Archive for the ‘Live Reviews’ Category

Joe Pug – The Toff In Town

Joe Pug wound up his second Australian tour with a sold out show at the Toff in Town. The audience consisted of a gathering of the faithful and some curious first-timers and both groups would have left amply gratified. While Pug’s outstanding debut album Messenger casts him as a latter day cross between Steve Earle and Steve Forbert, as a solo live act he comes across more in the Dylan mold. Now,... Read the full story

Roxy Music – Rod Laver Arena

I guess there are two types of Roxy Music fans. There are those who know singles like Same Old Scene, More Than This and Avalon; songs that, although impressive in their construction and performance, are essentially stylish fodder for commercial pop radio and which probably still feature on many ‘gold’ format radio stations. It’s not to say that they aren’t very good songs, because they are,... Read the full story

The National – Palais Theatre

Having discovered The National a lot later than some of their devotees I approached this concert with as much curiosity as anticipation. I’d listened to their latest album High Violet and been impressed, but not excited, if you know what I mean. Everything about the album was admirable – the songs were strong, the production was impeccable, the lyrics were intriguing and the vocals of lead vocalist... Read the full story

Blondie, The Pretenders – The Palais

It is a blindingly obvious thing to say but the one most apparent fact that came out of this show is that both Debbie Harry and Chrissie Hynde have aged both gracefully and with their credibility intact. The Pretenders and Blondie are alternating the ‘headline’ spot across this Australian tour and tonight Blondie went on first. Debbie Harry looked amazing at 65 and after sorting out a couple of... Read the full story

Seven Songs – Myer Music Bowl

Seven Songs was an ambitious and ultimately successful closing event for the Melbourne Festival. It drew together a group of diverse, revered and challenging music artists and gave them the task of selecting and performing seven songs that fulfilled a well considered set of criteria. Each artist was to perform a their first song, a song to share, a Leonard Cohen song, a song they coveted (ie that they... Read the full story

Pat Benatar, The Bangles – The Palais

Nostalgia or not nostalgia? That seems to be the theme of the concert reviews in this edition of HeyHeyMyMy. Where the success of Paul Weller’s show had nothing to do with nostalgia there was no suggestion of anyone trying to do anything else than mine their legacy in tonight’s show. Pat Benatar is 58 years old, her husband and guitarist Neil ‘Spyder’ Giraldo must be close to mid 60’s. Whatever... Read the full story

Paul Weller – The Forum

Despite the fact he played songs from both The Jam and The Style Council, there was absolutely nothing nostalgic about Paul Weller’s show at The Forum. His 2010 album Wake Up The Nation had made it blindingly obvious that the British post-punk icon was far from ready to make a living on the oldies circuit and in fact it had been revealed as a vital, urgent and challenging album. He played a good... Read the full story

Concrete Blonde – The Metro Palace

It’s almost redundant for me to be writing a review of Concrete Blonde, such is the obvious affection I have for the band. Suffice to say, the news that they would be touring Australia celebrating the 20th Anniversary of their most prominent album Bloodletting was always going to be music to my ears. It turned out that way. After a raucous and utterly entertaining opening set from local murder ballad... Read the full story

Slash – Festival Hall

It’s taken the best part of two decades but Slash is going the right way about saving the legacy of Guns N Roses. The bad blood, the constant delays in recording, the side projects and the general air of chaos that surrounded so much of the bands post-Illusion news has tended to obscure the fact that the main reason GnR  rose to the heights they did was that they were a great hard rock n’ roll... Read the full story

Models – The Gershwin Room, The Espy

In all probability the current incarnation of Models will be a fleeting footnote on the bands history, a single entry on the band’s Wikipedia page that says “In 2010 a line-up consisting of Sean Kelly, Andrew Duffield, Barton Price and Mark Ferrie played a single, well received show at the Esplanade Hotel in Melbourne. This was to be the final show in the band’s history.” Yet the consensus... Read the full story

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