread from wall to wall chanting ‘we want Kooks’, welcoming the British rockers to a typical Aussie summer rock show.

Fleet Foxes – Live at the Palais: Gig Reviews

Fleet Foxes are a band of considerable talent. Yet their greatest strength surely lies in their ability to deflect undesirable focus. To borrow a sporting reference, their musical output is much more the ‘champion team’ than the ‘team of champions’, and this became even more apparent no more than one song into their show at [...]

Meredith Music Festival 2011: Gig Reviews

The Meredith Music Festival has been and gone, and now it’s time for festival friends to recount fond memories of the Supernatural Amphitheatre.
Day one, aside from being the start of the festival, was also the beginning of scepticism from the majority of the festival goers towards commonplace meteorology. The cataclysmic thunderstorms that were a popular call for professional weather types eventuated into [...]

Straight To You – Triple J’s Tribute to Nick Cave: Gig Reviews

This time around it’s all about the much celebrated and revered cannon of Nick Cave. Rising to prominence with The Birthday Party, and since having monumental success with both Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, and more recently with Grinderman, Nick Cave seems to be as creatively charged as he’s ever been. And what better way to celebrate this unfinished career than put together some of Australia’s finest up-and-coming talent?

Bright Eyes – Live at the Hi-Fi Bar: Gig Reviews

With Bright Eyes he’s taken the role of the folk troubadour and turned it into a popular music cultural identity. The sheer number of eager fans at Melbourne’s Hi Fi Bar was something you wouldn’t normally associate with a guy who released an album singing alongside Emmylou Harris.

Nirvana – Live at the Paramount: Gig Reviews

I get the feeling that any documentary on Nirvana will forever containt the following phrases: ‘anthem of a generation’… most seminal act of the 90’s… and don’t forget ‘voice for the disaffected youth’.

The Vasco Era – Live at The Corner: Gig Reviews

There something refreshingly wholesome about The Vasco Era. While possessing all the hallmarks of a rough around the edges, rag-tag blues band, they have that genuine attitude of ‘I don’t give a crap what you think’ – and that is, I suppose, what makes them really likable.

The Hives – Live at The Palace: Gig Reviews

If you were to compare live bands to game show hosts of yesteryear, you would be hard pressed to find a better comparison to The Hives than John Burgess. They’re both charmingly cocky, a little daggy, but completely likeable.

Grouplove – Live at The Corner: Gig Reviews

On our way into The Corner for American indie kids Grouplove, we should have walked straight in to watch the support act, but the attraction of Melbourne’s first warm night in months combined the allure of a rooftop beer garden proved to be to strong.

Jebediah – Live at The Corner Hotel : Gig Reviews

From a psychological point of view, it’s not considered the best preparation for a tour of your ‘comeback album’ when your support act cancels at the last minute, as is what happened to Jebediah in the lead-up to their Kosciuszko Tour at The Corner Hotel earlier this month.

George Clinton and Parliament / Funkadelic @ The Palace : Gig Reviews

One thing that I should mention prior to discussing the pleasure of watching George Clinton and Parliament / Funkadelic perform is this: one should always attempt to avoid long distance travel in a car before watching a show! No matter how adept you consider yourself to be at covering large distances, I guarantee ten hours on Australian highways will make your experience less enjoyable.

Deep Sea Arcade – Live at the Northcote Social Club : Gig Reviews

There’s not much I can really say about Sydney’s Deep Sea Arcade that is considerably informative or vaguely enlightening. Their music has tremendous rock and psychedelic appeal, and their performance generates that kind of unrelenting interest that keeps your eyes transfixed on the stage at all times. The lads were in town and their sizable, yet not completely packed audience was extremely grateful.

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