State Theatre, Sydney Festival

Thursday, 19th January, 2012

What can I say about PJ Harvey that hasn’t already been said here and here.

Last Thursday’s Sydney Festival show at the State Theatre was simply magnificent. Having seen PJ Harvey play numerous times before (read: mega fan/stalker) at both intimate shows and festivals, I already knew I was in for an amazing live performance. The new material from last year’s Mercury Prize winning album Let England Shake was incredible. Polly would descend back into the darkness after each song, and it felt much more theatrical than any other time I’ve seen her play. She also threw in a few older tracks like my faves C’Mon Billy and Down by the Water – so I was happy.

I did however leave with a feeling I have had before, also after seeing PJ play – Why the hell hadn’t I gotten tickets to both shows!?!

Young Adult is the story of Mavis Gary, a teen fiction ghost writer, who receives an email from her high school boyfriend Buddy, featuring a picture of his new-born baby. This sets Mavis off on a mission back to her home town of Mercury, Minnesota to win back Buddy. Once back she strikes up a friendship with another former classmate Matt, who is also stuck in high school wasteland, having been bashed and left a cripple by his peers back in high school. We then witness Mavis’ attempts to get Buddy back through a series of funny, often squeamish scenes!

Young Adult brings together the award-winning team from Juno, writer Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman. Whilst this doesn’t have the charm of Juno, it is still a very funny ride. Mavis isn’t the most likable gal, as she struggles to win over Buddy, but she does have some epic one-liners which I loved. Charlize Theron shines in the role of Mavis, and at times you even feel sympathy for her.

I have to say the ending left me underwhelmed, but overall Young Adult is very funny and definitely worth seeing!

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My fave line: Mavis to the guy that works in the bookstore: “Whatever, book man!”

Did you spot? : In the scene inside a KFC, one side of the cup reads KGC – did anyone else see this?

Did you hear? : Veruca Salt’s Seether was playing in Mavis’ car on her mixtape. I freaking love this song!

Did you spot? : When she emptys her toiletries, Mavis had what looked like a bottle of Philosopy Cinammon Hot Toddy. I only noticed because my friend got me a delicious Red Velvet Cake Philosophy bottle for Xmas – yum!

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Young Adult is in cinemas everywhere now!

City Recitall Hall, Sydney Festival

Tuesday, 17th January, 2012

CANT

The Famous Spiegeltent, Hyde Park

Sydney Festival

5pm show, Saturday, 14th January, 2012

On Saturday I began my 2012 Sydney Festival experience, with a performance from CANT in The Famous Spiegeltent in Hyde Park. CANT is Chris Taylor from Grizzly Bear‘s side project, and it’s a lot more electronic, and jazzy then GB. This was the first of three shows from CANT, and it was an early one at 5pm, so the venue was far from full, but the audience was still very warm and receptive to the band.

I really enjoyed the performance and my highlights came from their catchier songs like Believe; Too Late, Too Far and Answer.

I love this track Believe by CANT (aka Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor).

I am loving Lose It by Toronto trio Austra. I will definitely be catching them at Laneway Festival – can’t wait!

The tracklisting for her debut album, Born to Die, has also been released:

Tracklisting:

01 Born to Die
02 Off to the Races
03 Blue Jeans
0
4 Video Games
0
5 Diet Mountain Dew
06 National Anthem
07 Dark Paradise
0
8 Radio
09 Carmen
10 Million Dollar Man
11 Summertime Sadness
12 This Is What Makes Us Girls

There’s been good times!

There’s been sad times!

There’s been (lots of) gig times!

There’s been corn times!

There’s been ABBA times!

There’s been lomo times!

And here’s my favourite photo that I have taken of Katherine, from Falls Festival 2006. Just something about the red glow, it has a really dreamy quality to it, that I love. Happy birthday hun xx