As last year’s Future, Good Vibrations 2009 and Global Gathering 2008 proved for many, horse racing venues, continuous rain and hordes of people don’t mix very well. It’s practically a repeat scenario this time, Future Music 2011 welcoming the underdressed punters with dismal weather and gravy-thick mud. Upon entrance, I give myself a mental high-five…
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New Farm’s iconic theatre is still filling up when an immediately-recognisable tall, slouching figure walks onstage: Ben Salter, a well-known Brisbane singer-songwriter and The Gin Club/Giants Of Science/The Wilson Pickers mainstay. An unannounced support act, he switches between an acoustic and a white Fender Strat for his various solo songs (later announcing he’s readying his…
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Day 1 – Wednesday 5 January The first post-New Year’s festival to hit Brisbane, Sunset Sounds (AKA the two-day northern Falls minus the camping) brings together musical talent both young and well-established as well as throngs of revellers flock to the Gardens. Previously sunny, the weather is already cloudy by the time we make it…
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Just like at Parklife in September, the immensely annoying rain ceases when we arrive at the RNA gates and I luckily don’t have to put on my poncho once. As the festival that officially kicks off the Antipodean summer season, Stereosonic 2010 is not only marked by intermittent early downpours and the usual sights like…
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It’s a cold, drizzly night and although not everyone is inclined to go out in this miserable, non-Queensland weather, the historic Old Museum still comes alive with a bang as it hosts the Brisbane instalment of the notorious, uproarious and just plain exciting interstate revue known as the Bohemian Masquerade Ball. Despite Halloween being three…
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It’s a pretty disconcerting feeling when you venture to see a band who made it into your Top 10 Albums of 2009 list and end up entering a near-empty venue, but then again, it’s Brisbane and Black Cab aren’t well known up here, despite having long conquered their hometown of Melbourne. So to those who…
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Creative workaholics to the core, Brisbane psych-pop quartet Drawn From Bees have churned out an amazing three EPs in just twelve months – 2008’s The Boy And The Ocean and 2009’s back-to-back And The Blind Shall Lead The Naked / The Sky Is Falling. The band’s debut LP Fear Not The Footsteps Of The Departed…
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Carry Nation is Brisbane singer-songwriter Jessie Warren and (often) an assorted crew of contributing musicians. Having established a presence on the city’s bustling folk music scene over the last four years, her maiden album Like A River Does is an assured collection of well-honed songs. As with many fellow acoustic-strumming sirens, the Joni Mitchell influence…
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With only maybe twenty people inside, the Troubadour’s quietness is unusual for even a Tuesday night. It’s 8.20pm when I enter, by which time designated openers Skarlet Blue should have finished – I learn they have piked instead and Pioneers Of Flight (DFB’s Stew Riddle and Matt Wedmaier in guitar/drums mode) stepped in. But neither…
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Big Day Out 2010, here we come. In contrast to pleasant cloudy weather at last year’s event, it is so hot today you could practically cook eggs in the sunrays (cue plenty of exposed flesh, Southern Cross tatts, silly sombreros etc in the crowd) by the time we arrive on the Gold Coast – so…
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A Byron Bay band without a single dreadlock among them? Meet Polaroid Fame, a snap-friendly (pun intended) five-piece armed with a whole array of vintage New Romantic hooks and with a sound glossier than hair gel. Keen to surf the last wave of ‘80s revival before the noughties are well and truly over, PF’s debut…
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This Saturday has been massive – no, I’m not talking any hedonism. Still, I only manage to see the last half of Perth resident and frequent Brisbane guest Jeff Martin and his fearsome Armada. The show is in full swing and numerous exotic instruments such as the harp guitar, sarod, harmonium and theremin are tantalisingly…
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Fresh from a completely different live music event in the Valley, I walk a number of flights of stairs to the Top Floor – an art/music space and perhaps the only venue of its kind in Brisbane CBD. Warming up tonight’s festivities – Felinedown’s first anniversary/EP digital re-release party – are dance-punks Moon Jog, whose…
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The music played through 299’s PA is positively deafening on all of the venue’s three levels, while the live sound is only marginally subtler – an obstacle not even helped by my trusty earplugs – however the punishing decibels do little to detract me and fellow music lovers from appreciating tonight’s local talent trifecta. Having…
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