dumb head

A monthly list of gigs, screenings and talks in Sydney and surrounds. Support the friends of meatspin.

Week 1: May 30 - June 3rd Repressed’s VIVID Live show at the Sydney Opera House brings to Sydney some big-name visitors and their side-projects (when Kitchen’s Floor, Miss Destiny and Lucy Cliche aren’t even headliners you know it’s a doozy). One of the few major exports of Australia’s underground in Total Control headline the biggest show of the year. They share members with Terry, who play with Sydney’s best/worst band Bed Wettin Bad Boys which answers the question of where guitar pop went. Horse MacGyver comes up from Canberra to do live visuals at the Opera House, and plays audio at two key shows alongside a few of the more creative members of Australia’s stacked electronic scene in Club Sound Witches, LA Suffocated and Jannah Quill (one half of W.D.K.) Big week! 

Tues May 30th - Horse MacGyver & Club Sound Witches (w/ screening of Zonk Vision A - Z) @ Freda’s, Chippendale

Thur June 1st - Repressed 15th Birthday @ The Sydney Opera House w/ Total Control, Severed Heads, Kitchen’s Floor, Miss Destiny, Lucy Cliche, Fake, Angie, Francis Plagne and Skyline (w/ visuals by Horse MacGyver)

Fri June 2nd - Horse MacGyver, LA Suffocated, Ill Winds, Jannah Q, Place Holder, Chris @ Petersham Bowling Club, Petersham

Sat June 3rd - Terry & Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys @ The Vic On the Park, Marrickville

Week 2: June 8th - June 12th Quiet week, calm after the storm. Would be worth a trip to Newcastle for a DIY fest at the Croatian Club that features a host of Newcastle bands, Sydney’s best new wave band (I kid, I kid) Orion and Oily Boys (skirt the edges of hardcore with one of our best). In Sydney, Del Lumanta’s afternoon gig series Double Vision kicks off at the Verge Gallery, her eye for odd music is always worht following. The weekly No Refunds show at the Bald Faced Stag will be back on Thursday June 8th, but usually gets announced the week of - a good excuse to sit in one of the few sad dives left in Sydney that hasn’t been renovated into the architectural equivalent of a fake smile.

Sat June 10th - Double Vision: Jessica Ekomane, Silje Nes, Jasmine Guffond @ Verge Gallery, Camperdown

Sat June 10th - NEWCASTLE: Passenger of Shit, Drillbit, Place Holder, Party of One, Mermaids, Defeatist Sprawl, Agrocalm, Spiritual Sleazebags  @ The Croation Club, Wickham

Sun June 11th - NEWCASTLE: Orion, Oily Boys, Marlon Bando, Bura Bura, L.H.I., John Howard @ The Croatian Club, Wickham

Week 3: June 15th - June 18th A rare appearance from Multiple Man due to one of the multiple men forsaking his homeland to live in New York. There may be no shortage of chances to see LA Suffocated play, but I’d take any chance to hear ‘Hemlock’ again (alongside Melbourne hype act Various Asses). Multiple Man play in Canberra on the Thursday in case you’ve got a ticket to the nearly sold out Ears Have Ears showcase, which you should. Ears Have Ears is one of a handful (R.I.P. Makeshift) of great specialist radio shows left in Australia. Their showcase features new performances prepared especially for the night, highlighted by Andrew McLennan (Cured Pink, Enderie Nuatal) and Monica Brooks (who, and few talked about it at the time, played the hardest set at the Opera House the night Royal Headache shut the place down in 2015). 

Another answer for ‘what happened to guitar pop’ is given with Sydney mainstays Unity Floors, joined by new band Clean Shirt and the only satirists left in Sydney Tim & The Boys (watch this space wink wink wink). On the same night, just down the road if you wanna bounce back between a free show and a cheap one, some synth-based acts in Hextape, Bradbury, et al at DIY space Beaconsfield (support spaces that don’t have liquor licenses, over-charge for booze, contribute to the death-spiral of capitalism…I kid, I kid). 

Please also consider going to the MCA panel ‘Contemporary Art, Feminism and the Internet’ the afternoon of the Saturday - if you’re not thinking about your role in the world of DIY/underground music, you’re not doing it right!

Thur June 15th - CANBERRA: Multiple Man, Horse MacGyver, Karli White & California Girls @ Polish White Eagle Club, Canberra

Thur June 15th - SCREENING: The Go-Betweens: Right Here @ Sydney Film Festival Hub

Fri June 16th - Ears Have Ears: Andrew McLennan & Angela Goh, Monica Brooks Ensemble, Austin Buckett @ 107 Projects, Redfern (CLOSE TO SELL OUT)

Fri June 16th - Angels #001: Various Asses, Multiple Man, L.A. Suffocated, Tru @ Portugal Madeira Club, Marrickville

Sat June 17th - TALK: ‘Contemporary Art, Feminism and the Internet’ @ MCA, Circular Quay (Afternoon)

Sat June 17th - Unity Floors, Tim & The Boys, Clean Shirt @ The Union Hotel, St Peters

Sat June 17th - Hextape, Bradbury, L.A. Suffocated, Jannah Quill, Jasmine Guffond @ Beaconsfield (near Sydney Park)

Week 4 - July 28th - August 2nd Another weekend of heavy-hitters old and new. One of Australia’s DIY pioneers in Feedtime released a new record this year, and so did their support Red Red Krovvy who’s self-titled LP (almost titled Technical Ecstasy, the dropping of which is almost as much of a tragedy as Bed Wettin Bed Boys’ deciding against naming their last record Success Rock) is one of the best local punk records I’ve head in years (I very almost tried to start the label early to try to convince them to release the record through meatspin is how much the thing moved me.) A rare appearance from Dead Farmers on that show too, the rock band that cannot be killed by your love of the synthesiser! But to satisfy your love of the synth, TekMinimal hosts Lucy Cliche (straight from the Opera House steps!) and M.O.B., who have been one of my favourite Sydney bands for almost five years.

July 28th - Feedtime, Red Red Krovvy, Dead Farmers @ The Factory Floor, Marrickville

July 29th - TeknoMinimal: Lucy Cliche, M.O.B., WRX, Tru @TekMinimal, Leichardt