The Birmingham Hotel never used to be the best place for gigs, but since the change of management and refurbishment of the old dining room into a band room, evenings at the Birmy always provide for a great night of live music.
Concerts
3
Nov 09
Royal Parade at the Penny Black, Melbourne 30/10/2009
For a lover of the Melbourne music scene, there’s nothing quite like hitting the town for a night of live and local tunes. On a relatively balmy Friday night, Royal Parade headlined a massive show at the Penny Black in Brunswick as special tribute show to thank their supporters, with special appearances from Glory Land and The Tealeaves.
23
Oct 09
Future Music Festival 2010, tickets on sale today
“Celebrating the ultimate sounds of tomorrow, today, Future Music Festival is a 10-hour sonic boom that travels Australia at the speed of sound and rivals any major festival experience on the planet. This unique, world-class event blends the biggest names in electronic music with the brightest stars of Hip Hop, Pop, Indie Rock and beyond …” Continue reading →
20
Oct 09
St Jerome’s Laneway Festival 2010 line up announcement
Laneway Festival has announced the first round of bands that will be gracing the stages next year. The current hype surrounding bands like The xx will sell a lot of tickets I am sure, but there is also huge interest in Wild Beasts, Black Lips, as well as Mecury-nominated Florence and the Machine.
7
Sep 09
Julia Why
I’m sitting in the cosy bottom floor of El Rocco’s at Bar Me (154 Brougham Street, Kings Cross). The room is warm, while dimly lit and the crowd seems almost at home in the candle light. I’ve arrived for Julia Why – who contact me via TMB.
The lights dim further, the candles appear to brighten as the crowd warms while Julia introduces herself to the room. Her guitar opens with strong, binding rhythms.
When I listen to her voice: it’s warm, almost haunting. Her articulation is nice: almost Irish/UK – nice round tones over deep melodies. Maybe a hint of Evanesence, but there’s something stronger there, something else, something deeper (and less opraratic). She doesn’t say much – she doesn’t need to.
I really enjoy Julia’s control and inflection with the notes – memorable steps careful phrasing, good use of rhyme. Her rawness, and openness with the crowd speaks volumes of wisdom beyond her years.
Julia’s lyric choices are definitely not your ordinary lyrics – and they have a really nice dynamic between being quite raw, and shaping some very pretty metaphors. They appear to be quite honest.
“The wine is too far away.” Best line. She just said she’s looking for a bass player – and honestly, she read my mind! This would sound great with a full band behind it.
Julia – wow, what a show. These are some great foundations to set.
Best regards,
Jye
27
Aug 09
Freedom Festival 09 to Feature Heavy Trance Lineup
Where: Parramatta Stadium, Sydney
When: Saturday 7th Nov
How: Ticketek
Damage: $85 First Release, $110 Second Release
6
Aug 09
Stereosonic lineup for 2009
Amazing. Just amazing.
First release tickets on sale at ITM from 9am Thursday, 20th August. Check out the Stereosonic 2009 lineup below:
12
Jun 09
Lee “Scratch” Perry in the Opera House
Last night the godfather of dub, Lee “Scratch” Perry and his band performed at the Sydney Opera House as part of Brian Eno’s Luminous festival. Perry has always been a mad bugger, and now at 73 years old, he’s a mad ancient bugger, complete with purple-dyed hair and beard, gold-sprayed shoes and loads of bling. His half-open eyes show the toll that years of ganja and other drugs have taken, but at least he is still alive, a fact that should give Iggy Pop hope for a long future ahead of him!
7
Jun 09
Bliss n Eso, Canberra 6 June 2009
The Flying Colours tour kicked off here in Canberra at the ANU Refractory last night with of course Bliss n Eso headlining but supported by a number of other Australian hip-hop groups including Pez, 360, DJ Matik and Diafrix.
5
Jun 09
Armin’s We Love Sounds Set Cut by 30 Minutes
The official set times for We Love Sounds are out – and Armin addicts are not happy. Armin van Buuren’s heavily advertised 5 hour set has been reduced by 30 minutes! I bought my We Love ticket solely for Armin, so i’m disappointed by this change. The Hordern Pavillion has a strict 10pm sound cut-off time – so there will be no encores.
5
Jun 09
Final Lineup for We Love Sounds – Sydney, Australia 2009
Site Times & Map For We Love Sounds
Free set booklets will also be available from the entry point on the day. If you haven’t got tickets yet, remember that the Diesel Only The Brave crew are giving away 2 tickets for nadda as a part of the new fragrance launch – and they’ll even be there tomorrow!
2
Jun 09
Cog, Canberra 27 May
The Hellenic Club in Canberra is a bit of an odd venue for a rock gig, but as Flynn explained the band just wanted to try something different from performing at the local universities. Fair enough. I didn’t particular like the venue choice but the performance itself was of course awesome.
20
Apr 09
Karnivool: 2009 Australian Tour – Sound Awake
Karnivool are set to appease their eager fan base with the announcement of a national capital city tour in June combined with the unleashing of their highly anticipated new album ‘SOUND AWAKE’due for release late in May this year. This is the band’s first headlining tour in over a year, their past three tours have sold out so fans are urged to ensure they get in early to avoid disappointment when tickets go on sale on Thursday April 23.
26
Feb 09
Even a blackout can’t stop the march of this pig
You don’t get many people going to Nine Inch Nails gigs that are ‘kind of in to them’, or that have picked up a spare ticket from a mate at the last minute so pop along just to see what all the fuss is about. In many people’s eyes (including my own) Trent doesn’t put a foot wrong, not just when producing and performing but also in taking a stance against the traditional music industry and its inflexible distribution model.
1
Feb 09
Big Day Out Sydney – NEIL
Well, what is arguably Australia’s biggest and most eminent music festival wraps up in Perth today. I figure it would be remiss if TMB didn’t bring its wonderful readers some correspondence from the front lines of Sydney’s Homebush Olympic precinct.
This year’s event toured five cities in Australia and one in New Zealand, and was headlined by the Prodigy and the legendary Neil Young. The event was, luckily, unhampered by violence or any other dramas, but in most cities, was hindered by extreme heat. Regardless, the bands played on.
17
Apr 09
I’ll fest your blues in a minute.
The stampede to see Toni Childs.
It’s been three days and the post-blues blues are sort of beginning to fade. The 2009 East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival was my first Bluesfest, and proved to be a superb way to pop the cherry and chill out in Byron Bay for a few days.
What was awesome?
1. Blue King Brown – I’ve never seen BKB live before but the energy and mood of their whole set was simply joyous. Natalie Pa’apa’a was smoking in some short-shorts and a leetle black singlet. I chugged two Smirnoff Ice’s and danced the whole way through.
2. Seasick Steve – what a fascinating man. The 68 year old guitarist still looks like the hobo he used to be (and took frequent swigs of whisky from a bottle under his chair in between songs) but his sound is superb and his stories are humbling. Easily the crowd favourite among the smaller Bluesfest acts. Continue reading →