As a performer, Dave Graney has always made a rod for his own back. The wry lyrics, sharp threads and acerbic between-song patter make it too easy for his audience to see his performance as some kind of pastiche. Here he’s a posturing rock god, there a laid back hipster; one moment a falsetto-voiced crooner, […]
At All Tomorrow’s Parties (26 October 2013, Palais Theatre, Melbourne), The Scientists took the stage immediately after Television had performed their Marquee moon album. A tough act to follow, so Kim Salmon adopted the only feasible tactic; a fast-paced, high-energy set that demanded the attention of an already-satiated audience in a cavernous theatre. Seven months later, […]
Age can weary them, but that’s not a bad thing. Kris Kristofferson’s April show at Melbourne’s Palais Theatre was a stripped back performance, delivered at a leisurely pace. The songs were performed almost as demos. When Daniel Lanois steers the old masters back to their roots, stripped back has an Old Testament feel to it, […]
Under circumstances I can’t recall, I was asked by the fashion/lifestyle magazine ‘HQ’ to write a short piece on Jon Campbell for their trend-spotting front section. Paul Taylor once ticked me off for being a snob about glossies—he’d offered to swing me something in ‘Vogue’ and I’d recoiled—so I thought I’d give it a shot. […]