Blog — Page 236 of 277

The Menzingers
Mr. Smalls Funhouse
Pittsburgh, PA
February 28, 2017

The first time I saw the Menzingers play in Pittsburgh was at this club that doubled as a concert venue and a nightclub. I remember it so clearly because it was the first and only punk show I attended that had air conditioning. I was there, shivering a bit, and these four gangly, grungy dudes walk on stage and that was it, I was hooked--a forever fan. The amount of energy and conviction the Menzingers possessed that night gave them the title in my mind for many years after as the best current live performing punk band.

Flash forward some 6-7 years later and the Menzingers were back in Pittsburgh kicking off their tour for their newest release After The Party. They opened their set up with their new hit "Lookers", not a bad move on their part considering that song was released first before the entire album. Not to mention it's one of the catchiest songs on the entire album. These boys might not be as grungy looking as they did before, but I'm not complaining here. The Menzingers are one of those punk bands that have managed to become better versions of themselves while still remaining true to their roots; they essentially have become the adults we all want to be.

That being said, the Menzingers are like any smart band and played to their strengths during their set. Yes it's a tour for their newest album so we all except those new songs to be played, however that doesn't mean you can abandon the old songs that crowds will expect as well. About four songs in they played "The Obituaries" and you could hear the entire crowd singing along. I remember looking around at the crowd and feeling this stupid sense of purpose. You know, that feeling when you realize you're not alone in the world and in that moment you are in the same mindset as all the people around you. It's a great feeling and why a lot of people enjoy shows so much.

Before playing "Thick as Thieves" guitarist/singer Greg Barnett shared with the crowd that Pittsburgh was one of the first stops the band played when they toured for On The Impossible Past. He remembered being nervous to play the new songs, wondering if people would like them, and he admitted he felt the same way this night about After The Party and it felt really reassuring to hear people singing along. It was a touching moment because usually stage banter is full of terrible or just plain awkward jokes, but it was an honest, raw moment that captured who the Menzingers are as a band and who Barnett is as a songwriter.

Halfway through their set they played the classic "Time Tables", a signature song about heartbreak and youth that we all know and love. "After the Party" was also a standout song for me because prior to the show it wasn't a song I payed much attention to, but hearing it live added conviction to it. "Midwestern States" and "Tellin' Lies" are sure to become classic Menzingers' hits, they are hands down two of the catchiest and musically pleasing songs both on the record and live.

They solidly ended their encore with "Casey" and "In Remission"; two of their strongest songs about the ups and downs of relationships that really hit at the heartstrings of your youth. The Menzingers did manage to still engage the audience and create undeniable energy after years of performing, but I will say there was a different air about them this time around. Maybe it's the fact that I'm in my late 20s now and I'm not the angsty youth I once was. Maybe it's the fact that the band itself is maturing. Maybe it's both. I'm not mad at those facts either, because after all, where are we gonna go now that our twenties are over?

Marshmello
Enmore Theatre
Sydney, AU
March 2, 2017

This was the first ever-Australian show for the man with the LED enhanced marshmellow mask and boy, did he get a reception: 
The Mellogang (yup, that’s how his followers refer to themselves) got all amped up chanting football songs in anticipation of the man in white entering the stage.

Sydney’s Enmore Theatre was filled close to capacity and once he unleashed his synth-laced trap melodies, upbeat breakdowns and rollercoaster drops, the dance floor started pumping and did not let up.

With ample singalongs and crowd participation, it felt more like a rock show than the more passive and receptive outcome one would expect from a DJ holding court.

It is not hard to see how Marshmello’s distinctive blend of EDM has positioned him firmly among the other helmeted spearheads of the genre as he powers and mashes both current and evergreen pop and hip hop hits to his own saccharine confection that the pre-dominantly Asian Kawaii loving audience could not get enough of.

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Photos by @ryanhadji

Vault
Australasian Art and Culture

Vault encapsulates a quadruple thrEat: 

An elegant, extravagant, eloquent and engaging Art and Culture Magazine with particular emphasis on Australasian contemporary art.

Vault embodies the common denominator when it comes to the preeminent designers, artists, collectors and enthusiasts in New Zealand, Australia and beyond – while most of the content is specifically relevant to Oceania, it is pervaded by a global outlook and relevant to anyone remotely into the arts.

It features profiles of artists and genres, updates on art movements, show reviews, and event schedules. Interesting interviews and previews give art appreciators an inside look at the work and inspiration of up-and-coming artists, and critiques and reviews show what's new and on-point in the art world.

An enduring holistic approach encompassing fashion, architecture, food, literature and the finest forms of visual expression is paired with attention to design and photography lets readers really engage with and appreciate the works and artists being covered in each issue.
An almost tactile experience with the high quality printing and paper that is used by Vault.

Designed to be read not only by collectors, artists, art dealers, and art professionals, with its visual and textural delights Vault is the perfect magazine for today's lover of art, bucking the digital trend with a stylishly printed magazine that is as much of a joy to hold as to behold.

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Photo from Vault website

Barbu by Cirque Alfonse
Sydney Opera House Studio
Sydney, AU
February 26, 2017

Needless to say that the mélange the troupe of Cirque Alfonse, with all its Québécois folklore, brings to the table as a collective is much bigger than its individual parts added up.

Barbu (which translates to “bearded” or “bearded man” – quite a telling name) the company’s 2015 Edinburgh Fringe hit, is performed on a small circular stage and catwalk and delves into the origins of the circus in Montreal at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

Think acrobatic vaudeville and burlesque comedy.

The troupe, comprised of five gentlemen and two female protagonists, introduces itself with non-stop routines agile and daring feats of balance and strength, utilizing an array of props including teeterboards, hoops and balls, poles, roller-skates, and whatever one can juggle with in the most contorted and seemingly impossible way.

As the show goes on, the intricacy and sweat inducing physicality of each feat becomes increasingly intense, with loads of shenanigans, unpretentiously camp humour and audience interaction thrown in for good measure to keep the mood light and fast paced.

The pace of the show is enhanced by all protagonists constantly involved: The four men (Jean-Philippe Cuerrier, Francis Roberge, Jonathan Casaubon and Antoine Carabinier Lepine) get few breathers in this interval-free 90-minute show.

Barbu’s women – aerialist Genevieve Gauthier and acrobat Genevieve Morin might have less of a presence, though deliver superb performances when in the spotlight.

The action is serenaded by an entertaining live musical soundtrack courtesy of a three-piece electro-folk band led by singer-guitarist Andre Gagne, whose circus rave adds spice when things get kinky in the second half of the show, e.g. when Lepine appears as a human disco ball circling in a Cyr wheel or when beer kegs are juggled in underwear.

What makes Barbu a fun night out is that the troupe works as a family based collective: There is an esprit de corps that enriches the physical acts, which is further enhanced by the artists mingling with the audience.

One can tell that the protagonists are not merely re-enacting their bits but have been involved in the development from the get go and take pride in it.

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Photos by KAVV

La Bohème
Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House
Sydney, AUS
February 24, 2017

Giacomo Puccini.
One of the greatest exponents of operatic realism, id est “verismo”, who is fabled to have uttered that art is a kind of “illness”.
One of the symptoms of Puccini’s ailment is La Bohème, an opera in Four Acts, which was first performed at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 1896 and became an instant hit.

La Bohème is one of Puccini’s more refined, mature emissions: Based on Henry Mürger and Theodore Barrière’s novel La Vie de Bohème portraying the life among bohemians of 1840s Paris, it meanders around a moving love story based on Mimi, the female protagonist, ending in a tragic resolution, accompanied and accentuated by an orchestra and its subtle play of thematic reminiscences.

Gale Edward’s lavish incarnation of La Bohème was first performed at the Arts Centre in Melbourne in 2011 and sets the action in 1930s Germany as opposed to the original opera in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the 1830s.

The context of the Weimar Republik, when Germany bounced back from World War I with art and expression flourishing, and specifically Berlin openly celebrating tolerance and sexual freedom, thereby overtaking Paris as the most decadent city in the world in the 1920s and -30s with its extensive liberalism, untamed by censorship, hedonism and libertinism, proves to be a fertile ground for a parallel world where Edwards orchestrates the action in sin city’s Café Momus: The epitome of a cabaret den of exotic iniquity devoid of class distinction, religious creed, sexual preference or any other societal categories that had previously marginalized people.

A bohemian, carefree existence that was contrasted by the poverty and deprivation that was commonplace outside the gates of Berlin, which Edwards shines light on via the main protagonist Mimi downward spiral towards death: The young seamstress (played by Greta Bradman with a nuanceful performance from rapid fire banter in the First Act to hitting tender notes in Act Four) who drifts into homelessness once she is abandoned by her lover Rodolfo (Arthur Espiritu, with his rich tenor voice and an immense range seamlessly transitioning the development from playful, youthful lover to grieving, regretful pallbearer).

Julie Lee Goodwin’s completes the triumvirate with a virtuoso and alluring portrayal of Musetta, navigating from a cabaret number to more melancholic notes in other parts.

Puccini was a cinematic artist and Edward’s La Bohème is a gift to the designers Julie Lynch (costumes) and Brian Thomson (set):
The scene at Café Momus is a field day for Thomson, who went to town with an opulent yet realistic glittering set that captures and enhances the depravity of the period, which is further accentuated by the interactions of the troupe in the periphery of the scene and the range of licentious costumes, or lack thereof, on display.

Conductor Pietro Rizzo is able to extract a sumptuous, varied score from the orchestra, which gives squalid moments of loss and jealousy emotionally rich dimensions of tragic grandeur and soars with the ecstasy of love scenes while still allowing room to breathe.

The burning passion of Mimì and Rodolfo is reflected in the glowing sound of the volatile tutti passages in Act One, while the uncertainty around Mimì’s fate in the Final Act is foreboded by the bareness of the high strings, which nonetheless maintains a warm, underlying tone. Rizzo’s strength is that he avoids undue accentuation, which is something one can easily be carried away with when it comes to Puccini.

Gale Edward’s La Bohème is both moving and convincing.

What it lacks in radicalism as compared to other interpretations and adoptions of Puccini’s punchy opera, e.g. the set being places in modern day NYC and Mimi dying of a heroin overdose, it compensates with pathos and affectionism, honouring the broad brushstrokes Puccini painted with.

It is the imagination of Edwards that has tweaked the strengths of Puccini’s opus, and the both inspired and spirited cast that makes his version of the timeless bohemian classic well worth seeing.

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Photo by T