John Shand Posts

October 21, 2017 / Concert Reviews - Archive

Enmore Theatre, October 3 8/10 Buskers who migrate to the world stage tend retain the flair, immediacy and audience rapport that once arrested pedestrians. Old Crow Medicine Show hit the stage as a marching band singing Bob Dylan’s Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35, and it was so rambunctious…

October 18, 2017 / Album Reviews - Archive

THE MANGO BALLOON VOLUME 4 (Romero/Newmarket) 9/10 Julian Curwin loves opening trap-doors between set-in-stone idioms and, in that sudden transfer of light and ideas, emancipating music from all slavishness to genre. Why he is not the most in-demand film composer in Australia – the world! – I don’t know, as…

October 16, 2017 / Concert Reviews - Archive

ICC Sydney Theatre, September 23 4.5/10 Too often child stars self-destruct. Not only has Tina Arena survived, she has maintained a career at a certain pitch of success for four decades, and on her own terms. No mean feat. The voice, of course, is the reason, and it remains a…