Eight Reasons to Leave the House This Weekend

Seizure Prom

The "frustrated creatives" who started new Australian writing launchpad Seizure four years ago are gearing up to host their first ever prom. You'll get the chance to hang out with the Seizure lit crowd and get some classic prom shots taken (time to drag out that year 12 dress/tux and hairdo to match). This time you'll want the photographic evidence; with the organisers taking inspiration from the Under the Sea Dance in Back to the Future, it'll be a fine-looking affair.

Friday, July 18, at the Giant Dwarf. More info here.

Crooked Colours

Pulsing synths, addictive percussion and mellow crooning have seen this Perth trio launch from strength to strength, making waves both locally and abroad. From Unearthed beginnings through to shows at Groovin' the Moo and Laneway, Crooked Colours have generated a following hypnotised by their feelgood ambience. These electronica lads are currently on their first ever national tour, promoting the brand spanking new EP, In Your Bones.

Friday, July 18, at Goodgod Small Club. More info here.

Symbiosis

Jane Sheldon is not what you might think of when you think 'opera singer'. Last we've seen the New York-based Australian soprano around Sydney, she's been singing fragments of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species at the Australian Museum or facing a wall mesmerically warbling Holocaust poetry for the Sydney Chamber Opera. She fuses her ARIA Award nominated voice with contemporary experimentation, all while working with such international institutions as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and the Boston Camerata. Her latest project sees her setting up at the relaxed 107 Projects to perform a set of contemporary avant-garde works.

Friday, July 18, at 107 Projects. More info here.

Hendricks and Hendrix Nights at Chip Off the Old Block

It's a pleasure to walk into the Chip Off the Old Block, tucked away on narrow Little Queen Street, and find not a sugar skull, novelty lamp or plastic flamingo in sight. Each table’s supplied with bowls of unshelled walnuts and pecans, shiny nutcrackers and rumpled paper bags to catch the shells, as well as a pack of cards — as if to encourage guests to put their phones down, entertain their busy thumbs another way, and have an old-fashioned conversation. Saturday is Hendricks & Hendrix night (9-11pm), which offers up the sublime combo of $10 Hendricks G&Ts, Jimi on the stereo and free hot chips.

Saturday, July 19, at Chip Off the Old Black. More info here.

Foe, Like the Enemy Pop-Up

The acquisition of good vintage clothing can be a difficult feat. Much like the metaphoric fog, sometimes you have to sort through a whole bunch of crap until you find something good. Fortunately for us, the guys behind Foe, Like The Enemy have trawled through Asia and the Americas to source the best vintage clothing they could get their hands on.

Until Saturday, July 19, at Shop 1, 50-52 Foveaux Street, Surry Hills. More info here.

Bondi Feast

There's plenty of food at Bondi Feast, but it's not the main course. The Rock Surfers Theatre Company's annual festival serves up offbeat performances, comedy and writerly projects from some of our favourite creative Sydneysiders, all backed up by a rotating cast of food vendors in the Bondi Pavilion's Festival Bar. With tickets to shows starting at $10, consider it a tapas of ideas, hilarity, provocation and feels. See such high-brow theatre as Awkward Conversations With Animals I’ve Fucked and My Struggle The Life and Times of an Individ (In a World Full of Hipsters).

Saturday, July 19 (continuing until July 26), at the Bondi Pavilion. More info here.

Charlie's Country

There are very few faces as synonymous with Australian cinema as that of actor David Gulpilil. His third and most recent film with Rolf de Heer marks the last part in a loose thematic trilogy — one that began with The Tracker in 2002 and continued with Ten Canoes four years later. Gulpilil looks far older than his 61 years, but as Charlie he may never have been better — he's just taken home a best actor award at Cannes for it. It's a performance loaded with understated feeling, one that's obviously informed by a wealth of personal experience. His very face tells a story, about a country, its people, and its cultural and cinematic history. What a wonderful piece of acting in a likewise remarkable film.

All weekend long at Palace Verona. Full review here.

Tabaimo: MEKURUMEKU

No one does inner turmoil and domestic horror quite like the Japanese. It seems so many of their artists have found that magical space between buttoned-up manners and social graces and unbound anger, anxiety and fear. The secret seems to lie in restrained contradiction. In a major solo show at the MCA, Mekurumeku, Japanese artist Tabaimo has managed to strike this eerie balance perfectly, presenting a body of work spanning just over a decade.

All weekend long at the MCA. Full review here.