The ultimate multi legendary artist tribute show – the longest running in Las Vegas history – is celebrating its 40th anniversary, with its sixth visit to Melbourne. Since it debuted in the US in 1983, it has played to more than 40 million people in 15 countries over five continents. I believe what we are privy to…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 12 January 2024. The LA-based multi-instrumentalist and composer Nailah Hunter has been recording mystical folk and ambient-inspired music since 2019, releasing a series of singles and two EPs: Spells and, most recently, Quietude. Now signed to Fat Possum, Lovegaze…
Sensual, highly energetic and colourful, Jazz Men appears intent on giving Magic Mike a run for its money. I speak of 11 locally based dancers – some finely chiseled – strutting their stuff in front of a most appreciative audience who don’t hold back. The showmen change their costumes – which range from the elegant to the…
I remember seeing Will Toledo and Car Seat Headrest early on back in 2016, soon after Teens of Denial was released. I recall them being very timid on stage. Fast forward to 2023, and Faces From The Masquerade showcases Car Seat Headrest playing three consecutive sold-out nights at Brooklyn Steel in New York on March…
Senior high in the US in the late 1950s is re-energised in the colourful new production of Grease The Musical at Her Majesty’s Theatre. It is set in fictional Rydell High School (named after pop singer Bobby Rydell). That is where Australian blonde beauty Sandy Dumbrowski unexpected bumps into her summer love, the too cool for school,…
If you want to see a show full of feel good, life affirming entertainment, you should look no further than The Choir of Man. Straight from London’s West End, it is sensational. Music, revelry and heartfelt exchanges with the audience are the name of the game and the punters get to join it even before the show…
Goosebumps! That is what I had while watching and listening to three of Australia’s preeminent musical theatre performers on stage with the Aussie Pops Orchestra. The occasion was one of three New Year’s Eve & The Night Before Gala Concerts at Hamer Hall (included amongst them was a matinee). Complete with a 60-piece orchestra, the mastery of their…
I’ve been wracking my mind trying to think of another married couple that have recorded together with the same sympatico and creativity that I hear when ace Americana guitarist and sideman Buddy Miller records with his songwriter wife Julie Miller. Of course, there was Richard and Linda Thompson, but we all know that didn’t end…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 15 December 2023. Composer and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire makes his Nonesuch Records debut with Owl Song. The album features a trio with two musicians Akinmusire has long admired, guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Herlin Riley. “This is my reaction…
Partly Cloudy is the full-length debut from the enigmatic female dream pop/folk rock artist who is most comfortable sharing her deepest, most intimate thoughts from behind her somewhat mysterious cat face mask. Most of the 13 tracks here are rooted very closely to simple acoustic guitar folk rock, with producer Billy Mohler providing just enough…
