The stage is about to get saucy this weekend as finalists shimmy and sparkle away during the Miss Burlesque Australia 2012 Competition. Set to woo audiences and judges alike, Oz's brightest burlesque stars - one from each state - will take to the stage in a succession of themed performances. Each will show what they've got in a 'Classic', 'Gown Parade', and their choice of a 'Unique' or 'Neo' performance. Not brushed up on your burlesque lingo? Not to worry: these ladies will spell it out in feather fans and sequins. Not to be left out, burlesque-loving guys will compete in the pageant's first ever Mr. Boylesque Competition. Male entrants from around the country will perform their most outrageous 'Unique' routines in hopes of winning that crown. Regarded as one of the world's leading burlesque pageants, Miss Burlesque Australia 2012 promises to deliver the very best of this revived, tongue-in-cheek art form. Prepare for the finalists' one-two punch of sexy and sassy; it's bound to be one hell of a show. Further details can be found here. https://youtube.com/watch?v=yyfz6dJkx2s
If coffee is already part of your daily ritual, then you're probably going to need something a little bit more special than a cuppa to celebrate International Coffee Day on Friday, October 1. And we reckon a few slices of decadent Italian-style coffee cake will do the trick. Specifically, you'll want to get your hands on the limited-edition Ciambella al Caffè dessert being served up by Flinders Lane café Brunetti Oro and iconic Italian coffee brand Lavazza — for free — this Friday, October 1. Designed to serve eight, the exclusive dessert creation features rich chocolate cake that's infused with arabica coffee and covered in a layer of couverture chocolate. The treats will be available for pick up and delivery on International Coffee Day, but while they're free, there's only a limited number up for grabs. A fresh batch of 50 cakes are available to pre-order online from 10am each day, between Monday, September 27–Thursday, September 30. If you miss out on cake, you can always sate your caffeine cravings with a free Tierra coffee courtesy of Lavazza, up for grabs from Brunetti Oro from 10–11am on October 1.
This month, you'll have the chance to dig deeper than ever before into the city's architectural past and present, as Open House Melbourne returns with its biggest, broadest July program yet. Headlining the bill is, of course, the annual Open House Melbourne Weekend, which gives visitors the chance to get up close and personal with some of the city's most interesting and iconic structures. This year, a huge 224 buildings will be opening their doors to the public on July 28 and 29, including 87 appearing on the program for the first time. You'll be able to explore the likes of City of Casey's new $125 million cultural and entertainment precinct Bunjil Place, fresh off the back of its International Design Awards 2017 win, and Monash Clayton's Learning and Teaching Building, designed by John Wardle Architects. Behind-the-scenes guided tours are also being offered through the site of the Australia 108 tower, which, once complete, is set to become the Southern Hemisphere's 'tallest building by roof height'. The rest of the month also has plenty of Open House goodness in store, including major new exhibition The Australian Ugliness, which sees Aussie artist Eugenia Lim pay homage to acclaimed modernist architect Robin Boyd, through a three-channel video installation. Running at the Melbourne School of Design's Dulux Gallery from July 23 until August 25, the work sets out to explore the diversity of 'The Australian Dream'. It traverses over 30 sites and spaces across the country, with Lin herself swapping between the roles of student, tourist, property investor, client and resident.
Teenagers are savage in The Boogeyman, specifically to Yellowjackets standout Sophie Thatcher, but none of them literally take a bite. Grief helps usher a stalking dark force to a distraught family's door; however, that malevolent presence obviously doesn't share The Babadook's moniker. What can and can't be seen haunts this dimly lit film, and yet this isn't Bird Box, which co-star Vivien Lyra Blair also appeared in. And a distressed man visits a psychiatrist to talk about his own losses, especially the otherworldly monster who he claims preyed upon his children, just as in Stephen King's 1973 short story also called The Boogeyman — but while this The Boogeyman is based on that The Boogeyman, which then made it into the author's 1978 Night Shift collection that gave rise to a packed closet full of fellow movie adaptations including Children of the Corn, Graveyard Shift and The Lawnmower Man, this flick uses the horror maestro's words as a mere beginning. On the page and the screen alike, Lester Billings (David Dastmalchian, Boston Strangler) seeks therapist Will Harper's (Chris Messina, Air) assistance, reclining on his couch to relay a tragic tale. As the new patient talks, he isn't just shaken and shellshocked — he's a shadow of a person. He's perturbed by what loiters where light doesn't reach, in fact, and by what he's certain has been lurking in his own home. Here, he couldn't be more adamant that "the thing that comes for your kids when you're not paying attention" did come for his. And, the film Lester has chosen his audience carefully, because Will's wife recently died in a car accident, leaving his daughters Sadie (Thatcher) and Sawyer (Blair) still struggling to cope. On the day of this fateful session, the two girls have just returned to school for the first time, only for Sadie to sneak back when her so-called friends cruelly can't manage any sympathy. Whether you call it the boogeyman, boogie monster or bogeyman IRL, the titular creature doesn't need naming; everyone knows the concept. Movie buffs definitely do, thanks to 1980's The Boogeyman, and its sequels in 1983 and 1994 — plus the unrelated 2005 release Boogeyman, as well as its own 2007 and 2008 follow-ups. None of those past pictures have anything to do with King, making this one, which arrives 50 years after his unnerving prose first hit print, the only one to do the honours. Its main figures are just as familiar with the mythic entity with a penchant for petrifying young souls in the black of night from beneath their beds and in their cupboards, but purely as fiction, with ten-year-old Sawyer unable to sleep without lights on, her wardrobe checked and under her mattress given a thorough once-over. Indeed, early in The Boogeyman, Will asks Sawyer how she manages to slumber each night beneath such a glow. While her answer is standard for any precocious kid, the question itself hangs heavily in the air. Her bedroom twinkles from several sources of light — one of which is a giant lit-up globe that she sleeps with, and can also handily roll along bright corridors when the need arises, which it will — but the scene is noticeably far from radiant. It's a sight that says plenty about The Boogeyman, albeit unintentionally. The studio debut of Host and Dashcam director Rob Savage, the film is so concerned with evoking an unsettling mood in its look, tone and emotions first and foremost that it doesn't flinch for a second when what a character is saying contrasts so glaringly with what's being shown. Scary movies are about feeling, of course. At the core of the horror genre is the need to work through the things that go bump and jump in the evening, usually in our hearts and minds, and springing from existential woes about mortality — plus the chilling sensation that can't be shaken when what gets our hairs standing on end isn't at all logical. Accordingly, while the way that The Boogeyman handles Sawyer's bedroom doesn't prove so bright in multiple senses, Savage is a convincingly atmospheric filmmaker here (a trait he also demonstrated with his 2020 breakout Host, only for it to vanish without a trace in 2021's awful and obnoxious Dashcam). With cinematographer Eli Born (Hellraiser) consistently infusing every room with bleakness, Savage knows how to let dread and terror permeate. That's what navigating mourning is like, after all, as sits at the core of the emotionally astute script by A Quiet Place and 65's Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, alongside Black Swan and The Skeleton Twins' Mark Heyman. A feature can be as layered as strings upon strings of fairy lights and equally as conventional as a regular incandescent bulb, though. The Boogeyman, with its generic title, swings between both extremes. It understands how unshakeable the pain of losing someone is, and how bereavement seeps into every space it can. As Smile did in 2022, it also appreciates hurt and torment as a contagion as it spills from one household to the next. The Boogeyman is well-versed in the mechanics of jump scares, but those jolts also become routine quickly. Its high school bullies can't hold a candle to Carrie, it haunted houses aren't on The Shining's level and there's a touch of Stranger Things to its glimpses of its long-limbed, sharp-clawed namesake. And, yes, Thatcher brings Yellowjackets to mind, the whole premise gets The Babadook bubbling up, and the family-in-peril setup brings up Bird Box alongside Beck and Woods' A Quiet Place. Whether The Boogeyman is resonating with earned and earnest emotion or leaning overtly into genre tropes, it's a smartly hushed affair with expert sound design; in life's worst moments, sometimes only whispers echo no matter how loudly you want to scream. Savage's intriguing- and involving-enough mixed bag is also a better film thanks to its three key cast members, even working with thinly written characters. As her breakout TV role has already demonstrated, Thatcher is a talent on the rise. She's particularly skilled at portraying complicated teens forced to weather unspeakable horrors, then find a way to persevere. Although her panicked face fills the screen often, Blair's Sawyer is never just an alarmed avatar for the audience or a reminder of their own childhood fears, while the always-watchable Messina makes a shrink dad with trouble processing his own trauma feel believable.
In a genre often constructed around male anxieties and fantasies, Carrie is perhaps the ultimate girl-horror film. All the things that have at some point terrified us — pregnancy, periods, prom — are there, as is the ultimate fantasy: a secret power that gives you real, total control over the world. So it was pretty exciting to hear that the Stephen King novel and iconic 1976 Brian De Palma film were to be remade, with three very kick-arse women at the helm — Chloe Grace Moretz as Carrie, Julianne Moore as her scary fanatical mother and Boys Don't Cry's Kimberly Pierce directing. Unfortunately, the completed film not only doesn't add anything particularly new to the mix, it fails to stand on its own feet and cohere its somewhat disparate components. The splatterfest comes late in any version of Carrie; for the most part the story is a different kind of unsettling. Having grown up in the hermitic and abusive care of her mother, a religious zealot, Carrie is a true misfit at school. Excruciatingly, it means she has no way of knowing, when she begins bleeding in the locker room showers, what menstruation is. Her classmates' shock and disbelief turns them into an animalistic pack, who descend upon her jeering, pelting her with tampons and, of course, recording the whole ordeal on their smartphones. It's a gut-turning scene — if only it set the mood for the whole movie. The episode affects the students involved in different ways. That's one of the most effective parts of Carrie; its nuanced depiction of schoolyard morality brings a lot of humanity to the usual portrayal of bullies versus victims, cool kids versus losers and even good teachers versus naughty kids. So a remorseless Chris (Portia Doubleday) refuses to cop the punishment from tough-but-fair gym teacher Miss Desjardin (Judy Greer) and gets suspended. Prom-Queen-in-waiting Sue (Gabriella Wilde), meanwhile, will not only run Miss Desjardin's mandated 'suicides', she'll convince her egotistic but basically nice boyfriend, Billy (Alex Russell), to take Carrie to prom instead of her, determined to give the besieged kid a nice experience of high school and assuage her guilt. Unbeknown to anyone, Carrie is starting to realise she has telekinetic powers and is giving them a work out. She has no reason to think she'll need them at prom, but at the same time, she's a little bomb waiting to go off — and brutal Chris will be providing the trigger, with a bloody prank she's masterminded to crown the evening. It's here, in Carrie's climactic revenge rampage, that the film comes most unstuck. It goes really schlock, which degrades the more earnest and intense mood of so much of the lead-up. It's also not the finest schlock available, as Carrie racks up deaths that are unoriginal (or were original, 40 years ago) and comical. Laughter is not the best release valve to have pulled at this point in the film. While Moretz is good as Carrie (there's just enough alien about her that she can pull off the outsider role), she adopts a mentally vacant robot face for this portion of the proceedings that jars. Moore is exceptional as the true villain of the piece, ultimately vulnerable but probably irredeemable. The whole thing is watchable, but for a story that actually contains multitudes of messages about girlhood, bullying and adolescent violence all while combining revenge fantasy and tragedy, it doesn't rise to the occasion. Sadly, Carrie is set to go down as another example of a film whose ingenious viral marketing stunt will outshine its cinematic impact. https://youtube.com/watch?v=j-VcPDkTySQ
Chunky Move are always doing bold things with dance but An Act of Now marks a new step even for them. It’s taking place in the Sidney Myer Music Bowl but it will be a more intimate experience than that venue would normally suggest. Audience will be seated on the stage, up close to a glasshouse in which the performers will be dancing, constrained by close quarters and wreathed in smoke. The soundtrack will be played through headphones, along with the slightest noises of the dancers recorded by a microphone inside the glasshouse. A statement on co-existence in an overcrowded world, An Act of Now is the first piece for Chunky Move by the company’s new Artistic Director Anouk Van Dijk. Fresh from the Netherlands and keen to make her mark in Australia, Van Dijk is set to open her tenure with a bang with this audacious show.
By the time summer rolls around, we are certainly not lacking in the outdoor cinema department. But nevertheless there is something undeniably awesome about ocean views at sunset, followed by a great film. The program this year is a mix of quirky comedies, retro classics, Australian film and a considered selection of new releases. For those feeling nostalgic, there is a 20th anniversary screening of Clueless, and even a sing-a-long screening of Grease. Head along to one of their Sundae Sessions (you guessed it, on a Sunday) to enjoy a great film, live music, and free Ben and Jerry's. No, you didn't hear wrong, that's free ice cream. The Ben and Jerry’s Open Air Cinema has a much shorter run than Melbourne's other outdoor cinemas, so if you're keen on catching great film and indulging on some Peanut Butter Half Baked heaven, make sure you lock something in by December 20.
Convinced that the world sounds just that little bit better on vinyl? Then head on down to Northcote Social Club on Saturday, July 19, and you'll find shiny new and beloved second-hand records for sale across a pretty mindblowing range of genres — some you weren't even aware were a Thing. Vinyl Records' latest one day pop-up looks set to be a big one. The impromptu store, based out of the NSC bandroom, opens its doors for business at midday on the dot. For the next three hours, audiophiles will be able to pick through the latest recordings from local and international artists, or browse the boxes of preloved classics that have been pressed over the past fifty years. They're also shining a big spotlight on Melbourne and Australian artists, while keeping entry free all day long. For more information about Vinyl Records' Pop-Up Store, check out the event page on Facebook.
Since 2019, when it was finally announced that Lin-Manuel Miranda's game-changing, award-winning, rightly raved-about Hamilton was coming Down Under, every Australian musical theatre fan has wanted to be in the room where it happens. Sydneysiders got their chance first up, and the blockbuster production has been treading the boards in Melbourne since March this year. That Victorian run will end in January 2023, however — and if you haven't yet taken your shot to see the hit show, it's slinging $70 tickets to help. Hamilton is already known for being part of the TodayTix lottery, which gives you the opportunity to nab tickets for a mere $10 — but this new $70 offer doesn't involve chance at all. There's no need to enter a ballot, although you do only have a three-day window to score the discounted seats in the first sale of its kind that Hamilton has ever done. The $70 tickets are available from 9am AEDT Wednesday, November 9–5pm AEDT Friday, November 11, covering all remaining seats to all shows left in 2022. Fancy giving yourself or someone you love an early Christmas present? This is the ticket. Already seen Hamilton before? In the words of King George III in the show, perhaps you'll be back. There are a few caveats. Tickets are obviously subject to availability, and there's a one-off transaction fee of $7 on all transactions. Also, there's no refunds or exchanges on tickets once you've bought them — and clearly the offer can't apply to tickets that've already been bought for the sale dates. Plus, if you're gathering the gang, there's an eight-ticket limit per transaction. New to the the Broadway sensation? Haven't become a Hamilton obsessive yet? Not quite sure why it has been the most-talked about theatre show of the past decade? The critically acclaimed, 18th century-set hip hop musical, for which Miranda wrote the music, lyrics and the book, is about the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, as well as inclusion and politics in current-day America. In addition to its swag of Tony Awards — 11 in fact, which includes Best Musical — it has nabbed a Grammy Award and even a Pulitzer Prize. Until this year — and after it wraps up on Sunday, January 15, 2023 as well — Melburnians eager to see the show had to be content with watching the filmed version of its Broadway production, which started streaming via Disney+ in 2020 (and yes, it's as phenomenal as you've heard). Hamilton's Melbourne season wraps up on Sunday, January 15, 2023 — with $70 tickets available from 9am AEDT Wednesday, November 9–5pm AEDT Friday, November 11. Head to the musical's website for further details. Images: Daniel Boud.
Melbourne Knowledge Week, presented by The City of Melbourne itself, is a celebration of the originality and creativity that fills our city. A total of 60 events will roam across Melbourne's knowledge sectors and fall into a range of broad categories: innovation and technology; design and urban planning; creativity and culture; community learning; health and medical; and big data and research. From medical advancements to cutting edge technology, Melbourne Knowledge Week lets you see inside the minds of some of Melbourne’s best thinkers. Here are a few of our highlights. A session called An Insight Into The Technology and Creature Design of King Kong will teach you how King Kong's Kong was created, and Melbourne and Seoul: Connecting via Large Screens will give you an opportunity to see how our digital public spheres can connect our cities. Guiding Melbourne’s Urban Growth sees the urban planning industry discuss just how our fine city will grow in the future, while Mirror of the World: Books and Ideas is a beautiful exhibition showcasing some of the most historically important books of our time and how they can have profound effects on our hearts and minds for generations. The Etiquette of ‘E’: A New Way of Knowing will see Catherine Deveny, Lady Melbourne and Tim Dunlop guide guests through new media and the crucial dos and don’t of your online persona, and in the artsy category, Literature Lane: A Literary Street Party will look at the results of RMIT's study into literary landmarks around the world. With so many events on it could be easy to get confused. If you're after a little guidance, just head along to The School of Life's session on November 3: Secular Sermon of Knowledge where they will be discussing and reflecting on the idea of knowledge itself. Not bad for a 90-minute session. Check out the full program here.
No heavy hearts or heavy looks here — during Good Beer Week, Little Creatures turns into a school worth running to. If you or your pals are new to craft beer and would like to un-bamboozle your hops from your malts, then head to Good Beer College. With nine events running from Friday to Sunday, there are also masterclasses and history of beer sessions for those looking to cram harder. This event is part of Good Beer Week's 2015 program, running from May 16-24. For more festival picks, click here.
This review was written following the show's Sydney performance at Spiegeltent. Spiegelworld's EMPIRE premiered in New York in 2012 in Times Square, and it's certainly an all-American circus, beginning with Miss A in a Bubble (Lucia Carbines) clad in stars and stripes doing illicit contortions within a treacherously split Perspex dome. If, like me, your nerves are about as steely as a feather duster, you'll be squirming with joyful terror from the start. Odd-pair hosts Fanny (Anne Goldmann) and Oscar (Jonathan Taylor) interrupt the string of terrifying acts with gauche antics that are mostly shocking and sometimes funny. They haul a lovely man up on stage and do things to him. If you have a meek, amiable face, either sit up the back or change it — unless, of course, you think you'll enjoy salacious entreaties from a pair of strangers in front of other strangers. The pair squabble throughout and reach their artistic pinnacle in an episode involving an unholy exchange of masticated banana. A trio of Gorilla Girls (Kateryna Rudenko, Alona Stekolnikova and Alina Reutska) transport acrobatics to the strip club, making Olympic rhythmic gymnasts look like a bunch of squares. A pair of rollerblading daredevils, Polka Dot Woman and Blue Tarpoleon (Mariia Beseimbetova and Denis Petaov) proves that it is in fact possible for a man to roller-skate at lightning speed in a small circle whilst a woman swings from him by the neck without anyone dying. Who knew? Accompanying the action on stage is the voluptuous Miss Purple (Casey Jamerson), who belts out pop ballad after pop ballad, all attended by her trusty Brooklyn hipster on guitar, Moondog (John Shannon). Her rendition of Leonard Cohen’s First we Take Manhattan is great. EMPIRE will be running until April 20 at the Crown rooftop. Book a ticket and brace yourself.
Be transported to a neo-Tokyo laneway, complete with street food vendors, yakitori BBQ, Harajuku girls, live graffiti art and a pop-up bar featuring craft beer and Japanese cocktails. The izakaya-inspired menu, put together by Sake's executive chef for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, will feature Victorian produce prepared using modern Japanese cooking techniques, reminiscent of street food vendors in Tokyo. Cocktails will be shaken and stirred at the laneway bar, where you can garnish Japanese creations with locally-grown herbs, flowers and leaves. It’s the very best of Tokyo's street food and craft beer scene. Kampai!
Your mouth has never been more important in determining what other people should eat, thanks to The Village who are hosting a Food of Origin series over five weekends in August, showcasing cuisines from different continents. Each weekend, The Village (formerly the Belgian Beer Garden) will bring together some palate-packing delights from North America, Central & South America, Europe and Asia. Your role? Go famished. Get fuelled up. Then vote for your favourite. The weekly winner will be invited back for the final Trailer Park showcase in the last weekend in August. Week 2 is all about Central and South America. Latin street food vendor La Revolucion are serving their Cubanos along with their Mexican corn and herby thick-cut fries. Taco Truck are bringing a little taste of Mexico with the likes of their beans donned with salsa habanero and a fried egg. Ever thought about adding pumpkin to your beef burrito? Iv's Burritos has, and can slip you one off their hotplates. Once you've filled yourselves silly on the savoury fare, Señor Churro has your Argentinian sweet-tooth sorted with their Nutella-filled donuts. Piping hot and gooey, they're vegan friendly to boot. Drink specials (including The Village Moonshine) will also be served in undercover bar, The Arbor. Want more? Whet those appetites further with these trucks that will be parked and waiting for you over the five weekends: August 1-2 - North America: Mr Burger, Smokin Barrys, TOASTA, Jay's Yogurt. August 8-9 - Central & South America: Taco Truck, Iv's Burritos, La Revolucion, Señor Churro. August 15-16 - Europe: Greek Street Food, Happy Camper Pizza, Jakob's Kitchen - Gourmet Sausages, The Brûlée Cart. August 22-23 - Asia: White Guy Cooks Thai, Hammer & Tong Food Truck, Nuoc Mama's, Gorilla Grill. August 29-30 - Best Of: The four chosen weekly winners will come back for the Trailer Park Showcase.
Rockwell and Sons are switching their usual meaty suspects for a lush multi-course of vegetables. It's a chance to treat your favourite fussy eater to lunch where Garage Project Brewery will be nailing the beers to accompany this meat-free delight. These New Zealand lads are renown for their experimental brewing so don’t be surprised if you find toasted coriander, smoked chipotle and raw cacao nibs are part of the drinking, and not the eating. This event is part of Good Beer Week's 2015 program, running from May 16-24. For more festival picks, click here.
Ever wished your Manhattan would come with a hint of bacon and walnut bitters? Well, now you do. And you'll get the chance to try one with all-Americana joint The B.East mixing up Big Mama Thorntons for this year's Melbourne Food and Wine Festival: a crispy, bacon-infused Buffalo Trace Bourbon bastardised take on the classic cocktail. With the help of Istra Smallgoods, they’ve also created three smokey courses of bacony glory. We're talking maple bacon donuts with free-range pork crackling, bacon and sage-stuffed pork belly with bacon bone gravy, and a decadent bacon and dulce de leche ice-cream. PBS Radio Funk and Soul DJs will be spinning tunes with live bands keeping the party rolling from late.The menu will be available all day on Saturday, March 5. You can just rock up or buy a ticket beforehand for $53, which will get you all three courses of bacon goodness and a beer or cider.
Your mouth has never been more important in determining what other people should eat, thanks to The Village who are hosting a Food of Origin series over five weekends in August, showcasing cuisines from different continents. Each weekend, The Village (formerly the Belgian Beer Garden) will bring together some palate-packing delights from North America, Central & South America, Europe and Asia. Your role? Go famished. Get fuelled up. Then vote for your favourite. The weekly winner will be invited back for the final Trailer Park showcase in the last weekend in August. For the North American instalment of the series, TOASTA will be taking their homemade sodas and gourmet toasties (think Brussels sprouts and candied walnuts) and going up against the likes of the big orange guy, Mr Burger. Beef, falafel, jalapeno and mayo – whatever your bun of choice may hold – make sure you splurge for the Trucker Chips, which come with bacon, cheese and special sauce. More in the mood for a soft bread roll? Smokin Barrys has got you covered. They're smoking some mean beef briskets and nailing the slow-cooked salty ribs. Cool down after your feast with a touch of Jay's Yogurt. Their winter menu includes the likes of poached pear on tangerine frozen yogurt. Seriously. These cups are getting the big spoon. Drink specials (including The Village Moonshine) will also be served in undercover bar, The Arbor. Want more? Whet those appetites further with these trucks that will be parked and waiting for you over the five weekends: August 1-2 - North America: Mr Burger, Smokin Barrys, TOASTA, Jay's Yogurt. August 8-9 - Central & South America: Taco Truck, Iv's Burritos, La Revolucion, Señor Churro. August 15-16 - Europe: Greek Street Food, Happy Camper Pizza, Jakob's Kitchen - Gourmet Sausages, The Brûlée Cart. August 22-23 - Asia: White Guy Cooks Thai, Hammer & Tong Food Truck, Nuoc Mama's, Gorilla Grill. August 29-30 - Best Of: The four chosen weekly winners will come back for the Trailer Park Showcase.
Making its Australian debut as part of the Midsumma Festival, Douglas Rintoul's Elegy recounts a powerful human story inspired by the work of photojournalist Bradley Secker. Drawing on interviews with gay refugees, the play explores themes of love and shared humanity that are so often lost in the rhetoric surrounding both immigration and LGBTQ rights. A timely and unabashedly political piece of theatre, Elegy debuts on Tuesday, January 19 at Gasworks, with MTC and Bell Shakespeare alumnus John Kachoyan at the helm.
Not everyone is lucky enough to spend Christmas with their nearest and dearest, and sometimes you just find yourself riding solo. Thankfully, the spirit of Christmas is strong in the city, at our favourite little shipping container-turned-bar. On Christmas Day from midday, Section 8 is welcoming orphans from far and wide to its annual Xmas get-together. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not really isn't that relevant — all you need to know is that there will be a free barbecue, ice-cold beers and beats right up until 11pm that night.
Australia's 'royal family' seems to have it all — money, power, love. But scratch the incredibly shiny surface and dark secrets abound and the knives are out. Dangerously charismatic patriarch and political kingpin John calls his clan together at the family homestead, and against the backdrop of a terrible storm, the Gleasons fight it out for a slice of the empire in Stephen Sewell's Hate. The family fortune becomes the least of anyone's worries as personal and political machinations are violent, fierce, and cruel in a battle which sees Gleason pitted against Gleason. The perfect facade crumbles and terrible secrets, shielded for years by enormous wealth, finally come to light in the 25th anniversary performance of the play, which was originally commissioned for the Australian bicentennial in 1988.
There's nothing quite like the big top. Entering that hallowed striped tent always feels like a form of transportation. No longer concerned with your workaday life, you're in a place where anything's possible — it's a snug little haven that promises hot cinnamon donuts, escapism and wonder. While Circus Oz definitely delivered on the donuts and the wonder, its brand of escapism strangely enough depends on your personal politics. For those not familiar with Circus Oz, social justice plays a big role in their performance. As much as they're out to surprise and entertain you, they're also concerned with imbuing each act with a specific political resonance. As such, But Wait... There's More gathers its story lines through political fodder. In the two-and-a-half hour performance, they cover indigenous rights, consumerism, commercialism, feminism, and 'infobesity'. It's a noble pursuit that is executed with mixed success — while you do feel more fulfilled by the experience, at times you can't help but crave the light-hearted frivolity of the circus you remember from your childhood. Outside of ideology, all the elements of the conventional circus are intact. On unicycles, hoops, and the trapeze, each member of the Circuz Oz ensemble brings an incredibly diverse set of skills to the table. Technically impressive feats are pulled off with an exciting amount of showmanship, and even a reluctant audience member will find themselves clapping and cheering. Particularly memorable moments include a delicate acrobatic dance played out on the unicycle by April Dawson and Kyle Raferty; a vivacious performance from Lilikoi Kaos with what must be close to 50 hula hoops; and an endearingly meek clown from Olivia Porter. Thankfully Circus Oz is an animal-free circus so, while your childhood memories may be tinged with lions and elephants, you'll have to make do with a particularly knowing gag with a BMX and a whip. As with all circus acts, it's not just the performers that deliver the show, and significant praise should also be directed towards the design and sound crew. The jazzy on-stage band provided a diverse and lively soundtrack to the evening, and in one impressive act we saw a performer battle mesmerising smoke rings through the darkness. Of course, it's all wildly entertaining — it's the circus, how could it not be? But in the tug-of-war between performance and plot, sometimes the blunt truths of the show take centre stage. While this works at times, for instance in the beautifully earnest Welcome to Country, at others it feels a little at odds with the performance. After all, the circus is a place of excess. It's hard to give yourself over to the joy of a finale spectacular while it's insistent on drilling home its critique of commercialism — particularly with your donuts and $10 program in hand. Photo credit: Rob Blackburn.
Summer may technically be over, but apparently no one told the weather. The nights aren't getting any warmer though, so you may as well make the most of it. Held most Saturday nights (excluding public holiday weekends) from 4–9pm, the Batman Night Market is your go-to for delicious food, hand-crafted goods and some of the best fresh produce in town. Located right next to Batman Railway Station, the market features dozens of regular traders. Food-wise you can feast on a variety of multicultural cuisines, plus crepes, gelato and other sweet treats for dessert. If you prefer to cook at home, you can also pick up a load of fruit and veggies, meat and poultry, cheese, baked goods and more. Local makers, meanwhile, will be selling art, cosmetics and boutique fashion accessories.
For this year's Vivid Sydney Dinner on Saturday, June 3, the Ivy Ballroom will transform into nature's playhouse, with each of the evening's experiences revolving around the central theme of 'rewilding'. Food, art, light installations and live music will celebrate nature in all its glory with a focus on all things Australiana. Food will be the centre piece of this Vivid Sydney event — led by Merivale Executive Chef Ben Greeno and renowned chef and author Danielle Alvarez (formerly of Fred's). They've joined forces to create a one-off menu that champions NSW's local and seasonal produce, pairing each course with a fantastic local wine. And as this is Vivid Sydney, expect immersive light installations interacting throughout the space all night long, creating a proper feast for the senses. [caption id="attachment_897981" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Food and drink at the Vivid Sydney 2022 Dinner hosted at ivy Precinct, Sydney CBD.[/caption] Then comes the star-studded musical numbers. Eddie Perfect will play host (and perform a few tunes) throughout the Vivid Sydney Dinner, and be joined on stage by a series of performers. You'll see alt-pop singer Montaigne, African fusion artist Julian Belbachir and beloved vocal powerhouse Christine Anu belt out some of their most popular hits to a room of your fellow lovers of music, food and art. To keep the party going, Australia's 'First Lady of House' Kate Monroe will jump on the decks for a bespoke Vivid Sydney set. It's going to be a big night. And if last year's Vivid Sydney Dinner is anything to go by, it will likely sell out well in advance. To book an entire 10-person table or a just few seats on the shared tables, head to the Vivid Sydney website.
UPDATE: JANUARY 24, 2019 — To help you avoid the brunt of Melbourne's scorching summer temperatures, Pixar Putt has launched new after-dark sessions, which take place every Thursday and Friday night. And they're only for adults. Running from 7–10pm, the post-work putt-putt hours are perfect for those date nights when you want to do more than just have dinner and see a movie. Oh, January. Christmas is behind us, summer is in full swing and the gifts are (mostly) forgotten. But that doesn't mean the part-tee is quite over. To keep the holiday feeling going, our favourite Pixar characters are popping up for one month at Federation Square at a new mini golf course inspired by some of our favourite Disney films. Designed to challenge both eight-year olds and adults, Pixar Putt features nine- and 18-hole courses that take you past childhood heroes like Buzz Lightyear, Sheriff Woody and Elastigirl. Hit a few balls with Darla and Marlin from Finding Nemo, and flick one past Princess Atta from A Bug's Life. No need for a trip to Disneyland. So, if you didn't beat your cousin at backyard cricket on Christmas Day, challenge them to a rematch at Federation Square in January. All you need is your hat and A-game (and no pressure if you remain defeated, there's always the nineteenth hole nearby). Pixar Putt is open from January 4 to February 3, 2019, with tee-off times every 15 minutes between 10am to 5.15pm, daily.
After critical accolades at the Next Wave festival in May, James Welsby's evocative dance production Hex returns for a limited six-show run at the Malthouse Theatre. The show will be one of several major cultural events taking place in conjunction with the 20th International AIDS Conference, which this year will bring top researchers, artists and activists to Melbourne. Partly inspired by this controversial HIV/AIDS awareness ad from 1987, Welsby's show uses movement, music and allegorical imagery to chronicle the gay community's relationship with the devastating disease. To the tunes of Queen, Liberace and Michael Jackson, three dancers move fluidly through the gay scene of the early '80s, the onset of the AIDs crisis, all the way up to present day. In doing so, the hour-long show pays tribute to the countless lives lost to illness, while exploring its impact on young gay men today. Details about other AIDS Conference affiliated events can be found here.
When acclaimed Australian playwright Michael Gow was approached by Four Letter Word Theatre about the rights to his already-debauched Live Acts on Stage, he insisted on rewriting the script; dialing up the filth to the level demanded by the company’s established fondness for provocation. The play’s a roller-coaster ride through Greek mythology, with the actors from a company on the rise juggling 45 characters in Gow’s savagely funny text. Read the rest of our top ten picks of the Melbourne Fringe Festival here.
If you think that there's nothing sweeter than the word "weekend", except for the words "brunch" and "drinks", then you're in hot darn luck. Fancy Hank's, barbecue eatery and general provider of comfort in the form of hot food and cold drinks, is launching a new Sunday brunch session – and, to sweeten the deal even more, it's bottomless. At $50 per person, you can pick two items from the brunch menu and then qualify for bottomless Kentucky Ice Tea and Pomelo Spritz. On the menu are brekky tacos, chicken tamale, spicy spare ribs and – don't worry vegos, they've got you, too – a so-smoky-it's-almost-meaty eggplant dish. You can order an extra dish for $12.50, but bear in mind you've only got between the hours of 12pm and 2pm to stuff yourself and your hollow legs. If you end up wanting to kick on, don't forget Good Heavens is right upstairs. Fancy Hank's bottomless brunch will run every Sunday from 12–2pm. Reservations can be made via the website.
Gomez are on their way back to Australia. Their seventh studio album since they formed in 1997, Whatever’s On Your Mind, maintains the strongest aspects of Gomez’s sound. With gritty vocals that tear through carefully arranged background harmonies and electronic-dance sounds, the album has a spirit that is overwhelming and free-spirited but at the same time shows the maturity that the band have gained over their nearly two decade-long career. Chunky guitar and beautifully lush dynamics bring an ever-changing pace to the record, keeping it constantly fresh with a thrusting drive that has the listener on the edge. Gomez’s sound incorporates a wide range of musical elements, with flavours of blues, psychedelia and krautrock, and influence from the likes of Beck, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell and Marvin Gaye.
Printhie Wines, run by brothers Ed and Dave Swift, has also taken its cellar door experience into the online realm, cracking the top off a new weekly virtual wine tasting series. The Molong-based winemakers are hitting screens from 4pm AEST every Friday, to help you wind down and kick-start the weekend in style. Or at least, in some good, wine-loving company. Via Facebook, the guys will guide viewers through a double tasting each week, showcasing a range of drops from their own label and answering plenty of audience questions along the way. To get you in the zone, Printhie is currently slinging a virtual tasting pack via its online store, starring six of the wines featured across the next few weeks' live streams. Get one delivered to your door so you can taste along with the guys and discuss your favourites as the camera rolls.
A group of local and international artists will examine the relationship between art and industry, at a three-week exhibition at the RMIT Design Hub. Presented as part of the citywide environmental arts festival Art + Climate = Change 2015, Perceptive Power will see contributing artists explore various issues including sustainability, art activism and economic consumption through the mediums of video, installation and performance. Artists featured in Perceptive Power include Paris-based art and design duo Helen Evans and Heiko Hansen aka HeHe, as well as Melburnians Ash Keating and Keith Deverell, and Sydneysiders Joyce Hinterding and David Haines. The exhibition has been curated by Jodi Newcombe of Carbon Arts, part of RMIT University’s Centre for Art, Society and Transformation. To find out more about Art + Climate = Change 2015, head over here. Image: Ash Keating.
Looking to step up your regular trivia game? Over in Richmond, The National Hotel is giving the humble pub quiz a fun — and sinister — twist, kicking off a series of murder mystery-themed trivia nights. Launching on Thursday, August 9, the sessions each feature four quiz rounds, with punters answering questions and collecting clues along the way to help solve the final whodunit puzzle. Topics will cover everything from pop culture to general knowledge, so you'd best start brushing up on some facts. There's a swag of prizes up for grabs, from jugs of beer, to a huge $150 bar tab for the night's champion team. Entry's free and you can even bring along your pup. Round up a team of between four and six players and book your spot by emailing functions@thenationalhotel.com.au. Image: Gareth Sobey
January 2014 will see Sarah Blasko embark on a short but surely sweet Heavenly Sounds tour, with the singer-songwriter choosing a restrained program of just four shows in four churches across Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide. The tour will be the final round of performances celebrating her ARIA-nominated fourth studio album, I Awake. Loyal fans might have already witnessed the ideal pairing of the singer's ethereal tones and cathedral acoustics back in 2011, when her collaborative side project Seeker Lover Keeper (with Sally Seltmann and Holly Throsby) launched Heavenly Sounds. Now’s your chance to settle back amongst the stained glass and enjoy a night of pure Blasko. "These will be my last shows for I Awake, and really, what better place is there to sing (apart from the shower of course) than a beautiful church?" says Blasko. "I'll be playing songs from all four albums and it's likely to be the most intimate show of mine you'll see for some time."
iPad max volume just not loud enough? Nonlinear Studio's Amplifiear promises that you'll never struggle to hear movies and music on your iPad again. Surprisingly simple and low-tech in its design, Amplifiear simply clips on to the side of the iPad - no wires or batteries required. The device works to increase volume by reflecting and redirecting the sound from the iPad's back-facing speaker forward. Relying on the basics of physical acoustics, Nonlinear Studio's head designer Evan Clabots designed the Amplifiear out of lightweight, recyclable plastic. It's extremely transportable, and features a tension clip to accommodate all three iPad models. Currently on Kickstarter, the Amplifiear project awaits sufficient funding in order to begin production. It will remain open to donations through May 12.
Hardware Lane's Shanghai-inspired cocktail bar Golden Monkey is welcoming the Year of the Rat with a tune-filled Chinese New Year party. The basement space will transform into A Night in Old Shanghai, on Saturday, January 25. Prepare to be entertained by the night's traditional lion dance performance, before local acts Jourdain & Jack, and Amy and Deborah Kwong have you grooving along to a dose of live R&B. You can get comfy in one of the booths, and match those tunes with some top-notch food and drink specials — Golden Monkey's known for its house cocktails and classic Chinese dishes ranging from fluffy bao to handmade dumplings. If you're with a group of mates, we suggest you order one of its giant, shareable punches served in Chinese metal steamboats. Image: Julia Sansone
You'll never have to fret over your iPhone dying again, thanks to this genius new phone case designed by Jesse Pliner and Lloyd Gladstone. Dubbed the 'JuiceTank', this sleek case effectively conceals the electrical outlet plug within. Press the button on the back of the case, and the outlet prongs pop out. Not only can you rely on JuiceTank to come to the rescue in battery emergencies, but its high-grade polycarbonate cover provides solid phone protection, minus excessive bulk. The case is currently fit for any North American plug and awaiting production funding on kickstarter.com.
The Taika Waititi school of acting gave Julian Dennison one of his first-ever roles in Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and James Rolleston his debut in Boy. Seven years after the former and 13 since the latter, the two play brothers in another coming-of-age effort: Uproar. That cheerworthy casting is joined by Our Flag Means Death co-stars Rhys Darby and Minnie Driver in a film that's not only warmhearted, but always feels as if it's practising one of the messages that it's preaching. Set amid 1981's infamous Springbok tour of New Zealand — with South Africa's rugby union team playing games across the nation, and inspiring protests against both apartheid and Aotearoa's treatment of its Māori population as it went — this is a movie about a cultural awakening, and about finding and embracing community. Behind the lens, Uproar's directors have teamed up, too, with Hamish Bennett helming his second feature after 2019's also-heartfelt Bellbird and Paul Middleditch back in the chair for the first time since 2013's Rapture-Palooza. When it told of a father and son struggling to connect, and just struggling, after the loss of the family matriarch who bound them together, Bellbird traded in the same kind of poignancy that seeps through in this engaging charmer. With its sports-meets-politics narrative, there may be few doubts about where Uproar is headed; however, Bennett and Sonia Whiteman's (The Disposables) script — as based on a concept by Middleditch and first-timer Mark Turnbull, a screenplay by Keith Aberdein (The Last Tattoo) before that, and boasting additional writing by Mario Gaoa (We Are Still Here) and actor Rachel House (Heartbreak High) — knows that reality and movies alike can follow a familiar path and be no less affecting and resonant. In another memorable addition to his resume that shows his emotional depth, especially in a potent late monologue, Dennison plays Josh Waaka, 17-year-old son to British-born widow Shirley (Driver). He's dutifully in St Gilberts School for Men's 2nd XV when the 1981 tour comes to Dunedin, but largely because much about his existence is dutiful. His father was a local rugby star. His older brother Jamie (Rolleston) was a former Junior All Black before his career was cut short by injury. To make ends meet, Shirley cleans at the school — and imposing Principal Slaine (Mark Mitchinson, Evil Dead Rise) ensures that the Waakas feel grateful. In fact, when Slane requests that Jamie help coach the 1st XV, he's hardly asking. And when Shirley says that he will, she gets the reluctant Josh a spot on the higher team as part of the arrangement, telling him that it'll set him up for life. Staying out of the public debate about the Springboks is also expected of the St Gilberts' cohort, in a place that's against taking a stand against discrimination yet fine with Josh spending his lunch break alone in the library to avoid his openly racist classmates. But that isn't the community that he wants as his own even before he crosses paths with the marching Samantha (Erana James, Bad Behaviour) while delivering catalogues with his best friend Grace (debutant Jada Fa'atui), and gets a reminder that her Māori heritage is his as well. And, being surrounded by books and silence soon isn't his only option between lessons. English teacher Brother Madigan (Darby) spies a potential actor in Josh, who needs encouraging to join the drama group, then wows his way into auditioning for NIDA in Sydney becoming an option. Outrage frequently makes its presence known in Uproar's crisply lensed frames: in Samantha decrying the country putting sports above equality in any way that she can, in the engrained prejudice that festers against NZ's Indigenous inhabitants daily, in clashes on the street and even within activist meetings, where saying that you're an ally isn't the same as truly understanding having one's land taken. The film's name also comes into play another way, though, as Josh's existence erupts in chaos. As tales about teens becoming adults often do, Bennett and Middleditch's movie tells of change rippling through almost everything that its protagonist thought that he knew. New causes to champion, new connections to his culture, new dreams to chase, new friends, new futures, a new purpose in life that echoes among his nearest and dearest: compared to the pre-tour status quo, this is indeed an impassioned uproar against just getting by, settling and never speaking up. Since his time as Ricky Baker, Dennison has enjoyed big-budget stints in Deadpool 2 and Godzilla vs Kong — and in the festive The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two — but this is his best role since getting stranded in the wilderness for Waititi. The likeable pluck and wit that endeared him to audiences then is layered with searing determination and angst here, while never forgetting humour as well. As Jamie is pushed to rediscover more than just his room and his disappointment at fate, Rolleston is also stellar, as he similarly was in The Dead Lands, The Rehearsal and The Breaker Upperers. The subtlety of Darby's kind and caring performance doesn't go unnoticed, either, and nor does the quiet fortitude of Driver's turn. At the heart of Uproar's key characters, which includes Samantha and Grace, is that other recognisable high-school feeling: being an outsider. That isn't purely an adolescent experience, of course. It hasn't avoided the star player now unable to take to the field, the woman whose marriage wasn't embraced by two families in two countries or the teacher who doesn't fit in — and it certainly hasn't evaded an entire culture that's been made to feel like its home wasn't its own for centuries thanks to the ongoing impact of colonisation, or other First Nations people with similar stories. As it sees and unpacks each of these layers, Uproar sees why living up to its moniker is so important, and also how. It spies the many methods of pushing back and sparking a ruckus. It knows the power of fighting for what's right, just and decent communally. And it wouldn't be as moving without its cast, but that's what coming together means.
Not everyone is lucky enough to spend Christmas with their nearest and dearest, and sometimes you just find yourself riding solo. Thankfully, the spirit of Christmas is strong in the city, at our favourite little shipping container-turned-bar. On Christmas Day from midday, Section 8 is welcoming orphans from far and wide to their annual Xmas get-together. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not really isn't that relevant — all you need to know is that there will be a free barbecue, ice-cold beers and beats from Mr Pitiful right until 11pm that night.
Just one month after the CBD opening of B. Lucky & Sons, Funlab — the group responsible for Holey Moley and Strike Bowling — is set to open yet another kidult wonderland in Melbourne. This time it's Archie Brothers Cirque Electriq, a circus-themed arcade bar that will open in Docklands next month. The Melbourne instalment is the second for the brand, which first opened in Sydney back in December 2017. The Melbourne version — which will open in the District Docklands shopping centre — will feature 67 arcade games (starting at $2 a pop) and tickets can be used to purchase the usual assortment of random objects and plastic toys at the prize bazaar. Like its Sydney counterpart, the venue also includes a bowling alley, dodgem cars, an interactive 3D theatre and virtual reality games. The food menu ties in with the circus decor and focuses on over-the-top novelty American diner grub. Think pink burgers, cheddar cheese-dusted potato gems and garlic aioli that's served in a syringe. You get the idea. The drinks follow suit, with a ridiculously involved Shark Tanq: a concoction of gin, blue curaçao, coconut syrup, egg white and orange bitters, all topped with flavoured Red Bull and garnished with gummy shark lollies. If that's just too much sugar for you, maybe go down the dairy route with an espresso martini with a Magnum on the side, or try one of the signature boozy milkshakes. It's a good thing the arcade is strictly adults-only from 8pm — you'll need to work off all that energy. But what you're coming here for is the arcade games, the nostalgia and to forget you're an adult with responsibilities for at least an hour or two. If the swathe of themed bars that keep popping up around town, it's something Melburnians are really responding to at the moment. Archie Brothers Cirque Electriq will open at District Docklands, 440 Docklands Drive, Docklands on October 18. It will be open seven days a week from noon until late.
At the heart of Queen of the Desert sits Gertrude Bell, a real life historic figure who was anything but ordinary. A writer, photographer, traveller and more, Bell bucked traditional gender roles, blazed a trail for women working in international politics, and ultimately played a key part in establishing the modern borders of Iraq and Jordan in the years following WWI. Sadly, while the film that tells her tale doesn't ignore those achievements completely, its primary concern instead seems to be her love life. That's how an account of Bell (Nicole Kidman) and her time in the Middle East becomes an episodic effort tied to the men she fell for and worked with. After begging her aristocratic father to send her anywhere outside of England, she is dispatched to Tehran to stay with her diplomat uncle (Mark Lewis Jones), and swiftly succumbs to the charms of embassy secretary Henry Cadogan (James Franco). When their courtship ends, Bell takes to the desert, forming a platonic bond with T.E. Lawrence (Robert Pattinson). And largely via letters, she also connects with Charles Doughty-Wylie (Damian Lewis), a married British consul stationed in Damascus. Writing and directing his first fiction feature since 2009's My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, Werner Herzog wants to have his cake and eat it too. He obviously intends to depict Bell as a fiercely independent woman, and yet he can't resist indulging in overwrought relationship melodrama. While such a contradiction might reflect life (and suit Herzog's fascination with existential contrasts, as seen in his other films such as Rescue Dawn and Grizzly Man), Queen of the Desert just can't seem to strike the right balance between empowered adventure and lovelorn longing. Instead, the film becomes a sweeping but standard epic, hoping to blend the emotion of The English Patient and the spectacle of Lawrence of Arabia, and ultimately proving as formulaic as that sounds. At least the latter inspiration provides striking, sun-drenched imagery, with the film at its best when it's charting a lush visual excursion across the plains. As for its worst — well, that's where the performances come in. In the cast's defence, there's a big difference between bad acting and portrayals that are stifled by bad material. Kidman, Franco and Pattinson are all serviceable, but simply aren't given the room they need to turn thinly drawn characters into something more. Kidman certainly tries in one of her most committed efforts in recent years, yet as she flits between yearning and determined, the true spirit of Bell never shines through. Accordingly, Queen of the Desert feels more like routine historical romantic fodder rather than a genuine biopic. Given the woman at its centre, that's hardly a satisfying outcome.
Melburnians will have two outdoor electronica festivals to choose from come January 1, 2019. This year, joining Werribee Park's Let Them Eat Cake is Sidney Myer Music Bowl's The First — a multi-stage music festival dedicated to live electronic, hip hop, house and techno that'll take over the Kings Domain this New Year's Day. Run by Montreal-based festival host Piknic Électronik and Australia's electronic music guru Hardware Group, the festival is a hangover party you don't need to travel out of town for. Among the festival's stages is one dedicated to Piknic Électronic and it'll kick off the brand's fifth season of weekly-mini festivals in Melbourne (the dates of which have not yet been released). The headliners for the inaugural NYD festival include heavy-hitting rap queen M.I.A, Australian dance royalty The Presets and New York hip-hop artist Action Bronson, along with Banoffee, Bloody Mary, Bob Moses, KiNK, Krystal Klear, Max Cooper, Nastia and SG Lewis. The full lineup of local and international acts hasn't been announced just yet, so stay tuned for more. While you're there, visual art, food trucks and booze-a-plenty will be on the docket, too. The First will be held on January 1, 2019 at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Early access tickets will be available from Wednesday, September 12 and cost $99. To register for pre-sale, head over here. General tickets will then go on sale from Thursday, September 13, with VIP tickets priced at $150.
It's 27 years since The Cult's first album went platinum. Electric's impossibly high energy saw the Bedford-born rock band's career explode overnight. Perhaps it was something to do with the crazy circumstances in which it was recorded. "[Electric's] definitely a Polaroid of a certain period in my life," frontman Ian Astbury told Max TV recently. "New York City, 1986, when New York was kind of lawless ... We barely slept making that record ... We'd pretty much get up, go to the studio, work till midnight, maybe 1am, go out, come in at seven in the morning, and go do it again, every day." Now, as part of their Electric 13 World Tour, The Cult are going to play the entire album live for Australian audiences for the first time. It's a kind of sequel to their 2009 Love Live Tour, which Astbury described as "such an incredible experience". The show will include a second set, featuring tracks from the band's eight other studio albums. https://youtube.com/watch?v=k6PgftKbQnQ
Summer is almost over, and what better way to welcome the cooler months than with wine season at Hyatt Centric Melbourne's Langlands Restaurant & Bar? In fact, the venue is serving up an exclusive six-course dinner paired with some of Tar & Roses' finest reds, whites and sparklings to see you happily sipping through autumn. Starting at 6pm on Friday, April 12, Tar & Roses is slinging serves of its curated wine list with picks such as pinot grigio, pinot noir, chardonnay, and more. At $200 per head, not only will you get the best grapes, but you will also be offered flavour-packed dishes ranging from fresh oysters to a Southern Ranges beef cheek. If you're still feeling peckish, don't worry: the menu includes a lemon sorbet paired with prosecco, as well as cheesy locals to go with your rosé. Only 20 slots are available for this one-night occasion. Head to the website to secure your ticket.
This year, the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival's ever-popular Crawl 'n' Bite series will provide even more opportunities for culinary exploration, with a whole new crop of roaming food and drink tours. Sink your teeth into the tastiest of Fitzroy and Collingwood, and discover just how diverse these foodie hotspots are, with the Smith and Johnston crawl. On Wednesday, April 5, this guided journey will have punters enjoying a bite and a drink at French-leaning Hell of the North, stylish gastropub Fitzroy Town Hall Hotel, and vivacious taqueria Hotel Jesus, across one adventurous evening. Six ticket options are available for the tour — choose the starting time and location that suits you best and get crawling.
All right ramblers, let's get ramblin'. After packing the place tighter than Minnie's Haberdashery last year, 24 Moons Bar's Tarantino Ball is back. For one night only, the Northcote watering hole will celebrate one of modern cinema's coolest, bloodiest auteurs with an evening of music, beverages and fancy dress inspired by the movies of QT. Kicking off at 8pm on Saturday May 20, and stretching well into the hours of the following morning (not quite dusk till dawn, but pretty damn close), the third annual Tarantino Ball will feature $5 Sailor Jerry shakes, a Jack Rabbit Slims twist contest, foot massages by the Foot Fucking Master, and all the best tunes from Tarantino's iconic soundtracks played by Melbourne's very own Quentin tribute band, The Tarantino's. There'll also be a costume competition with some pretty epic prizes. So make sure you put in some effort — no guys, just wearing a black suit with a black tie and sunglasses isn't going to cut it. Tickets to the Tarantino Ball go on sale Tuesday April 4.
We all know that Melbourne is the place to be if you love music; this week's the time to prove it. Melbourne Music Week is back for another year with 250 artists taking part in 110 events over 10 days of festivities in 40 locations. While your usual bars and bandrooms are all accounted for, this year you'll also be seeing music in laneways and trams, at Rooftop Cinema, the NGV, MPavilion, and power stations. It'll even be in elevators. No kidding — elevators. This enormous reach comes in an effort to showcase not only Melbourne's music, but the city itself. "Melbourne is one of the world's greatest music cities," says Councillor Beverley Pinder Mortimer from the City of Melbourne."[In this festival] the city becomes the stage." Kind of like in that film with Kiera Knightly and Mark Ruffalo... but better. Here are a few things to pencil in your diaries to make the most of it. Opening Night with Architecture in Helsinki There's no better to kick off your Melbourne Music Week celebrations than with an opening night extravaganza, and there's no one better to lead the charge than Architecture in Helsinki. These local kids done good have been putting the pep in your summer house parties for just over a decade now. After the release of their fifth album NOW + 4 EVA they're back to christen the new festival hub at Queen Vic Markets. After supporting Client Liaison earlier this year and recently being signed to Two Bright Lakes, local boogie kids Total Giovanni will also be on the bill with Rainbow Connection DJs. Get ready for some magic. November 14, 7pm-1am, Queen Vitoria Market, $35. Morning Ritual There's a reason this event is a regular at MMW. While the rest of the program favours night owls and those up for a bit of a bender, this is a rare opportunity to get some tunes in the sunlight. This year's Morning Ritual will see five bands including The Harpoons, Klo and Lowtide playing a bunch of free sets at Queen Vic from 10.30am. It's an amazing way to wake up, a decent substitute for coffee and, quite frankly, a freebie you should definitely take advantage of. November 15-22, 10.30-11.30am, Queen Victoria Market, FREE. Love in an Elevator Does corny elevator music get you down? Local folk-pop duo The Twoks have concocted an ingenious morning pick-me-up for those Melbourne nine-to-fivers with better taste. Setting up in undisclosed elevators around the CBD, the boppy electronic duo will be hosting impromptu performances starting from 8am, riding up and down with unsuspecting members of the public as they make their way to work. Not the easiest of gigs to find, but if you're in the city this early, it'd definitely be worth searching out. Fair warning: venues may hit capacity pretty quickly. November 17-19, 8-9am, Elevators across the city, FREE. The Roller Jam Presumably inspired by the plot of Xanadu, Foreign Brothers are transforming 1000 £ Bend into a full blown, '80s style roller disco. A collection of DJs and live artists including Northside Records, The Mondo Freaks, ALTA and Jimmy James & DJ Jnett will keep your wheels turning late into the night, and surely someone will have the good sense to crank some Olivia Newton John. Skates will be available for hire. If there's not a smoke machine and mirror ball, we'll be very disappointed. November 20-22, 6pm-1.30am, 1000 £ Bend, $25. Hunt. Tram. Party. No Myki? No worries. Hop on board a moving Melbourne icon, for a one-of-a-kind tram party without a single mouth-breathing ticket inspector in sight. Clues around the CBD will reveal the hidden starting point where your musical transportation will be waiting. Suffice it to say, moshing is probably out. After rattling around the city to the tunes of a secret artist, the party will terminate right outside Ding Dong Longue, where a live performance by totally charming poppy hip hoppers Jakubi will see the good times continue long into the night. November 20, 7pm-1am, Trams across the city, FREE. Mixed Doubles Artist-run record label Air Punch Collective has pitted the stars of the Melbourne indie music scene against one another for a collaborative song tournament that looks set to be a grand slam. Hosted at the North Melbourne Rec Centre and umpired by the audience, competitors in the musical tennis showdown include Milk Teddy vocalist Thomas Mendelovits, as well as Helena Plazzer, Ellen Sorensen, David Carlin and Mark Mannone. We're not saying things could get violent out there on the court. Then again, we're not not saying it, either. November 15, 1pm-4pm, Bella Union, $10. Free Screenings at Rooftop Cinema Relax under the stars with a cold beer and a bucket of popcorn, and enjoy a trio of free, music-themed screenings at Melbourne's favourite outdoor cinema. Sort-of documentary 20,000 Days on Earth provides a weirdly meta look into the life and creative process of enigmatic artist Nick Cave, while Mistaken For Strangers chronicles the 2010 tour of your favourite sad rockers The National through the eyes of its lead singer's younger brother, who tagged along for the ride. The third screening remains cloaked in an air of mystery. Is it too much to hope for a bit of Bjork? November 18-20, 8pm-11pm, Rooftop Cinema, FREE. The Church Plays The Blood of a Poet One of the all-time great examples of avant-garde filmmaking, Jean Cocteau's The Blood of a Poet is getting a brand-spanking new musical score, courtesy of legendary Australian rock group The Church. First released in 1932, the film follows an artist through an unsettling parallel dimension; its impenetrable imagery a perfect fit for the band's evocative alt-rock sound. Whether you're a film buff or a music lover, this live performance/screening absolutely shouldn't be missed. Alternatively, if French surrealism isn't your thing, check out William Friedkin's 1977 thriller Sorcerer, accompanied by visiting German electro pioneers Tangerine Dream. November 21, 7.30-8.30pm, ACMI, $30-38. Swell Just when you thought you'd figured your way around the giraffes in jewellery, watchful elephant heads and tree-lined rooftop spaces, they throw another thing in the mix. For six nights in November, the Carlton will be opening up an abandoned space that lies above the main bar but below Hasti Bala. Through labyrinthine corridors and hidden little rooms, you'll be treated to an array of secret gigs and intimate "plastic-coated" raves featuring a load of surprise acts. I know that's a whole load of craziness to hear with little to no context, but it's all we've got at this point. This very hush hush event is mysteriously titled Swell. November 14-23, Friday-Sunday, Various times, $25-39. Live Music Safari Without a doubt the highlight of the whole MMW program, the Live Music Safari brings the entire city to life. Fourteen of Melbourne's best venues including Boney, Section 8, The Toff and The Hi-Fi are hosting some of the city's most exciting bands and they're doing so for the ever-so-tasty price of free. Running for nearly 12 hours of sonic bliss, the Safari wants you to pop in and out of shows from 4pm-5am. Ideal route: chill out in Ferdydurke as City Calm Down and Milwaukee Banks turn Tattersalls Lane into an all-out laneway party, head along to Queen Vic to catch a set from Kingswood, cruise down to the Toff to catch The Harpoons, get a load of newbies Japanese Wallpaper at the Kelvin Club and, as always, finish it all off at Boney. There's no judgment here, friends. November 20, 4pm-5am, Various locations, FREE. Photo credits: jaded on and flattop341 via photopin cc. Written by Tom Clift and Meg Watson.
If 2020 has given us anything, it's a renewed appreciation for bread. In particular, the humble sourdough and the fluffy white Japanese milk bread known as shokupan. The cult Melbourne bakery that also goes by the name of Shokupan even took things to the next level, fusing the two bread varieties to create its signature sourdough shokupan loaf. Now, another smart pairing sees Shokupan teaming up with innovative Japanese eatery Future Future for a one-off pop-up this Saturday, September 12. The duo's specialty collaboration menu of fruit sandos and Japanese-inspired sausage rolls will be available for pre-order to take away from the Richmond restaurant from 11am–3pm. Get ready to sink your teeth into a dreamy riff on the sausage roll ($12), featuring a Japanese pork snag from Meatsmit encased in miso-glazed shokupan and baked to golden perfection. It'll be accompanied by pickles, miso mustard and a fermented chilli tomato sauce. Meanwhile, dessert is sorted with a limited run of sweet shokupan sandos ($7), loaded with spring fruits and whipped mascarpone. While you're there, you'll be able to stock up on some full loaves of Shokupan's finest, along with batch brew coffee, genmaicha tea and tinnies of Japanese beer. Pre-orders are available via the Future Future website. Of course, under current stage four restrictions, you can only swing past the Richmond store if you live within five kilometres. If you don't, sorry — stay tuned for more pop-ups, hopefully a little closer to you. Images: Jana Langhorst
It's been fifteen years since Death Cab for Cutie released Transatlanticism, a seminal album of the early 00s. After releasing it, the band went on to sign to a major record company and this album, the band's fourth, is widely considered to be its greatest. It's an opinion held strongly by critics and fans alike, and — most likely — by the Melbourne musicians who are taking to the stage this August to celebrate the album. Taking place at Richmond's Corner Hotel on Saturday, August 11, So This Is...A Death Cab for Cutie Party will be a tribute to Transatlanticism and the band who you used to listened to — moodily, in the dark — at least five dozen times after a break up. Incorporating songs from the band's other albums as well, the Melbourne artists stepping into the fray to cover Death Cab (forming a band of rotating singers) will include JP Klipspringer, JMS Harrison, Lauren Perkins, Emma Heeley, Sean Sully and Daniel Boca Vista, among others. If singing your heart out with dozens of other strangers who are having the same nostalgic feely feels as you sounds right up your alley, then this night is yours.
Don’t let the name of Australian artist and performer Anthony Breslin’s Trybe: An Opera in Paint deceive you — his is no traditional libretto. In place of a tenor to rival Pavarotti, viewers can expect an all senses experience (or assault, depending on where your tastes sit) that encompasses art, dance, film and live music. Traditional conventions get a makeover to ensure the opera is not only palatable, but markedly challenging, for contemporary sensibilities. The absence of an operatic orchestra, replaced by a three-piece band that performs a score by Greg Long, is just one such attempt at modernisation. Subverting the role of the all-knowing conductor, Breslin assumes the (at least partially autobiographical) character of a tortured artist struggling to give life to a painting it becomes clear he is somehow spiritually compelled to produce. From the safety of their offstage seating audiences are led on an involving journey that even their brave guide is not sure will end in triumph. Breslin’s opera does not follow a conventional narrative structure, instead erratically blending depictions of the protagonist’s battle to overcome internal anxieties for the greater creative good with a series of high-energy, visually explosive dance and music sequences. This strong conceptual bent is likely to strike many viewers as jarring at some point in the just over an hour it takes for the artist to cultivate the canvas that will later come to define the performance. Audiences have been conditioned to expect certain things from entertainment — a chronological story, humanised characters and speech, to begin — none of which Trybe: An Opera in Paint delivers. Perhaps the intermittent alienation that comes with experiencing turbulent, uncertain artistic practice played out in real time is something to be celebrated despite its intrinsic, accompanying discomfort. Rather than feeling cheated by the lack of script, predictable character development and the general fulfilment of “normal” expectations, viewers must focus on what is gained from this cost — an honest insight into the customarily personal act of creation — in order to fully appreciate Breslin’s vision. The risk that Breslin runs by turning his studio into a stage and inviting perfect strangers to enjoy, or pass judgement upon his fraught artistic journey has to be admired, regardless of whether one “likes” the performance or does not. By privileging the communal the artist is able to abandon the constraints of the ego in order to create a work that is bigger than any singular reputation or internal vision can ever be. The needs of the tribe are favoured in another, less abstract way, as each resulting canvas will be available for sale post performance. All proceeds will be donated to the Lasaillian Foundation, an organisation that supports the education and empowerment of children, youth and their communities in the Asia Pacific. Will Breslin ultimately overcome the personally constructed version of success that shackles his ability to create for much of the performance? Will the audience, who develop a sense of ownership over the artwork, be left creatively satiated or wanting for something more? Like all truly great operas, all will be revealed in the final act, when the canvas will speak what the performers cannot. Image credit Jacqueline Barkla.
Some of the best young filmmakers in the country are headed down to the esplanade, for ten straight days of cinematic mayhem. Australia’s oldest and largest showcase of short form filmmaking is back for another year, with a brand new venue along with a prize pool of more than $50,000. With the Astor Theatre temporarily out of action, this year's festival will be hosted at St Kilda Town Hall. As per usual, the meat of the program lies in the Top 100 Australian Shorts section, stretched strategically across 14 separate sessions. You can get the complete package for a cool $100, or choose from a selection of genre streams including 'coming of age', documentary and LGBT. This year will also see St Kilda continue its partnership with the Palm Springs International Shortfest, with four sessions dedicated to some of the best shorts from overseas. Rounding out the program are specialised youth and family streams, along with audience favourite music video contest, SoundKILDA. For the full St Kilda Film Festival Program, visit their website.
2020 was especially quiet on the arts and live performance front, but this year's edition of the First Nations Yirramboi Festival is set to make up for lost time. Returning for its third citywide outing in May 2021, the multi-disciplinary festival will dish up a huge program of over 150 different events, celebrating Indigenous arts and culture in a very big way. The genre-tripping lineup of free and low-cost events is set to descend on venues across the city from Thursday, May 6–Sunday, May 16. And, while the full program won't be dropping for another few weeks, organisers have shared a few of the festival highlights that punters can look forward to. There's a political cabaret by the Northlands Collective Mob, with A Fight for Survival centred on the well-publicised fight to save Victoria's Northland Secondary College back in the 90s. It stars a diverse cast of talent, including folks who were involved with the school and the case. A further theatre fix comes in the form of Considerable Sexual Licence, a flirty production by Joel Bray (Wiradjuri) exploring the real history of sensuality in Australia — and in a touching celebration of belonging in Maryanne Sam's (Meriam Mer) Coconut Woman. There'll be laughs aplenty when a roll call of Blak comedic talent takes to the stage for the Deadly Funny Showcase as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and lots of sparkly thrills as the country's top First Nations drag entertainers battle it out in the Miss First Nation 2021 competition. Rapper Ziggy Ramo will play his debut album Black Thoughts live on the Melbourne Recital Centre stage, while Harley Mann (Wakka Wakka) will deliver a mind-blowing acrobatic performance with the Na Djinang Circus, titled Arterial. [caption id="attachment_803729" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Barring Yanabul 2019[/caption] Melburnians can also catch a huge, roving celebration of Blak culture when free, all-day fiesta Barring Yanabul (translating to 'we all walk the path' in Boonwurrung and Woiwurring language) takes over more than 40 pop-up locations throughout the CBD. Stay tuned for more events to be revealed as the full program is released in the coming weeks. Yirramboi Festival 2021 runs from May 6–16, at various locations and venues across the city. For more details and to check out the full program once it drops, head to the festival website. Top images: Miss First Nation; Arterial photographed by Cecil Martin; Kimberly Lovegrove photographed by Jim Lee.
