John Shand Posts

December 31, 2018 / Features - Archive

Some concerts soothe, some shake you up, and then there are Peter Brotzmann’s concerts. Here the issue is survival. His monstrous tenor saxophone sound may well register on the Richter scale, yet it’s also profoundly human: exhilarating, heart-rending, terrifying and, yes, beautiful. With typical perverseness he chose to place his…

December 29, 2018 / Album Reviews - Archive

THROUGH HER EYES (www.danbarentt.com.au) 7.5/10 Given that it is memorial to his mother, a remarkable optimism pervades this opus from singer/trombonist Dan Barnett. Or perhaps it is stoicism alchemised into optimism in the very act of making the music. It was recorded live in a private home, which can sometimes…

December 27, 2018 / Theatre Reviews - Archive

NED

New Theatre, December 19 4.5/10 Like all art, a piece of theatre is never more perfect than when just an idea: before a word is written. Once the process of making the concept tangible begins, perfection usually has its fall. The idea of writing a new musical about Ned Kelly…