The Ten Best Gigs at Sydney Festival 2016 to Buy Tickets to Right Now
Let the wild rumpus start.
The Ten Best Gigs at Sydney Festival 2016 to Buy Tickets to Right Now
Let the wild rumpus start.
By now, you must've scanned the Sydney Festival program at least twenty times, working out how to best spend your hard-earned cash. You probably should just go to everything. But, just in case your wallet isn't bottomless, here's a cure for your option anxiety.
Check out one — or all — of these ten and you'll score some major bang for your buck, from Mexican Morissey cover bands to Cambodian psychedelia, unlikely hip hop stars and Icelandic indie fun. And, by the way, there's also that FREE FLAMING LIPS CONCERT IN THE DOMAIN. Just quietly.
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10
If Morissey was Mexican, his tunes would sound pretty much like you’re going to hear them at this show. Yep, as you can guess by the name, this is a Mexican act performing the Morissey songbook. But it’s not just any old band, Mexrissey is seven of the best musos in Mexico performing arrangements by Calexico’s Sergio Mendoza, all in Spanish. Expect every Latin rhythm you can think of — from ranchera, mariachi and danzón to mambo, norteño and cha cha cha.
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9
If you enjoyed the drum-heavy, jazz score of 2014’s Birdman then you’ll love getting to hear drummer and composer Antonio Sanchez perform his score live alongside the Oscar-winning film. A four-time Grammy Award winner himself, this is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a bloody great movie coupled with incredible live jazz. Sanchez’s performance will be improvised, just as it is in the film. While a showing will take place at the State Theatre in the CBD, insiders are headed to the Lennox Theatre in Parramatta, where tickets are only $49 a pop.
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8
Since making folk cool again with her debut album, The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004), harp-playing, cocktail-devouring Joanna Newsom has continually surprised us. She’s modelled for Giorgio Armani, given acting a spin — in Paul Thomas Anderon’s Inherent Vice — and released four subsequent LPs. Her latest, Divers, released in 2015, grapples with travel, metaphysics, love and war. This is her first visit to Australia in six years.
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7
Thought the Icelandic music scene was dominated entirely by ethereal soundscapes and cheesy pop songs? Think again. Reykjavik Calling is gonna get you dancing. It’s an exclusive show combining the talents of electro poppers FM Belfast, whose hits include ‘We Are Faster Than You’ and ‘Brighter Days’, with Hermigervill, who creates ‘weird electronic pop adaptations’ of Icelandic classics from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.
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6
Anyone who’s played for G-Funk’s best hip hop artists knows their groove. And that’s exactly how DaM-FunK spent the ’90s — as one of the most in-demand musicians on the G-Funk scene. Then he decided to go out on his own. After being snapped up by Stones Throw Records, he released his debut album, Toeachizown (2009) and followed up in 2015 with Invite the Light, which features guest appearances from Snoop Dogg and Ariel Pink.
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5
For 20 years now, the Dirty Three have been ruling Australia’s underground scene. Once you see them live, you’ll understand why. It’s not often that three musicians can achieve such a deep level of sympatico, without becoming boring or entrenched in a particular approach. But Dirty Three is anything but entrenched — every show delivers a new aspect to their enigmatic, theatrical sound, powered by Jim White’s deft drumming, Warren Ellis’s potent violin and Mick Turner’s unconventional guitar playing.
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4
Picture yourself in a karaoke bar in Phnom Penh. Now imagine a couple of psychedelic rockers turning up and blowing the joint away with their mixed bag of grooves — from old school Cambodian rock ‘n’ roll to soul. Now you’re getting close to The Cambodian Space Project experience. Led by muso Julien Poulson and vocalist Channthy Kak, the band revives Cambodia’s popular music history — which Pol Pot nearly wiped out altogether — through both classics and originals.
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3
You’d be hard-pressed to find subject matter that intrepid songwriter Jenny Hval, who hails from Norway, is afraid to tackle. You name it, she’ll explore it, be it sexuality, gender, risk-taking or vulnerability. With four albums under her belt — two as Rockettothesky and two under her current name — she released the fifth, Apocalypse, girl, in 2015. It’s a no-holds-barred journey through her relationship with bodies — both her own and those belonging to others.
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2
Anything could happen at Dreamland, a one-night-only pooling together of Sydney’s most fearlessly creative and fiercely swaggering musicians. We’re banking on a visionary fusion of Italo funk (courtesy of Donny Benét), walls of guitar sound (from Kirin J Callinan), revolutionary rhythms (thanks to PVT’s Laurence Pike) and surreal balladeering (delivered by Jack Ladder). But, then again, your guess is probably as good as ours.
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1
Like many a great singer-songwriter before her (cue Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits), Kate Tempest began as a dealer in words. In 2013, she became the first ever person under 40 to win the Ted Hughes Award for innovation in poetry. In 2014, she attracted a Mercury Prize nomination for her hip hop-driven debut album, Everybody Down. Now she’s published a novel. Billy Bragg loves her. Chuck D is a fan. Check out her fresh, authentic freestyling for yourself.
