Blog — Page 156 of 275

Download Festival 2019

Parramatta Park

Sydney, Australia

March 9, 2019

There are some interesting parallels between the close to two-hundred-year-old festival site of Download Festival and the line-up this year as both hold significant cultural and historical significance. The location proved ideal as a backdrop for a festival that has become a worldwide quality benchmarked extravaganza when it comes to heavy and independent music.

It speaks volumes about the quality of a festival if the cancellation of the main headliner, i.e. Ozzy Osbourne due to health concerns, is handled in a manner that does not result in a myriad of complaint and the people at the helm of Download’s operations did a great job keeping everything transparent, offering refunds and compensation in terms of adding local stalwarts Airbourne and offering free merch for ticket holders.

The different stages were strategically well-placed, and I have yet to experience another festival on terra australis where acts seamlessly end and start their performances without any delays or major hiccups.

One of the of high calibre headliners this year was a band that is being heralded by many as the one of the originators of what became the Grunge Rock phenomenon. Having lost their frontman in the early noughties, tonight’s performance was testament to Alice in Chains having reclaimed their throne and not only their classic early tunes but especially their offerings from last year’s album ‘Rainier Fog’ were frenetically celebrated by the audience.

Despite a roster spiked with premium outfits of the realm of heavy music, it became apparent that the stop of Slayer as part of their last ever world tour was the highlight and drawcard for most attendants.

Needless to say that after an extended theatrical intro, Slayer entered the stage accompanied by an ecstatic crowd reaction that did not subside an iota throughout them meandering through their highlight laden set.

It has been more than twenty years since I last experienced Slayer in a live environment and while I lost interest in between, tonight’s performance was cementing their status in the pantheon of heavy music, with both Tom Araya and Kerry King on-point performing a career spanning tour de force in great shape with highlights aplenty and culminating and letting the “Angel of Death” descend and letting their riffage hammering down on the more than receptive faithfuls in front of them.

Apart from the heavy hitters, newer bands like Code Orange were given a forum earlier on and their at times caustic melange that tore through the audience not unlike a wrecking ball. From there the scene was set for Converge, who have in the last two and a half decades become the elder statemen of a cut of outfits that started as hardcore, incorporated mathcore influences and eventually created their idiosyncratic lane of brooding onslaught based on Kurt Ballou’s nimble riffing and Bannon’s vocal delivery that is more of an instrument and percussive sonic force to complement the music than what most other bands have materialized as vocal duties.

Ghost, set against their own cathedral stage set, rounded out the night in a monumental manner. It was amazing to see how the band has grown since I have last seen them and how effortlessly they hold huge crowds in their thrall with big gestures and a sumptuous set. With the spectacle that is Ghost in 2019, they are well on their way to become a major legacy band that will find themselves in headline spot in the not too distance future.

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photos by @k.a.vv

The Beasts

Metro Theatre

Sydney, Australia

March 8, 2019

It is not exactly the best kept secret that The Beasts of Bourbon are one of my favourite Australian bands. Given last year’s departure of their bassist Brian Hooper and Spencer P. Jones, two integral constituents of this fantastic band, one could not be blamed to think that after a last emotional concert with the original line-up, that this chapter was done and dusted.

However, as their new album title suggests, they are still here.

Reinforced by Kim Salmon, they have recorded an offering that is a veritable and raw tour de force with no frills, embodying the gritty DNA of the Beasts and the fact that the recordings seem to have been nailed down on the spot based on sketchy idea only contributes to its allure.

In a live environment, The Beasts are something else.

Tex Perkins has yet to deliver a disappointment in any of his many incarnations and tonight among Kim and Boris Sujdovic from the immensely influential The Scientist, Charlie Owen with his unique strumming style and Tony Pola of The Surrealists’ fame, The Beasts did what they have always done best: 

They effortlessly slay as their channel their alchemy via a never not eclectic melange of sleazy swamp blues pub rock, punk carried by their idiosyncratic menacing swagger, which in 2019 and given what the band has been through last year was infused with a good portion of both defiance and a sense of renewal.

With Kim Salmon from being back in the fold and his bludgeoning riffs, there was again the explosive dynamic that has always made The Beasts the cruelly sardonic, dangerous, self-effacing and compelling unicum and one of the best untamed rock’n roll bands on this earthround with tonight adding a deeper going new layer as they seemed be genuinely enjoying performing together and more centred in the moment.

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Photo provided

Water of Life -1800 Tequila

Tequila.

Shooting it is sacrilege.

Well, that and getting the cheap tequila that one can only get down the throat by shooting it and masking its taste with lime and salt chasers.

I for one like sipping tequila.

It might not be my favourite tipple but sipping a nice glass of Patron, Casa Noble or Fortaleza is a thing of beauty and sipping a great tequila enters easily the realm of pleasures I receive from a good Scotch.

While the name has been ringing a bell for many moons, I have never really tried the omnipresent 1800 Tequila.

Price-wise it is more affordable than the premium tequilas yet taste-wise, it is in the same league as the best of them.

Following traditional production methods and based on the usage of a hundred percent Blue Weber agaves, which are harvested after eight to twelve years and baked in the distillery's massive clay brick ovens before the juice is extracted. After being distilled twice in their copper pot stills, 1800 Tequila is then either aged or bottled.

As far as portfolio is concerned, 1800 Tequila does not stray away from the mainstream:

The entry range silver variant was the first I tried and makes for a good Blanco tequila that also serves as an excellent base for Margheritas, Tequila Sunrises and Palomas.

1800 Tequila Reserva Anejo, however, takes it up a few notches.

The fact that it matured for fourteen months in a barrel certainly adds to its charm, which starts with the smell of a melange of vanilla, caramel and bananas.

Creamy as far as mouthfeel is concerned, it gets more complex once it hits the palate with hints of the barrel’s oak, cinnamon and fruity nuances and culminates in a finish that gives way to an explosion of rich agave with sweet and fruity highlights, a tad spice and a burst of heat.

In many aspects it is reminiscent of the subtler qualities of a good Bourbon, including the fact that a bit of aeriation unveils and intensifies the flavours.

If you are looking to transition from your party drinking ways to something a bit more dimensional in the tequila department, dabbling with 1800 tequilas with their attention to quality prove to be a solid entry point that won’t break the bank.

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Photo by T

Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again

Whitney Museum of American Art

Even the die-hard pop art head would have lost count on how many books have been released on their idol.

Every fact of the man, his approach and immense and still reverberating impact on the art scene has been the subject of exhibitions, tributes and books over the decades and it has been well established that the phenomenon that made Andy Warhol is an icon in the pantheon of modern art, independent from subjective tastes or criticisms.

Warhol’s emissions are omnipresent to this day and “From A to B and Back Again” is an encyclopaedic take on his genesis, his hey days and his more obscure art, which sheds light on his talent as an illustrator and craftsman as well as documenting how he developed his intuitive “smarts.”

What becomes apparent through the beautifully illustrated book is Warhol’s hand for picking a subject that carried a deeper going meaning on a societal scale as well as having an x factor that added an intangible layer of something that one could not quite figure out, which is a key ingredient for all great art. Manoeuvring between opposing ends of spectrum, i.e. being heralded as the wunderkind that brings the future of art while at the same time being stigmatized as the one that “killed painting”.

“From A to B and Back Again” accompanies the current Warhol extravaganza at the Whitney Museum of American Art through March 31, 2019, whose senior curator was at the helm of this celebration of Andy Warhol in book form, embedded in a range of not only essays but also anecdotes that shed light on the importance of his oeuvre from a myriad of angles and, more interestingly, on the personality of the man.

An extensive, detailed retrospective and an excellent monograph with high quality reproductions of his art that will appeal to both the aficionado of one of the most emulated artists as well as the uninitiated.

Zen and Japanese Culture

Princeton University Press

Zen and Japanese culture are inextricably linked and this tome on the topic explore how embedded in its original context Zen is much more than what the public would perceive as religion.

It makes for both a delightful and profound read as Zen tackled from a myriad of angles, professions and viewpoints, shedding light on underlying concepts and teaching and thereby ultimately simmering it down to the unity of mind and spirit.

The fact that Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki’s considerate and refreshingly undogmatic writing style is calibrated at the right frequency helps as it tunes in with the flow of the themes that are explored – it’s worth reading if you are in for beautiful literature alone as the chapters on e.g. swordsmanship are beautifully crafted, despite the occasional digression.

Having undergone training as a disciple of Buddhism and having honed his craft via writing hundreds of books on the topic certainly helped as well to refine his approach.

The way Zen’s relationships with haikus, art, nature and regional traditions like e.g. tea ceremonies are explored, tying them to the way of the bushido and Confucianism, which are backed by extra information and references contained within ample footnotes.

For the starter, I’d be hard pressed to recommend another book that is as informative and easy to handle and provides a better introduction to Zen from nothing.

For the initiated luminary, the book might still be a bit light as it overly glamourizes everything remotely connected to Japanese culture and one cannot help but something feel the need to interject that merely being Japanese does not automatically bring enlightenment, a sentiment that seems to accompany most of Suzuki’s train of thoughts.

I am personally more with Robert Pirsig who quipped that the Zen you might find is the Zen you have to work on within yourself, independently from who you are or where you were born.