Blog — Page 229 of 277

The infrequently-updated site blog, featuring a range of content including show reviews, musical musings and off-color ramblings on other varied topics.

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus @ Manning Bar

Posted by T • May 7, 2017

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

Manning Bar

Sydney, AU

May 6, 2017

 

After their last tour in 2014, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus returned to the land down under for a headline tour that resembles a victory lap to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of their debut album Don’t you fake it in its entirety along with other ditties.

It would be an understatement to say that your humble narrator cannot claim to have ever been overly familiar with Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, but the line-up looked intensely diverse both in terms of aesthetics as well as age-wise as they were covering a broad age bracket, with some current members looking like they might have not even been teenagers when Don’t you fake it saw the light of day for the first time.

Musically, the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is based on a foundation comprised of alternative rock with pop punk peppered in and served with occasional screamo interludes.

In other words, even though it is not easy to decipher what exactly they are going for, the influence of more refined acts like Jimmy Eat World and The Used is omnipresent in their oeuvre.

The standout songs of the band with the exotic name – both of the evening and the not exactly cohesive album Don’t You Fake It - are Face Down, an anti-domestic violence song, and Guardian Angel, which were enthusiastically eaten up and celebrated by the predominantly young and willing audience that granted Manning Bar a sold out night and radiated appreciation for the band’s Christian beliefs that inform the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus’ message of hope.

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Photos by KAVV

T • May 7, 2017

$uicideboy$ @ Manning Bar

Posted by T • May 6, 2017

$uicideboy$

Manning Bar

Sydney, AU

May 4, 2017

Having joined forces in 2014, the prolific $uicideboy$, a.k.a. Ruby da Cherry, a gentleman with punk rock roots, and $lick $loth, former DJ and songwriter, they have become a staple in the spheres of horrorcore glitch-trap bubbling with booming bass, ominous atmospherics, and occultish, drugged-out rhymes.

In a live scenario and before a sold out crowd, their set is reminiscent of a more condensed and to-the-core version of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony peppered with streaks of Three 6 Mafia and based on a solid foundation of heavy sub bass, while retaining their own flavour and signature style:

Short bursts of trapped out bleak and grimy cloud rap sounds adorned with violent and grim lyrical content and delivered in a style that marries grungy cadences and leany, sizzurped fluid flow transitions, which was enthusiastically celebrated by the Sydney crowd.

While some of the $uicideboyS’ emissions take at times pages from the books of metal and punk, even their more traditional trap songs evoke crowd reaction that resemble in many aspects a traditional hardcore show, with crowd surfing, the occasional wall of death, mosh pitting and obligatory finger pointing singalongs, which is amplified by the stage antics and the way the two MCs work the crowd.

It is the mélange of their vocal flows that drone together while covering death, suicide, plans for suicide, drugs, violence and more of the aforementioned in combination with the interesting sound sequences that creates the twisted realm they capture their willing audience in and makes them an act you want to check out if you have a remote interest in cloud rap and trap of the more intense kind.

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Photos by KAVV

T • May 6, 2017

Spanish Film Festival @ Palace Cinema

Posted by T • May 4, 2017

Spanish Film Festival

Palace Cinema

Sara Baras: All Her Voices

Sydney, AU

April 29, 2017

With food, live performances, films and drinks the 20th edition of the Spanish Film Festival in Australia was welcomed at Palace Norton Street under the ambassadorship of Spanish celebrity chef Miguel Maestre.

Program highlights included performances from Penelope Cruz and 2013 SFF guest Maribel Verdú, an award-winning thriller. Taking out four awards at the 2017 Goya’s including Best Film and Best New Director, the much anticipated debut feature from Spanish actor Raúl Arévalo The Fury of a Patient Man.

The festival kicked off with the sexy and daring Spanish box office hit Kiki, Love to Love (Kiki, El Amor Se Hace). The third film from director Paco León, this funny and complex comedy explores love, sex and marriage through five interwoven stories taking place over a long hot summer in Madrid.

In addition to the films, the festival featured a range of unique special events, one of which was the Flamenco documentary Sara Baras, All Her Voices, which was accompagnied by a Flamenco performance.

The highlight of the evening was the documentarry on the iconic and diminutive in statue, Sara Baras, which shed light on her passion an drive for Flamenco.

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Photos by KAVV

T • May 4, 2017

Red Hot Chili Peppers @ Amalie Arena

Posted by Brian Furman • May 3, 2017

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Amalie Arena

Tampa, FL

April 27, 2017

It is hard to believe that three of the four members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers are all in their mid-50s. The band bounced to the stage at Tampa's Amalie Arena on Thursday, April 27th to the tune of "All Around the World" putting many bands half their age to shame. Flea, Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith, and newest member Josh Klinghoffer were on point, touring in support of their 2016 record The Getaway and making it look easy. The ever-charismatic Flea dressed in a mix-match of pajama prints, and a vest of old pillow cases twirled his fingers around the neck of his bass in a whirlwind of movement while Klinghoffer and Kiedis danced around him reminiscent of an ancient ritual with the ever steady Smith keeping the funk tight.

With a setlist heavy on their new record and the 2003 classic By the Way, the band did offer some movement in the form of the Funkadelic cover of "What Is Soul?" and The Beatles classic "I'll Be Back". The show was electric, tight, and fun with a killer stage production and the Chili Peppers providing a Ph.D education to the Tampa area on how a rock show should be presented. Take note kids...

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All photos by Brian Furman

Gallery: Red Hot Chili Peppers (14 photos)

Brian Furman • May 3, 2017

Amongst Ruins (Snake Eggs Hatch)

Posted by T • May 1, 2017

Amongst Ruins (Snake Eggs Hatch)

Old Fitzroy

Sydney, AU

 

Presented by Poor Tom's Gin & Mark Blumer, and supported by Playwriting Australia and ambassador Louis Nowra, Michael McStay’s short play Amongst Ruins (Snake Eggs Hatch) takes place in a post-apocalyptic, famine and poverty stricken environment and sheds light on war profiteering and the moral dilemmas along with the resulting human conflict and lack of integrity that come with its territory.

With the motive circling around (enabling) killing people for profit and the backdrop of a war torn city, McStay seems to have not only drawn influences for the story, but taken more than a few pages out of Orson Welles’ The Third Man.

The play is less about casting a moralin infused judgment but rather highlights that there is really no difference between us – no matter which side you choose as we are longing for forgiveness, because we too have committed both great and mundane evil by compromising morals in order to survive instead of being willing to die to maintain our integrity:

McStay seems to go with the allegory that morality in wartime is currency under inflation.

Greek and epic styles, e.g. Sophocles’ Antigone, seem to have had a profound influence on the writing of the narrative based on time, space and plot and how all the individual factors tie in together within the confines of forty minutes: It goes straight to the point and does not waste an awful lot of time with nuances or subtleties.

Amongst Ruins also incorporates Brecht-esque components, i.e. Mutter Courage, with the merchant in Amongst Ruins being Mother Courage before her kids were born.

The cast comprised of Cecilia Morrow, Zoe Jensen, Amy Hack, Ryan Carter and Jack Crumlin play well off each other and their delivery radiates intensity. Another Red Line Productions emission that keeps the high standard the Old Fitzroy is known for.

 

Amongst Ruins (Snake Eggs Hatch) will run April 25-May 6.

T • May 1, 2017

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