LIVE REVIEWS

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Caitlin Harnett (socially distanced, The Lansdowne )

Down the length of some of Sydney’s main drags, plenty of people look to be failing at having a nice night out. It’s just gone 6pm but queues have formed at even the greasy old holes as if they were buzzy new clubs at midnight. Newtown venue The Vanguard was the first to reprogram live music two weeks ago. An easier task, perhaps, as a ...
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Sydney Opera House’s livestreamed concert series could be a game-changer for local bands
First published in The Guardian Australia, May 2020
Vivid festival was due to light up Sydney on Friday but instead the city is dark and silent bar a few night-joggers ploughing the streets. There’s a stir at Joan Sutherland theatre though, guitars leaning on amps ready for post-punk band Low Life’s concert – the first contemporary music act to be presented as part of the opera house’s digital season. At the band’s request, ...
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Client Liaison (KFC Australia Facebook page)
First published in Sydney Morning Herald, May 2020
During intermission in this live-streamed gig on KFC Australia’s Facebook page, raising awareness for mental health service, ReachOut, Client Liaison’s keyboardist and producer Harvey Miller has changed from a green velvet suit into a billowy all-white affair with a turtleneck beneath. Meanwhile, singer Monte Morgan – he of the curly mullet and pencil moustache – is mincing about in a sequinned jacket. A disco ball ...
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Delivered Live festival, C.W Stoneking (YouTube)
First published in Sydney Morning Herald, April 2020
“Strange gig,” says Delivered Live’s headline act, C.W. Stoneking. Usually, his bluesman-of-the-bayou mumble trades on a sense there ain’t nothin’ it ain’t seen before. But even Stoneking can’t feint at having memories of anything quite like this. No doubt the crowd is going wild online. But for those streaming YouTube through their TVs (where comments don’t appear), and for performers in tonight’s studio, only patchy ...
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Isol-Aid festival (Instagram)
First published in Sydney Morning Herald/The Age, March 2020
“Charge your devices,” says Isol-Aid co-organiser Emily Ulman. “You’re not going anywhere today.” It’s Sunday morning and day four (if you did last weekend’s marathon too) of the live-streamed Instagram festival that’s raising funds for music industry crisis relief organisation, Support Act, via a line-up including Middle Kids, Courtney Barnett, Sarah Blasko and Camp Cope. “Did I leave my keys here last night?” writes a punter ...
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Cold Chisel (Parramatta Stadium)
First published in Sydney Morning Herald, January 2020
In January 2020, no sane marketing person would promote Cold Chisel’s “first ever” outdoor summer tour as they did last October when tickets went on sale: “There’s nothing more Australian than hot sun, warm waves and Cold Chisel.” Yet seeing “Chisel” is a chance to heal too. We may be distressed by the ravages wrought on the bush, the beach, the fresh air and the ...
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Paul Kelly (The Domain)
First published in the Sydney Morning Herald, December 2019
Rebooted for a third year, Paul Kelly’s open-air tour Making Gravy is growing as iconic as the man himself. It’s even accruing marketing cliches like “unmissable live music experience”. For many, it is unmissable. It’s a greatest hits show, after all, studded with the integrity of classy deep cuts and the sparkle of several newer songs. Of course Kelly plays Before Too Long, Careless, To Her Door and Dumb Things. And of ...
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Dyson Stringer Cloher (Lansdowne Hotel)
First published in The Sydney Morning Herald, November 2019
The rush of emotion takes you by surprise before even a note has been played. It’s just Mia Dyson, Liz Stringer and Jen Cloher walking onstage in matching green, red and blue suits to launch their first album as supergroup Dyson Stringer Cloher; slinging each other “let’s do this” smiles. They each strap on a guitar and swivel to face the room square on in ...
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Dope Lemon (Enmore Theatre)
First published in Sydney Morning Herald, August 2019
If the first Dope Lemon (Angus Stone) record didn’t lure you back to the “listen in full” album experience, then the freshly released Smooth Big Cat will. Stone’s pysch-soaked prowl is best smoked in one toke. Its mastery is its mood – it’d be sex, drugs and rock’n’roll if it weren’t so weary – and how it makes you feel both light and heavy-headed at ...
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Paul Kelly: Thirteen Ways To Look At Birds (City Recital Hall)
First published in Sydney Morning Herald, June 2019
For two years, Paul Kelly’s partner sent him poems about birds. Tonight’s co-composer, James Ledger, presumably found a few too, as did Anna Goldsworthy, pianist with Seraphim trio and the one who suggested this collaboration. Such poems are not hard to find. “Birds have fascinated poets for centuries,” Kelly writes in the program. “And what better way to honour them than by sending songs out ...