An evening with John Butler

State Theatre

Sydney, Australia

May 20, 2021

Looks like we are back in business as far as live events are concerned on terra australis as after a few trial and errors in the realm of live shows, John Butler ‘s solo incarnation was welcomed by a sold out State Theatre at the Sydney stop of his national tour.

With the State Theatre’s splendour as far as the architectural and spatial progression from gothic imagery to baroque is concerned, the venue added another dimension to John sharing his stories and tapping into his vast back catalogue of seven albums released over a time span of close to twenty-five years.

In an intimate setting, Butler opened up from the get go and punctuated his rolling folk introspections by touching on his battles with anxiety, having found his true north as well as his political activism.

The set was a well-curated selection of the quintessential John Butler melodies accentuated by both simple and complex rhythms and intricate twist and turns, while serenading the enthusiastic audience with his trademark melodies and dreamy visions, musically painting his emotional landscapes and allowing everyone to tune in and ride along.

Needless to say, John Butler’s abilities as a multi-instrumentalist enhanced the performance as the seamlessly transitioned from regular via custom made guitars to harmonica, digeridoo and distortions to achieve his unique sound.

A mesmerizing evening that despite lyrical content often being pervaded by a sense of angst, loss and regrets, resonated with the audience in a chilled, personal and empowering way.

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photos by @k.a.vv

Water of Life - The Whisky Show

Sir Stamford Circular Quay

Sydney, Australia

May 15, 2021

Whisky aficionados on terra australis had been waiting with bated breath for the return of The Whisky Show, which after a hiatus in 2020 almost fell prey to yet another bout of COVID related restrictions. With last minute adjustments to the mode of the festival, what eventuated was the first major face-to-face whisky festival worldwide in 2021.

Needless to say, the sessions on 14 / 15 May sold out quickly in advance as seasoned aficionados as well as the uninitiated could not wait to relish in the giddy thrill of finding open bottles of their drams as well as experiencing new drops for the first time around.

For the uninitiated, The Whisky Show is one of the best organised and curated events on terra australis courtesy of liquor luminary David Ligoff and his Alchemist Events team. Its tenth incarnation was a well-orchestrated tour de force of an event, which offered the opportunity to sample over one hundred whiskies from forty-two brands in three dedicated themed rooms at the Sir Stamford Plaza at Sydney’s iconic Circular Quay.

Sounds like a whisk(e)y lovers’ Disneyland? Glad you got the idea. 

The fact that the event had to be conducted in line with COVID-safe procedures, i.e., samples had to enjoyed in a seated manner, added an engaging appeal to the proceedings as one had ample opportunity to engage with the respective distillers, brand ambassadors and master blenders to learn more about the libations straight from the source.

2021 saw a larger focus on Australian craft-distilled whiskies and it was fantastic to reconnect not only with distillers whose emissions we have previously covered, but sampling from brand-new ones that only recently established themselves on the firmament of whisky distilleries.

It was astonishing to see and taste how much the Aussie whisky scene has grown in recent years - not merely in terms of numbers and idiosyncratic variants but specifically when it comes to the calibre of quality. It was fantastic to meet the people behind Chief's Son, Gospel, Old Pulteney, Remnant and Shene,

The visit to the Australian room of The Whisky Show culminated with a mandatory check-in with Archie Rose for a dram of their Single Malt, which based on a six-malt mash bill offered a complex flavour profile  that integrates both sweet and savoury components due to maturation in both charred and toasted Australian apera, ex-bourbon and the distillery’s own air dried ex-rye casks.

With the elegant finish reminiscent of espresso notes still reverberating, I tried one of Archie Rose’s new Bottled Cocktails from their Future Classics Range. With a Shakespearean dark and stormy theme, The Tempest marries pineapple and passionfruit flavours with spicy, limy highlights. Being normally not the biggest fan of ready-to-pour cocktails, this extremely more-ish one will find its way into my collection.

Archie Rose’s whisky releases tend to sell out fairly quickly, which is not further wondrous given the quality of their expressions. It was nice to get again a taste of their sold-out malted Rye Whisky again, which was a distinctive release for the distillery as it pushed the boundaries in what was thought to be possible in terms of layered, complex rye whiskies.

A personal highlight of the day was the opportunity to finally sample Archie Rose’s much fabled about and scarce as hen’s teeth Ironbark Smoked Rye Malt expression, which upon release was sold out within minutes.

Drawn from seven casks as the fifth release under the Archie Rose Concepts label, this experimental drop features smoked water created by melting huge blocks of ice in a wood-fired oven, using sustainably sourced NSW ironbark. Clocking in at a comparatively lower ABV of 40%, the limelight is on the layered, subtly smoky flavours, which evoked on Pavlovian response from me.

In addition to a dedicated room for Australian whiskies, the main hall played host to Scotch, Irish and British whisky brands, with a number of brands proffering samples of some exclusive rarer age statements alongside their core range offering, e.g., a wonderful twenty-three-year-old expression of
Tobermory.

Highlights of the main hall included The Whisky Show’s exclusive BenRiach bottling, which sees the distillery incarnate with new branding and label.

Limited to 310 bottles and weighing in at 53% ABV, this Australia exclusive release tickled the nostrils with nutty, chocolatey toffee aromas, which seamlessly transitioned to vanilla fudge on the top of the mouth, culminating in a crescendo of sweet sharpness and an elongated raisiny finish.

My personal favourite discovery within the confines of the main hall was what emanated from a collaboration between the owner of the Highland Inn Tatsuya Minagawa, Kelvin Low of The Elysian Whisky Bar and Chris Ross of The Whisky List, i.e., the 23-Y-O Water of Life expression. With a cask specifically chosen for the fourth anniversaries of both The Whisky List and The Elysian Whisky Bar in early 2021, the expression is a delicious blend from three main single malt distilleries of the William Grant & Sons portfolio. 

Being a peat head, I was excited to finally taste the first release of The Character of Islay Whisky Company, i.e., Aerolite Lyndsay, which is an anagram of :”Ten Year Old Islay”.

Distilled at an undisclosed distillery, the quintessential coastal iodine and mineral aromas give a hint of the source, which with the flavour melange of briny, tarry, lemony sweetness and the minty, ashy oak finish would have  me guess that it is excellent Caol Ila expression. Definitely an interesting drop, which inspired me to tap into an exclusive Firkin Caol Ila bottling later that night.

The third room was split between brands representing US whiskey, with a focus on bourbons and ryes, plus some newer Japanese whisky brands thrown in for good measure and even an expression from the new world on pour. 

What makes The Whisky Show an outstanding event is the dedicated app, which was developed in partnership with the fine gentlemen from The Whisky List. With regular updates for each instalment of The Whisky Show, new features saw the added ability to record tasting notes for each sampled dram along with videos, ratings and a convenient Click and Collect ecommerce capability, adding a virtual layer to the overall experience and the opportunity to have your purchase waiting as you exited through the popup whisky store.

Going from strength to strength each year and offering new options, The Whisky Show also offered virtual tasting kits and a livestream being broadcast simultaneously to the physical event, enabling whisky lovers to enjoy drams in the comfort of their own home without missing out on the experience.

High Adventures in the Great Outdoors

On the Road Again  

Touring is a young man’s sport, at least until a band reaches a level of mainstream success that enables one to travel in comfort and style. While the advent of the internet has made it easier than ever to connect and music as well as performances accessible via the click of a button, nothing rivals the real-life experience.

Over the years of roaming around, especially when it comes to touring with bands, it proved not only to be essential to pack light, create a plan of places to visit outside the realm of venues but to arrange for accommodation ahead of time – especially when it comes to navigating your way across the more sparsely populated places of this earthround, i.e. Australia.

Apart from the logistics of arranging travel between the capital cities and navigating the long distances on terra australis, staying well-rested during travel and touring with late nights and early mornings is vitally important to keep spirits up. No matter how appealing the journey itself might be, a nice comfy bed to sleep in does wonders.

Using services like AirBnB might be an option but come with the complication of picking up keys, et cetera, it is not often a feasible option. Having spent night in a wide variety of places and accommodations ranging from sleeping on floors, which is more often than not the go-to for low budget tours, to five star hotels, nothing beats a hotel for me – all the more if it is well-priced yet also offers a bit of style and added comfort, despite it being out of the question on most tours.

Enter the newly established Little National hotels in Sydney and Canberra, which take space efficiency, compactness and minimalism to stylishly new heights.

Yes, the rooms are small, however, the spatial design of the layout reminiscent of Japanese architecture is an example par excellence for effective planning with the lion’s share of the space being dedicated to specifically designed oversized Arms of Morpheus beds, which wedged in between two walls and equipped with a smart TV with fluffy super king doonas range on the more comfortable scale of hotel beds I have encountered.

If I had to pin down the DNA of Little National it would come down to a commitment to entering the small doors of minimalism to arrive on the other side with altered values of warmth and comfort, reduced to essential necessities but done in style with a keen and clever sense for functional use of space, ambience and technology, i.e. providing guests with everything they need and literally nothing they do not.

With sustainability ranking high on the agenda, waste is reduced to a minimum with shared facilities to get your caffeine fix or hydrate 24/7.

In a world where “boutique” is often used in lieu of the provision of good service, Little National Hotels make sleek and well-thought through accommodation an affordable and fun option to catch some Zs, which especially in the world of vaudeville and touring is essential, as it might be one of the most glamourized aspects of being in a band but reality is that where one  sees anything outside the confines of a van ‘n venue and the nature of the game is “hit and run”. It is not for nothing that musical acts from The Eagles via Leonard Cohen to Elvis, Chris Isaak and Snoog Dog have penned homages to hotels…

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image from company website

High Adventures in the Great Outdoors

What makes great soap?

Well, there are certainly some basic that need to be accomplished in terms of making it fundamentally sound, however, there is a point when soapmaking becomes an art in itself and leave behind scientific foundations.

Having used soaps for aeons, I find that my favourite soap bars have some things in common, e.g. texture as well as lather and moisturizing abilities derived from fatty acids in the vegetable oils used, with different oils making different contributions and the calibration becoming a balancing act.

Enter Fucking Great Soap.

Incepted twenty years ago and inspired by the movie Fight Club, the soaps his brother and partners were creating to sell at the local farmers market and a dissatisfaction with soaps not being manufactured the Tyler Durden way, Patrick Shea eventually took over and commenced his own operations.

After a stint of inactivity, Patrick eventually got the itch again and after a period of trial and error, he refined his own idiosyncratic recipe, which proved to be quite popular amongst his circle of friends.

Working on refining his formula further and using organic ingredients wherever possible unless costs would become prohibitive and with the eye ultimately on making his emissions an affordable luxury, he has established a veritable soap company. While the soap bars are aesthetically pleasing and easy on the eye at times running danger of overwhelming me with the urge to take a bite, they are meant for use not display.

Fucking Great Soap’s emissions come in a myriad of handcrafted colourful variations with the common denominator being that they are not only long lasting and durable but deliver supremely in the lather department.

f a fun hobby and have built-in Christmas presents for my

Favourites of the range include Midnight Tryst, which fragrance-wise is an intriguing melange of Birchwood Oud,  wild cypress, ozone, makrut lime, sea salt, oud, elemi, leather, amber, ocean moss, and frankincense, with the total resulting in much more than the mere sum of its parts.

A staple of the core range is the Man Bar, which despite what the name might suggest is much more nuanceful than what one might suspect, based on a carefully selected range of ingredients, i.e. activated charcoal powder with mahogany and a dominant musk fragrance oils, sitting against a backdrop of patchouli and clary sage essential oils.

Given the affordable price range, the quality and fun approach, it’d be difficult to find reasons to not give FGS a go and lather up.

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image from company website

Nat’s What I Reckon

Enmore Theatre

Sydney, Australia

May 15, 2021

Not unlike we have alluded to in the review of  Nat’s What I Reckon’s recently released book, the man’s talents are manifold and his antics are best to be experienced via his  immensely popular YouTube channel or in the flesh as it allows not only for finer nuances but also his personality to shine through, which is an integral part of his appeal.

With his star on the rise and resonance having intensified throughout 2020,  it was nice to see him take on bigger stages in 2021 like the Enmore Theatre as part of his “On Purpose” tour.

The evening was a melange of storytelling with Nat giving insights into the wild ride that saw him become an internet phenomenon and the creative process and inspirations that fuelled it all. With his idiosyncratic piss-taking demeanour he manages to incorporate multimedia components into his stage show, which punctuate and substantiate his accessible and wry anecdotes, backed by audience participation, interactive dialogues, his appreciation of music.

What makes the show is both Nat’s unique energy as well as the fact that while his brand of comedy is silly and unapologetic yet never lacks an inherent humanist edge and an outlook at what is perceived to be normal that is informed by his brushes with mental health issues.

Given Nat’s What I Reckon’s traction and quantum leap his career and his stage craft has taken over the last twelve months, it should only be a matter of time until he will channel his alchemy in ways that will take him to the next level both in terms of comedic performances as well as success in other English speaking parts of this earthround.

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image from artist website