John Shand Posts

April 9, 2015 / Features - Archive

Rodrigo and Gabriela love going to extremes. Even their success is an extreme of sorts, the duo being the first acoustic rock act without a singer to storm the charts and pack concert halls. Ever. Long before that, when they tired of playing heavy metal in their native Mexico they…

April 8, 2015 / Theatre Reviews - Archive

Sydney Theatre Company, Roslyn Packer Theatre, April 7   In Endgame Samuel Beckett repeatedly pokes the ribs the great cosmic joke in which we find ourselves and extracts a few more crackling laughs. From the moment the play begins the end is nigh. Clov’s opening line is “Finished, it’s finished,…

April 3, 2015 / Album Reviews - Archive

Live in Concert (ACT/Planet) Manu Katche may have changed labels (from ECM to ACT) and trumpeters (Nils Petter Molvaer to Luca Aquino) for this live set in a Parisian club, but the music remains the same curiosity. The drummer’s formula of soft-focus, TV theme-type melodies fleshed out with horn solos…