Blog — Page 79 of 283

Amy Shark

Qudos Live Arena

Sydney, Australia

June 12, 2021

Between the time when I first saw Amy incarnate at the beginning of her career when she still performed under the moniker Cushway within the confines of a pub show and tonight’s incarnation at one of the biggest indoor live venues that terra australis has to offer, lie worlds and her ascent to a confident performer that has achieved mainstream success on a massive scale, specifically with her latest album Cry Forever.

Needless to say, her show and delivery has been polished and grown in scale quite a bit along the way, with the lion’s share of tonight’s higher energy offerings offerings seeing her trademark sombre song writing paired with what has become radio mainstay danceable pop beats.

Pervaded by engaging, warm and at times self-effacing banter, the moments that stood out for me during the set were when the rawer, indie / pop punk components of her song writing DNA shone through.

It was during the songs with lyrics spawned by frustrations and the more tumultuous times of her existence before her career has taken off with Platinum-selling hits, that she emanated the charisma that is needed to make a show on such a great stage a unifying experience.

A evening that was the celebration of a determined artist who managed to organically cultivate a following for her original music and despite having arrived at an arena level, was testament to the fact that she has never attempted to distance herself from her songs.

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image from artist website

Water of Life - Whisky Live

Randwick Racecourse

Sydney, Australia

June 5, 2021

Now, this one has been for the longest time in the making. While we have covered quite an array of whisk(e)y tastings over the course of this series, one of the most pre-eminent ones has almost gotten away.

Over the years, Whisky Live has established itself to be quite the institution on the whisky event firmament on terra australis, with its incarnations across Australia exciting the uninitiated as well as the connoisseurs.

While expectations were high, it could have hardly been a better experience, starting with the friendly reception we got as we stepped entered the premises down to every distiller, sales person and ambassador we engaged with, with almost all of them not only sharing informative titbits but evoking some belly laughs with their hilarious anecdotes that let their passion for whisky and the craft behind it shine through.

Equipped with a customised WL event glass and a printed Whisky guide to assist with tasting notes for all expressions on offer, one was unleashed to freely roam the spacious, well-planned territory, which offered ample opportunity to manoeuvre between the tasting stations and sample from the more than forty stands, all of which had a variety of expressions on offer and some even offering tastings arranged in a vertical manner.

Being an Islay-head, I loved the fact that with Bruichladdich, Ardbeg, Finlaggan and Laphroaig peat, iodine and PPM was well-represented, with the welcome addition of Ailsa Bay’s sweet smoke.

Despite the heavy weights of the big houses being present with their top shelf offerings, it was nice to see not only love given to Australian distilleries but some up and coming locals got exposure with St Peters’ Otter Craft and Marrickville’s excellent Moreau, the latter of which is one that had not been on my radar before and having sampled their emissions, warrants a dedicated instalment of our series.

Quality, well-proportioned food to graze on of the calibre offered at WL is rare at other whiskey events and the Rare & Old bar was a nice touch, which enabled me to close a gap or two and the addition of other selected spirits helped to expand one’s horizon.

Multiple masterclasses to educate the curious mind specialising on special aspects of particular whiskies were offered free of charge for those interested to dig deeper into new discoveries or old favourites.

Summa summarum, WL lives up to its name in that it is clearly an event with a wide and impressive list of offerings that is being curated by connoisseurs and industry experts. The fact that one had the chance to purchase the offerings while exiting through the gift shop did not hurt either, except for the budget as they had event specific discount in place.

Come from Away

Capitol Theatre

Sydney, Australia

June 9, 2021

Now, what are the ingredients for a great musical? The cohesive progression of the story via integration of dialogue, an effective musical score with leitmotifs, a sharp choreography and believable characters are integral components.

The feelgood Canadian musical Come From Away has all of the aforementioned in spades. With the narrative centred around strangers coming together during an emergency, i.e. the aftermath of 9/11, when thousands of travellers were stranded for close to a week on the island of Newfoundland.

With an omnipresent cast of twelve representing a variety of backgrounds with each playing a number of different roles and a minimal yet clever and strategic set design, the lighting contributes significantly to conjure dramatic atmospheres, realities and moods against which the emblematic stories are played out.

What could be bland and dull in theory is actually a richly diverse tour de force of enjoyment courtesy of the well-oiled ensemble and the nuanced and fast-paced way they navigate through culture clashes, accents, costume changes galore, tumultuous scenes and skillfully portray how trust and friendships are forged.

Musically, the experience is enhanced by an excellent live band, which in view of the audience channel their passion, swap instruments and seamlessly switch from genre to genre.

In essence, Come From Away is a well-written, engaging ode to kindness, empathy and compassion – and one of complex simplicity that could not be more on point as far as technical synchronisation is concerned when it comes to character changes – it takes clever and joyful musical experience to the next level.

Hip-Hop Architecture

Bloomsbury Visual Arts

Hip Hop, the way it was incepted, could not have more epitomized the concept of a movement, pertaining to all areas of life – be it politically, socially or culturally. Needless to say, what it has evolved to sometimes only is at times only remotely connected to its true DNA.

As the title of the book suggests, author Sekou Cooke skilfully traces the history of hip hop through the ages from an academic viewpoint, exploring aesthetics, visuals, its values and the resulting architectural practice.

What makes it interesting is when the principles that are identified to be at the core of hip hop, are applied to the approach to reshaping the planet to revamp the thinking about cities, construction, form and cultural movements to reshape the planet and how the merits of its application could benefit the could impact on the built environment in a meaningful manner.

With Cooke channelling his points through a well-researched, engaging and fresh lens, he strips the paternalizing aspects off, which often pervade the treatises emanating from the ivory towers of academia.

Cooke thereby creates a book that appeals to everyone – from hip hop aficionados via architects to those interested in learning more about how their neighbourhoods have been shaped by hip hop at large – an accomplishment that should not be further wondrous as he teaches explanatory design as part of his lectures.

American Psycho – The Musical

Sydney Opera House

June 8, 2021

I have always enjoyed Bret Easton Ellis’ oeuvre and was specifically delighted when American Psycho was on the literary canon for one of my courses on U- and Dystopian Literature.

Given the greatness of Ellis’ character study of Patrick Bateman and his descent into a world devoid of empathy, it was hard for the 2000 movie incarnation to live up to it as the limitations of the medium resulted in a lack of nuances and depth.

When I learned that a musical was to be staged in 2013, I was intrigued and jumped on the opportunity to see it first-hand at Sydney’s Opera House after having missed its initial incarnation on terra australis at the Hayes Theatre in 2019.

Centred around greed, debauchery, sexism, hedonism and narcissism , the Australian stage adaption of American Psycho has been toned down quite a bit, with the more graphic details of the novel having been channelled into satirical territory rather than relying on excessive shock value.

Lead actor Ben Gerrard does a stellar job stripping the layers of cool aspiration from Patrick Bateman to portray him as the anxious, uncool pitiful creature Bret Easton Eliis originally created.

The rest of the charismatic cast manages to engage the audience from the get go and both the sharp choreography courtesy of Yvette Lee, direction by Alexander Berlage and especially the spinning mirrored set design and lighting are aesthetically and visually brilliant.

A well-executed, deceptively entertaining dark humoured comedic staging of a classic that has not lost relevance or an iota of its thought provoking and chilling qualities – au contraire, the dark undertones still hit the mark given the patriarchal capitalist, narcissistic social media dominated world we still in.

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photo courtesy of Daniel Boud