My obsession with Adelaide beard-rockers The Beards has not yet run its course.
The hirsute band are playing at The Vanguard in Newtown on Wednesday 21-Dec. I’m going. I’ve convinced four people to go. You should come too.
Archive for the ‘music’ Category
Harvest Festival Sydney
17 November 2011Last Sunday – after flying back from Spain – I went to Harvest Festival in Sydney. It was a good day out, and a great way to stave off jetlag.
It was a very chilled, hippie vibe out in Parramatta Park. With no under-18s, it was a fairly grown-up gathering. It was never ridiculously crowded or annoying. It was, as it was billed, civilized and relaxed.
I got to see:
- TV On The Radio (Fantastic, once their sound guy got things levelled out)
- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Rub Your Hands Say Meh)
- Bright Eyes (just a bit, which was enough)
- Mogwai (good as always, and a great soundtrack for laying on your back in the grass and watching the sky; chattier than normal)
- The National (just a bit, they weren’t as god as I’d hoped)
- The Flaming Lips (always a super experience; I welled up during ‘Do You Realize’, like I always do)
- Portishead (only a bit, as the jetlag finally caught up; good, but a super downer after The Lips)
The Flaming Lips explode onstage. flickr photo from gunslingr
New Tom Waits album later this month
1 October 2011
Alice Cooper at the Enmore Theatre
27 September 2011Last night was living legend night: Alice Cooper. I’ve never before seen the master of shock rock, the inventor of gig theatre spectacle, play live. But last night I saw a wrinkled, potbellied 63-year old do everything that rock ‘n’ roll is about.
Nice hat. Image from sezzles via Creative Commons license.
It’s always been clear to me that the best rock is big, dumb (but in a clever tongue-in-cheek way), brash, and ugly. And that’s Alice and his live show to a tee. He’s undoubtedly doing it by numbers now, but those numbers are hilariously bizarre and catchy. No one can tell me that “I’m Eighteen” isn’t one of the best rock songs ever recorded: it perfectly expresses the youth and alienation we’ve all felt.
He’s doing the same songs every night on this tour, but I thought it was a pretty good selection. Alice knows when his golden era was, and half of the songs come from Billion Dollar Babies, Killer, and Welcome To My Nightmare.
Highlights: opener “The Black Widow” with eight-legged jacket; “Only Women Bleed” followed by “Cold Ethyl” (with a loved/abused mannequin the object of Alice’s crooning); a full psychedelic version of “Halo Of Flies”; a monster-stomping “Feed My Frankenstein”; “I’m Eighteen”; the metal tune “Brutal Planet”; a selection from his New Wave phase, “Clones (We’re All)”.
What didn’t work: I’ve never liked the song “Billion Dollar Babies”; “Hey Stoopid”; the guitar mix (there were three) was pretty muddy, and the sound board often didn’t switch in time with the solos.
Alice sounded better than I expected, not that he ever had dulcet tones. He strutted, and swirled his cane, and was decapitated, and brandished a sword, and impaled a music journalist, and did all the amazing rock spectacle things that we wanted from an Alice Cooper show. Sure, a lot of it would be considered trite if someone else did it, but he invented this stuff.
The lesson: be more creative, and don’t take yourself too seriously. And songs about loving dead people are big crowd-pleasers.
RocKwiz: going to a Christmas live taping
19 September 2011I’ve become a fan of TV trivia show RocKwiz. It’s got everything I like: nerdish knowledge of rock ‘n’ roll, humour, live music, and a great host.
So I bought tickets to see the Sydney taping of their Christmas Tour. Fun!
Bryan Adams at the Opera House
18 September 2011Bryan Adams catches a lot of shit. I would maintain that the reasons for this are not his fault. So last night I went to the first of three sold-out shows he’s playing at Sydney’s Opera House on his Bare Bones acoustic tour.
Gary Breit and Bryan Adams. Photo from ASquall via Creative Commons license
Between 1984 and 1985 Bryan Adams was one of the biggest rock stars on the planet. He did this not by making a single original sound or writing a single insightful lyric. He did this by having a perfect rock voice, and by writing tunes that were perfect archetypes of guitar-driven, singalong rock songs. Thus those songs have broad public appeal. Thus they get played a billion times. Thus many of us will change the station when “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” comes on the radio.
I’ve never bothered to see Adams play before, even in the decades I lived in Canada. If it had been his normal band I wouldn’t have gone. But on this Bare Bones tour it’s just him and an acoustic guitar for much of it, with pianist Gary Breit on the rest. That’s it. Since all Bryan Adams’s songs are guitar tunes I thought that this would be the way to hear them.
It was. The format reduced the packed Opera House to a backyard singalong.
He opened big, with “Run To You”. Adams’s voice sounded exactly as it did in the early ’80s: strong and raspy. His guitar playing was much better than the simple rhythm parts that some singers play, and we got all the relevant fills.
Ultimately there are few people on the planet who can write a catchy, dynamic melody and a massive, memorable, rock chorus like Bryan Adams. That’s not enough – in my books – to call him great, but it is enough to pack a venue with people who know every line.
I was struck last night by how good the early songs that he co-wrote with Jim Vallance were. “I’m Ready” and “Heaven” were vital. “Heat of the Night”, as one of the few Adams songs to stand out with different guitar sounds, was one of my favourite tunes of the night. So was “Do I Have To Say The Words”: its phrasing and rhythms mark it as a better song than most.
The night was not without surprises: “Cuts Like A Knife” was always going to be good, and then the “na na na” ending was accompanied by a walkthrough bagpiper. Didn’t see that coming.
“Summer of ’69″ was played fast and hard, and was the most crowd-enthusiastic song. But this track – like “Everything I Do…”, which got played of course – has been overdone to the point that even in an acoustic format I just wanted it to be over. All of the Mutt Lange co-penned songs fall short of the early stuff. I mean, c’mon, “The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You”?
Adams himself was relaxed, chatty, and full of funny stories. It was a genial evening, and – to be honest – one very low on cheese (perhaps bombast enhances cheese). I enjoyed seeing a songwriter play songs I knew, on his acoustic guitar, which I imagine is exactly how he first wrote them all.
Mister Justin – With Daylight Still To Spare
13 September 2011Mister Justin is – as far as I can tell – a bloke in London. He’s releasing an album of acoustic guitar-driven tunes called With Daylight Still To Spare, and I think it’s pretty cool.
The songs are based in six-string folk sounds. A couple of the album tracks are instrumentals, and Justin’s skill with a guitar is pretty evident: little riffs pop in and out, here and there. Some of the songs remind me of Roy Harper’s Stormcock. There’s an underlying peacefulness, even in the darker songs.
There’s a cover of old poem and sometime-folk tune “So We’ll Go No More A Roving”. The tune is high and mournful, and the guitar playing stays simple, which is what a song like that needs. ”We Had Our Time In The Sun” is really good: a minor-key lament, full of strummed bitterness, and a female vocal counterpoint that makes the song bigger and sadder.
A couple of tracks are perhaps a bit too laid back. “My Only Crime Is I Take My Time” begins to veer a little too close to naff territory with its lyrics, and horns and strings.
But With Daylight…mostly avoids the twee “guy with a guitar” cliché by introducing occasional non-folk elements. There are fuzzy bass sounds, an Indian groove, and some shouting on “Memory Fade Out, Burn Out”. ”Metal Song” may still be acoustic, and it contains a fiddle, but it’s fun, with tongue-in-cheek headbanger riffs acted out. ”You Tell Me I’m Lucky To Have You” is an Irish drinking song with hilarious nonsense sounds.
This is interesting music, fun music, and creative music, well-played.
You can check out the entire album right here.
Harvest Festival lineup is awesome
11 September 2011
I’m not much for music festivals anymore. Gettin’ too old. Can’t be bothered for the couple of bands in the lineup I’d care to see.
But when I saw that Harvest Festival is intentionally billing itself as something other than a sun-baked piss-up for teenagers – that is, a proper festival about good music – I paid attention.
When I saw the lineup, I bought tickets ASAP. You should too, if you’re old like me, or tired of the same party bands on the same tours.
Acts include:
- Portishead
- The National
- The Flaming Lips
- Bright Eyes
- TV on the Radio
- Mogwai
- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
- Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
- Holy Fuck
- Mercury Rev
- Death In Vegas
- The Walkmen
- and many more
The Beards at the Annandale Hotel
21 August 2011I have to admit the truth: I love gigs but I have not yet been to Sydney’s Annandale Hotel. On Friday night I addressed this terrible shortcoming. A couple of mates came with me to see The Beards, and I now have another trembling admission: I think beards are incredibly cool.
The Beards just want to be friends. So long as you also have a beard.
First off, the Annandale: perfect dive bar for gigs. It’s just a dark, dirty, sticky room. There’s a pretty nice little Thai food restaurant in back (called Wok ‘n’ Roll, of course). But the Annandale is awesome for all the same reasons as the Astoria in London was awesome: dark, filthy rock had infused every grain of wood in the building’s structure. Love it.
There were three bands on Friday, but we missed The Rockets because we were stuffing our face with Thai. The second band was Gay Paris, and I’ve seen few odder. They were a roaring, bald, purple-cloaked, bearded hillybilly stomp of rock funk. The bass player’s grimacing had me in stitches. Okay, they were just a weird bunch of guys, but as one of my mates pointed out they played incredibly tightly. Also, their bearded-ness made me wonder if The Rockets had had beards as well, and it was an all-facial-hair night.
But The Beards…oh, The Beards. They were awesome fun. Okay, obviously they’re a bit of a novelty beard…I mean band. They’ve had three albums, and every song on every one of them is about how awesome beards are. Songs like “A Wizard Needs A Beard”, “No Beard, No Good”, “Born With A Beard” and “It Only Takes A Fortnight…*”.
But their songs are all rocking, and delivered with such enthusiasm, and single-minded, beard-stroking seriousness, that you cannot help but pump your fist. At the same time you buy in: beards do make you look manly and powerful. You start thinking about your chin follicles, and straining a little.
It’s all helped immensely by the facts that they pick especially catchy, singalong rhythms, and their singer is really quite good. There’s nothing especialy complicated going on, sonically, but it’s fun, energetic rock. They wore matching lounge suits too. Always a plus.
Witness a couple of examples: first, the video for “If Your Dad Doesn’t Have A Beard, You’ve Got Two Mums”.
Now listen to a new song, ’80′s synth-drenched track “You Should Consider Having Sex With A Bearded Man.”
I think it’s pretty clear what level of awesome I’m talking about here.
Two great songs
2 August 2011When I did my favourite 50 songs ever a few years back I don’t know how I missed these two.
“Pump It Up” by Elvis Costello. Wow, this is the very definition of infectious. Those drums are tribal. Then the descending synth line hooks you and you are done. Dance, New Wavers.
“Don’t Bring Me Down” by ELO. It’s ludicrous. It shouldn’t work, it’s so oddball. Again, the thumping drums draw you in, and a descending riff – this time on guitar – snags you. But here the simple (but silly) rhymes and heavily multi-tracked vocals impel you to sing along. The slight change-ups in the chorus also engage you in future listens, because you know they’re there and you wait for them.
Clarence Clemons dies
19 June 2011Clarence Clemons, the saxophone player who helped define Bruce Springsteen’s sound, the Big Man, has died of a stroke at the age of 69.
This is him playing the “Jungleland” solo in 2009.
Can Brain Scans Predict Music Sales?
13 June 2011From an article in Science, one study indicates that the reactions of teenage music listener’s brains may be better at predicting what songs will be a hit than by simply asking them which they like best.
Two years ago, Gregory Berns, a neuroeconomist at Emory University in Atlanta, was on the couch with his kids watching American Idol. One of the contestants sang the melancholy hit song “Apologize” by the alternative rock band OneRepublic, and something clicked in Berns’s mind.
He’d used the song a few years earlier in a study on the neural mechanisms of peer pressure, in this case, how teenagers’ perceptions of a song’s popularity influence how they rate the song themselves. At the time, OneRepublic had yet to sign its first record deal. A student in Bern’s lab had pulled a clip of “Apologize” from the band’s MySpace page to use in the study. When Berns heard the song on American Idol, he wondered whether anything in the brain scan data his team had collected could have predicted it would become a hit.
To find out what had become of the [120 random unsigned songs they picked for their study two years before], the lab bought a subscription to Nielsen SoundScan, a service that tracks music sales.
Intriguingly, the brain scan data predicted commercial success better than the subjects’ likeability ratings, which did not correlate with sales. “What is new and interesting about this study is that brain signals predict sales in a situation where the ratings of the participants don’t.”
The Cure, live at Sydney Opera House
2 June 2011I was never a goth.
I was also never a big fan of The Cure. Sure, I thought they were okay, but I never owned any of their albums until just last year. Too many of their tunes were simply gloomy, rather than moving, to me.
But I came to appreciate their good stuff recently. By “good stuff” I do not, obviously, mean “Love Cats”. God, I hate that song.
Tonight I saw the second Reflections show by The Cure. These are two-nights only performances of the band’s first three albums, with original band members, performed at the Opera House as part of the Sydney Vivid Festival.
I don’t know if the people at the show have, like me, never been goths, but surprisingly few of them belonged to that grim culture now.
The show was four hours of The Cure. There was no opener, but there were two brief intermissions. That meant a lot of music. We got the full rock show, lights and smoke and big bass stances and Robert Smith sounding as good as he ever has on record.
First were the albums. Three Imaginary Boys was the first. I thought it was the best set of the night. These songs were so poppy, so exuberant. And the band can now deliver them with such skill and power. It all really worked for me, especially “Grinding Halt” and “Fire In Cairo”. We even got final, short, instrumental blues track “The Weedy Burton” which Smith said was an omission from the first night.
Second (proper) album Seventeen Seconds sounded good, and the crowd loved “A Forest”, of course. But the gloomy Cure sound was still developing when they wrote and recorded these tracks. To me that made them a less interesting listen, as a complete album. Like I said above, I never contemplated suicide by eyeliner while listening to this album while young.
Third album Faith was, surprisingly to me, even worse. I really like this album, but live, played all in a row, the tunes were all just too same-y. Too little variation in the depressing shades of grey from song to song.
During the encores, though, things really kicked in for me again. The first ramped the energy back up immediately, with some early B-sides, “Boys Don’t Cry”, and “Killing An Arab”.
The second encore kept things intense, with “The Hanging Garden” a highlight.
And then we got a third encore, still powerful and energetic, with “Let’s Go To Bed”, “The Walk”…
…and fucking “Love Cats”. Oh well.
Although the middle bits were just alright, the start and finish of the show were immense. It was a real event, too, and something I’m glad that I saw.
Two final notes about the people that were on either side of me:
1. To the guy on my right: you really should have checked the scalped ticket you bought off the guy out front more closely. He was obviously an asshole: seeing the first night’s show and then selling you the used ticket for the second night. You’re lucky the ushers didn’t notice the date, as you hadn’t, and let you in. You’re also lucky there was space to hide at the back, as it was a sold-out show. Still, I’m glad you got to see the show, as you were obviously a big fan.
2. To the women on my left: why would you come to a gig just to have a four-hour conversation? Your insanely loud and brainless chatter spoiled the show until I and the guy in front told you to shut up. Three times. I hope the rock gig didn’t ruin your chance to gossip. Idiots. Desperate Cure fans missed out on that show because you bought tickets. Well done.
Spiritualized: Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space at the Vivid Sydney festival
28 May 2011Vivid Sydney is this city’s annual festival of “light, music and ideas”. I can agree with the first two, at least, as I was down at the Opera House last night. There are coloured, moving projections of light all around Circular Quay. Lit installations and warm glows are everywhere you look down there at the moment. It’s very pretty, very cool.
Inside an Opera House covered in huge, moving patterns of luminescence, though, was the music I’d come to see: Spiritualized. The UK cosmic-rock act led by J Spaceman is one of my favourite bands anyway, so I’d have gone to see them (for the fourth time) in any case. But last night – and repeated again tonight – they were playing the entirety of their perfect 1997 album, Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space.
Not only was there a six-piece rock band that took the stage, there was also a 9-person choir and a substantial orchestra behind. If you know Ladies And Gentlemen… you know those are essential to reproducing it live.
The Spaceman was in sitting-down mode tonight. I was in the third row, right next to him. God, he’s thin and pale. His ever-present sunglasses kept him from us. Not that he looked out into the audience anyway: he always faces across the stage when he sits like that. He looked weak and shaky, a vulnerable man in a white T-shirt, separate from the black-garbed band, almost like he’d rather slip back with the ivory-robed choir.
This is how close I was. That's taken with a Blackberry.
With no prelude, the album began. If you know Spiritualized, you know their drug-hymns, their space-rock noise-dirges to love. This album is a perfect combination of sounds about love, in fact: love that makes you weak, and drugs that you love that make you weak, all wrapped up in the sounds of gospel and choirs, but that eventually must descend into sonic chaos. On this album, Spiritualized were Punk Floyd.
The reproduction on-stage was perfect. There’s zero antics. Apart from frequent strobing lights, it was all sonic waves, song after song of loss, crashing over us. J’s voice was as plaintive and mournful as on the albums. Every throbbing bass note, muted trumpet blare, choir keen, and guitar scream was delivered as it is when you’re listening to Ladies And Gentlemen… on your own, in the dark of your bedroom, with headphones.
“Come Together”, “I Think I’m In Love”, and “Cop Shoot Cop” (all seventeen minutes of it) were amazing highlights. J got up to say thanks at the end, as did the assembled Opera House. They came back for just one more, Let It Come Down‘s “Out Of Sight”, which was equally powerful. I’m glad they didn’t overdo it, and – apart from that one encore song – let the album stand on its own.
I’ve seen many of these songs performed before. But seeing them all performed together, in order, in the dying format that is the album, was pretty powerful. Pretty vivid.
First Aid Kit: It Hurts Me Too
25 May 2011“It Hurts Me Too” is one of the most-covered blues songs, based on a song originally recorded by Tampa Red. I have versions by Elmore James, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton. It’s a great tune.
First Aid Kit are a Swedish folk duo, two young sisters that were one of my favourite bands of last year. They’ve now recorded a country blues version of “It Hurts Me Too” as a single on a label started by none other than Jack Black.
That’s some pedigree.
I really like their version. Listen to it right here.
First Aid Kit
The Fierce and The Dead: If It Carries On Like This We Are Moving To Morecambe
24 May 2011Last year I reviewed an album by UK musician Matt Stevens.
I said at the time that Matt also had a band called The Fierce and The Dead. That group – which also includes Kev Feazey and Stuart Marshall – has just released their album, called If It Carries On Like This We Are Moving To Morecambe.
The album is similar, in many ways, to Stevens’ solo work: it’s instrumental, post-rock, and a bit jazzy.
There’s a harder edge to it all, though. Whereas I described Stevens’ solo album as interesting background music, this collection gets a bit more rambunctious now and then. It post-rocks just a bit more. Some songs, like “10×10″, rock out quite a bit more.
There’s also some darker feelings here. It’s far from being a grim, sombre album, but TFATD definitely have some moody sounds happening throughout. It’s introspective and occasionally challenging.
As a result of the increased dynamics and darker mood I like it more than Stevens’ solo outing. It’s still not party music by any means, unless you’re partying with Mogwai (which I do recommend). But it’s got range to appeal to more people than just the guitar nuts (though they’ll still dig it).
If It Carries On Like This… is available now via Bandcamp, under a pay-what-you-feel policy. I suggest a listen if you like post-rock instrumental type songs. You can do that right here.
Australian gig presales: Modest Mouse, The Kills
23 May 2011There are two gigs coming up I’d love to see: Modest Mouse and The Kills.
Unfortunately I’ll be out of the country at the time of both gigs. If you’d like to see either of these bands in Australia, you can get presales access to tickets here:
- Modest Mouse presale: 25 Jul in Sydney, 27 Jul in Melbourne, 01 Aug in Auckland
- The Kills presale: 26 Jul in Sydney, 28 Jul in Melbourne
BeoSound 8
14 May 2011I’ve been without a decent stereo for some time.
I had a big, loud sound system when I lived in Canada. But when I moved to the UK many years ago it made no sense to bring and transform all those 120V components, so they went to live with friends.
In the UK apartment sizes are smaller. And, through work, I had the opportunity to buy a micro-size, but decent quality, compact CD unit. So that’s what i got, and what I used the whole time I was there, eventually running my iPod – when I was given that – into the unit.
I decided to sell, rather than bring and plug-adapt, that little stereo to Australia. Until recently, all I had was a small, portable, rechargeable iPod dock that’s made for taking to the park or beach.
The shape and style of our current living room mean that a big stereo system would not work. As much as I’d love a high-end, kick-ass sound system, everything is, in the end, a compromise. But I’d not been able to find anything that would meet all the competing criteria: compactness, quality, easy integration to my new iPod, some portability, possible wall-mounting.
Then on our recent trip to Brisbane I saw an ad in the inflight magazine for the Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 8. Wow, I thought, that looks pretty cool. I’ve long drooled over Bang & Olufsen’s dual dedications to sound quality and unique design. This is the first iPod dock unit they’ve done, and the reviews I found elsewhere looked good. I was seriously considering it.
The day after we returned from Brisbane I opened my latest credit card bill, and found a flyer inside. My bank was running a special promotion where you could buy the BeoSound 8 in interest-free payments over 12 months.
Who am I to stand in the way of a universe that obviously wants me to own this sound system?
So I bought one a couple of weekends ago. It looks great, and sounds amazing. The remote is freakishly fun.
I have all my tunes again.
The Cure: Reflections – Getting tickets
13 May 2011I got tickets today for what should be a pretty historic show by The Cure.
Vivid is an annual Sydney festival of the arts and culture. I’m already going to see Spiritualized play their seminal space-rock album Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space.
Then it was announced that original members of The Cure would be re-joining Robert Smith and the rest of the band to perform two special shows at the Opera House for Vivid: namely, playing the band’s first three albums, Three Imaginary Boys, Seventeen Seconds, and Faith. All together, each night, complete and in a row, with the members who recorded each record playing.
They say that this is a one-off event for the festival. I’ve never been the world’s biggest Cure fan, but I couldn’t miss this.
I managed to get tickets for me and a mate today, for the second night’s show. It was tricky: the Opera House’s web server was definitely not ready for the onslaught of fans. I’d given up after an hour and a half, but careful Twitter monitoring alerted me to a new link the Opera House put up later in the morning. It seems I was pretty lucky, as lots of people didn’t get tickets (and, judging by the times they believe the show sold out, didn’t spot the new links for ticket).
The shows are May 31 and June 1. Expect a monster review on June 2.
Gig review: The Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band
17 April 2011Several weeks ago I was looking at upcoming acts for some of the smaller local music venues I know attract good musicians. Notes Live in Newtown listed a Saturday night gig for something called the Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band. The writeup sounded like they were the legit deal from the US, so I bought a ticket, without knowing anything more.
I later found out that Rowan is a bit of a bluegrass hero. He was only a “bluegrass boy” for Bill bloody Monroe in the ’60s: it doesn’t get more genuine than that. He was in a group called Old And In The Way with Jerry Garcia. He’s done lots of other projects, some related to rock and folk and reggae. But now he’s joined up with some other bluegrass die-hards and returned to those roots. It’s this band that’s now touring, having released a bluegrass album.
It was the real deal last night. Rowan plays guitar; the others play mandolin, banjo, and bass. Just about every song last night was bluegrass, or close to it.
Rowan’s voice is high, clear and lonely, perfect for the sort of music they play. And the other guys provide excellent harmonies; almost every song saw them do three-part, sometimes four-part.
In the first half they played just about every song from their latest recording, Legacy. My faves were “Jailer Jailer”, “Catfish Blues”, “Turn the Other Cheek”, the Carter Family’s “Let me Walk Lord By Your Side”, and the Tibetan-tune-influenced “Across the Rolling Hills (Padmasambhava)”.
After the break they played songs from Rowan’s solo career, Old And In The Way, and other influential early bluegrass tunes: “Old Mountain Dew”, “In The Pines” was awesome, Monroe’s “Roll On Buddy, Roll On” was fantastic. Another Carter Family tune, “Don’t Bury Me On The Lone Prairie”, was moving; and their “Wildwood Flower” guitar riff found its way into “Panama Red”.
Oddly, it’s some of Rowan’s most famous early songs that rub me the wrong way. They come across as mawkish and lame: “So Good”, “Land of the Navajo”, “Moonlight Midnight”, and “Free Mexican Air Force”.
But those are small whinges. This was a genuine, zero-frills, honest-to-roots, feel-good night of musicianship and vocal harmonies. These guys care about this music deeply.
If you’re in Sydney and you like bluegrass, you can catch the band on Tuesday night. They’re back in town and playing at the Cat and Fiddle in Balmain.
