Live Review: HOLY HOLY + CLEWS @ THE ROSEMOUNT HOTEL

The Rosemount Hotel’s concert room is packed wall to wall for this sold-out show. Most of the other shows on this tour are also selling out, including the night before at Mojo’s in Fremantle.
Clews were mesmerising. They have a stage presence that is electric and at first, under-appreciated by the chattering Rosemount crowd. They soon grab the crowd’s attention, though, especially when they play latest release, Crushed, a standout number. After a number of as yet  unreleased numbers that remind me a little of rockers Stonefield, Clews finish with their hit Museum, and leave the stage to huge applause.

It is another twenty minutes before Holy Holy take to the stage. The band are fronted by Oscar and Tim on vocals and guitar, along with guitarist and producer, Matt, and drummer Ryan. The crowd is weirdly rowdy tonight, with a couple of almost fights and a few people dragged out by security. But there is an infectious anticipation just before Holy Holy hit the stage.
Firstly, this set is LOUD. I am still not sure if that is down to the venue, or if they literally turned up the volume on the speakers for tonight’s show, but the bass especially is intense enough that some (ahem, weak) concertgoers grab free earplugs off the bar staff. Their light show is also fantastic, bathing the band in an alternating purple/yellow and red glow that brings Oscar and Tim into the forefront.
Holy Holy kick off the set You Cannot Call for Love Like a Dog, a song propelled by crystal sharp guitar breaks and polished vocal harmonies. Long-time fans mouth along to the words of the song that is off Holy Holy’s first album release, When the Storms Would Come. They play two unreleased songs from the upcoming new album, which they inform the crowd is “Seventy-percent done” and is scheduled for release sometime next year. The second new song is a 1980s-inspired tune that I am sure will be a hit, with an addictive chorus.

For latest single Faces, Clews come back onstage to sing the distinctive backing vocals. The new approach seems to be more heavily drum-focused with none of their signature meaty guitar riffs, though Tim’s talented lead guitar is (thankfully!!) still strong on the live version.
For the bridge of Willow Tree, the guys get the crowd clapping along, building up to a crowd frenzy as the drums kick in again. They also play their Triple J Like a Version cover of Beyoncé’s Hold Up, which is undoubtedly one of the best and most original Like a Version covers ever. The performance helped Holy Holy enormously to gain the national attention they needed to have their own music heard and now to put on so many of these sold-out shows.

Before prog-rock-esque number Send My Regards, Tim basically apologises, saying they don’t always play the song but are going to anyway. Rendering this intro unnecessary, the song is really well-received, building to an explosive guitar-led ending. Also from their last album, the band play Darwinism, and December, a dreamy song with wispy vocals and a strong drumbeat. Then there is the ever-popular track, Elevator.
True Lovers features in the encore, a track that encourages anyone not yet dancing to do so. Loud and guitar-heavy, this Holy Holy set is exhilarating and no one could leave with any doubts about the strength of the band’s new direction.

Live Review: OLAFUR ARNALDS @ Sydney Opera House

It was quite fitting that the day Sydney received a month’s worth of rain Icelandic producer Olafur Arnalds landed in town for his show at the Opera House. The city had come to a grinding halt with flights cancelled and roads closed and Arnalds was fortunate to touchdown two hours before the show started.  Composer Max Richter had to deal with similar conditions two years ago when he played his eight hour opus Sleep at the Opera House for the VIVID Festival. Arnalds is renowned for blending cinematic soundscapes with piano loops and ambient electronics, the multi-instrumentalist is in Australia to tour his new album Re:member.
Arnalds walked onto the lowlit concert hall  with his string quartet and a drummer and took a seat at one of his three pianos. He said they had come all the way from Iceland by boat a month or so ago and was relieved they arrived safely, especially in light of the storms. The audience were then asked to sing back one note to Arnalds so he could record and loop it into the concert’s  opening track which turned out to be the epic Only The Winds from his 2013 album For Now I Am Winter. It was a bold move to open with such a dramatic piece of music but it commanded the audience’s attention immediately, especially  with Arnald‘s delicate piano building  into a debilitating crescendo of drums and strings.

Throughout the show Arnalds sprinkled older songs into the set which seamlessly blended into the newer material from his latest album. The stage was bathed in a luminous orange light for Re:member and Unfold, which then flickered around perfectly in time with the song. For the more sombre numbers such as Only The Winds and 3326,  a blue hue descended upon the stage adding an extra layer of gravitas to the performance. One of the highlights of the night was Undir ; a glitch breakbeat IDM inspired track that nearly had Arnalds leaping out of his stool and dancing on more than one occasion.

One of the most interesting things about Arnalds is that he is very easy going and humorous for someone that is into classical music. As he came back onstage for the encore he dedicated a song to his late grandmother (Lag fyrir ömmu) who played a huge part in his musical upbringing. He said that when he was a teenager he liked punk & death metal and his grandmother in Reykjavik would invite him over to fix her ‘broken’ radio. She instilled a love of classical music in him on these visits and was one of his biggest fans when his career took off. He turned his back on the audience and then played this song on one of the smaller pianos and one could almost hear a pin drop after he played the last note. A few seconds he stood up, bowed and left the stage.

Live Review: DEAN LEWIS @ The Croxton

Just off the back of winning an ARIA for best music video is Dean Lewis’ Australian tour, stopping in at the Croxton Bandroom in Melbourne on Friday night. Australian artists Jack Gray and Robinson had the crowd huddled in and warmed up in preparation for Lewis’s set in the dimly blue-lit room.
“How ya doin? This is my first tour” Lewis announced, waving and beaming as he bounded energetically onto stage, to which the audience screamed deafeningly as the first notes of Lose My Mind we’re struck up by his 4-piece band. Lewis is gifted with a voice that translates beautifully to live performances and has the quality of a studio recording. Paired with his iconic upbeat guitar and commanding voice the audience bopped up and down as Lewis strummed on his acoustic guitar. However, it wasn’t a long-lasting dance party as Lewis quickly transitioned into his more emotional tracks and took to his keyboard.

“Hey you guys wanna hear a really sad love song?” he asked his audience as the lighting dimmed to a yellow haze and a smoke machine spat out fog. Quickly moving from a Half a Man through to one of the crowd favourites Let Go, Lewis was true to his word and the sad love songs continued. About mid-way through his performance it was clear the audience’s attention was starting to slip a little as conversations began to rise up in volume. But Lewis was quick to reel everyone back in with his most energetic and cheerful song thus far-
‘This is a new song called Tumble, hope you don’t hate it!’
The veins popped in Lewis’ right arm as he strummed vigorously and sang his most uplifting song yet ‘we don’t fall down, we don’t fall down. We tumble magnificently.’ After the welcome change in pace Lewis was back on the keyboard once again with the most anticipated song of the night. Lewis’ 2018 single and ARIA award winning track Be Alright was certified platinum within four weeks of release and is currently certified quadruple platinum.
‘As you know, I’m an actor now’ Lewis joked as he introduced the chart-topping single. Girls jumped onto their boyfriend’s shoulders and phone torches illuminated the stage as hands began to raise and float from side to side. The audience sang along so passionately that Lewis was drowned out completely. As the last chorus began he stepped away from the mic and let the audience carry the song to completion. ‘WE LOVE YOU DEAN LEWIS’ screamed a shrill female voice audience as the cheering
became deafening.

Lewis has one of the most recognisable voices in Australian music today, which he heavily relied on. Lewis let his voice drive the show while his stage performance took a back seat. Not to say that he didn’t have stage presence, but between jumping from guitar to keyboard there wasn’t a whole lot to look at up on the stage. Lewis finished up his set with his debut single Waves, a certified triple platinum song that again had the audience singing louder than Lewis himself, which says a lot for an artist of such high status within the Australian music industry.

Live Review: BLOC PARTY + HAIKU HANDS @ Hordern Pavilion

Who doesn’t love a good old fun, filthy party eh?? Well on Thursday night I jumped on a train and took myself into Sydney to experience one of the best mother-crapping parties in all of the land: Bloc Party!!

The London based rock outfit have come Down Under to tour their original debut album, Silent Alarm, and man am I happy about it. They played old tunes, new tunes, slow tunes, insane tunes, basically just a consistent string of ridiculously delightful tunes.

Opening the night we had artsy girls Haiku Hands. I’d heard these chicks milling around on Triple J quite a bit over the past year, so I was interested to catch them live. Originally, I wasn’t too sure if they would fit the bill for Bloc Party, but once we were a few songs in I was like ‘ohhhh yeah I get it now’. They were confident, creative, and totally bloody crazy, with their songs preaching femme power and pooploads of fun. The crowd started off small, but gradually grew as people began to get sucked in by the girls’ infectious energy. Their fluro outfits were fire, as were their synchronized dance moves, and they even flung out a bunch of streamers at one point. The Haiku chicks popped out songs such as ‘Squat’, ‘Jupiter’ and ‘Not About You’, before finishing off with a universally relatable tune involved the phrase ‘fuck this shit’. Fab.
Between sets I made sure to neck as much water as I could, mostly because the stage’s smoke machine was closing up my airways, but also because I needed to moisten my throat for some serious ‘woo’ing. We’d managed to grab ourselves a spacious spot directly in front of a giant stack of speakers, so immense amounts of musical brain-throbbing was bound to occur, however as soon as Bloc Party hit the room, I welcomed the pain with open ears. The band started off with slow burner ‘Compliments’, turning the room into a forest of swaying punters. The misty, mellow vibes continued as they played ‘Plans’, before throwing us all into a bass-driven boogie with ‘Price of Gasoline’.

One of the things that stood out to me the most (other than how fricken sensational Bloc Party are live) was actually the lighting. There were crazy white strobes for the fast tunes, and dark purple tones for the more ominous ones. It all made so much sense and accented the music very well! But of course, good lighting can only be appreciated if there’s something for it to shine on, and dayum did we get to see something beautiful. Frontman Kele has such a remarkable voice; even his normal speaking voice is bloody nice to listen to! His hard-ass spunky facial expressions during songs were just as entertaining as the music itself, with his beastly stares forcing the crowd to jump a little harder.
As the night partied on, we got to hear more 2005-era masterpieces, including ‘Banquet’ (*cue Guitar Hero flashbacks), ‘Luno’, ‘Helicopter’, ‘She’s Hearing Voices’ and the heart-tingling tune ‘This Modern Love’. The latter was met with a five-thousand-person backing choir and a sky full of confetti, so that was pretty incredible. Each band member was tackling their instrument with absolute precision, meshing the sounds together so flawlessly that I was honestly convinced it sounded better than the original album. The roaring bass lines vibrated every limb, and the twangy guitar complimented Kele’s low velvety voice to about the same calibre as mustard complimenting a pickle. If you know me well, you’ll know those are two of my absolutely favourite foods so that’s a HUGE statement for me to make, and I bloody stick by it! The most impressive person on stage, however, was killer drummer Louise, who is now sitting up there in my personal Top 10 Musical Women of The Year list. God she was so cool, violently chipping away at that drumkit like a wild crop-topped animal. Controlling the beat to such quirky, off-kilter songs isn’t easy, especially when you’re trying to smash out backing vocals at the same time, but she made it look totally sinch. You’re a mellifluous gem Louise.

Eventually the band exhausted their Silent Alarm playlist and went off to have a breather, returning soon after to slap us with a quick bunch of more recent snacks. On came huge 2012 hit ‘Octopus’, punching it’s groovy tentacles into all of our eager ears. The entire pavilion went nuts as heavenly rock tune ‘The Prayer’ entered the scene, and there wasn’t a still bod in the room as hectic song ‘Ratchet’ closed out the night. They gave us all a bow as we gave them cheer, and that was the end of my beautiful Bloc Party experience!

Live Review: THE BREEDERS @ Sydney Opera House

The Breeders performed at the Sydney Opera House on 30 November. Although they’ve not set foot on these shores since 2013, the fans’ favourite line-up consisting of the Deal sisters (identical twins Kim and Kelley), Josephine Wiggs and drummer Jim Macpherson that reformed in 2012, played to a packed audience in the Opera House Concert Hall. Although the name ‘Breeders’ was used by the Deal sisters for a folk duo they formed in their teens, the contemporary version of The Breeders began in 1989 when Kim Deal, bassist in The Pixies, got together with Tanya Donnelly, then guitarist of Throwing Muses, whilst The Pixies were on hiatus. A critically-acclaimed album, Pod, was released in the interim, which the troubled Nirvana singer-songwriter Kurt Cobain hailed as his favourite album.

A year later The Pixies disbanded, so Kim, who felt creatively stifled in the group, was enabled to focus her songwriting talents on the new project. In time, Kim’s twin sister Kelley joined a revised line-up of The Breeders (Donnelly went on to form Belly) and in 1993 they recorded the commercially successful Last Splash. This included the singles Divine Hammer and Cannonball, as well as Drivin’ On Nine, No Aloha and tonight’s encores, I Just Wanna Get Along and Do You Love Me Now; catchy, edgy numbers that typify The Breeders’ alt-rock style of bittersweet melodies.

They were all received at the Opera House to a rousing reception, Cannonball especially propelling the sit-down audience into a dancing mass, which made me wonder why rows of chairs were stationed all the way to the edge of the stage. The Opera House Concert Hall is a wonderful arena to appreciate music. Although, traditionally, it has been used for classical concerts, opera and ballet, the layered, genre-defying rock melodies of The Breeders– alternately soothing then fast-and-abrasive, sometimes within the same song! – were magnificently captured. Kyle, “from the basements of Dayton, Ohio,” also joined them on keyboards for one song.

Live Review: BRITISH INDIA SOCIAL ON THE VERANDA + INKLINES @ Tattersalls Hotel

British India have embarked on their Nic The Poet East Coast Tour and brought it to Tattersalls in Penrith, Sydney. This tour is a special one as their guitarist and founder Nic Wilson has announced his retirement from music. So this tour is a goodbye from Nic, but you know he won’t go without a bang. British India also brought along Inklines and Social On The Veranda for the tour.
Up first was a three piece band from the Northern Beaches in Sydney; Inklines. With their alt-rock sound and tight presence on stage, they got Penrith up and running. Inklines performed songs from their debut EP Willing & Able. Performing their latest single Back To Me with its rock burst and softer moments, it was a dynamic punch. Not to mention their instrumental breaks within their tracks that show off what their band is made of. Luckily for us, we were treated to a cover – Inklines covered British rock band Royal Blood‘s Come On Over. It was a more heavier sound than Inklines  but they smashed it -even capturing that Royal Blood essence.
Next up from Melbourne, is rock band Social On The Veranda. Drums opened the set giving that mysterious vibe before bursting into their punching rock sound – it was a strong opener. Social On The Veranda performed their first single Breath. It was a dancy number but still had that progressive build to rock n roll – continuing strong and solid, showing us they can be diverse. Sending us drifting through the verses and then head banging in the chorus, what a ride.

It was time for British India.
“We’re going to start with an oldie but a goodie” says Declan (Lead Vocals & Guitar).
It was Black and White Radio from their debut album Guillotine in 2007 – with their snappy and quick wit, it definitely got the party started. It was very soon revealed that sadly this may be the last British India tour ever.
“This is probably going to be the last British India tour ever…Thanks for the last 15 years” says Declan.
Picking up the party once again they performed All My Love, one of their latest singles. This pop rock sound got everyone moving and the echo vocals “My Love” were great live, showcasing their close knit group. Next up was crowd favourite was Plastic Souvenirs and the crowd shouted along “Don’t You Wake Up” during the chorus. It was bass player Will‘s  time to shine for his verses and it was met with whistles and love. Their performance of Just Sing Like Everybody Else was indeed something else! (especially the instrumental bridge). Nic starts shredding and then everyone comes in and murders it. However, all good things must come to an end, but Penrith wasn’t having any of it. Luckily for them, it was encore time. A cover of Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) by Green Day followed – it was a lovely and sentimental cover that was short lived. British India then rocked straight into Summer Forgive Me and Penrith gave everything –  singing, jumping and dancing. This concert and tour is definitely for the fans with the band playing all of their hits across their 15 year career. If it is their last tour ever, fans will remember this intimate rocking concert.

Live Review: BON JOVI + BIRDS OF TOKYO @ ANZ Stadium

The night has desired Sydney Siders who have sat tight for This house isn't available to be purchased visit to achieve our shores. It has been a long time since Bon Jovi visited Australia and you can feel the power of energy working as time taps on for the ongoing lobby of popularity inductees to hit the stage.

ANZ Stadium is loading up with energetic fans, many are lining for the show shirt's to wear amid the show and years to come. Running from all ages from the individuals who haven't missed a solitary visit since Slippery When Wet in 1987 to the more up to date fans that Bon Jovi gain with each new collection they discharge.

First to show up in front of an audience from Perth WA Birds Of Tokyo playing a considerable lot of their hits including Brace, Plans, and Anchor. Ian Kenny and co at that point played another melody pursued by the ever mainstream Unbreakable the tune picked as the subject for the 2018 Invictus Games as of late held in Sydney. Completing their set with fan top choices This Fire and Lanterns, Birds of Tokyo never frustrate.

Soon after 8pm the expectation is finished and here comes Bon Jovi. With the band in front of an audience Jon Bon Jovi enters the arena by means of a side passage like a prized contender as he's punching the air getting siphoned up for a night of shake n roll. Jon welcomes energized fans en route by means of the pit giving high fives and embraces to those lucky to be in his way while in transit to the stage. He gets a monstrous thunder from the Sydney swarm as he remains in front of an audience, Bon Jovi have arrived.

Jon wearing dark pants, red shirt completed off with a blue zipped coat with Bon Jovi's work of art and immortal Heart and Dagger logo urges fans to get up out of their seats as they open with 'You Give Love A Bad Name'. Jon is raring to go as they play 'Raise Your Hands'. The Sydney swarm are all on their feet prepared to shake the night away. The band at that point play 'Lost Highway' from the equivalent titled collection discharged in 2007. Before the following melody Jon says "Great to see ya it's been far too long, gotta part of getting up to speed to do" as they play 'Who Says You Can't Go Home'.

Bon Jovi are working their way through old and new melodies with 'This House Is Not For Sale', 'Crazy ride', 'We Weren't Born To Follow', and 'We Don't Run'. Fans are moving and singing to their top picks. Jon says to the group that he's simply getting ready which the band at that point dispatches into 'It's My Life'.

Jon stops and takes in the warm gathering by the Sydney swarm, grinning he says "Parcels occurred over the most recent a long time since we came to Australia out of the blue". Jon stops glances back at David Bryan, Tico Torres and whatever is left of the band he keeps saying "Tune in to those individuals 31 years after we came to Australia". Jon is glad and radiating as the jam emits in cheers and praise.

Tunes to pursue are 'God Bless This Mess', 'Destined To Be My Baby', 'Have A Nice Day', 'Keep The Faith' the lead track from their 1992 collection of a similar name and after that 'Luxurious situation'. Jon probably won't have the capacity to hit those high notes of the 80's nevertheless he beyond any doubt sings with so much vitality and enthusiasm that fans have appreciated for a long time.

Jon asks the group "My siblings and sisters would you say you are still with me out there? I gotta know whether you have the confidence, on the off chance that you trust, I gotta know whether you're prepared to go to chapel on a Saturday night?" Leading into 'Lay Your Hands On Me' from Bon Jovi's 1988 collection New Jersey.

'I'll Sleep When I'm Dead' is next trailed by 'Commander Crash and The Beauty Queen from Mars' off their seventh studio collection Crush. Completing off this set with their song of praise Livin On A Prayer at that point leaving the phase with the group needing more.

Not requiring excessively support to return in front of an audience by energetic fans that their reprise begins with 'Awful Medicine', trailed by an enormous most loved among many 'Needed Dead Or Alive', completing with 'I'll Be There For You'. Bon Jovi are not done yet they returned for additional with a second reprise of tunes 'Blood on Blood' and 'Some time or another I'll Be Saturday Night'.

It was a night of numerous hits, vitality and enthusiasm.