BIGSOUND brought Sydney’s Allan Smithy to Brisbane with a new live show raring to go, beers to be drunk, games of ping pong and Jenga to be dominated. His music has been a highlight of our year to be listening to and it was great to keep an eye on how well Smithy would go on to be received…
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Full disclosure: I have been a huge Kira Puru fangirl for some time now. Her recent work alongside Urthboy in particular has brought the vocalist to the attention of more people in 2016 and rightly so. A powerful presence on stage and on record, Kira’s appearance at BIGSOUND was one I knew I had to jump on. Sitting down…
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As award season for the Australian food scene continues, the Time Out Melbourne Food Awards have announced who they have celebrated above all others this year. Melbourne’s best restaurants, cafes, and food trucks have been named across 14 different categories, exploring all levels of dining in the world’s most liveable city to arrive at the…
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It’s the dining oasis hidden in Alexandria that has pretty much become a suburb of its own. The Grounds of Alexandria remains one of the brightest beating hearts of Sydney’s cultural scene, consistently attracting sizable crowds of all-ages to play around in the garden, relax in the atrium, and make pig noises at heavy-set superstar…
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The intersection of Glebe and Annandale, at the Northern End of the Harold Park development is where Sydneysiders will find that the historic 1904 Rozelle Tram Depot has been gutted, restored, and turned into an impressively slick European-style dining hall. It’s part of a huge redevelopment of the area by Mirvac, and one of the…
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From Roadrunner Fried Chicken to Korean Fried Chicken Truck, there are plenty of mobile food vendors in Melbourne who dabble heavily in the art of fried chook. It’s about time some grease-loving geniuses rounded all those trucks together for one very big, super crispy festival. The folks behind Preston’s The Food Truck Park are those…
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To cap off yet another busy Bar Week, the industry came together last night at the 16th annual Bartender Magazine Australian Bar Awards to celebrate the past 12 months of outstanding bars across Australia. Always an authoritative lens through which to examine the massive scale of quality bars across the country, the awards ceremony celebrated…
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Sometimes a piece of art becomes so intertwined with a contemporaneous event that true, unbiased analysis becomes impossible. Just as Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was erroneously seen as a response to 9/11, and Bowie’s Blackstar became his swansong, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds’ Skeleton Tree comes in the wake of a tragedy. Halfway through the writing of the album’s material, Cave’s teenage son died in…
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Meeting up with Sydney hip hop artist B Wise for a chat at BIGSOUND was a bit of a highlight for us. Having been supporters of this guy’s music back in the early days of his career, to be able to nab some of his time ahead of what would wind up being an extremely well-received live showcase in…
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West Thebarton Brothel Party have been on their ‘Four More Years’ tour since the beginning of the month, bringing hectic singles “Red Or White” and “Dolewave” to life alongside a now-beloved swag of music down the east coast. Having just played Adelaide mini-fest Stonecutters over the weekend, the seven-piece have this week off the prepare for…
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Sampa the Great has been an artist we have loved seeing go from strength to strength through 2016. As her music has spread to more audiences around the country and her live shows have continued to build, Sampa emerged as a frontrunner in this current crop of young artists stepping up to the plate with some brilliant lyricism…
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New week, new tours. The 2017 Byron Bay Bluesfest has come out with their first round of sideshows and as far as initial touring announcements go, they’ve done pretty well, with the likes of Patti Smith, Bonnie Raitt and The Lumineers locking down some impressive Australian headline shows. South Australians and Queenslanders miss out on this round of announcements unfortunately, with the artists…
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The 2016/2017 Falls Festival and Southbound run has already got festival lovers applying for holiday leave, locking away the New Year’s celebrations for the run of events out on the east and west coasts this year. Today, a run of sideshows have been announced from a large swag of artists set to play; from The Avalanches on stage with Grandmaster…
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BIGSOUND 2016 opened its conference stage for one of Australian hip hop’s most polarising acts to come through and, as Trials simply puts, explain themselves. For the Funkoars legend and Briggs, their 2016 collaborative project as A.B. ORIGINAL has woken the hip hop music community (and the wider music industry) up with some hard-hitting and unapologetic music that highlights crucial issues facing our…
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After improving the design of their lobby-level dining space The Gallery, luxe Sydney hotel Sheraton on the Park have flipped the ‘on’ switch to their new afternoon high tea experience, a decadent buffet-style approach to the elegant tradition. There aren’t many high tea offerings around Sydney which allow you access to a buffet, so this…
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Now in its fifth year, Bondi staple The Bucket List is ready to once again take on the season it was built for, edging into spring with a new menu that’s been put together with those beaming beach-side days in mind. The colourful venue has become well-known as a primary choice for locals and visiting…
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Could these be the best value wine dinners in Sydney? One would sure be hard-pressed finding one that combines the atmosphere and value like 360 Bar & Dining do with their “360 Wine Club” events. There are plenty of wine dinner series across the city but not many similarly priced events have quite the scope…
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Art installation – when you hear those words, what visions are created in your mind? Now think about an art installation based not far from Uluru (Ayers Rock), I bet that raises your eye brows. So, it’s now time to book your flights to Yulara, Ayers Rock and witness the incredible Field of Light by…
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West Thebarton Brothel Party have become Adelaide legends over the last year and a half, it’s pretty safe to say. Nipping at the heels of fellow South Australian rock gems Bad//Dreems, the seven-piece ‘hydra’ of an act have broadened their touring horizons considerably through 2016, playing to more audiences around the country as both headliners and…
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Melbourne artist LANKS returned to Brisbane for BIGSOUND this year with a brand new single in “Holla” ready to be brandished and a debut EP in Viet Rose ready to be hyped. Ahead of his showcase, Larry sat down with LANKS (aka Will Cuming) to chat about the development of his music and his live show since this project began. “I…
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In its 13th year in 2017, the St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival returns with some names that have graced its stages before breaking out overseas, some names who will be making their Laneway debut and some names that come with a solid whack of international hype backing them. We already knew that A.B. Original and Nick Murphy (FKA Chet Faker) would be on…
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Just when you thought Sydney getting a bar dedicated to espresso martinis was the peak of Australia’s obsession with caffeinated cocktails, Mr Black Spirits Co have revealed that they are bringing the world’s first espresso martini festival at Melbourne’s Meat Market come November. The Mr Black Festival of the Espresso Martini will be taking over…
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Alex Lahey went into BIGSOUND this year as one of the festival’s most talked about artists and came away from it as one of the acts people continued to buzz about. Understandably, the hype is justified – after her B-Grade University EP brought her widespread acclaim, not to mention shows around the country and Splendour in recent…
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NZ-based burger chain BurgerFuel have always kept it consistent when it comes quality quick-service burgers. Somehow the brand has always managed to escape the chain-shaming that burger fiends around Australia regularly partake in, and that’s largely due to these burgers actually being really f’n good (scoff down a American Muscle burger with some spud fries…
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Following the recent wrap-up of winners and new hatted restaurants from the Sydney ceremony, Melbourne’s 37th The Age Good Food Guide Awards has tonight announced the 2017 results as well as the complete list of restaurants that have gained or maintained a chef’s hat. With 14 now being the lowest a restaurant can score before…
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Now that the BIGSOUND dust has settled and the industry has returned to some sense of normal; our on-ground team have been going back through notes jotted down on phones, ‘Definitely check out…’ style messages sent back and forth, in determining the selection of bands who stood out as strong winners across the board. With many of these…
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The few days we spend at BIGSOUND in Brisbane is best described as an annual escapade into a fine slice of the best in Australian music – a sample of what’s been round the traps recently, what’s returned after some time away and what’s coming next. Across the three nights of live music – two official…
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While in Sydney recently, Larry caught up with Ben and Harry ahead of SAFIA‘s debut album release of Internal. Chatting about the album and it’s creation, particularly the material that had been road tested live already, the boys open up about some of the challenges they were met with. “There’s one song that we’ve been playing for a long time, which…
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Brilliant. Just brilliant. To ensure that our 2017 is off to a well and truly prosperous start, The Boss is coming back. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will be back in Australia and New Zealand next January and February for a huge summer tour that will see them joined by the likes of Jet, Diesel and Marlon Williams and The Yarra…
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Oh, BIGSOUND. You’ve done it again. Returning to Brisbane for my second time at the conference/music festival in 2016, I approached the trip with a list of my own personal non-negotiable, must-see artists, some recommendations from friends and a steely determination to not burn out too hard on the first night. That steely determination lasted until…
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