Blog — Page 23 of 282

The Offspring
Hordern Pavilion
Sydney, Australia
11 December 2022

It must have been in 1990 when I was first exposed to The Offspring via their debut album that was released by Frank Harrison on his label Nemesis Records label. 

The result saw the band incarnate with exactly the brash, gritty and raw edge that made me fall in love with 1980s-era punk rock from Cali’s Orange County area and while most songs followed the structure bands like the Adolescents and D.I. defined, from the get-go the charismatic vocal delivery and the band’s knack for infusing their memorable ditties with melodic harmonies stood out.

Four years later in the year that “punk broke” and ten years into the band’s existence,  The Offspring released their third album, which was to become one of the best-selling independent album ever. 

While trying my utmost to resist the appeal of punk rock bands that leapfrogged into mainstream acceptance, I could not resist the extremely infectious allure of Smash. 

As I grew beyond my years as a juvenile delinquent and abandoned the notion of “guilty pleasures”, I thoroughly enjoyed the albums that followed and their innately playful nature as the band continued to evolve and flirt with novelty without ever diluting its DNA.

Needless to say, I was looking forward to The Offspring incarnating again on terra australis, especially since courtesy of global pandemic, the tour had to be pushed back several times.

What eventuated after Sum 41 opened the proceedings could not have been more of a pitch perfect homage to The Offspring’s legacy. 

The sold-out crowd was treated to a well-curated set comprised of timeless bangers from their Smash album along with more recent emissions as well as some of their widely popular cheesier radio tunes, interweaved with banter, crowd interaction galore and all the trimmings and theatrics to keep a large-scale audience engaged at all times, including but not limited to a crowd cam, a blimp zig-zagging above the crowd dropping guitar picks, bouncing beach balls being unleashed onto the pit, pyro and the obligatory confetti rain.

Closing out their set with the anthem that is "Self-Esteem," a fun and life-affirming evening that brought together three generations concluded on a nostalgic high.

Rüfüs Du Sol
The Domain
Sydney, Australia
03 December 2022

It took a hot minute in between opportunities to witness Australia’s electronic mavericks Rüfüs Du Sol channelling their alchemy in the creation of intricate soundscapes in a live environment. 

Needless to say, it would be difficult to frame their homecoming in more suitable surrounds than Sydney’s heritage-listed open space that is the Domain to serenade the launch of the summer season.

Having established themselves as one of the biggest electronic acts on this earthround, it did not take long for the trio to set the mood audience for what was to be a two hour tour de force of a well-curated set.

Artfully mixing their hits with deeper, lesser known cuts from their earlier albums, Rüfüs du Sol’s idiosyncratic brand of textured, ethereal electronica married sweeping synths connected with the receptive festival sized crowd from the get go, resulting in an immensely enjoyable, atmospheric dance party. 

The fact that the balmy night underneath a starlit sky was punctured with an accompanying, hypnotically intricate and seemingly tangible laser show dancing against a backdrop of colourful visuals only added to the allure.

A high energy, epic and euphoric show of a unique act that has established itself firmly on the forefront of international dance music and one that did justice to the immense range of their ebbing and flowing sounds, which made it hard to resist immersing oneself fully in the experience that is the microcosm of Rüfüs du Sol.

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photo by T

Sharon Van Etten
Opera House
Sydney, Australia
01 December 2022

If I was forced to find a common denominator across Sharon van Etten’s oeuvre, I would condense it down to the DNA being a seemingly earnest effort to inch towards her idiosyncratic and melancholically tinged version of the truth. At the very core, especially her stripped down songs seem to be a confession of her character paired with the immortal movement of her circumstances.

Given the aforementioned and having missed out on her incarnation as part of Sydney’s Vivid Festival in 2019, I was intrigued to experience her channelling her alchemy within the confines of a live environment.

Backed by a full band, the opening songs proved to be a fulminant tour de force and served as a backdrop against which Sharon van Etten confidently prowled the stage, leaned into the audience and actively engaged with the constituents of her superb musical backbone, thereby exuding exactly the captivating and engaging stage presence one would have hoped for to be the extension of her recordings.

Sydney Opera House’s Joan Sutherland Theatre has yet to disappoint in terms of adding a je-ne-sais-quoi quality to whoever is gracing its stage and it was no different tonight.  Even the tamer, sleek acoustic parts of her performance sans rhythmic posturing did not feel like plateauing, as they allowed to focus on her emotional delivery of her delicate and vulnerable subject matter.

While the performance was deliberate, precise and professional, Sharon’s balanced set and full-bodied vocal recital did not lack soul and spirit and therefore formed a foundation for a sense of intimacy to reverberate.

A personal, nuanced and jubilant evening in majestic environment, the equally sweet and mesmerising authenticity of which helped to amplify Sharon communing with her audience.

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photo courtesy of Jordan Munns

The Formative Years – Rorschach

While it did not take long for me to take an interest in Rorschach after having been exposed to their debut album “Remain Sedate”, their split 7” with Neanderthal and their “Needlepack” 7”, it was the way they married Die Kreuzen-esque and Voivod-y dissonance, sinister sludge parts and metal slants with traditional hardcore elements on their “Protestant” LP that pushed the envelope significantly.

Charles Maggio’s high-pitched tortured borderline Black Metal vocals became an instrument in itself, sandwiched between sheer endless barrages of spastic rhythmic time changes, grinding passages, doomy elegies and razor sharp, mazey volatile riffing, resulting in one of the most aggressive, abrasive and explosive albums and thereby providing the foundation for a more angular minded kind of hardcore to blossom and bloom.

“Protestant” is dark matter pressed onto vinyl with the band furiously weaving an idiosyncratic multi-layered atonal tapestry of eccentric, schizoid anguish, which seems informed by the polyrhythms of jazz.

A cohesive, angry, unpredictable, wonderfully psychotic and brilliantly monolithic album that I will never tired of and one that has easily stood the test of time.

Mandatory listening for anyone remotely interested in what inspired bands like Converge.

Water of Life – Archie Rose’s Sticky Beak Festival

Despite the facts that distilleries are mushrooming on terra australis and Australian whiskey brands making quite a bit of a splash on international terrain and becoming household names, there are few local distilleries that are as accolade decorated as Archie Rose Distilling Co, no matter if it is their delicious gins or idiosyncratic whiskey expressions.

Needless to say, we were intrigued when we learned about Archie Rose teaming up with P&V wines and our favourite third-place Carriageworks to deliver the StickyBeak festival, i.e. a two-day extravaganza graced with curated drink and food offerings, tastings, masterclasses and cooking demonstrations galore, serenaded and set in scene against an audio backdrop courtesy of carefully selected DJs. 

While we have been fans of Archie Rose’s core releases for the longest time and have been fortunate enough to cover quite a few as part of this series, I was particularly looking forward to the opportunity to taste expressions from their Trials & Exceptions series, which based on local ingredients and innovative approaches to the creation of unique flavour profiles, pays homage to the unique environment Archie Rose operates in.

As part of the whiskey-centric masterclass, it was fantastic to be introduced to Archie Rose’s partner Voyager Malts to learn more about how they source grain from independent family farms in a sustainable manner and supporting growers that foster and promote regenerative agricultural practices. As a result, each of the unique malts from New South Wales add facets to colouring the character of the versatile flavour profiles.

One of the more remarkable outputs of this collaboration materialized in what could be perceived as Australian’s whiskey answer to natural wine, i.e. the Single Paddock Malt Whisky, based on the usage of rye sourced from a single paddock and fermentation spurned by wild yeast from the field, thereby capturing the DNA of the terroir and bringing to life the idiosyncratic provenance. 

Upon approach, tropical citrus peel nuances tickle the nostrils, with almond and almost peanut-butter-sweet highlights caressing the top of the mouth before an elegant, elongated finish round things out and leaves one lusting for another dram with a crescendo of moreish dark chocolatey notes.

However, it was the much fabled about native wood smoked malt trial expressions that stole the show. With the names being telling ones, Stringybark and Red Gum from New South Wales was used to smoke locally grown and malted barley provided by Voyager Craft Malt. 

Redefining traditional approaches to distilling and by paying time-intensive meticulous attention to detail is extended to each aspect of the production process – be it yeast selection, the selection of the cask type or the maturation conditions in a bid to make no compromises in the pursuit of quality and distinction, Archie Rose raised the bar of what was thought to be possible down under. 

The result is a selection of Pavlovian response evoking, benchmark-setting Australian equivalent to what I love about Islay whiskies with a twist, i.e. a pronounced level of smoke with notes of smoked meats and bacon dancing with strong eucalyptus and floral presence rounded out by a salty edge. 

Given the quality of Archie Rose’s recent emissions, I cannot wait to taste where their ever-evolving visionary grain focussed celebrations of malt will lead them next, especially when it involves native woods to generate unique smoky aromas.

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photos courtesy of @k.a.vv