Blog — Page 234 of 283

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

Snakehips @ Metro Theatre

Posted by T • May 12, 2017

Snakehips

Metro Theatre

Sydney, AU

May 8, 2017

The London-based electronic chill duo Snakehips with their hypnotic, trap-inflected songs that are reminiscent of Odesza, Kelala and Cashmere Cat are the incarnation of the post-party cool-down with a jazzy flow and their funky sound mixed with hip hop beats clearly indicated that the night is not over yet.

For not being an actual band in the traditional sense, the stage presence and crowd interaction is not dissimilar to a rock show, with the visuals projected as a backdrop enhancing the setting with its animations and blue and white lights flickering to the extent that might be conducive to elicit epileptic attacks.

Their set was based on a solid foundation of a blend of tested and tried pop and R&B tracks running the gamut from smooth to funky and back.

The audience was completely captured by the thudding basslines, the smooth, down-tempo reworking of rap, swirling synths and had a good time dancing along.

A fun, dance worthy, highly energetic show the concept of which follows the distinct Snakehips narrative and attracted a sizeable crowd on a school night.

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Photos by KAVV

T • May 12, 2017

Botanica @ Royal Botanic Gardens

Posted by T • May 8, 2017

Botanica

Royal Botanic Gardens

Sydney, AU

May 06 – 28, 2017

Botanica 2017, focused on the nexus between the disciplines of art and science, is Australia’s premier annual botanical art exhibition promoting and protecting Australia’s rich diversity of plant life, features works by some of its leading botanical and natural science artists.

In this bicentenary year of the Garden, Botanica explores the theme of Farm Cove, the original farm of the first settlement that was established on the current site of the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.

Botanica explores the complex and remarkable relationship the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney has with its plants. The annual showcase, now in its 17th year, features work by some of the best Australian and international established and emerging botanic and natural history artists and is considered one of the foremost exhibitions of its kind.

2017's Botanica theme draws its inspiration from the multiple ways we need, love and should appreciate plants - medicines, oxygen, poisons, fragrances, in celebrations and more.

Curator Judy Dunstan says the 2017 exhibition comprised more than 200 original paintings representing the work of artists from across Australia and beyond: “Works were selected on the basis that they are scientifically correct in both form and colour, and artistically pleasing and balanced to the eye,” said Ms Dunstan.

“It is the perfect opportunity to acquire works by talented emerging artists as well as those by artists with well-established national and international reputations,” added Ms Dunstan.  

Botanica is a beautiful exhibition and encourages the sale of all its artworks. Proceeds go to the artists and to help Foundation and Friends of the Botanic Gardens continue to support horticulture, conservation, scientific research and education programs within the Botanic Gardens.

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Photos by KAVV

Opening times and more details can be found under:

https://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/whatson/Botanica-in-Sickness-and-in-Health

T • May 8, 2017

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

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