John Shand Posts

September 17, 2017 / Features - Archive

What is the Monday Club, a group of improvisers with a penchant for using long, slow notes as musical building blocks, doing in the Sydney Sacred Music Festival? The answer lies both in the broader meaning of “sacred” and in the story of the group’s founder, Tony Gorman. A brilliant…

September 16, 2017 / Concert Reviews - Archive

City Recital Hall, August 26 8.5/10 Corralled into a show nearly three hours long, the songs, poetry and musings of Leonard Cohen became less a concert and more a diary of what it means to be human. Gathered like exhibits at our judgement were our lusts, sorrows, joys, betrayals and…

September 12, 2017 / Concert Reviews - Archive

The Factory Theatre, August 22 8/10 “I’m a man in conflict with nature,” intones Tex Perkins in his song of that name, encapsulating in a line the friction that fuels his writing and his singing. In the course of this performance he was also a man in conflict with his…