Posts By David Payne

Kimbra performing at the Forum Theatre, Melbourne.

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Words by Melissa Tan – Pictures by David Payne

Typical pre-weekend crowd banter didn’t do anything to dampen Kimbra’s charm over the Forum on Friday night. Strutting the stage in a flouncy blue number, the NZ singer opened up the night with a bit of class dropping tunes from her upcoming record Vows. Looping pedals and a hysterical scat during the bridge lent a nice twist to Nina Simone’s ‘Plain Gold Ring’, while the disco riffs in a cover of Prince’s ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’ ushered punters into a cheesy boogie. Kimbra knows how to flaunt her vocal range without wandering into self indulgent jazz singer territory.

A tight band threw in a varied mix of jazz, soul funk and pop, keeping the overall sound fresh. Shouldn’t go by without mentioning the drummers’ impeccably sculptured square ‘fro. Notable highlights included the Janelle Monae vibes of ‘Break’, and the incredibly uplifting chorus in ‘Cameo Lover’, which could well be the best smothering of pop to hit this town in a long time. After an interesting set, (shoulder popping and impulsive hand gesticulating included) it’s without a doubt that the crowd would’ve been keen to adopt this Kiwi as one of their own.

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violent soho at the northcote social club, melbourne.

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If you meet me and ask me about violent soho, I might bang on for a while about all the reasons I think these guys are great. For now, I will ask that if you get the chance, see them live. They are on at 1pm on friday at splendour in the grass, according to this timetable. I hope all punters heading to SITG have an incredible festival, it will obviously be huge so look after each other.

There are a couple of other shows listed here – http://www.myspace.com/violentsoho

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The Holidays play the John Curtain in Melbourne

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The Holidays – ‘Golden Sky’ (mp3)

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The Holidays have been kicking about for a couple of years and I really liked an old self titled ep of theirs. Lately we have had a couple of singles released in anticipation of their debut LP, due in September. I was curious how the sound would translate live and I am glad to say they did a good job. It was a fairly packed John Curtain and there was a good energy in the crowd, despite the set consisting mostly of new and unheard material. Take a look through more pictures after the continue reading jump.

Keep an eye on these guys here – http://www.myspace.com/theholidays

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