Mutemath - Live @ The Corner, May 15

You can read an edit of the following review over at Tone Deaf, but for the purists (and in the spirit of Mutemath's extended live show) the following is a slightly longer version. Enjoy.

As the lights dimmed on a sold-out crowd, packed to the rafters for Mutemath’s virgin performance to not only Melbourne, but Australia; necks craned between the shoulder-to-shoulder masses to get a peep of the band emerging on stage.

Instead, they marched in from the back corner of the venue, where The Cairos had just finished their rocking support slot, under a parade of fairy lights and clattering percussion.

A special entrance that signposted the magic to come.

Prince - Live @ Rod Laver Arena, May 14

This review was originally written for the blog, but it's also been syndicated over at Tone Deaf. Check it out.

“Here we are folks/the dream we all dream of”

He may not have performed ‘U Got The Look’, but Prince’s 1987 sing-off with Sheena Easton best captures the euphoric mood for the 12,000 strong in attendance at the first of the Purple One’s two Melbourne dates. Whatever ‘the look’ is, Prince has still got it. In spades.

Through his own iconic myth-making, and as arguably the last great pop star of the ‘old skool,’ his stadium shows have taken on the status of grand-standing event. Not least in a city that’s been starved of his presence for some time.

Or as Prince kept goading coquettishly throughout his set, “How long has it been Melbourne?”

Eight years actually Mr.  P. Rogers Nelson, but who’s counting?

Whether planted in the cheap seats, or had put a small mortgage to be amongst the club-style tables that girt the stage  - Prince certainly gave good value in a two-and-a-half hour set that cherry-picked some twenty plus selections from his three-decade long catalogue.

Private Life - Live @ The Workers Club (Single Launch), May 11

How often can you say you get a CD with the price of entry? In an individual fabric pocket no less, handmade by the headline act's front woman? 

Exactly. But there was more to Private Life's single launch than just a heartfelt trinket. Beginning with some solid support acts.

Big Scary - Live @ The Corner, April 24

Following a confidently rich set from the six-strong Mosman Adler, Big Scary’s other handpicked support act supplied his brand of synth-pop. The bespectacled man in question, Geoffrey O’Connor, along with his three piece band, settled for laconically swaying to the bona fide eighties vibe of his solo record Vanity Is Forever than excite the record. He may have sounded authentic, but seriously lacked in the energy stakes.

There was the familiar buzz of sawing synths, hopping basslines and even drum pads nicked straight from Phil Collins (or the intro to Art Attack). Whatever Leads Me To You mined a fine pulse in its New Order hooks, but soon succumbed to its cool affectation. Though the blue-light new wave of O’Connor’s album works well at home, on-stage, it translates as ‘music to pout by.’

A duet with his keyboardist skirting perilously close to a karaoke parody. Ironic or not, the sight of the two engaging in a mock embrace before standing mawkishly at front of stage was awkward. Overall, it was more Berlin’s Take My Breath Away than Depeche Mode’s Violator.

Though Melbourne duo Big Scary have graced the Corner’s hallowed stage countless times as a support act, tonight marks “the first time we’ve played last,” notes Tom Iansek, opening proceedings alone at the guitar with newly returned “studio beard,” his bronzed falsetto in fine form.

Rejuvenated from their American sojourn playing dates at SXSW, Canadian Music Week and their first international headline slot in New York; the pair of Iansek and Jo Syme (Melbourne’s Coolest Female Drummer^TM) are nothing if not creatively restless. 

Gareth Liddiard - Live @ The Regal Ballroom Northcote, Mar 23

This review was originally written for ToneDeaf, and was published on-line here. The following is reproduced in unedited format. 

After a thrilling set from Lost Animal, playing material from Ex-Tropical with calculated aloofness. The Drones frontman himself graces the stage for one of his rare acoustic performances.

For one typified by the knotted blues rock and brutal accounts of grizzly Australian history of his day job, the haughty trimmings of Northcotes’ Regal Ballroom seem a little out of character. The ticket price including optional dinner, the hall splayed with dining tables and silverware, with ornate chandeliers draped overhead. However Liddiard, flanked by gothic candelabras, commands the space. A tall, cavernous roof allowing him ample room to roar his hardest and strum his fiercest.

Lowlakes - Live @ Northcote Uniting Church (EP Launch), Mar 17

It’s not often you go to church and see a drum riser splayed across the altar. For the launch of their self-titled EP, Lowlakes chose to commandeer Northcote’s uniting church, clearing the pews aside for a makeshift gig space with naught but a few spots and a vigil of candles to light the room. The natural acoustics were a bit boomy for your typical gig, but as a unique setting it would even give AC/DC’s Let There Be Rock video pause.

St. Vincent - Live @ The HiFi Bar, Mar 14

This live review was origially written for, and published, by the folks at ToneDeaf, the edited version is available on-line here, while the following is a full 'director's cut' edit. Enjoy.

The crowd, beset by a field of summer frocks and skinny jeans, was already brimming by the time Melbourne’s own Minibikes opened the bill with some polished hooks. A five-piece playing straight-up indie pop, the vibrant likes of Kill To Feel touched with a soft spot for boy-girl harmonies between singer Marcel Borrack and keys lass Libby Chow. Their mood is sprightly if not distinctive, but there’s far worse things than being likable at this stage of a career.

Fire, Santa Rosa, Fire! soon grace the stage, and those familiar with the Adeladians’ previous work will notice that this is a group in transition. Though there’s room for the vicious hi-hat rolls and agitated hooks of Little Cowboys, Bad Hombres, their newer material instead shifts from the angular towards the atmospheric. Washing their restless pop hooks in spacious swirls with a new focus to vocalist Caitlin Duff’s enigmatic croon. Newer cuts, including a self-described ‘slow-burn’ and galvanising single Panther Shrine shows them playing to their inventive, and technical, side. Centered around hypnotic guitar loops and octave-hopping bass that spiral into cathartic grooves. After tonight’s showing, they’re sure to pick up a few followers on their own measured march towards their sophomore album.

Their left-field pop is fitting support to a lady who’s mastered the field, having famously earned her stripes with the likes of The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens, Annie Clark – the brains behind St. Vincent – possesses a live show fitting of her expansive albums.

Bon Iver - Live @ Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Mar 8

(EDIT: The lovely folks over at Everguide, took a liking to my rambling sycophancy  so they've published the review in full over at their website too.)

How do you write about music so good that it's difficult to articulate just what makes it so stirring? How do you describe an artist at a sheer peak of his creative powers without losing the balance to a wash of hyperbole?
This is the problem when discussing Bon Iver, particularly in the live setting. 

Well, the first step would be to establish the players, for Bon Iver is no longer solely Justin Vernon. Though the 'cabin-in-the-woods' mythos will forever be the origin of what would become For Emma, Forever Ago, the current iteration of Vernon's musical compositions have been characterised by collaboration. It's what characterised the eponymous sophomore Bon Iver, Bon Iver, easing and enunciating into a lush expansive palette that is as much credited to the brilliant players Vernon has enlisted. Certainly, Vernon remains the catalyst and visionary to the sonic soundscapes that Bon Iver paint, but it is as much about the party of talented, spirited individuals who have as much passion and attention as their band leader that deserve the credit. A fact made all the clearer in the live arena. 

I, A Man - Live @ Northcote Social Club (EP Launch), Feb 24

As if it wasn’t enough that I, A Man offered a killer sophomore EP, they also provided one of the best line-ups to launch it that inner-Melbourne has seen this year thus far. Namely, a handful of equally obscurely named bands, well, except for opening act Neighbourhood Youth that is.

They don’t have much visual appeal, dressed in plain shirts and shorts, they furrow the typical ‘heads-down’ mode of most fresh faced acts, but nevertheless sound far better than most opening acts should. Particularly given the small crowd, their tight rhythm section – all trebly bass and backbeat drums – suit their indie rock swell nicely. They even get some cowbell action in for Only One, with their other tunes characterised by stop-start dynamics and shuffling, danceable rhythms while frontman John Philip offers some yearning vocals. Their strongest tunes, namely the upbeat Home and hook-driven Stone, have a solid thing going, if not the performative aspect to sell them just yet. Elementally, they’ve got it going, but there’s still some gelling to go yet. 

The Dead Leaves - Live @ The Toff In Town (Album Launch), Feb 16

The following gig review was originally published in Beat, and is reproduced here in its entirety

Supporting The Dead Leaves as they launched their debut, was the musically schizophrenic Enola Fall. Hopping the pond from Tassie, and arriving on stage at the eleventh hour due to an unfortunate airport mix-up, Enola Fall and particularly band leader Joe Nuttall, look and sound a little underprepared. After delivering two songs of grinding guitars and dull tub-thumping energy that suggests at least one member is enthralled to Jimmy Eat World – they surprise with a sudden musical U-turn. Nuttall migrates to some jaunty piano, in a theatrical rock number closer to Queen’s cabaret leanings than anything their previous alt-rock contested.

Active Child - Live @ East Brunswick Club (Laneway Sideshow), Feb 8

The following live review was syndicated with, and for, Everguide - it is recreated here in it entirety.

Opening the evening was one of Sydney’s most promising solo acts, Oliver Tank (previously introduced by AMR). Fresh from his own tour launching his debut EP, Dreams. Tank is probably a lot more acclimatised to playing to larger crowds, and he deserves more than the odd thirty that have show up early for his support slot. Delivering a short but typically warm set, he shreds on a Strat along to his refined beats, loops and backing tracks. A little rough and visibly nervy, particularly during I Can’t Sleep where he has to mask a wonky guitar tuning with beats and volume, but by the end of his blissed out reworking of Snoop Dogg’s Beautiful, his toothy, Cheshire cat grin begins to emerge.

He doesn’t need to incite the crowd but instead lull them with his nocturnal beat-making and his plaintive vocals, saying naught but ‘thanks’ and his usual little send-off in the cathartic climax of breakout tune, Last Night I Heard Everything In Slow Motion. Even brisk sets like this prove why he’s one of Sydney’s ones to watch.

San Cisco & The Jungle Giants - Live @ East Brunswick Club, Feb 2

Kicking off the month that will be the East Brunswick Club’s last (*sniff*), was the double-heading Politely Awkward gig, a triple j presented tour of two of Unearthed’s most promising emerging acts. Namely Brisbane’s The Jungle Giants and Perth’s San Cisco. Supporting, suitably, was hometown act Buckley Ward.

Not the solo work of a mopey songwriter, but in fact a five-piece band, they quickly found their comfort zone with the lazy momentum of So Pretend then thumping along to the easy atmospheric bob of Into The Darkening Blue. The young audience, a sea of plaid shirts and top-knotted hair buns, conceded a gentle sway but were more content to chat. The tail-end of the set found some jostling for a better position near the front, mainly beer-toting fans with more enthusiasm than manners. It’s a young, hip crowd – but what else could you expect from three acts who are as young themselves, both age and career-wise.

Girl Talk - Live @ The Palace (Big Day Out Sideshow), Jan 31

Being festival season, AMR has caught an awful lot of great gigs lately. Following on from the interview with the mash-up maestro Girl Talk, the following is a live review originally published by the delightful folks at Tone Deaf and is reproduced here for your reading goodness.

“Girl Talk! Girl Talk! Girl Talk!” People are chanting, youths are sweaty with anticipation, the acrid smell of dry smoke hangs in the air. No, it’s not the encore, it’s just the opening.

The frenzy that surrounds a typical Girl Talk show has taken on a near-mythical status, tales of topless crowd-surfing and wild dancing long into the night have been passed around in hushed, revered tones. The irony being that in the cross-over from his underground shows – small clubs, carparks, anything – that made the myth to the mainstream festival circuit (and headline shows such as tonight), his show has become more organised and methodical.

Battles - Live @ The Forum (Big Day Out Sideshow), Jan 28

The following is a review originally published and syndicated for Hitz 247, reproduced in its entirety here.

The best way to describe the colossal rhythmic power of a Battles concert is to watch the sea of heads. There’s people bobbing and dancing, others prefer metronomic nodding, while some go for straight-up headbanging. The clinch? It’s all at once and it all makes sense.

Touring as part of the Big Day Out, Battles’ strength as a live unit makes them a reliable festival act, but it’s at sideshows like these that their titanic experimental rock is allowed to unfurl. Flanked by a wall of amps, two glowing video panels mimic a burning sunrise as the trio lope onstage and begin structuring the opening of Africastle. It soon crashes to life, built on visceral syncopations and mean polyrhythms, their instrumental collision of computer precision and processing with a propensity for shattering grooves is both thrilling and occasionally baffling. You often wonder what sounds are being made and how they’re making them, but they’re definitely playing them. Loud.

Yeo - Live @ The Butterfly Club (Home Album Launch), Jan 24

With its dual rows of stiff pews and a slightly raised wooden platform, the front-room of The Butterfly Club retains the air of a church gathering or a musical recital. It’s not your typical venue for a band booking, but then, nor is this your typical gig. How often upon arrival to a venue do you receive a complimentary tea-towel (emblazoned with the artists’ lyrics)? It instantly puts the homely vibe into the launch for Melbourne-based musical maverick Yeo’s latest album, Home, which itself is not your typical Yeo album.

Oliver Tank - Live @ The Workers Club (Dreams EP Launch), Jan 20

It was clearly a night for loop pedals…

In support of Oliver Tank (who's just been Introduced) on his first date of his Dreams EP launch tour were local Melbourne artists Kikuyu and Wintercoats, both artists who relied on the distinctive piece of tech to bring their textured solo projects to life on stage.

tUnE-yArDs - Live @ The Corner, Jan 15

For one with such a distinctively powerful voice, it’s only fitting that the tUnE-yArDs show begins with Merrill Garbus alone at the mic. Entering the stage solo, her diminutive frame shouldered by a mane of feathered pink tulle netting and bearing oversized, hooped earrings she quickly leaps into a series of chants and hollering. Her bright eyes darting and peering beneath her trademark face-paint (mimicked by some among the crowd), she demonstrates the full elastic range of her singing, at once warming up her commanding vocals and signposting their abilities.

Blood Orange - Live @ the Northcote Social Club, Jan 11

The following live review was originally published in Beat magazine, and online, it is recreated here in its entirety.

It was this time a year ago that Devonté Hynes last visited our shores under his old moniker, Lightspeed Champion, in what was touted as being a full show with backing band turned out to be a solo gig, a rather baffling one at that. At its worst it was glorified karaoke, in retrospect, the shy, wooly-jumpered indie kid that attempted to rouse a near-empty East Brunswick Club was one in a phase of transition.

Jump to twelve months on, and several blocks away to the Northcote Social Club, and Hynes is a man in a more assured mode. Namely as Blood Orange, his new musical guise that turns back the clock on the lush, baroque pop of Lightspeed Champion to the slick eighties funk and soul thatscored the neon-lit discos and bars of nocturnal New York City.

Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders: Live @ The Corner

Another live review sydnicated with/from/in black sorcerous union with Everguide - your local, brilliant events guide who handily compile great gig listings, like this one...

After fawning over their sophisticated arrangements and inventive sonics for some time now, last friday afforded me the first opportunity to see Sydney experimental outfit Ghoul in concert. Supporting Jack Ladder and The Dreamlanders in a sensational double-bill, they played few recognisable cuts from mini-lp Dunks but nevertheless impressed, with their delicate balance of electronic abstractions with blooming, organic songwrting.

If the swathe of new material they played was any indication, things are boding well for their highly-anticipated debut album. Brooding subs meet looping guitars while drummer Pavle Vizintin kept things apace with some deceptively complex rhtyhms over both live and sampled beats. Meanwhile brother Ivan Vizintin's characteristically haunting croon (part-Antony Hegarty part-Wild Beasts' Tom Fleming) kept the human element alive; even joking at one point that their unofficial fifth member - a laptop - 'helps keeps us in time." Can't wait to see what Ghoul do with the canvas of a full album, given their exciting palette, though their live show lacks a visual focus or a dynamic peak - their music is marvel enough to ensure them as a must-see.

Departing the stage, the strains of Bowie’s peak Eno/Berlin period, aka Low, began humming through the room, acting as a terrific mood-setter for the evening as well as marking a smooth transition to the steady throb of Beautiful Sound’s opening.  Flanked by his latest sidemen - The Dreamlanders, their line-up augmented by Andrew Hannaford (on loan from Ghoul) - and bathed in blue light was the man himself, Mr. Jack Ladder. Looking, and often, sounding like an outcast from a Tom Waits song, he commanded a curious presence through his wafting theatrics, as if in a trance, and more-so with his rich baritone.  

Young The Giant/Grouplove - Live @ The Corner

The lovely peeps over at everguide, a brilliant local events guide, have seen fit to publish the first half of the following review.

You can read up on Young The Giant here, then check out their page for gigs and listings in their lil' calendar format. Ace.

 

A Tuesday night is never a good night for a rock gig, but this post-Splendour double bill managed to pull a willing crowd thanks to the draw of getting two American buzz bands for the price of one.

First up, Californian outfit Young The Giant.

Starting with swelling chords and a slow-motion preamble of the doo-wop chorus, the group rattle into the lovely I Got. Opening with what is perhaps their most accomplished track from their eponymous debut is a bit of a gamble, but it does introduce the band’s strongest asset: vocalist Sameer Gadhia. With his gentle vibrato and delicate characterisation, his voice is brimming with affectation. A dual mic set-up sees him swapping restlessly between a standard mouthpiece and a classy fifties styled one with added reverb, even removing its head from the stand for St. Walker to give it the full crooner effect.