MKO
MKO is unconcerned with following trends. MKO is a trend. MKO is a solo artist. MKO is a band. MKO balances old-school ideals that music should be deep, challenging, tuneful, soulful and syncopated, with an otherworldly, abstracted new-school spin. MKO truly has the voice of an angel. MKO can sing like a Disney fairy, a Bollywood princess or an R&B diva, all with her own trademark originality. MKO makes electric, eclectic, eccentric underground soul. MKO must be heard. Words are only words.
MKO are putting Brisbane on the map of urban electronic soul in the same vein as Quandron, Little Dragon, AlunaGeorge and James Blake. Supported by Dried Spider. Currumbin SoundLounge on Friday. Doors open from 7.30pm, show begins at 8.30pm. Tickets $15 online, or $17 at the door unless sold out.
Utungun Percussion
Legendary percussion dance band Utungun Percussion reunite to play GLO Dance Mullumbimby for the October full moon. Utungun is composed of an all-star percussion lineup: Greg Sheehan, one of Australia’s most renowned and respected percussionists, leads the group, with Matt Goodwin (Wild Marmalade, Mark Atkins Trio), Jamie Pattugalan (Gurrumul Yunupingu), and Matt Ledgar (Kangaroo Moon, Wild Marmalade) plus special guest Ben Walsh (The Bird). Drawing from many indigenous cultures from around the world they work the dance floor into a rhythmic frenzy. Prolific in the mid-90s they toured festivals nationally and internationally and now reunite for this rare one-off show, bringing their rhythmic magic to light up the dance floor. This Friday at Durrumbul Hall Mullumbimby, 8pm. Further info at www.GLOdance.com.
Get your keep on
Local indie rock band Vernas Keep are back for another headline show this Friday night at The Northern. Fronted by Kyle Lionhart, the four-piece has garnered a reputation for a band with a big sound and has already been labelled as one of the top five bands to come out of Byron Bay, according to Vulture magazine. Following the successful release of their debut single Rivalry in June this year, the band has been in the studio working hard on their much-anticipated EP that is due to drop later this year. If supporting great local live music is your thing then head down to The Northern this Friday night for an awesome free show. Vernas Keep with Riley Fitzallen and Luke Morris. The Great Northern on Friday. Doors open at 9pm.
New years falling just for locals
Get your New Years Eve sorted now! General tickets for Falls Music & Arts Festival Byron (30 Dec–3 Jan) have sold out around the nation, leaving only local Byron Shire and South Tweed residents able to still purchase coveted tickets, but these are not expected to last long. Locals can purchase all event type tickets including special New Years Eve only tickets ($99) from byron.fallsfestival.com.au/locals . Only the purchaser needs to be a local and can buy up to four tickets each.
Falls Music & Arts Festival Byron is an 18+ event. And just in case you need an extra kicker to get your arse into gear – Falls Festival have added Julian Casablancas & The Voidz to their already killer lineup! One of the most epic rock-filled artists of the last decade, and front man of one of the biggest bands of the last 15 years, The Strokes. With a resume running a mile long: occasionally lending vocals to the likes of Daft Punk, Pharrell or Dangermouse and his hugely successful solo career including 2009’s Phrazes For The Young and his brand-new release with beat-driven band The Voidz, which dropped this week – Tyranny.
It’s not often that you’ll get the chance to catch this man in Australia, so don’t miss your chance at Falls! Locals’ tickets are still available through byron.fallsfestival.com.au/locals
Julia Rose
NCEIA award winner Julia Rose will be launching her new single Come What May at the Eltham Hall on Friday with Toby (WA).
Having recently toured Japan and Australia, including a slamming live set at Bluesfest 2013, the Australian baroque-pop goddess has won several industry awards including the Queens Ball Performer of the Year and NCEIA Best Filmclip. Julia Rose has become well known for her soaring three-octave vocal range combined with her intricate bass playing and songwriting.
The evening will also feature Western Australian blues and roots artist Toby, following her massive four-month tour of Europe playing sellout shows and festivals. Toby’s voice has been described as powerful and dynamic with a fun live set crossing a multitude of genres including blues, roots, country and folk rock. The Eltham Hall has steadily gained a reputation as one of the best little pop-up venues on the north coast, presenting a variety of family-friendly events featuring local and international talent in a beautiful hall. Come and share the evening with these two stunning artists as they invite you into their musical world.
Tickets are on sale online at www.elthamarts.iwannaticket.com.au. Doors open 7pm and it’s BYO so grab yourself a six-pack and get ready for a very special evening.
CULTURE
Cinema Xtra
The Lavazza Italian Film Festival screening at Palace Byron Bay Cinema from 9 to 15 October promises to be a wildly exuberant celebration of Italian culture, with a program of 16 films that run the gamut from drama to comedy, romance to adventure.
This year’s opening night film Marina is a delightful biopic that tells the true story of Rocco Granata, the much-loved singer, songwriter and accordionist, from his early life as a child whose father left the poverty of southern Italy to work as a miner in Belgium, to Rocco’s emergence as a worldwide musical phenomenon with his 1959 song Marina, one of the biggest international hits of that era. The cinema will be serving drinks and appetisers prior to and after the film, while patrons at the after-party will also be entertained by local musician Luke Vassella.
Palace film festival closing night films are often cinema classics and this year that slot will be amply filled by Marriage Italian Style, Out of the Blue, Darker Than Midnight, Incompresa and Quiet Bliss. Lavazza Italian Film Festival will screen at Palace Byron Bay Cinema on Thursday and run till Wednesday 15 October Full program details and ticket information available at www.italianfilmfestival.com.au, or at Palace Byron Bay box office.
Strictly Ballroom
The next Crabbes Creek community film night is ‘Strictly Ballroom’ on Saturday 11 October when it will screen Strictly Ballroom (PG). Under-12s are free with and accompanying adult. Delicious $8 nachos dinner at 6pm, followed by the film at 7pm. Saturday at Crabbes Creek Hall, food from 6pm, film at 7pm.
Inner Drama Queen
Introducing the skill/craft of acting, gaining self-confidence while making peace with your drama queen. A 10-week acting workshop, starts on Thursday at 7pm–10pm, in Brunswick Heads. To act means to do. We pretend it means pretend, tired of pretending then act. Tony llord, known locally for being part of the australian theatre company, the tin shed team (as well as other antics), is facilitating the course.
Each week will progress from the last, beginning with the self or the blank canvas, finishing with a showcase performance where the participants will decide who the invited audience will be. Included in the fun and games, players will gain experience in auditioning for film/tv as well as the channels to take to gain an income.
Theatre was used to reflect the community’s behaviour for we could not always see it all; to reveal our blind spots we need a mirror. This may be a seed in creating a community theatre group to reflect the authentic concerns of the locals. Cost is $15 per week or $120 upfront. Numbers limited, contact tony: 0403 367 688 or [email protected].
Three women artists who love Playing on the Edge
Three artists brought together by the meanderings of the drawn line, Oksana Waterfall, Zom Osborne and Mandy Nolan, in their different ways, explore ideas that dwell at the edge of conscious experience.
Oksana Waterfall’s current work details the whimsy and perversity inherent in the objects of childhood memories. Her drawings are small and precise, sometimes accentuated by embroidered patterns or needlework. While she is intrigued by the connections we make with each other and the objects we acquire during our lives, Zom Osborne is touched by the energies she senses in the unseen and the immaterial, and Mandy Nolan allows herself the rare luxury of allowing her hand to roam freely in a kind of ‘unconscious doodling or fiddling’ when she feels she has something a little more whimsical or softer to say. Or maybe sometimes because she doesn’t want to say anything at all. For all three artists, the line has its own quiet eloquence.
The exhibition opening is 9 October at Art Piece Gallery, but bookings are now open for the limited-seating Sit Down Dinner with the Artists at 7.30pm. With jugs of lemonade, antipasti, asparagus tart with roasted cherry tomatoes, market fish, chargilled veggies, rocket and pecan salad with a berry meringue or a chocolate surprise! $68.00 per head and bookings essential phone 6684 3446.
