John Shand Posts

November 25, 2017 / Concert Reviews - Archive

Reginald Theatre, November 9 9/10 When Jen Shyu was last here 15 months ago I suggested her eclectic, multifaceted, mind-bending performances could become even more exhilarating were she to reach the point where idiom – that outmoded and redundant concept – was discarded altogether. This time she was indeed closer…

November 22, 2017 / Concert Reviews - Archive

Lawson Mechanics Institute, November 4 8/10 They look like so many clowns who have run away from the circus: refugees from making people laugh who have turned, instead, to music and the fine art of brewing jubilation. Among the plethora of bands playing Balkan and Gypsy music in Australia these…

November 19, 2017 / Album Reviews - Archive

GREAT (MGM/Planet) 7.5/10 This could have been the great album its title suggests, but then Fred Smith is not the first artist to mistake a single album’s worth of material for a double. Unexpectedly (given he is as Australian as an emu), Smith has given all the songs American settings,…