Beat 1743

MELBOURNE TRANSFORMS INTO A WHOLE NEW WORLD OF LIGHT, SOUND AND WONDER

Whether you’re a musician or a music lover, don’t wait! Book your trip to the Toyota 55th Tamworth Country Music Festival now.

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FESTIVAL OF NEW DIMENSIONS

EDITOR

Lucas Radbourne

ASSISTANT EDITOR

Frankie Anderson-Byrne

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Riley McDonald

GIG GUIDE

Jacob Colliver

CONTRIBUTORS

Bryget Chrisfield, Maya Bennett, Stephanie Kothe, Sofia Perica, Andrew Handley

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DISTRIBUTION distribution@furstmedia.com.au

PUBLISHER

Furst Media Pty Ltd

FOUNDER

Rob Furst

EDITORIAL NOTE

Winter in Melbourne has a way of making everything feel like a last chance, which makes Now or Never the perfect cover for the month.

Æ At the heart of Now or Never this year is Chuleo Club, the femme-led LatinX collective seizing Melbourne Town Hall on 28 August – two years ago Lina Zabaleta was negotiating for a room, now she’s taking the whole building.

Elsewhere, Zelia Rose comes home in extra-long box braids for Dita Von Teese’s Nocturnelle at the Palais; Denim Owl concede that three EPs and a decade in, a debut album is allowed; and WISER asks whether a lack of curiosity is quietly killing club culture. Elsewhere, Selve return from Abbey Road with a record sung in Jabirr Jabirr language, The Pretty Littles’ Jack Parsons says exactly what he thinks, and Vera Blue reintroduces herself on her own terms.

On the shelf there’s new work from Jack White, Don Walker, Grace Cummings, Dobby and Body Type. It’s now or never. Go outside.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF TRADITIONAL OWNERS

Our magazine is published on the lands of the Bunurong Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation, and we wish to acknowledge them as Traditional Owners. We pay our respects to their elders, past, present and emerging.

Our August cover star is Chuleo Club’s Lina Zabaleta, photographed by Grace Perry

NEWS

NOW OR NEVER LIGHTS UP THE CITY AFTER DARK

The City of Melbourne’s late-winter festival returns under the theme A Whole New World, spreading 150 events and around 250 artists and thinkers across the city. Robin Fox floods the Town Hall with lasers for PRESENCE, Chunky Move premieres Time Remaining, and the Yarra becomes an openair gallery by night. It runs 19 to 30 August.

MONTAIGNE PLAYS GLORIOUS HEIGHTS FRONT TO BACK

A decade on from the ARIA-winning debut that started it all, the Sydney artist plays Glorious Heights in full for the first time, with a few favourites from other eras folded in. It’s their first national run in four years, built on singing, dancing and a fair bit of crying. Corner Hotel, 28 August.

JACK GRAY BRINGS DEBUT SWIMMING IN JEANS TO NORTHCOTE

The Mackay-raised, LA-based songwriter takes his first album on the road, a strippedback spread of 2000s indie, pub rock and new wave he produced and played almost entirely himself. Swimming In Jeans lands 11 September through Island; the tour reaches Northcote Social Club on 10 September.

SWEENEY TODD GETS REBUILT AS A MACHINE IN PRAHRAN

Soundworks Productions stages the Sondheim classic for the first time in Melbourne in two years, and builds the whole thing around one idea: Victorian London as a literal machine, every set piece and transition running on industrial logic. Benjamin Samuel directs. Chapel off Chapel, 11 to 20 September.

O’FLYNN BRINGS HIS DEBUT AUSTRALIAN TOUR TO FITZROY

After a decade of records on Ninja Tune and his own labels, the UK producer finally makes the trip for his first shows here, arriving off the back of third album Kairos. Expect a catalogue-spanning set built for pacing rather than peaks. The Night Cat, Fitzroy, 12 September.

BROTHER ALI AND HORRORSHOW SHARE A HIP HOP BILL

Two ends of the same genre meet as US rapper, activist and speaker Brother Ali makes his first return here since 2017, with DJ Abilities in tow, alongside one of the country’s longest-running crews. The run closes at the Corner Hotel on 20 September.

THE CRIBS RETURN WITH A NEW ALBUM IN HAND

The Wakefield brothers haven’t played here since 2018, long enough for the withdrawal to bite. They’re back behind ninth album Selling A Vibe, still trading on the scrappy, hook-first indie rock that built them, with very little standing around between songs. 170 Russell, 4 October.

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL STACKS ITS SECOND WAVE

The Teskey Brothers open the festival with their debut Half Mile Harvest played in full, a decade on, sharing the Bowl with funk pioneer Fred Wesley and Emily Wurramara. Rebirth Brass Band, supergroup Aziza and Tomeka Reid follow across the city. It runs 16 to 25 October.

COMEDY IN THE VINES RETURNS WITH WINE AND A DJ BATTLE

The Yarra Valley festival pairs stand-up with premium drops across four days at CherryHill Orchards, Coldstream. Lano and Woodley, Sammy J, Dave Hughes and Geraldine Hickey lead a deep local bill, with wine aerobics, a 5km wine run and a comedian DJ battle thrown in. 22 to 25 October.

ONGAKU BRINGS JAPANESE ROCK AND ANIME TO THE FORUM

Bird’s Robe, SMASH and Animaga team up for a celebration of Japanese music and pop culture, led by anime-soundtrack veterans FLOW, whose Naruto themes have racked up close to a billion streams. Does and Melbourne prog outfit Closure in Moscow join them. The Forum, 24 October.

DARA Ó BRIAIN BRINGS RE:CREATION TO HAMER HALL

The Irish comic hasn’t toured here since 2019 and returns leaning on the improvised crowd-work that’s long been his calling card, spinning a good chunk of each night out of whoever’s in the front rows. The Melbourne date sits under the Just For Laughs Sydney banner. Hamer Hall, 9 November.

CASSIAN TURNS HEIDE INTO A DAY-TO-NIGHT DANCEFLOOR

The Grammy-winning, LA-based Australian brings his open-air Day-To-Night run home, reworking the sculpture park’s gardens into a melodic-techno playground. Nils Hoffmann performs live, with Mild Minds, Samantha Loveridge and OLIIV alongside. Heide Sculpture Park, 7 November.

RHYS JAMES BRINGS CHOP LOGIC TO THE CBD

The Mock the Week regular arrives with a new hour of fast, forensic overthinking, working from a premise that if he can ignore his own problems long enough, he might solve yours. The four Australian shows are his only dates outside a big UK run. Comedy Republic, 13 November.

SILVA BUMPA HAULS UK GARAGE WEIGHT TO THE TIMBER YARD

The Sheffield-raised, Manchester-based producer is among the more dependable names in the current UKG revival, updating bassline and speed garage for rooms full of people who missed the first wave. It’s music for big systems: heavy sub, swung drums, shoutback hooks. The Timber Yard, 13 November.

PENINSULA VINEHOP IS BACK THIS NOVEMBER

Seven Mornington Peninsula venues throw their doors open as 30-plus wineries, breweries, cideries and distilleries pour tastings, with shuttle loops meaning someone else does the driving. Haçienda alumnus Eric Powell headlines the Briars hub. It all runs 21 November.

QUEENSCLIFF MUSIC FESTIVAL ADDS A STACKED SECOND WAVE

The coastal weekender loads 18 more names onto the bill, led by Matt Corby, Kitty Daisy & Lewis, Tim Rogers, The Bamboos and Kaiit. They join earlier picks Baker Boy, Lime Cordiale and Magic Dirt across 70-plus acts on Wadawurrung Country. 27 to 29 November, 90 minutes from town.

BOYZ II MEN BRING A 90S THROWBACK BILL TO GEELONG

The best-selling R&B group of all time head back down under with rap royalty Salt-NPepa and new jack swing pioneers Bell Biv DeVoe, the latter making their first Australian appearance. Between them sit four billion streams and a wall of hits. Mount Duneed Estate, Geelong, 28 November.

DIZZEE RASCAL BRINGS WE WANT BASS TO THE BOTANIC GARDENS

The British rapper who carried grime from pirate radio into the charts headlines Live at the Gardens, with the billing pointed squarely at the heavier end of his songbook. Example, Arrdee and Swaglord Savannah round out the night. Royal Botanic Gardens, 4 December.

ANJUNADEEP TAKES OVER PICA FOR A FULLVENUE SHOW

The London melodic-house label rebuilds PICA’s Port Melbourne shell around its own touring rig for the night, the same trick it’s pulled at Printworks and Brooklyn Mirage. The lineup is still under wraps, so the logo is doing the heavy lifting for now. 5 December.

JIMMY EAT WORLD CLOSE OUT 25 YEARS OF BLEED AMERICAN

The Arizona band mark a quarter-century of their defining record by playing it in full, on their first Australian headline run since 2017 and the final Bleed American shows anywhere. Ruby Fields and A. Swayze & The Ghosts support. Margaret Court Arena, 11 December.

GABRIEL IGLESIAS THROWS A FLUFFY 50TH BIRTHDAY PARTY

The high-energy storyteller returns for his first arena run here since 2012 with The 1976 Tour, named for the year he was born. It’s family-friendly stuff, built on character voices and sound effects rather than one-liners. Rod Laver Arena, 12 December.

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE BRING A HEAVYWEIGHT BILL

Josh Homme and co make their first return since 2024 with a brand-new production and new single Easy Street, joined by shape-shifting funk-metal trio Primus and Melbourne-adjacent art-punks Tropical Fuck Storm. Australian crowds get first look at the show. Rod Laver Arena, 13 December.

ADAM KAY TOURS HIS NIGHTSHIFT CHRISTMAS SHOW

The former junior doctor behind This Is Going To Hurt threads stories from his bestselling festive diaries through new stand-up and a handful of comedy songs. The run wraps with his only Melbourne date. Hamer Hall, 15 December.

FOREVERAFTER REUNITES THE PRESETS, CUT COPY AND LADYHAWKE

Curated by The Presets, this Modular reunion puts three former label-mates who shaped a distinctly Australian electronic sound under one banner, with Bag Raiders, Bang Gang DJs and FUKHED filling out the card. Sidney Myer Music Bowl, 17 January.

AGAINST THE CURRENT RETURN AFTER FOUR YEARS AWAY

The New York pop-rock trio, who started out as teenagers posting covers online, bring the Till Death & Back Tour behind an album due later this year. Recent singles have pulled tens of millions of streams between them. 170 Russell, 21 January.

DEL AMITRI BRING FOUR DECADES OF HITS TO THE PALAIS

The Scottish veterans built around Justin Currie and Iain Harvie roll out Past to Present, a set drawn entirely from the songs crowds still yell back, from Nothing Ever Happens to the inescapable Roll to Me. They’re in the studio on a new record too. Palais Theatre, 26 February.

KNOX BRINGS HIS POP-PUNK REVIVAL TO THE CORNER

The Nashville-based, Ohio-raised songwriter makes his first trip here behind second album My Midwest Best, leaning hard into the early-2000s emo and pop-punk he grew up on. Viral singles Sneakers and Not The 1975 built the runway. The Corner Hotel, 3 March.

BRYAN ADAMS BRINGS ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES TO TOWN

The Canadian returns after a sold-out 2025 visit behind his 16th album, with Natalie Imbruglia guesting across every date and a back catalogue that fills rooms on name recognition alone. Every show is licensed all ages. Rod Laver Arena, 5 March.

CAKE FINALLY COME BACK AFTER 15 YEARS

The lunchbox-loving oddballs of American alt-rock make their first Australian trip in 15 years, promising two full sets pulled from a deep, genre-hopping catalogue. Expect The Distance, Short Skirt/Long Jacket and the rest. Festival Hall, 18 March.

DELTA GOODREM BRINGS THE PURE WORLD TOUR TO MELBOURNE

Fresh off a Eurovision run, the homegrown star launches new album PURE with an eight-city arena tour, Australia the first market on sale anywhere. Innocent Eyes diehards and new-single converts alike are catered for. Margaret Court Arena, 16 April.

AUSTRALIA’S BIGGEST R&B FESTIVAL SITS OUT 2026

Fridayz Live has told fans the R&B and hip hop juggernaut won’t run this year, promising a bigger return in 2027 rather than sticking to an annual calendar. The 2025 edition, headlined by Mariah Carey and Pitbull, took over Marvel Stadium. No dates locked in yet.

COUNTRY FESTIVAL RIDIN’ HEARTS PAUSES FOR A YEAR

The festival that brought Nashville names to Caribbean Gardens is skipping 2026 entirely, framing it as a break rather than a goodbye, with a return planned for 2027. The pause lands during a rough stretch for Australian festivals more broadly. Watch this space.

OSEES ARE HEADING BACK TO MELBOURNE IN 2027

Prolific garage-rock outfit Osees are crossing the Pacific again in February 2027, and they’re not travelling light. They’re playing two shows at The Corner Hotel on 19, 20 February. Support on every date comes from Station Model Violence.

NOW OR NEVER: CHULEO CLUB

Lina Zabaleta dreamt of a space where – even if only for a few hours –people could celebrate individuality under the spell of LatinX frequencies, bound together by respect, acceptance, and a love of shaking ass.

BY MAYA BENNETT

WORDS

Æ Chuleo Club; a femme-led LatinX collective, was born from this dream - but what it’s become today, Lina says, belongs to an entire community. As Now or Never approaches, worldbuilding at its heart, Lina reflects on the world that Chuleo Club has built.

A state of survival

Lina was born in Bogota, Colombia.

Her childhood was awash with music, from traditional Latin styles like cumbia and corralejos, to Michael Jackson and The Beatles. It was her love for the latter that sparked her interest in English.

Never one to shy away from hard work, Lina enrolled in an English course and moved to Melbourne.

“I got here in 2012 looking for the Australian dream.” But life in Australia wasn’t easy.

For her first years in Melbourne, Lina was in survival mode. Working multiple jobs to make ends meet, overcoming language barriers and navigating visa requirements were among the biggest challenges.

“When I got here, I realised that I was another migrant with no English. Not many people could understand me. I have to be honest - thirty years ago, being someone from Latin America wasn’t as cool as it is now.”

After eight years of struggle, Lina’s visa was about to expire. So, she chose to enjoy what time she had left and bought a ticket to Strawberry Fields Festival. It was there that she met her long-term partner - thus securing a measure of safety after years of uncertainty.

The Birth of Zalina

In 2020, driven by a growing sense of homesickness, Lina returned to the nostalgic sounds of Latin America - namely, reggaeton.

But back home, things had evolved. A new generation of producers were reinventing the Latine music scene, embracing heritage while forging a path for its future.

At its helm; DJ Rosa Pistola. A Columbia-born, Mexicobased artist who Lina was greatly influenced by.

“I [was] inspired to see her - there’s not many female DJs in the scene doing reggaeton. And I loved it. I love her presence. I was like, “This is so sick.””

At the same time, Lina was learning to DJ and “…doing parties for 100 people.” Seeing the potential to bring Latin America’s underground music energy to Naarm, she reached out to Rosa Pistola - and to her surprise, received a reply.

With the venue secured and the lineup announced, Chuleo Club’s first event sold out within days. Lina’s alter ego, DJ Zalina, made her debut, and Chuleo Club cemented its place in Naarm’s club scene.

It’s now or never

Two years ago, Lina had to fiercely negotiate with Melbourne venues for a slot. Now, Chuleo Club is taking over Melbourne Town Hall as part of Now or Never.

“…Being at Melbourne Town Hall, which is an Australian institution, and taking it over with a full LatinX lineup - it’s a very impactful and big move. It’s a statement…” Heading the lineup is Peruvian-American artist, A.Chal. A fixture since the 2010s, his recent work has truly propelled him into the spotlight.

“I’ve been following A.Chal for the last couple of years, and his new direction, it’s really interesting... I can identify with that, ‘cause people that go overseas really lose a little bit of their roots, so reconnecting with that is very inspiring,” Lina said.

Slim Soledad, LIZZ, Dinamarca and Zalina are also set to perform on the night, alongside Kiki House of Furia, within a curated space courtesy of N0 R3PLY.

“I got here in 2012 looking for the Australian dream.”

Dance: a universal language

“Chuleo now has the opportunity to create spaces for everyone. And everyone wants to work with Chuleo, so I’m like - “you know what? I’m gonna use this for good.”

At its core, Chuleo Club envisions a world that dismantles stereotypes, champions self-definition, and amplifies marginalised voices. What began as a club night has grown into a genuine movement; its “ecosystem” upheld by a community of Latine creatives, predicated upon values of respect, acceptance and love.

And, of course, it’s Lina’s hope that people leave these events feeling lighter, but also “tired from shaking ass.

CHULEO CLUB, AT NOW OR NEVER

WHERE: MELBOURNE TOWN HALL

WHEN: 28 AUG

STAGE GUIDE

PRETTY WOMAN: THE MUSICAL

The Hollywood fairytale gets the full songand-dance treatment, and it is parked at the Regent Theatre right through August. Samantha Jade slips into Vivian’s thigh-high boots opposite Ben Hall’s buttoned-up businessman Edward, with Michelle Brasier as wisecracking best mate Kit and Tim Omaji pulling double duty across two roles. The original score comes from rock royalty Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance, while two-time Tony winner Jerry Mitchell directs and choreographs. Expect glamour, big ballads and every iconic moment from the film you are quietly hoping they will keep in.

REGENT THEATRE ALL AUG

A BEAUTIFUL NOISE: THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL

The life of one of the biggest-selling recording artists of all time gets a jukebox retelling, making its Australian premiere exclusively in Melbourne from 5 August. Framed as a musical memoir, the show traces Neil Diamond’s journey from a Brooklyn kid scribbling songs to a sequin-clad stadium filler, stitched together with the hits that soundtracked generations, Sweet Caroline included. It is a big, warm, singalong night at the Princess Theatre, and one of the marquee openings of Melbourne’s winter season. Limber up the vocal cords, because resistance to that chorus is futile.

PRINCESS THEATRE FROM 5 AUG

BREAK OF DAY

Malthouse hands its stage to a brand-new Australian play, world premiering Steve Rodgers’ Break of Day from 7 to 29 August. It is a tender, funny portrait of a mother and daughter making a life in a town the NBN forgot, feeling their way through change, distance and the things that go unsaid. Sarah Goodes directs, and stage and screen favourite Kat Stewart anchors the cast. Expect the kind of intimate, character-driven storytelling Malthouse does so well – small in scale, big in feeling, and squarely tuned to the present moment.

MALTHOUSE THEATRE 7–29 AUG

DEATH OF A SALESMAN

Anthony LaPaglia returns to one of theatre’s most punishing roles, playing Willy Loman in Neil Armfield’s acclaimed staging of Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy. Alison Whyte is back as Linda, with Josh Helman and Ben O’Toole reprising sons Biff and Happy, for a strictly limited two-week run at Her Majesty’s before the production heads north to Brisbane. First staged in 1949, Miller’s dissection of the American Dream and the ordinary man crushed beneath it has lost none of its sting. It is a rare shot at a titan of 20th-century drama.

HER MAJESTY’S THEATRE 11–22 AUG

BALLET INTERNATIONAL GALA VII

For three nights only, some of the world’s most decorated dancers touch down at Hamer Hall for the seventh Ballet International Gala. The bill draws principals from companies including Staatsballett Berlin, the Mariinsky and Astana Opera, among them Iana Salenko, Maria Khoreva, Marian Walter and Adamzhan Baktiyar, with more names still to be announced. Presented by BIG Live, the programme threads showstopping classical pas de deux together with sharper contemporary works, all in one glittering sitting. Last year’s season sold out clean, so these seats are not likely to linger.

HAMER HALL 14–16 AUG

THE JUNGLE AND THE SEA

Melbourne Theatre Company opens an epic new family drama from 14 August, courtesy of S. Shakthidharan and Eamon Flack – the pair behind the landmark Counting and Cracking. Drawn from real testimonies and set against the Sri Lankan civil war, The Jungle and the Sea follows one family torn across continents by conflict, holding love and justice in the same trembling hands. It is sweeping, ambitious, deeply human theatre, staged in the Sumner at Southbank Theatre. If their last collaboration is anything to go by, this is one to book early and think about long after.

SOUTHBANK THEATRE FROM 14 AUG

SIX THE MUSICAL

The six wives of Henry VIII swap the history books for the pop charts in this global smash, playing the Comedy Theatre until 23 August. Divorced, beheaded and very much alive, the queens grab the mic one by one to reclaim their stories across 80 turbo-charged minutes of power ballads, rock anthems and dancefloor bangers. Written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, it plays out like a slick pop concert with a sharp feminist streak and a killer live band. It is loud, funny and over in a flash, so catch it while you can.

COMEDY THEATRE ALL AUG

UNCLE VANYA

One of Australia’s sharpest playwrights, Joanna Murray-Smith, drags Chekhov into the present in this Melbourne Theatre Company production, running at the Arts Centre’s Playhouse until 22 August. Directed by MTC artistic director Anne-Louise Sarks and led by a cast including Daniel Henshall, it is a full-scale take on the great tragicomedy of thwarted love, wasted years and simmering resentment on a crumbling country estate. Murray-Smith brings her trademark wit and bite to Chekhov’s study of people aching for the lives they never quite managed to live. Funny, rueful and quietly devastating.

ARTS CENTRE MELBOURNE UNTIL 22 AUG

Wesley Anne Wesley Anne

FESTIVAL GUIDE

REMINISCE TRANCE

Melbourne’s trance countdown levels up on 1 August, moving from its longtime Timber Yard home to the cavernous PICA in Port Melbourne. The format is gloriously nerdy: punters vote from a list of 500 records to build a live Top 50 Trance Classics countdown, played from number 50 down to the coveted number one. Dutch heavyweight Ferry Corsten leads the bill alongside Mauro Picotto and Rank1, three names that helped shape the genre. Organisers donate a dollar from every ticket sold to the Australian Alzheimer’s Research Foundation, so the nostalgia comes with a conscience.

PICA, PORT MELBOURNE 1 AUG

LIGHTSCAPE

Melbourne’s after-dark light trail wraps its 2026 run on 2 August, so the first weekend of the month is your last shot at it. The 2.1-kilometre loop through the Royal Botanic Gardens is strung with 15 new and returning works, among them Bifröst, a walk-through tunnel of 20 glowing arches by French studio Pitaya, and the returning 30-metre Winter Cathedral. The Fire Garden spirals 150 candles into the dark, and the welcome zone serves mulled wine and hot chocolate to keep the cold at bay. It now sits moments from the new Anzac Station.

ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS UNTIL 2 AUG

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

One of the planet’s oldest film festivals reaches its 74th year with 18 days of screenings across the city, regional Victoria and online. Expect world premieres, festival-circuit standouts and the largest showcase of Australian filmmaking anywhere, alongside shorts, immersive XR works, filmmaker talks and the Bright Horizons competition for first and second-time directors. The festival hub returns to ACMI at Fed Square, the beating heart of the whole operation. It pulls a crowd north of 180,000 each year, making it comfortably one of the biggest film festival audiences going anywhere in the world.

ACMI + CBD CINEMAS 6–23 AUG

INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL OF MELBOURNE

Backed by the Victorian Government, the largest celebration of Indian cinema outside India returns for its 17th edition under the banner Shared Stories, Shared Humanity. The program stretches from Bollywood blockbusters to independent documentaries and storytelling drawn from right across the subcontinent, screening at ACMI and cinemas around the CBD. Expect celebrity guests, in-conversation sessions, special screenings, a dance competition and a headline Independence Day celebration. It is a festival built as much on culture, community and colour as it is on the films themselves, and a genuine fixture of Melbourne’s winter calendar.

- ACMI + CBD 13–23 AUG

GEARBOX AUSTRALIA

Hard dance powerhouse Gearbox teams up with Melbourne promoter No Sleep Entertainment for its first event on Australian soil, landing at PICA in Port Melbourne on 15 August. Two stages carve up the warehouse: a main stage topped by AdJuZT, Alex M, Deezl, The Smiler and Team Cobalt’s Damaxy, Detailed and Revelation, plus the Gearbox Fusion room hosting Nik Sitz, Shogun, Havoc and a triple back-to-back from Andrew Cairns, Jason Cluff and Ragetrain. MCs Focus and PH4NTAM keep the energy pinned to the roof. It is strictly 18-plus, and organisers are tipping a quick sell-out.

PICA, PORT MELBOURNE 15 AUG

NOW OR NEVER

The City of Melbourne’s festival of art, ideas, sound and technology sprawls across the CBD for 12 winter nights, packing more than 150 events into landmark venues. This year the Yarra – Birrarung becomes a canvas for projections, mist and light, while the Royal Exhibition Building hosts an overnight sleep concert beneath its dome. Melbourne Town Hall turns festival hub with laser-and-sound spectacles, world-premiere dance and latenight electronics, and the talks program digs into artificial intelligence, digital culture and the internet’s stranger corners. It is immersive, a little weird, and free in parts – exactly as it should be.

MELBOURNE CBD 19–30 AUG

WINTER SOUNDS

Trade the city for the foothills of the Great Dividing Range as Winter Sounds returns for another season, from 27 to 30 August. This boutique regional festival hands some of central Victoria’s most atmospheric buildings – soaring churches, gold-rushera halls and remote bush schoolhouses across Daylesford, Glenlyon, Bullarto and Kooroocheang – over to a bill of homegrown talent. Every performance is individually ticketed, so you curate your own weekend, wandering between glowing stages, crackling fire pits and even a vintage train through the countryside. Tickets run $40 to $85, with cheaper passes for younger festival-goers.

DAYLESFORD & SURROUNDS 27–30 AUG

WINTER NIGHT MARKET

Melbourne’s favourite midweek thaw runs every Wednesday until 26 August, taking over the Queen Victoria Market’s historic sheds from 5pm to 10pm. Across a 13-week season the aisles fill with global street food and hot drinks – think raclette-loaded sandwiches, Korean coin pancakes, campfire cocktails and hojicha lattes – alongside specialty traders, twinkling installations and roving performers. Open fires and live music see off the cold, and entry is free, so the only thing your wallet is for is dinner. It remains the easiest way to turn a freezing Wednesday into an actual night out.

QUEEN VICTORIA MARKET UNTIL 26 AUG

Regional GUIDE

WORDS BY FRANKIE ANDERSON-BYRNE

FESTIVALS

2026 FESTIVAL OF STORIES

A weekend celebrating storytelling in every form: spoken word, film, music, comedy and podcasts, held across Phillip Island. Sessions cover everything from politics to food and gardening, featuring established and emerging voices. Between talks, enjoy the beach, spot the Little Penguins and soak up all the island has to offer.

COWES 21–23 AUG

MALLEE ALMOND BLOSSOM FESTIVAL 2026

Held as the almond trees burst into bloom, this Mallee District favourite returns to the Robinvale Community Arts Centre on the Murray River. Expect local produce, wine and live entertainment, amusement rides, arts and craft stalls, and the popular bus tour through the blossoming orchards, a relaxed, family-friendly day out.

ROBINVALE 16 AUG

BALLARAT BLUES FEST 2026

A one-off blues spectacular bringing together some of Australia’s finest musicians. Headlined by Joe Camilleri and the Wilbur Wilde Rock Royalty Revue, with a stacked band drawn from the John Farnham Band, Rockwiz and Mondo Rock, plus slide-guitar legend Dave Hole. An unmissable, feel-good afternoon of blues.

WENDOUREE 16 AUG

WARRNAMBOOL

ORGAN FESTIVAL

Three days celebrating the majestic pipe organ, bringing together skilled musicians and guest performers for a series of intimate concerts. Whether you’re a lifelong enthusiast or a first-time listener, expect a rich and varied program and the chance to hear one of the region’s most impressive instruments up close.

WARRNAMBOOL 7–9 AUG

TRENTHAM WORDS IN WINTER FESTIVAL

A month-long celebration of language, running as a community-run festival since 2004. Author talks, live readings, poetry, storytelling, musical performances and shared feasts fill the program, drawing talent from across the country alongside cherished local voices. A warm escape from winter for anyone who loves words and connection.

TRENTHAM THROUGHOUT AUG

BENDIGO AFRICAN FESTIVAL (BAF)

A free, all-day celebration bringing African music, dance, food and culture to Hargreaves Mall. Presented by the team behind Australia’s longest-running African cultural festival, expect drumming, acrobatics, stilt walkers, market stalls and headline performances from Sun of Africa and Foday & The Culture Keepers. Free entry for the whole family.

BENDIGO 1 AUG

14TH HEATHCOTE SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 2026

Australian and international short films screen across two nights, spanning comedy, animation, drama and documentary. Friday is a relaxed BYO-picnic session with complimentary popcorn, while Saturday brings a sit-down gala dinner. Same films both nights, so pick whichever suits. Note: not suitable for under-15s.

HEATHCOTE 28–29 AUG

MUSIC TOURS

THE JUNGLE GIANTS

Brisbane indie-pop favourites The Jungle Giants bring their infectious, high-energy live show to Barwon Heads, joined by support acts Tear Drive and The Tullamarines. With nearly a billion streams worldwide and a reputation for turbo-charged performances, this is a rare chance to catch the four-piece in an intimate coastal pub setting.

BARWON HEADS HOTEL, BARWON HEADS 8 AUG

ANNA WEATHERUP, AMY VEE & KRIS MIZZI

Three of Australia’s finest folk voices share the stage for an intimate evening in Ballarat. Anna Weatherup and Amy Vee open with a duo set drawing on Weatherup’s acclaimed

album Delusional, before Melbourne’s own Kris Mizzi closes with a solo performance rich in storytelling, warmth and quietly powerful songcraft.

THE PAINTED LADY 1862, BALLARAT 14 AUG

CHRISTINE ANU

One of Australia’s most beloved voices comes to Queenscliff, performing hits including her iconic “My Island Home” alongside new music from her latest album Waku. With 17 ARIA nominations and a career spanning music, film and television, Anu delivers a performance rich in heritage, heart and unmistakable star power.

QUEENSCLIFF TOWN HALL, QUEENSCLIFF 16 AUG

MELBOURNE SKA ORCHESTRA

The ARIA Award-winning big band brings its Monte Loco Rides Again tour to Geelong, packing up to 20 musicians onstage for a night of ska, reggae and spaghetti-western swagger. Led by the irrepressible Nicky Bomba, expect horns, high energy and the kind of joyful chaos that’s made MSO a mustsee live act.

EUREKA HOTEL, GEELONG 21 AUG

ELIZA HULL

Castlemaine-based singer-songwriter and OAM recipient Eliza Hull brings her fearless, emotionally rich sound home for a local show. Having performed everywhere from the Sydney Opera House to the BBC, Hull’s intimate live performances showcase the raw, expansive songwriting that’s made her one of Australia’s most compelling independent artists.

BRIDGE HOTEL, CASTLEMAINE 28 AUG

DENIM OWL

More than a decade on from their last release, Melbourne dream-pop outfit Denim Owl are finally delivering a full-length.

WORDS BY LUCAS RADBOURNE

Æ The self-titled debut is out now, ahead of a launch at Cactus Room in Thornbury on 8 August. Lead singer-songwriter Janita Foley isn’t precious about the “debut” tag, either.

“Well, I haven’t released a full-length album before, so I don’t think ‘debut’ is entirely inaccurate,” she says. “It is our debut in so far as full-length LPs are concerned, given that the discography to date consists of three EPs.”

The record came together over four years at Collarts, following the Blank Face EP (2013) and the Darling/Medicine double single (2015). Foley calls it “a labour of love, and these things take time”. Recent singles Fall Apart and Waiting Inside offered a first taste of what she describes as synthpop decoupage.

“I’ve always liked to think that the vocals, the lyrics, are just another instrument, like anything else,” she says. “That’s always been my methodology.”

The launch doubles as a coming-out for Foley’s brother Joe – aka Extreme Wheeze – who unveils his own album Dreams on the same bill, alongside Geoffrey O’Connor. It makes for about the most sibling-y afternoon going.

“Releasing them side by side makes

“The last zone of confluence is that of Joe being an owl.”

sense as neither Joe nor myself like to make a fuss but I think both of these records deserve a bit of song and dance,” Foley says. Beyond the shared blood and producer Gus Franklin, she points to “the last zone of confluence is that of Joe being an owl”. As she puts it: “We’re as invested in each other’s albums as we are in our own.”

Denim Owl draw players from Architecture in Helsinki, NO ZU, The Motifs and Ciggie Witch, with guests including Isobel Knowles, Cayn Borthwick and Alex Badham. Wrangling that many hands is no drama – “there’s good energy in the Denim Owl zone,” Foley says – though the chain of command is settled. “Everyone in the band is a valued collaborator towards the music. Except that I am the overrider of all creative decisions, of course.” Then there are the wig-outs. “The term

‘wig-out’ sort of cropped up in our early rehearsal days, to describe the improvised sections in our songs,” she explains. “Sometimes we’d refer to band practice as wigs, like ‘Great wigs’ and ‘See you at wigs!’.” The album’s humour, meanwhile, is best filed under un-serious. “Maybe un-serious is a better term for the overall tone.”

As for those 2pm doors, the logic is refreshingly low-key. “It’s so that everyone can enjoy an early night,” Foley says.

DENIM OWL

ZELIA ROSE

Melbourne-born burlesque star Zelia Rose Kitoko is coming home.

WORDS BY LUCAS RADBOURNE

Æ After an extensive UK and European run, she returns to Australian stages this August alongside Dita Von Teese for Nocturnelle, the most opulent production the showgirl has staged to date.

Hand-picked by Von Teese as the only Australian featured in her touring shows, Kitoko has spent years building a reputation as one of the most in-demand artists in the international scene. She was crowned the world’s number one burlesque artist in 2019 by 21st Century Burlesque, and as a core soloist she has appeared in more than 50 cities, from the Folies Bergère in Paris to the London Palladium.

Those rooms tend to leave a mark. “The big historic venues hold so much reverence that when you enter you can instantly feel a shift in energy, it naturally makes you want to bring your own essence to the stage,” she says.

Her practice slips fluidly between burlesque, theatre and high fashion, and she insists the crossover feels less like a balancing act than a calling. “The meeting of worlds feels natural to me. I yearn for expansion and I really want to do it all in this lifetime,” she says. That appetite has carried her from an original cast role in Hamilton Australia to Anne of Cleves in Six the Musical, with a runway turn for Nicol & Ford at Australian Fashion Week 2026 still ahead.

As a Congolese-Australian performer in a historically white form, Kitoko brings her own lens to the work often appearing in extra-long box braids, even in era-specific acts. “Plus I feel my hottest when my hair is in extra long box braids, it’s just become my signature,” she says.

She’s clear-eyed about how things have shifted, crediting social media for the reach while arguing the craft still lives in the room. “It’s a ‘live’ performance art and you need to be in the room, feeling it, seeing it. I think a lot of people are actually craving tangible things these days too,” she says.

“It’s so nice to have a grand return to home in such a high glam, high vigour way.”

Costume is its own discipline. Kitoko designs and constructs much of her own work, collaborating with skilled makers on the trickier mechanics, and approaches each act as a full sensory build. “I want to build a world that the audience can viscerally experience; I’m such a sensory person myself,” she says.

Nocturnelle is Von Teese’s first outing as a striptease magician, a lavish follow-up to the sold-out Glamonatrix that draws on 19th-century illusion and her signature Stripscapes. Kitoko’s own number reworks an act from Von Teese’s Las Vegas residency, though her favourite moment belongs to someone else. “Dita plays the villain in an Erte magic swords act which is my favourite in the show,” she says.

The rapport between the pair runs deep. “We’ve established a lot of trust over the years, I can basically create whatever I like for the shows when it comes to my solo acts because she knows my style and taste,” she says.

For all the spectacle, the homecoming is the part that lands hardest and this time there’s a bonus. “It’s so nice to have a grand return to home in such a high glam, high vigour way,” she says, relieved to skip the long-haul flight for once.

What follows sits in less defined territory: new music, more burlesque, a push into digital work. “It’s that liminal space of creation I’m currently sitting in that can be angsty but super exciting,” she says.

DITA VON TEESE’S NOCTURNELLE

WHERE: PALAIS THEATRE

WHEN: 8, 9 AUG

THE DRONES

Taking a break from renovating his recording studio in Melbourne’s north, Dan Luscombe cheerfully answers the phone.

WORDS BY ANDREW HANDLEY

Æ He’s kept busy while The Drones have been “on ice” producing records, composing scores and touring as a guitarist.

Though The Drones haven’t toured in a decade, interest in the band hasn’t waned. “I keep running into a lot of crew in their 20s who are telling me that they’re really looking forward to the show, and I’m like ‘wow,’” says Luscombe. “They’re like, ‘we never got to see you.’”

Two charity shows last year sold out within minutes, but Luscombe says a full tour has been in discussion for years. “We never broke up or anything, so it was always going to happen,” he says.

“We’re all buddies, we see each other a lot in day-to-day life, so it doesn’t really feel like that any massive, momentous decision was made,” he continues. “It’s just been through casual chats at barbecues for the last few years.”

More dates have been added as the tour continues to sell out, including four nights at Thornbury Theatre. “We weren’t expecting to put on as many shows as we’re going to,” says Luscombe. “It’s definitely the longest tour of Australia The Drones have ever done.”

Luscombe suspects the band’s longevity stems from never quite breaking through. “The fact that we never had mainstream or commercial success or anything like that, it keeps the band somewhat of a mysterious object,” he says. “Because the songs never got too overplayed, no one got sick of them.”

He also credits vocalist Gareth Liddiard and bassist Fiona Kitschin’s post-Drones band, Tropical Fuck Storm, with introducing new fans to The Drones. “They’ve been doing a lot of unintentional, but productive promotion for The Drones,” he says. “If you like TFS, you dig a little deeper and you find out about this other band.”

While commercial success may have eluded them, The Drones have received no shortage of critical acclaim. “There were definitely times when we’d be like, ‘Fuck, does anyone give a shit about this?’” says Luscombe. “We should have had it in ornate writing on a tapestry on the wall … ‘critically acclaimed’,” he jokes. “Those two words probably kept us going in some dark times ... there was no acclaim coming from our accountant.”

At the very least, it indicated the band were doing something right. “[Our music] wasn’t terribly easy to describe or categorise, and the formats of the songs were very unusual,” he says. “We were quite proud of our difficult nature, and I think that it’s served us well.”

Revisiting the band’s catalogue has brought back vivid memories. With the exception of 2016’s Feelin Kinda Free, their albums were recorded live. “I think Gaz would occasionally go in and replace a bit of a vocal,” he explains. “But we would just play until we got a take we all liked, and that was the song.”

“I was listening to Havilah and thinking about that we were in a kitchen in the subalpine region of Victoria at Gaz and Fi’s house,” he recalls. “I just think about how cold it was in that house. I can hear the sound of the kitchen.” While nothing has been recorded yet, Luscombe says the band is discussing new music. “We’re going to have to at some point, or else we’re just going to be a nostalgia band,” he admits. “It’s not that appealing just to go out and play the stuff we did years ago.”

Finding time has been the biggest challenge for a band whose members rely on touring to make a living. “Having a couple of months to sit down and write and record is such a luxury for a lot of bands these days,” explains Luscombe. “But Gaz and Fi have a studio, I have a studio, it’d be pretty silly if we didn’t actually put them to use.”

Ten years on, Liddiard’s gloomy lyrics on Feelin Kinda Free are as poignant as ever. “It’s depressing, isn’t it?” Luscombe laughs. “They shouldn’t, but the fact is that the world has remained as shit as it was back then. I’ll be happy to make a deal with the planet once there’s nothing left to write about, just to stop, but the planet’s not coming through.”

“We should have had it in ornate writing on a tapestry on the wall … ‘critically acclaimed’.” Those two words probably kept us going in some dark times ... there was no acclaim coming from our accountant.”

THE DRONES

WHERE: THORNBURY THEATRE

WHEN: 14, 15, 21, 22 AUG

“If there was a party in the woods and no one filmed it, did it really ever happen at all?”

WISER

Is a lack of curiosity killing club culture?

WORDS BY STEPHANIE KOTHE

Æ

It’s a Saturday night. Somewhere in the city, thousands excitedly pack into a huge venue, drawn in by the promise of something spectacular, international headliners, world-class lighting design, a sight to behold. At peak moments of feeling something, phones are raised, that moment seemingly captured, and by morning the internet is flooded with proof: this was a good time.

Elsewhere, a gaggle of baddies apply another coat of lip gloss before crawling under a fence in the dark, following a distant kick drum into the unknown. There’s no guarantee it won’t get shut down, but the illegality adds to the thrill. Just sound, bodies, and a shared sense of risk. We don’t know the lineup; we don’t know who owns the abandoned space, but for a few hours, it belongs entirely to those inside it.

Somewhere in between sits the club space, increasingly under pressure with rising insurance costs, tighter liquor regulations, and with such limited support for the arts in Australia (we have lost a third [1,300!] of our live music venues since 2020.) It makes it even harder for venues to survive week to week - but somehow amongst the chaos blossoms beauty, small collectives with big ideas are keeping Australias’ club scene afloat, you’ve just got to find them.

People crave connection more than ever, yet they’re less willing to take risks to find it. If you can’t see that something’s going to be a good time, why would you spend your money on it in this climate!? Visibility has become a kind of reassurance. Every video shared extends the life of a party and signals to others where they might find that same feeling. If there was a party in the woods and no one filmed it, did it really ever happen at all?

So now naturally the most visible events become the most desirable, but some of the most powerful dancefloor experiences don’t translate to a screen at all. They exist in smaller, more intimate & less commercial environments where connection isn’t a visible or marketable feeling, spaces where phones might disappear and people are more present with each other. These moments of shared bliss are harder to capture and even harder to explain, which makes them easy to overlook when everything else is so heavily documented.

Imagine a place where you can be yourself, moving your body however you like, having your favourite music played to you by someone you can relate to, find a hundred new friends or silently groove anonymously in the shadows - this all exists. People just like you have wanted the same, couldn’t find it so made it themselves. This is where the magic lies, no external influence or commercial hype, just pure passion for a scene that’s definitely going through its awkward phase…

Big fancy production events aren’t the enemy. The current wave of 18- to 24 year olds came of age during COVID, those years that would normally shape how we socialise, explore music, and figure out what we’re into. Instead, all that happened through a screen – there’s no wonder they need all those visuals to feel entertained. It also makes sense that people are drawn to what they’ve already seen or a brand they can trust. When entry alone can feel like a gamble, people become more selective. They’ll either save for a large-scale event they trust will deliver, or they’ll go the other way towards something more accessible, often in the form of free or underground parties. There’s also a cultural tension that comes with all of these

changes. As new people enter the scene through trends or virality, those who’ve been around longer can feel protective of the music, the spaces, the history. But every one of us was new once. What feels overexposed to one person is still brand new to someone else. Scenes don’t stagnate, it’s cyclical. They grow, they peak, they fragment, and they rebuild. And sometimes, we have to do the building ourselves. Share music, respect spaces, and keep creating the kinds of environments that meant something to us. And for those who feel most connected in a crowd of thousands, completely immersed in the moment they are capturing- It’s still community. They are still connected to something… Not every space needs to suit your particular tastes. If the places that once felt meaningful don’t feel the same anymore, it doesn’t mean the culture is gone, it just means it’s changing.

Find your people again. Keep looking. There really is something for everyone, and if there isn’t, build it. Because whether it’s dancing amongst seven thousand people or climbing up a fire escape into the unknown, whether it’s captured on a screen or only exists in our memories, we’re seemingly all chasing the same thing: to feel something real, together.

HOT TIP (BESIDES ‘BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD’…)

Can’t recognise any of the names on the line up?

Jump on Soundcloud to research their sound. Is there a venue you have enjoyed previously?

Check their socials for flyers to see what else they have on.

Want to become part of the community?

Support crews online, show up early, learn how it all operates.

WISER

WHERE: REVOLVER UPSTAIRS

WHEN: 14 AUG

Credit: Joshua Tate

SELVE

By the time Selve arrived at Abbey Road, the album was already carrying more weight than most bands face in an entire career.

WORDS BY FRANKIE ANDERSON-BYRNE

Æ Loki Liddle, the Jabirr Jabirr songwriter and frontman of Selve, had already been confirmed as the first Aboriginal artist to record a full length album at Abbey Road by the time the writing for Breaking Into Heaven began.

What started as a recording opportunity quickly became part of the album’s creative DNA.

“It was a big journey getting up to that point,” Liddle says. “Soon after it had been confirmed we were going to do it at Abbey Road, it definitely influenced the work that was made, and what I was thinking about in the three months leading up to it.”

The project began with two weeks writing on Jabirr Jabirr Country before a six-week residency in France and finally Abbey Road itself.

“I wanted to be grounded in where I was coming from, knowing I was creating something that had integrity, and representing my community in a way I knew they could be proud of.

“To make a record in that space that used Jabirr Jabirr language, and told a story, was the way I wanted to approach it.”

The album title was inspired by a Nina Simone quote: “The people who built their heaven on your land are telling you yours is in the sky.”

“Abbey Road is kind of like this castle in the clouds; this unimaginable heaven, this place where magic has happened, but it’s been reserved for the select few,” Liddle says.

“So to go into that space and kick down that door, and use it to tell a First Nations story, is what made it feel radical and subversive.”

The songwriting process was equally ambitious. After writing on Country with fellow First Nations band member Rhys and elder, jazz guitarist and mentor Wayne Torres, the band relocated to a studio an hour south of Paris.

“We basically had six weeks there just to work on an album. Back home you can’t just not work for six weeks to focus on an album, but thanks to the grant, all the magic happened at the end of it.”

The routine was simple: write constantly and challenge every instinct.

“My uncle Wayne had a provocation:‘When you’re writing music, ask yourself what you’re risking, because if you’re not risking anything, you’re not putting any skin in the game.’”

“If I’d made a punk song the day before, I’d think, okay, if I was in front of a post-punk crowd, what would scare the shit out of me? And it’s like, to make a really sensitive love song. We’d contradict ourselves to push ourselves out of our comfort zone.”

The result was 25 songs, eventually narrowed to the 13 that became Breaking Into Heaven before being re-recorded at Abbey Road.

Now Selve are expanding that world with Breaking Outta Heaven, a companion EP drawn from the same writing sessions.

“Breaking Outta Heaven is like the expansion pack to Breaking Into Heaven,” Liddle says. “They were all written at the same time, but the Breaking Outta Heaven songs felt like they were telling a different story.”

While the album charged forward with relentless energy, the EP offers more space to breathe.

“Breaking Into Heaven is a brick through the window, full throttle, out the gate for the first six songs before the gooey centre,” he says.

“Breaking Outta Heaven has a bit more breath in it, some big rock songs, like ‘Desire’, but otherwise a slower BPM, more space.”

That openness extends to Selve’s creative process. Despite Liddle being the primary songwriter, the six piece treats every idea as communal property.

“Every member of Selve contributes an incredible amount to the band and the sound,” he says. “When you allow other people the freedom to contribute what they want, they treat it with a lot of intention and value, and you get a better outcome than what you imagined.”

For a band whose records are packed with narrative detail and layered references, the live show remains the priority.

“Our shows are really bombastic and full on and loud and engaging,” Liddle says. “That’s the main element of Selve, getting people in a room.”

And few places have embraced that mission quite like Melbourne. “I really do love playing in Melbourne, might be my favourite city to play in,” he says.

“People don’t need to know who you are, they’re just going out with that curiosity. There’s always new people who haven’t seen us before, more shows happening of a night, so there’s that delicious hum on an evening of music going on. It’s really fun. We love Melbourne.”

Breaking Outta Heaven is out now via Community Music. Selve tour Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales from June to September.

“Abbey Road is kind of like this castle in the clouds; this unimaginable heaven, this place where magic has happened, but it's been reserved for the select few.”

SELVE

WHERE: LULIE TAVERN

WHEN: 14 AUG

THE PRETTY LITTLES

Sitting down with The Pretty Littles frontman Jack Parsons, one thing becomes immediately clear: he’s a no-bullshit kind of guy.

Æ He’d rather make honest music with Aussie rock outfit The Pretty Littles, say what he means and connect with people and leave the rest at the door.

We talk about art for art’s sake, vulnerability, politics, ageing and the strange pull of the places that shape us.

Politics inevitably seeps into The Pretty Littles’ Mulga Wire, but Jack Parsons is quick to reject the idea that musicians should be tasked with fixing society’s problems.

“We shouldn’t be relying on artists to create change,” he says. “We should be relying on policymakers and people with legitimate power to actually make change.”

That’s not to say music is powerless. Songs like In Our Times, which takes aim at power-hungry world leaders, prove Parsons isn’t afraid to engage with politics when the subject demands it.

But when I ask whether artists have a responsibility to be political, his answer is characteristically blunt.

“I don’t think that anyone has a responsibility to do anything, really,” he says.

“Particularly in art, people should do whatever the fuck they want.”

It’s a fitting philosophy for a band that has spent more than a decade doing exactly that.

After years spent building a loyal following; touring nationally alongside Bad// Dreems, playing their first international shows in Sri Lanka and appearing at festivals including Party In The Paddock and OK Charlton, The Pretty Littles return with Mulga Wire, a record Parsons describes as their most confident yet.

“I think my taste just broadened, probably, and I got a little more confident and accepting of who I was or some shit like that,” he says.

That sense of self-acceptance runs throughout the album, shown more clearly on Terracotta, one of its most nostalgic moments.

Inspired by Point Lonsdale on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula, the song looks back on Parsons’ youth in a version of the coastal town that barely exists anymore. Long before it became a desirable seaside destination, it was a place defined by boredom, surfing and teenage trouble.

WORDS BY SOFIA PERICA

Greg Rietwyk

Credit:

“It was quiet, you know,” he recalls.

“There was no pub there. Being a kid there was getting up to no good, stealing booze, throwing water bombs, riding our bikes around, surfing and sneaking around.”

Back then, Point Lonsdale felt worlds away from the attention it receives today.

“It was such an undesirable place in those days,” he says. “It just wasn’t on anyone’s radar.”

Although the song began years earlier, returning to it later in life forced Parsons to confront something bigger; the town had changed, but so had he.

“I was looking at it through a different lens and realising that unequivocally I was getting older,” he says. “It’s one of those moments where it’s like my life is changing.”

For Parsons, his identity is largely defined by where he came from.

“The things that you experience in certain places at certain times form a large part of who you are,” he says. “You’re hugely affected by place and time and people.”

That emotional awareness has long been one of The Pretty Littles’ defining strengths, though Parsons admits vulnerability can be an uncomfortable thing to navigate.

“When I hear really bold-faced demonstrations of vulnerability, it feels like I’m in a room that I shouldn’t be in,” he says. He laughs while describing himself as “an emotional cuck”.

Songwriting often sits somewhere between confession and performance, and Parsons is wary of crossing the line into self-indulgence.

“Sometimes it can feel voyeuristic,” he admits. Still, when honesty lands, he believes few things are more powerful.

“It’s a beautiful thing when you feel yourself writing about something which is important and something that you feel deeply about,” he says.

“If you’re singing it and you mean it and you believe it, then it’s amazing seeing those songs connect with people in a way that you felt. That’s where music becomes so powerful.”

As they prepare to take over The Corner Hotel in August, Parsons offers a typically understated preview of what fans can expect.

“It’s four guys playing rock and yelling a bit, harmonies, moving our bodies, shaking about and sweating a lot,” he laughs.

The self-deprecation can’t quite hide his excitement. The Corner remains one of Melbourne’s most iconic live music rooms, and for a band like The Pretty Littles, it’s exactly where they belong.

THE PRETTY LITTLES

WHERE: THE CORNER HOTEL

WHEN: 1 AUG

VERA BLUE

WORDS BY FRANKIE ANDERSON-BYRNE

For years, Celia Pavey built a second self out of glitter and distance, someone called Vera Blue who got to feel everything so Celia didn’t really have to.

Æ Then she wrote an album that tore the two of them back together.

Talking to her about Modern Rituals, her third record as Vera Blue, feels less like an interview and more like catching someone mid-exhale, comfortable in the acceptance of her own skin.

“I think it was a slow dawning,” she tells me, when I ask whether the realisation, that Celia and Vera Blue “are not separate entities, they are one”, hit all at once or crept up on her over time.

It settled properly once she’d nearly finished the record and knew she wanted to call it Modern Rituals: modern meaning the present, rituals meaning the emotional patterns we keep returning to as human beings. She wanted one song to hold the whole thing together. Rituals, the album’s opening track, built with Grammy-nominated producer Lachlan Bostock (Dom Dolla, ODESZA), is that song, and it lands like a thesis statement set to strings.

“It’s one of those songs that did just fall out,” she says, still sounding a little amazed by it. “It sums up the whole album, about all the different versions of myself that make me who I am.” She describes looking back over her own life from a bird’s eye view, and from up there, the two lives she’d always quietly kept in separate boxes resolved into a single horizon. She’d always felt like herself onstage, never a character, never a performance. The shift wasn’t in how she showed up. It was in finally seeing that there’d only ever been one of her all along.

“Now I look at Vera Blue and she’s also just Celia. The name is just another identity of Celia.”

On paper that sounds like a small thing to work out. In practice, it’s blown the doors off how she writes.

“It’s allowed me to be more honest,” she says. She points to In The Corner, where she nearly talked herself out of a line about waiting for someone to hurt her again.

“And it’s like, yes, I would say that. I swear all the fucking time. Just say what you feel and don’t overthink it.”

I love this: a lyric almost got softened, and didn’t, and the album is sharper and truer for it.

There’s something electric about talking to someone who’s decided the honest version of a feeling always wins, even when it’s messy, loud, or refuses to dim.

That honesty cuts past relationships and straight into mental health, something she used to bury under production and distance.

“This whole project isn’t about being perfect or reaching a point where I’m fixed,” she says. “It’s a journey. I might die one day and not have figured it out, which is kind of beautiful.”

It’s hard not to leave that sentence a little lighter yourself. She talks about self-acceptance like it’s an old friend she fought hard to get back.

Sonically, Modern Rituals swings for something bigger, and Celia lights up describing it. Where past records leaned on longtime collaborators, this one threw her into rooms with a rotating cast of writers and producers across LA and Australia, including John O’Mahony (“Johnno”), whose hands-on ‘90s analogue synths dragged her toward something rawer and more alive.

“It was challenging as much as it was exciting,” she admits. “Once I find my bubble I feel safe, but I think I needed to be pushed.”

The names she keeps circling back to, Enya, Madonna, Björk, all chased the same reckless vocal freedom she was after.

“This whole project isn’t about being perfect or reaching a point where I'm fixed... It's a journey. I might die one day and not have figured it out, which is kind of beautiful.”

Everything is visual for her first; she thinks in scenes, in the language of film and theatre, hunting sounds built to hit you like a jump scare and give you goose bumps, in the best way. Listen to the record and you can feel that instinct everywhere, like every track was written to be watched as much as heard.

Asking what actually carried her through the writing process, her answer isn’t grand in the way you’d expect from a record about ancient human patterns. It’s her sausage dog.

“He’s my child, he gives me so much joy,” she laughs, and you can hear the love in it. “We’re both good for each other.”

Between him, travel with her now-husband, and simply forcing herself back outside after a stretch of staying in, she frames all of it as ritual: the plain, daily act of opening your eyes to the world again and choosing to be a little braver in it.

She kept the record lean on purpose, eight tracks, nothing spare.

“I didn’t want to overwhelm people with lots of everything.”

What she wants listeners to take from it isn’t a lesson so much as a jolt of recognition.

“I hope they find a little piece of themselves on the journey,” she says.

“Resilience, desire, longing. I just want people to feel things, enjoy the music, and have fun and dance.”

There’s no performance in the way she says it. Some people spend a lifetime chasing who they’re meant to be. Celia just turned around and found her waiting there all along, ready to take the stage.

WHERE: NORTHCOTE THEATRE

WHEN: 26 AUG

VERA BLUE

Credit: Dave Jenkins Jr

TAMWORTH COUNTRY MUSIC FESTIVAL

WORDS BY FRANKIE ANDERSON-BYRNE

Pack your boots: the Toyota 55th Tamworth Country Music Festival is about to take over an entire town.

Æ Running for 10 days from 15–24 January, the Toyota 55th Tamworth Country Music Festival will see more than 700 artists perform across free and ticketed shows scattered right through the city, from pubs and clubs to parks, theatres and street corners.

The festival is recognised as the largest and longest-running country music event in the southern hemisphere, and typically draws more than 300,000 people to the town in North West NSW.

This year’s theme is Every Corner. Every Stage. Every Sound, which pretty much sums up the whole deal, unlike most festivals that stick to one venue, Tamworth Country Music Festival spreads itself across the entire town, so you could catch a headliner on one stage and a busker on the next street over.

The festival has just announced its 2027 “Faces of the Festival”, a lineup of five artists fronting the promotional push: Adam Harvey, Amber Lawrence, Dear Tommie, Max Jackson and Robbie Mortimer.

WHAT’S ON: A FESTIVAL THAT SWALLOWS AN ENTIRE TOWN

The bulk of the action falls under the festival’s What’s On program, which covers hundreds of free and ticketed shows spanning pubs, clubs, theatres and outdoor stages across the city.

Multi-award winners Lee Kernaghan and Troy Cassar-Daley headline shows at the Tamworth Regional Entertainment and Conference Centre (TRECC), while Toyota Park, the festival’s biggest outdoor venue, hosts free nightly concerts, kicking off with the Opening Night Concert and fireworks display on 15 January.

Other Toyota Park nights include Girls’ Night Out, Americana in the Park, a new Bluegrass Hoedown, Back to the Bush, Kix in the Park, the Friday Night Lights album launch and Country Party in the Park, right through to the festival’s close on 24 January.

Venues around town including the Town Hall, Capitol Theatre, The Longyard and Wests Entertainment Group have also confirmed lineups featuring Fanny Lumsden, Dan Sultan, The Wolfe Brothers, Sara Storer and dozens more.

WHERE FUTURE STARS BUSK FOR THEIR BREAK

Peel Street, known locally as the Boulevard of Dreams, turns into one of Australia’s most vibrant live music strips for the festival, with more than 400 buskers performing for free throughout the 10 days.

It’s one of the largest busking programs in the country, and part of what makes the festival feel so accessible: wander down Peel Street on any given afternoon and you might catch a first-timer playing their first ever set metres away from an award-winning artist heading into a pub show.

For emerging artists, it’s also a genuine way into the industry, with buskers rubbing shoulders with managers, record labels, promoters and media across the festival’s 10 days, alongside opportunities to perform on free community stages elsewhere in town.

Ten buskers are selected each year by judges to perform at the Toyota Busking Championships, held in Toyota Park on the festival’s final weekend, where they compete for a cash prize as well as the coveted People’s Choice award.

THE TALENT SEARCH THAT’S LAUNCHED ACTUAL SUPERSTARS

The 47th Toyota Star Maker Grand Final lands in Toyota Park on 17 January, bringing together the year’s top 10 finalists alongside the reigning champion and special guests.

It’s widely regarded as Australia’s most prestigious country music talent search, with

past winners including Keith Urban, Kaylee Bell, Lee Kernaghan and Gina Jeffreys. The competition has been running for decades and remains one of the most closely watched events on the festival calendar, with industry figures and record labels keeping a close eye on each year’s finalists.

Entries for the 2027 competition are open now and close 1 September, making it a genuine launchpad for anyone hoping to take the Toyota Park stage themselves come January.

For finalists, it’s not just about the grand final performance either, the lead-up includes mentoring and networking opportunities that have helped shape the careers of some of the biggest names in Australian country music.

THE NIGHT OF NIGHTS FOR AUSTRALIAN COUNTRY MUSIC

The pinnacle of the festival is the Toyota 55th Golden Guitar Awards, held at TRECC on the final Saturday, 23 January.

It’s Australia’s most prestigious country music awards ceremony and the only industry-affiliated country music awards in the country, celebrating a year of recording excellence across the Australasian scene.

For Victorians, it’s a proper excuse for a regional getaway: a direct flight into Tamworth or a scenic drive inland from Sydney or Brisbane, then 10 days of live music spilling out of every venue in town.

Camping and accommodation bookings tend to fill up well before January, so it’s worth locking those in early.

Tickets for the first wave of shows, including the Golden Guitar Awards, went on sale Thursday 9 July, with more free and ticketed shows to be announced over the coming months.

TAMWORTH COUNTRY MUSIC FESTIVAL

WHERE: TAMWORTH, NSW

WHEN 15–24 JAN

THE VELVET CLUB

WORDS

BY FRANKIE ANDERSON-BYRNE

Ten years ago, a teenage AJ Tilyard walked out of Splendour In The Grass having just watched The Strokes and The Cure tear up the stage, and made a decision on the spot: he was starting a band.

Æ A decade, three EPs and countless DIY shows later, that band, Naarm indie outfit The Velvet Club, is releasing its debut album, Are You Falling In Love?, a record born not from ambition but from burnout, heartbreak, and the strange and beautiful relief of finally being honest.

The album covers a year and a half, from 2024 into 2026, in which a long-term relationship fell apart, AJ’s mental health hit a breaking point, and the band itself nearly didn’t survive it.

“It was kind of all peaking at the time that we were writing and working on the songs,” he says. “My life was kind of over here, crumbling a bit, and then just trying to hold it together here with the band, to keep things moving.”

After years of independent touring and releasing on their own steam, the band hit a wall.

“I felt burnt out personally,” AJ says, “so I kind of made the decision that too much was going on in my life to keep doing it.” They stepped away with no real plan, until the break itself stopped working.

“I really just had the existential thought of, what am I doing? And if I don’t do this, what am I even doing? And then it was just clear that there was no other choice but to keep making music.”

In that same stretch he was meant to be resting, he wrote most of what became the album, sifting from more than 50 demos down to a final ten.

Fittingly, it was old records that got him through it. AJ found himself back in the bands that had covered his teenage bedroom walls, The Strokes, The Vaccines, The Drums, The Smiths, but heard them differently this time.

“It gets written off as very simple music by a lot of people, but there’s actually a lot of intricacies in the music to make it come across simple,” he says. “There’s a lot of intentional parts bouncing off each other and creating this one full sound. I just got kind of addicted to trying to do that, making every part intentional and not getting lost in the whole song.”

That same instinct for honesty runs through the record’s themes. Songs like We Don’t Talk capture a very specific, unfiltered anger.

“I feel like that song is a little bit more like, definitely not hiding behind any metaphors, just exactly how I felt in that moment,”

AJ says. “I don’t feel angry at all now, but I guess that song just captured that one point in time.”

Tracks like Wasted Space and I Need Something Too go further still, tackling AJ’s experience with OCD directly for the first time. He was nervous about it at first.

“It was just clear that there was no other choice but to keep making music.”

“It’s not a very common disorder, so I was kind of thinking, if I’m writing about this, is anybody going to relate.”

Looking back at his older songs, he realised he’d effectively been writing from that same headspace all along.

“I’ve always been singing from this perspective, so I guess I just let go and wrote how I felt, and I didn’t really think too much about it, for the first time.”

The album’s making wasn’t without its own struggles. AJ started therapy while writing, then began medication during tracking, and the early side effects made some studio days brutal.

“There were times where I rocked up to the studio and everyone was just like, are you okay, how are you going to sing, and I was just falling asleep at the mic and sounding terrible.”

What saved the record, he says, was producer and friend Luke Thomas, who engineered the whole thing from his Brunswick studio and never pushed the band through a bad day.

“He was just so supportive of all of that. Just go home, come back tomorrow. I think that’s the biggest thing I noticed, because without that opportunity, it would have sounded very different.”

There’s something quietly full-circle about all of it. The Velvet Club’s original goal, back when they were teenagers in Melbourne’s southeast with nowhere to play, was simply to find a scene, to know other bands, play a show on the north side of town, belong to something.

“It feels like we’ve finally done the thing that we originally set out to do ten years ago, which was just to have a community around us and be making music with our friends.”

Even the album’s sound, he reckons, would barely surprise his teenage self.

“I think I would be almost unsurprised at how it sounds, because of how much I’ve returned back to that.”

With the album done, the band is gearing up to take it back to where they’ve always been most comfortable: on stage.

“I’m honestly so excited,” AJ says of rehearsals for the tour. After a year of stripped back DIY and secret shows to keep their community close, he’s ready for the full production. “I’m so excited to put on the biggest, the best show we can, and play all the new songs live.”

Ten years since Splendour lit the fuse, The Velvet Club are ready

THE VELVET CLUB

WHERE: HOWLER

WHEN: 21 AUG

Credit: Nikola Jokanovic

QUEEN VICTORIA MARKET

LIVE MUSIC: More than you’d expect from a produce market. Through winter, the Night Market takes over the sheds weekly from 5pm to 10pm until 26 August — free entry, street food, specialty shopping and live entertainment programmed across the season. The rest of the year the sheds host everything from record fairs stacking more than 20,000 new and used titles from Melbourne’s vinyl dealers to food festivals and roving performances. Not a band room, but the programming runs so much deeper than fruit and veg.

FAMOUS FOR: being irreplaceable. Officially opened on 20 March 1878, Queen Vic is the largest and most intact of Melbourne’s great 19th century markets, sprawled across seven hectares and two city blocks. It joined the Victorian Heritage Register in 1989 and the National Heritage List in 2018 — the same list as the MCG and the Great Ocean Road. When a 1970s redevelopment plan threatened to replace it with offices and a hotel complex, an 18,000-signature petition and union black bans kept the sheds standing. Melbourne fought for this place and won.

INFAMOUS FOR: its other life. Before the market, the site held Melbourne’s first official cemetery from 1837. As the market expanded, around 1,000 burials were exhumed and relocated, but an estimated 7,000 to 9,000 remain beneath the precinct — a fact the market has never hidden. The site is recognised under the Aboriginal Heritage Act as an Aboriginal historic place, and the City of Melbourne’s renewal program will transform the car park over the former cemetery into public open space.

Æ Not many places can claim nearly 150 years of continuous trade, a National Heritage listing, and a night market that draws tens of thousands every winter. Queen Vic has outlasted every attempt to redevelop it, outgrown every era it’s traded through, and kept its identity as a market built around independent traders rather than chains. It’s Melbourne’s most enduring public gathering place, and it’s still getting better.

RADIO NACIONAL

LIVE MUSIC: has quietly become part of the appeal at this Hardware Lane hideaway, though “live music” undersells it. Think DJ sets and listening parties powered by serious kit, all wrapped in a room built more for atmosphere than dancefloor chaos.

FAMOUS FOR: its sound system. This isn’t a function room with a Bluetooth speaker bolted on. Void Acoustics, Pioneer CDJs, a DJM-A9 mixer and Technics turntables mean the room is genuinely built for people who care about how music sounds, not just that it’s playing.

INFAMOUS FOR: its speakeasy-style secrecy. Tucked away on Level 2 of Hotel Nacional, Radio Nacional rewards those in the know: climb the stairs, and the laneway noise disappears behind full soundproofing into a world of its own.

Æ What is Radio Nacional? It’s the moody, sound-obsessed private events space hiding inside Hotel Nacional, the five-level, entirely gluten-free Mexican restaurant and bar on Hardware Lane. Where the rest of Hotel Nacional leans bright and beachy, Radio Nacional flips the mood with low light, custom furniture, plush booths and a design brief that reads more speakeasy than restaurant function room.

It’s built to host, not just seat: think wedding after-parties, brand launches, milestone birthdays and end-of-year parties, all with their own private bar poured with agave and mezcal-driven drinks to match Hotel Nacional’s Mexican bones.

Capacity flexes from an intimate 30 up to 100, with modular furniture letting the room reshape itself depending on the night. Add a 3am licence available every day of the week, and it’s built for events that are just getting started when the rest of the laneway is closing up.

The space is one of the newer additions to Hotel Nacional’s offering, joining its restaurant floors and rooftop bar as the venue’s answer to guests who want their event to feel less like a function and more like a night out.

WHERE: CORNER OF ELIZABETH AND VICTORIA STREETS

WHERE: LEVEL 2, 23–25 HARDWARE LANE, MELBOURNE

SECOND STORY STUDIOS

Live music: has really taken off inside this multifaceted venue. It’s become a genuine electronic hotspot, hosting shows spanning house, techno, UK bass, garage and beyond — featuring international names and local talent alike.

Famous for: Next Level Space, its vast semi-industrial-charm room (capacity cited as up to 400 by the venue, though current event listings put it at 300), which converts easily to host weddings, parties or gigs.

Infamous for: the all-encompassing creative energy that resonates through the space, making it easy to get distracted. With studios for fashion designers, actors, musicians and more, plus workshop spaces doubling as offices, healing centres and everything in between, it’s a genuine mixed bag of vibes.

Æ What is Second Story Studios? It’s everything you ever asked for and more.

Basically, this Collingwood space is a mecca of creativity. It features 9 studio spaces available for long or short-term rent by makers of all stripes, plus a spirituality and wellness edge — rooms lined with Himalayan pink salt lamps, Tibetan flags and oriental rugs for healing, meditation and prayer.

It’s also become a serious player on Melbourne’s electronic circuit, hosting everything from Detroit house/techno royalty to UK garage crews to experimental live sets. The warehouse’s blank-canvas flexibility has made it a favourite for promoters across genres, offering a more curated, intimate feel than a traditional nightclub, in a prime inner-north location.

The venue is run by Michael and Gem Akasha, who’ve spent over a decade converting the building, building community and throwing memorable parties. Designed as a space to come together and lean into uninhibited creativity, Second Story Studios continues to shape a new generation of Melbourne raving.

SMITH ST HOTEL

LIVE MUSIC: the entire point. The corner room formerly known as the Gasometer Hotel is back in business as Smith St Hotel, bandroom intact, with programming handed to independent music company Yours & Owls — the operation behind the Wollongong festival of the same name. The venue relaunched its live program with a three-day weekender from 24 July, and the pitch from the venue itself is plain: pub classics with a twist, plus a loud live music venue built for late nights. Bookings run through the venue direct, and the bill is shaping toward touring acts alongside emerging locals.

FAMOUS FOR: the history under the new paint. There’s been a pub on this corner since 1860, named for the Collingwood, Fitzroy and District Gas and Coke Company, whose works sat diagonally opposite and whose gasometers loomed over the block until the 1970s. In its recent life as the Gaso, the room became one of Melbourne’s most dependable band rooms, a launching pad for locals and a reliable stop for internationals. The building sits within the Smith Street heritage overlay, a substantially intact strip of Victorian and Edwardian commercial buildings — the bones aren’t going anywhere.

INFAMOUS FOR: dropping the name. New owner Scott Pickett — the chef behind Smith St Bistrot, Estelle and Longrain — copped the inevitable gastro pub question and answered it on the record: “Are we a gastro pub? Fuck no. We’re a live music venue.”

Æ Collingwood has watched enough band rooms go dark that a relit one earns cautious optimism rather than cynicism. The room is the same, the stage is where it was, and the door between a good pub and a good venue stays open. Yours & Owls bring nearly two decades of booking experience and a festival operation that’s grown from 2,000 punters to tens of thousands, so the programming pedigree is there.

Frozen Charlotte

Æ “Welcome to the Garden of Eden/ There’s nobody here but me and you… Microphone check one-two one-two” – who knew there was power back in 4000 BC?

Frozen Charlotte commences in trademark beguiling Jack White fashion with G.O.D. And The Broken Ribs: strolling bass, chugging organ, drum-rolling solo and sassy, screeching guitar parts. Unholy incantations spew forth, via guitar and vocals.

In the hands of White, bassist Dominic Davis, Hammond organist Bobby Emmett and drummer Patrick Keeler, these instruments sound alive – sometimes acquiescing, other times writhing and fighting back. There’s a sense that the whole thing could derail at any given moment, which amplifies our suspense as the tracks roll out.

With its irresistible, laidback strut and unhinged organ solo, Derecho Demonico (Spanish for “demonic law”) picks up the instrumental onslaught and bolts with it: “Well, I came to ya on the back of a twister storm/ You know I got something up my sleeve, I guess you’ll have to twist my arm…”

White embodies the essence of rock’n’roll; in a kind of smug way, like he’s keeping all the secrets in the universe and sure as hell won’t tell. His vocal delivery is straining and belligerent, which sounds annoying, but is far from it.

“Well if you know me then you’ll never love me!” – repeated six times in a row – hammers the point home in There’s Nobody There. Raising The Grain unleashes unflinching, dangerous sounds. You’ll Never Fix Me is a kiss-off, backed by thwacking drums and guitars that swirl like voodoo magic doing its thing.

(“I’ll tell ya why, ‘cause…”) Nobody Knows – those triple-tracked vocals, though! So satisfying. Listeners get a sense that White delights in his own nothing’s-off-limits wordplay: “From Neanderthals to the Denisovans… Are the homosapiens the future aliens?” – you might wanna keep a dictionary handy.

I Can’t Believe What I’m Hearing opens with The Artful Dodger-style wordsmithery: “Click-clack, backtrack, tick-tock, smack-talk.”

Instrumentally, She’s In A Frenzy sounds exactly like its title. “Can you believe the energy she wasted on the kitchen floor?” – we’ll take that as a sign that doing less housework is hot.

Making Contact alternates with “making content” – geez, he’s good, hey?

During the closing Neighbors Blues, guitar goes even more rogue than usual before an ascending Hammond organ solo takes flight – have mercy!

There’s a timeless quality we’ve come to expect of White’s work. His guitar solos, no matter how brief, have their own distinct narrative arcs. We’re hanging out for a tour announce. These songs are gonna slap live.

Fun fact: White’s Frozen Charlotte sculpture, which appears on the album cover, came about entirely by accident. When a chalkware sailor prize in his recording studio fell to the ground and lost its head, he glued a blue skull shaker percussion instrument into the broken neck and, voila!

BODY TYPE

Tally

Æ Synth, bongos, mellotron (see: Sick Bag) – hold up, is this actually Body Type? Marking the first time this band has worked with a producer (Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa) “in an official capacity”, Tally also draws inspo from ‘60s girl groups.

And What Else?, with its cutesy calland-response vocals – “What else?”/”More, please” – brings Leader Of The Pack by The Shangri-Las to mind.

“My heart – a little baby bird/ You hold it in your grip ‘til it shits through your fingertips” – based on a one-sided relationship that vocalist/guitarist Sophie McComish found herself disappearing within, Sick Bag “examines the fine line between generosity and self-erasure”.

Eye Is A Mouth Is A Face is the first song written entirely collaboratively by Body Type – live at a mate’s studio in Wollongong, no less. The lyrics were informed by a Louise Bourgeois exhibition.

“You say it’s on the way/ I saw you yesterday/ Telling me all about how you’re going on holiday!” – the title track finds humour in trying to reclaim a debt.

Elsewhere: Mulberry, a “meditation on self-dissolution”, finds beauty in the mundane; To Give A Rose opens with moody bass, plucky drums and an exuberant clapping pattern; and Body Type have a blast with Planet 8’s vocal delivery (think: The B-52’s) over buzzy bass and staticky, descending guitar riffs.

Body Type’s latest record gives their feelings a safe place to land, through words and also cathartic instrumental freakouts.

Off the back of Tally, Body Type better get used to accepting statements of adoration.

LABEL: THIRD MAN RECORDS

RELEASE: OUT NOW

LABEL: POISON CITY RECORDS/P(DOOM)

RELEASE: OUT NOW

JACK WHITE

DOBBY

Marshmallow

Æ If a pretty, recurring piano melody in a coupla Marshmallow tracks (2009 and 80,000 Storeys) sounds familiar, that’ll be because DOBBY carried it across from his previous WARRANGU; River Story set as a bridge between the two worlds.

Even though Rhyan Clapham, the Filipino-Muruwari drapper (drummer/rapper) known as DOBBY, created his two latest records concurrently, they’re otherwise diametrically opposed.

The story of Marshmallow takes DOBBY back in time to right some wrongs.

“My rapping cleared the room at the disco at my school/ Played it off like I was cool, but I really wasn’t.”

Over Good For Nothing’s minimal, skittish beat – featuring nursery-rhymy glockenspiel hook and percussive panting –DOBBY recalls the cumulative racist bullying that made him feel worthless.

Lessons finds DOBBY trading lines with Rhyan, giving his younger self a snapshot of 2025. This starts positively enough (“Donald Glover is The Lion King”) before spiralling into a grim list of systemic inequities that remain unaddressed (eg. “Still yelling out, ‘Treaty!’”).

Listen out for an actual sample of 12-year-old DOBBY spitting rhymes in ≠ (Free Your Mind) – cuteness overload.

Released to commemorate 20 years since she passed, lead single Fight (Kim’s Song) immortalises DOBBY’s late Taekwondo teacher, who coined his stage name.

Marshmallow’s closer, 80,000 Storeys (feat. Beckah Amani – one to watch), speaks to our shared history on this land, challenges the linear notion of time and issues an important reminder: “Don’t forget who you are.”

These stories, which speak to the narratives of Australian identity, have never been more needed than right this minute.

DON WALKER

Love Songs

Æ We’re reminded of Don Walker’s storytelling genius from track one’s opening couplet: “Jules is in the doghouse, lost her boyfriend, lost her keys/ Now she’s left her jacket on the train, she’s gonna freeze” –hats off, sir! Let’s All Get Together (“...have a party anyway”) features cheeky, scraping güiro (which plays a recurring role throughout Love Songs). Jubilant brass parps bring the party until a girlish chuckle closes out this opener.

Breakfast In Paris, which follows, is classy and filled with gentlemanly longing.

“Filled me like a memory/ Of a pain no longer there” – okay, we’re gonna need a new Moleskine to fill with Walker’s delectable turns of phrase. See also: “There’s not a day that I don’t hear the bell I carry in my heart for you.”

Boom-chicka guitars underscore Luck, which details a torch carried for the one who got away. Garrett Costigan’s pedal steel shines throughout.

(“I’ve seen them all and I know…”) It Will Always Be You – this delightful sentiment is backed by elegant piano.

Blooming frangipani, unscrewing your number plates, keeping your “Darwin story straight”, a violinist playing nude on her balcony, chirping crickets, wayward youths driving Nissans, “the bonehead hours of a bonfire keg” – don’t be fooled by the tropical instrumentation, Darwin’s closer is a 14-minute ear-turner with sinister underbelly.

Although listeners feel in safe hands, meticulously placed melodic detours make Love Songs an enthralling listen. Yet another masterpiece for the Walker discography.

GRACE CUMMINGS

Bloodhorse!

Æ Fluttering flutes are silenced by one of the bossier brass instruments, then Grace Cummings belts, “The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Morphine!” – it’s giving Tori Amos. Cummings recorded the wheezy “a-huh-huh”s that grace My God during a bout of pneumonia.

FAKE unpacks Good Girl Syndrome. This piano-driven, strings-enhanced song’s second half documents the antagonist’s remorse (“My God, what have I done?”), before morphing from extended drone into synthy, potential Doctor Who soundtrack for its final two minutes.

The title track, with its hoofbeat undercurrent, was inspired by Botox remorse. Then the head-scratching Bloodhorse! (take two) hits like an accidental radio station switch: “She climbed up into my truck with no panties on…” – brace yourselves for 45 seconds of AI-generated bro-country slop.

Re: My Island And Me, which is resplendent with ball-tearing riffage, Cummings wrote: “I’d like to make peace with leaving the walled garden and surrender to the cold ocean, but I am deeply afraid of the world.”

The Magnum Opus Of The North Is A Cowboy Boot is about men who “cosplay as tortured poets or cowboys, pretending to be disaffected”.

Cummings has revealed she recorded the WITCH! WITCH! WITCH! chorus while holding “a massive scythe” handed to her by producer Jonathan Wilson. Bellringing chimes close out this one.

See You In 50 Years, this record’s closing statement, explores a multitude of time signatures and genres. Some sections would be well suited to a top hat-and-tails routine. The antithesis of easy listening, Bloodhorse! is brilliantly bonkers.

LABEL: ABC MUSIC

RELEASE: OUT NOW

LABEL: MGM RELEASE: 7 AUG

RELEASE: VIRGIN MUSIC AUSTRALIA

LABEL: 14 AUG

GIG GUIDE AUGUST 2026

THU 30 JUL

XANI KOLAC + NATHAN SCHRAM

Melbourne Recital Centre. Southbank. 7pm. $49.

BLUEMODE

Paris Cat Jazz Club. Melbourne. 8pm. $40. DAYA. DARCIE HAVEN

Corner Hotel. Richmond. 7pm. $79.90. GUERNS THURS

New Guernica. Collingwood. 9pm. CSIRAC.

FRONS, TURGE, DJ TOPSIDE SUPPORT

Shotkickers. Thornbury. 7.30pm. $18.70.

ZERO CITY + THE RED STRING THEORY

Brunswick Artists’ Bar. Brunswick. 8.30pm. Free.

BEEGEES

REVIVAL: 10TH ANNIVERSARY

Bird’s Basement. Melbourne. 7.30pm. $39.

NEGOMI

Edinburgh Castle Hotel. Brunswick. 7pm.

PARENTS

BATTLE OF THE BANDS – INNER

EAST BATTLE

FT: Old Spice, Backstreet Roys, Rock’n’Roll Call, Rage Against the Canteen

Leadbeater Hotel. Richmond. 7pm. $36.75.

VILLAGE SOUND & FRIENDS

Revolver Upstairs. Prahran. 10pm.

FLIRYTE

Wesley Anne. Northcote. 6pm.

NOT ON YOUR RIDER

Brunswick Ballroom. Brunswick. 7.30pm. $43.86.

JAIME MACDOWELL

Freddie Wimpoles. St Kilda. 7pm. FOOT.

OCEANLORD, SHUM, NIGHTEYES

Bendigo Hotel. Collingwood. 7pm. $17.35.

HENRY MANETTA & THE TRIP Bar 303. Northcote. 8pm. $20.

SPEED QUEENS

Lulie Tavern. Abbotsford. 8pm.

GOOD MUSIC

THURSDAYS

The Old Bar. Fitzroy. 7.30pm. $10–17.

CHANEL

LOUISE. BACKO, SCREAMAGERS

Bergy Bandroom. Brunswick. 7pm. $17.85.

FRI 31 JUL

BEYOND THE BEEHIVE: AMY WINEHOUSE’S MUSICAL MASTERY

FT: Carol Whitfield

Kingston Arts Centre. Moorabbin. 7.30pm. $30. ATTACCA QUARTET

Melbourne Recital Centre. Southbank. 7.30pm. $79.

THE ROYAL MOTOWN REVUE

FT: Iseula, Paul Slattery & The Horns of Hip Paris Cat Jazz Club. Melbourne. 6.30pm. $48.

MIND TO MULCH. SUPER AMERICAN EAGLE, SWEET NOTHING Shotkickers. Thornbury. 7.30pm. $18.70.

HYDRA: THE AUSTRALIAN TOTO SHOW

Northcote Social Club. Northcote. 8pm. $30.

BASEMENT

SPACEMAN

Edinburgh Castle Hotel. Brunswick. 8pm.

MARCUS KNIGHT

Morris House. Melbourne. 6pm.

UGENIUS

FT: Dirty South. Marcelo, Minx, Molly Roberts, Tim Light Revolver Upstairs. Prahran. 11.59pm. $20.

WEENED

FT: Nik Barker, Lucy A Wilson, Julian Tovey, Ben Mastwyk, Tracey Hogue, Bob Hardman Corner Hotel. Richmond. 8.30pm. $28.05.

LCO TRIO

Wesley Anne. Northcote. 6pm.

NERVE

MELBOURNE 2026 Brown Alley. Melbourne. 10pm. $16.97–32.84.

DESTRUKTOR + ATRA VETOSUS

Bendigo Hotel. Collingwood. 8pm. $22.95.

MIDDLE PALMS. GROUNDSWELL, POWDER BLUE

Bergy Bandroom. Brunswick. 7.30pm. $11.75.

THE SHADY PAST

Cherry Bar. Melbourne. 8.30pm.

AKAMARAKUS

The Motley Bauhaus. Carlton. 7pm. $25.83.

CLIFF RAUX.

DJ RODNEY

Freddie Wimpoles. St Kilda. 8pm.

LATE NIGHT

ORCHESTRA:

BACK TO OURS

Hamer Hall (Arts Centre Melbourne). Melbourne. 7.30pm. $89.95.

TRIBQU TRIBE + FULL CIRCLE.

JUS-ED

Howler. Brunswick. 7.30pm. $28.41–44.37.

DYKOTOMY

D’LITE VOL.2

FT: G Kawo, DJ VTKay, MAPHIA, Ōlita

New Guernica. Collingwood. 10pm. $17.19–54.26.

SALMON SISTERS. TECHNO 666

Gem Bar. Collingwood. 8pm. $18.10.

THE HILARIOUS DEEP AMAZING MELBOURNE COMEDY SHOW WITH GILLI APTER

The Toff In Town. Melbourne. 7.30pm. $50.

SALSA CASERA.

VELOUR, KEETS

Bar 303. Northcote. 7.30pm. $32.65.

BIONIC BOOGIE: THE ONLY CHILD MUSIC APPRECIATION SOCIETY

FT: Eddie Mac, Dem Large, Don Nadi Wax Music Lounge. Melbourne. 7pm. Free. DJ GRACE

The Old Bar. Fitzroy. 12am.

ETHAN CALWAY

Lulie Tavern. Abbotsford. 9pm. TONY & GAGA: AN OPULENT BIG BAND EXPERIENCE

Brunswick Ballroom. Brunswick. 8.30pm. $62.73.

BONNIE ANDERSON

Bird’s Basement. Melbourne. 7.30pm. $38.

KADIKOY MIXTAPE

Leadbeater Hotel. Richmond. 7pm. $17.50–23.50.

SIMON PHILLIPS

The Thornbury Local. Thornbury. 8pm.

GEORDIE GREEP Northcote Theatre. Northcote. 4pm. $79.90. LUTHER Hotel Esplanade (aka The Espy). St Kilda. 7pm. $10.75.

SAT 01 AUG

MILO EASTWOOD: 25 HOURS OF MILO

The Night Cat. Fitzroy. 9pm. $39.90.

SOLOMON SISAY AND HIS BAND

Paris Cat Jazz Club. Melbourne. 7.30pm. $45.

KATIE NOONAN. MARK WILKINSON

Melbourne Recital Centre. Southbank. 7.30pm. $65.

CRY CYCLOPS. TECHNO 666, CLOVEN FANG, ALMA RINK, MC JONATHON SCHUSTER

The Old Bar. Fitzroy. 8pm. $17.35.

JAMES GRIM’S WOODCUTTERS. BROOKE RUSSELL & THE MEAN REDS, ROB JONES Shotkickers. Thornbury. 2pm. $23.80.

GIRL AND GIRL. DIVERS, BUGHUNT

John Curtin Hotel. Carlton. 8pm. $27.95.

NOISEFLOOR 2026 FT: Terra Valē, Destrøy, All Monsters Are Human, Deadlock Bar 303. Northcote. 7pm. $15–25.

THE PRETTY LITTLES Corner Hotel. Richmond. 8pm. $46.

MOTGALA

The Motley Bauhaus. Carlton. 6pm. $51.65. BLOODY DIKHED FEST II

FT: The Dead Amigos, The Cigarrillos, DOSE, Dead City Ruins Bendigo Hotel. Collingwood. 6pm. $7.15–54.60.

SUNNYFUN COLLECTIVE

The Toff In Town. Melbourne. 11pm. Free. BANKSIA. GIRLS NIGHT IN, STEPPERS Northcote Social Club. Northcote. 7.30pm. $11.25–19.40.

MELB BLITZ DJS FT: DJ Randy Lipz XXX, DJ Bricolage Odeon Richmond. Richmond. 7pm. $20.

BUBBLE X TBREAK PRESENTS EPOCH.

STORMN NORM, HAM, BUBBLE DJS VS TBREAK CREW

New Guernica. Collingwood. 10pm. $25.

TILLY LOVELOCK Morris House. Melbourne. 7pm.

T.K REEVE

Edinburgh Castle Hotel. Brunswick. 8pm.

MELB BLITZ:

TYCHO BRAHE Odeon Richmond. Richmond. 7.30pm. $20–25.

WINTER GALA Hamer Hall (Arts Centre Melbourne). Melbourne. 2pm. $81.

CROSSFADER

FT: DJ Vadim. J-Red, Cargo, Wheel Buddy, Lewho, Inkswel, Matty Paxton, Sadiva, Skomes Howler. Brunswick. 7pm. $23.31–33.61.

JEMMA CHER

Bird’s Basement. Melbourne. 7.30pm. $38.

CLONE ROSES + NOASIS

Hotel Esplanade (aka The Espy). St Kilda. 6pm.

THE BRUNO MARS EXPERIENCE

Kingston City Hall. Moorabbin. 7pm. $55.

FILTH. KANINE, LIAR, IOCASTE, MORE Leadbeater Hotel. Richmond. 4pm. $49. KARAKAS

The Thornbury Local. Thornbury. 8pm. FRONT PORCH

Brunswick Artists’ Bar. Brunswick. 4.30pm. Free.

THU 06 AUG

MUKTI & REVIVAL: 30 YEARS ANNIVERSARY Howler. Brunswick. 7pm. $33.61.

WOMEN’S OPEN MIC NIGHT

The Merri Bar. Preston. 7pm.

CAMILLA. ASHA RYDER WEST Shotkickers. Thornbury. 7pm. $24.

KING BLAKEY: THE JAZZ MESSENGERS

Paris Cat Jazz Club. Melbourne. 7.30pm. $45.

JMQ THURSDAY JAZZ: REBECCA BARNARD + TIM WILSON

Golden Gate Hotel. South Melbourne. 7pm. $20.

GAUDION. CONNOR BRONDES

Northcote Social Club. Northcote. 7pm. $37.35.

HUMBE Corner Hotel. Richmond. 7.30pm. $81.50.

OLIVIA COGGAN Hotel Esplanade (aka The Espy). St Kilda. 7.30pm. Free.

PHIL TURCIO’S ODDITIES

Bird’s Basement. Melbourne. 7.30pm. $32.

HOOK TURN

Bar 303. Northcote. 8pm.

EVEYA. RIOT ACT, CRESTFALLEN

Bergy Bandroom. Brunswick. 7pm. $15.

NCM X PSEUDO: STIGMERGY

National Communication Museum. Hawthorn. 10am. $18–24.

DAVID M WESTERN. KYLE BREW Lulie Tavern. Abbotsford. 7pm. Free.

TYLA MOONCHILD

Edinburgh Castle Hotel. Brunswick. 7pm.

FRI 07 AUG

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC 30TH GALA WITH SIMONE YOUNG Melbourne Recital Centre. Southbank. 7pm. $65–95.

PROJECT ECHO: LILL CHII. CANTILEVER, 010 The Workers Club. Fitzroy. 7pm. $19.90–29.

JULIA WALLACE. RUPERT BULLARD

Grace Darling Hotel. Collingwood. 7.30pm. $20–25.

COUSIN TONY’S BRAND NEW FIREBIRD

The Night Cat. Fitzroy. 7.30pm. $40.

OUR GARAGE X REVOLVER FRIDAYS

FT: Lufer, TiNTON, T2C, Shez Kurx, Cosy, Safe, Syrup, more Revolver Upstairs. Prahran. 10pm. $20.

KAYLA BRUNO

Morris House. Melbourne. 10pm. FLESH RITUALS & SIREN SONGS V

FT: The Omega Point, ZCLUSTER, Cheap Coffins, Caitle, Veronica Vae, Vintage Vixen, Daddy Charles, Infernal Desire Machine Shotkickers. Thornbury. 7pm. $23.80.

THE AFTERLOVE WORLD TOUR

FT: RudyWade, gonedark, LeGrand, JayBenz Bergy Bandroom. Brunswick. 8pm. $28.05–33.15.

GLENN WAVERLEY & THE MENTONES

Edinburgh Castle Hotel. Brunswick. 8pm. THE FLASH BASTARD EXPERIENCE. SOULS OF AMBIENCE, QUESTIONABLE GENTLEMEN

Hotel Esplanade (aka The Espy). St Kilda. 7.30pm. $15.85.

BILLUS & NEIL E: ALL NIGHT LONG New Guernica. Collingwood. 10pm. $16.45–21.95.

EMILY BURKE–DUET

Wesley Anne. Northcote. 8pm. $40. RNB BINGO

Howler. Brunswick. 7.30pm. $45.

SELECT ALL. CAMOMILE, DIVE DOWN, GYPSY ROAD

The Old Bar. Fitzroy. 8pm. $23.50.

BEATLES LEGACY

Bird’s Basement. Melbourne. 7.30pm. $40.

LORRAINE SALVADOR PRESENTS NATURAL WOMAN: A CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN SOUL

Paris Cat Jazz Club. Melbourne. 9pm. $45.

ALEX MATHER. RENÉ LE FEUVRE

Northcote Social Club. Northcote. 8pm. $35.30.

CINEMATICS + JUMP THE FENCE Bar 303. Northcote. 8pm. $15.

THE ZERO INHIBITIONS DANCE COMPETITION

Brunswick Ballroom. Brunswick. 7.30pm. $24.48.

THE HALVES. PROPAINE, CHICK

The Tote Hotel. Collingwood. 8pm. $15.

MAXINE GILLON (BAND). BILLY CART, BOYFRIEND TV, HARD RUBBISH Gem Bar. Collingwood. 7pm. $20.

SAT 08 AUG

ARTISTS FOR PEACE: FAIRUZ, HOMAGE TO A LEGEND

Melbourne Recital Centre. Southbank. 7.30pm. $75.

SONGBIRD: THE EVA CASSIDY EXPERIENCE

Royal Brighton Yacht Club. Brighton. 7.30pm. $65.

TANYA GEORGE Wax Music Lounge. Melbourne. 6.30pm. $21.95–32.90.

NO HOPER + CRANING

John Curtin Hotel. Carlton. 3pm. Free.

RAGEFLOWER

The Workers Club. Fitzroy. 8pm. $28.60.

FLEETWOOD MAX Bird’s Basement. Melbourne. 7.30pm. $50.

GEORGE KARA Morris House. Melbourne. 7pm.

CARCINOID. REEKMIND, AGLO Bendigo Hotel. Collingwood. 8pm. $22.95.

BODY TAX. NOTCH CUT, MORE

The Old Bar. Fitzroy. 8pm. $13.30.

OSCAR’S MUSIC SALON

FT: Oscar Jimenez Quartet

Odeon Richmond. Richmond. 7pm. $38–40.

ANTHONY LOCASCIO: THE DIVINE COMEDY

Howler. Brunswick. 7pm. $44.37.

SHERRI PERRY

Wesley Anne. Northcote. 6pm.

KIER STEVENS

Edinburgh Castle Hotel. Brunswick. 8pm.

HOLLY HEBE Hotel Esplanade (aka The Espy). St Kilda. 2pm. $28.05.

ADALITA

Northcote Social Club. Northcote. 8pm.

BLACK MAJESTY. DAMNATIONS DAY

Leadbeater Hotel. Richmond. 8pm. $34.70.

CLAN ANALOGUE PRESENTS FM3

FT: Acadalius, Sussiguala, Reductionist, Aday, KOshowKo (DJ Set) Brunswick Artists’ Bar. Brunswick. 8.30pm. Free.

EMMA GILMARTIN QUARTET FT: James Sherlock

Paris Cat Jazz Club. Melbourne. 6.30pm. $45.

JEFF LANG & DOM TURNER

Brunswick Ballroom. Brunswick. 2.30pm. $52.02.

SONIC FUZE. THE PAYBACK, CATRON TRIO Bar 303. Northcote. 8pm. $20–25.

GUNK! GIRLS IN PUNK

Bergy Bandroom. Brunswick. 7pm. $21.94.

GRACE CHIA

FT: Maloney. Kudos, Viliani, DJ Mizhap, Bleach Shotkickers. Thornbury. 7pm. $29.25.

FOLKIE

FT: Thom Johnston

Ragtime Tavern. Preston. 6.30pm. Free. DISCO SALOON

FT: Bright Garbage, DJ Big Cozy, Callum Starr, Ariyo

Wheat, Wine & Whisky. Collingwood. 9pm. $20.

COUNTRY STRUTS LINE DANCING CLASS & PARTY

FT: The Smith & Western Jury Corner Hotel. Richmond. 7pm. $29.10.

THU 13 AUG

ENSEMBLE LIAISON & FRIENDS: NIGHT

SONGS

Hanson Dyer Hall @ Ian Potter Southbank Centre. Southbank. 7pm. $53.

THE NERVOUS ATMOSPHERE

FT: Zoe Barry

Gasworks Creative Precinct. Albert Park. 7pm. $40.

SABOR Y RITMO

Paris Cat Jazz Club. Melbourne. 8pm. $40.

THE SACRIFICE OF FARINELLI

Bluestone Church Arts Space. Footscray. 7.30pm. $42.

ECHO MAPPING

The Substation. Newport. 7.30pm. $35.

STELLA ANNING TRIO

Brunswick Artists’ Bar. Brunswick. 8.30pm. Free.

MOTOWN REVIVAL & THE LEGENDS OF SOUL Bird’s Basement. Melbourne. 7.30pm. $55.

PAMELA

The Workers Club. Fitzroy. 7pm. $23.50.

LUME. ATHANASIA Bar 303. Northcote. 8pm. $15.

OKAY THE DUO

Northcote Social Club. Northcote. 8pm. $24.

FRUIT BATS. JESS RIBEIRO

Howler. Brunswick. 7.30pm. $59.67.

OPEN MIC NIGHT @ THE MERRI BAR

The Merri Bar. Preston. 7pm.

GOOD MUSIC

THURSDAYS

The Old Bar. Fitzroy. 7.30pm. $10–17.

FRI 14 AUG

DUGONG JR. MARLOWE WILTON

Bergy Bandroom. Brunswick. 7pm. $25.

INTERMOOD

The Night Cat. Fitzroy. 9pm. $35.

UGLIEBOY. WAIST, FLOSSY, VIOLET

John Curtin Hotel. Carlton. 8pm. $12.25–27.95.

W.O.M.A.N: A LIVE ALBUM EXPERIENCE WITH FATAI & FRIENDS

Wesley Anne. Northcote. 8pm. $30.

ERICA BRAMHAM & ENSEMBLE

BOHEMICA: PRAGUE AFTER MIDNIGHT

Paris Cat Jazz Club. Melbourne. 6.30pm. $45.

INTERVAL

FEAT: Miguel De Bois Glamorama. Fitzroy. 10pm. $15–30.

TOAD. SUNDAY LIVINGSTONE, KRAZY SALT

Brunswick Artists’ Bar. Brunswick. 8.30pm. Free.

BLACK CAB

Northcote Social Club. Northcote. 8pm.

MARCUS KNIGHT

Morris House. Melbourne. 6pm.

THE LINDA RONSTADT SHOW

FT: Lisa Mio & Wild Dreamers

Bird’s Basement. Melbourne. 7.30pm. $40.

SHADOWS

FT: Artisah, Wiser, CJ Slayer, Atticus, Kiirii, Yulia Kasa, TXXS

Revolver Upstairs. Prahran. 11.59pm. $20.

A NIGHT OF CHAOS

FT: Escarion, The Incantus, Pendle Hill, Gull Bendigo Hotel. Collingwood. 8pm. $17.35.

SUNK LOTO

Corner Hotel. Richmond. 8pm.

BRADLEY MCCAW: BILLY JOEL – BY REQUEST

Brunswick Ballroom. Brunswick. 8.30pm. $46.92.

GOTHIC SOUNDS

FT: Dystropolis, Mankind, Wolf Arrow Rain Bar 303. Northcote. 7pm. $15.

PHIL JAMIESON

Shotkickers. Thornbury. 8pm. $50.40.

CHRISTINE ANU Frankston Arts Centre. Frankston. 8pm. $59.90.

THE MAES. ONE MORE CHORUS

Howler. Brunswick. 8pm. $38.71.

INTERMOOD

The Night Cat. Fitzroy. 9pm. $35.

DREA. JORDANE Hotel Esplanade (aka The Espy). St Kilda. 7.30pm. Free.

SAT 15 AUG

DOMA

FT: DJ Dem Large, Koletsas, Sammie

The Vic Bar. Abbotsford. 7pm. Free.

LIVE JAZZ DINNER SHOW AT DOLLY

FT: Jordan Donnelly DOLLY European Restaurant & Cocktail Bar. Melbourne. 6pm. $85.

TWINE. AWNING, KISSES

John Curtin Hotel. Carlton. 8pm. $22.85.

ALISYA RAE.

ISAGANI, MIAR Bergy Bandroom. Brunswick. 7.30pm. $28.05.

YEMO WANG

Wesley Anne. Northcote. 6pm.

ALANNA & OLD HAT

Paris Cat Jazz Club. Melbourne. 6.30pm. $45.

WHISTLE & TRICK’S WINTER TOUR

Brunswick Ballroom. Brunswick. 2pm. $41.82.

ISHAN. CANTILEVER, 010

The Workers Club. Fitzroy. 8pm. $28.60.

THE GEN Z COMEDY TALENT-O-RAMA!

The Motley Bauhaus. Carlton. 7.10pm. $32.92.

LIONS DEN 7.5: HOWLER TAKEOVER

Howler. Brunswick. 12.30pm. $54.72–64.92.

HEADROOM

FT: DJ Harvey

Sutherland + AROHA

New Guernica. Collingwood. 10pm. $21.95–27.40.

CERES WINTER TWILIGHT MARKET CERES Community Environment Park. Brunswick East. 12pm. Free.

JACK BOTTS

Hotel Esplanade (aka The Espy). St Kilda. 4pm. $49.90. PINKO COLLECTIVE Bar 303. Northcote. 3.30pm. Free.

POLTERGEIST 9000. LXRP, EQUESTRIAN Bendigo Hotel. Collingwood. 8pm. $22.95.

CHRISTINE ANU Kingston City Hall. Moorabbin. 7.30pm. $55. TIM FREEDMAN’S MOONLIT DECK. ROB SNARSKI Clocktower Centre. Moonee Ponds. 7.30pm. $65. MICHAELEAH. ABENY, PAIGE MCSMITH Brunswick Artists’ Bar. Brunswick. 4.30pm. Free.

SOUTHSIDE SOUL

Odeon Richmond. Richmond. 8pm. $10.

BËRDFEST ‘26

FT: Dërty Bërd. 3 Base Hit, Steppers, Squid Nebula, Boggle, Ba$sik B!tch

Northcote Social Club. Northcote. 6.30pm. $35.30–37.85.

SÖJOURN

Morris House. Melbourne. 7pm. THE BENNIES. SANDY SKIN, MORE Leadbeater Hotel. Richmond. 7.30pm. $44.90.

SPIRIT: SUPERNATURAL–THE SANTANA SONGBOOK Bird’s Basement. Melbourne. 7.30pm. $45.

ACID ARROW. BADLANDERS, TERESA DUFFY RICHARDS (DUO) Shotkickers. Thornbury. 2pm. $18.70.

THE ANGELS. DISGRACELAND Corner Hotel. Richmond. 8pm. $56.80. THE BLUE SOULS

Edinburgh Castle Hotel. Brunswick. 8pm.

THOM JOHNSTON

The Merri Bar. Preston. 7pm. Free. HOWLING MOUNTAIN. DRAKOREX, KING’S VENGEANCE

Cherry Bar. Melbourne. 8pm. $15.43.

FRUIT BATS

The Sound Doctor. Anglesea. 7pm. $50.

THU 20 AUG

JMQ THURSDAY JAZZ: WILBUR WILDE

Golden Gate Hotel. South Melbourne. 7pm. $20.

TYLA MOONCHILD

Edinburgh Castle Hotel. Brunswick. 7pm.

AUSTRALIAN BRANDENBURG ORCHESTRA: VIVALDI’S LEGACY Melbourne Recital Centre. Southbank. 7pm. $45–167.

RUTH ROSHAN & TANGO NOIR

FT: Amir Farid

Paris Cat Jazz Club. Melbourne. 7.30pm. $45.

DAVID M WESTERN. CHARLOTTE LE LIEVRUE

Lulie Tavern. Abbotsford. 7pm. Free.

THE SACRIFICE OF FARINELLI

Bluestone Church Arts Space. Footscray. 7.30pm. $42.

YITZHAK YEDID–NIGGUNIM: MUSIC OF THE JEWISH SOUL

Melbourne Recital Centre. Southbank. 6pm. $55.

CHARLIE IVAN BAND. MILLY STRANGE, HANNAH MCKITTRICK

Northcote Social Club. Northcote. 7.30pm. $18.40.

YACHT ROCK REVIVAL

Bird’s Basement. Melbourne. 7.30pm. $50.

OPEN MIC NIGHT @ THE MERRI BAR

The Merri Bar. Preston. 7pm.

STELLA ANNING TRIO

Brunswick Artists’ Bar. Brunswick. 8.30pm. Free.

SCI FIGHT COMEDY DEBATE: THE INTERNET CAN BE SAVED

FT: Julian O’Shea, Mish Wittrup, Bel Smith, Clancy Lester, Sammy Petersen, Maddy Weeks Howler. Brunswick. 6.30pm. $25.50–31.62.

FRI 21 AUG

AFRICUBISMO

Melbourne Recital Centre. Southbank. 6pm. $50.

SKIN THIEF. MYRIAD DRONE, STIGG

Shotkickers. Thornbury. 8pm. $23.80.

INTERVAL

FT: BURNR Glamorama. Fitzroy. 10pm. $15–30.

ALEX LAHEY Corner Hotel. Richmond. 8pm. $54.90.

15 YEARS OF ART AS CATHARSIS

FT: Ghostsmoker, Convulsing, Black Aleph, Brian Campeau, Diploid, Instrumental (adj.), Saleeha & TVISB, Lack The Low, Aphir Bendigo Hotel. Collingwood. 7pm. $38.80.

LEE JONES TRIO

Wesley Anne. Northcote. 6pm.

SUGARUSH: HEATED RIVALRY NIGHT

Leadbeater Hotel. Richmond. 8pm. $18–25.

THE AUDREYS

Brunswick Ballroom. Brunswick. 8.30pm. $46.92.

DVD. BALL, EQUESTRIAN FIELDS

Gem Bar. Collingwood. 8pm. $18.10. THE VEILS

Northcote Social Club. Northcote. 8pm. $56.80.

VIVA LA DISCOTECA

Brunswick Artists’ Bar. Brunswick. 8pm. Free.

DIZZY DAYS.

MATILDA PEARL, TUSHAR

Bergy Bandroom. Brunswick. 7.30pm. $28.05.

RITUAL DISORDER. THE WORLD AT A GLANCE, KERATIN, RAZOR BLADES, WELFARE

The Old Bar. Fitzroy. 8pm. $23.50. THE VELVET CLUB. PUREE, DAEZY

Howler. Brunswick. 8pm. $28.56.

NECTAR WOODE. TUSEKAH

The Toff In Town. Melbourne. 7.30pm. $59.90. TAXIRIDE Hotel Esplanade (aka The Espy). St Kilda. 7.30pm. $54.60.

THE LEGENDS OF SUNBURY Bird’s Basement. Melbourne. 7.30pm. $45.

GLENN WAVERLEY & THE MENTONES

Edinburgh Castle Hotel. Brunswick. 8pm. THE LAUREL CANYON SCENE–LA IN THE 1970S

FT: Miss George Paris Cat Jazz Club. Melbourne. 6.30pm. $45.

SAT 22 AUG

ENSEMBLE Q PLAY BARTOK & BRAHMS

Melbourne Recital Centre. Southbank. 7pm. $75.

JOSHUA BATTEN BAND

Brunswick Artists’ Bar. Brunswick. 4.30pm. Free.

CLANCYE MILNE PRESENTS THE MUSIC OF CAROLE KING

Paris Cat Jazz Club. Melbourne. 6.30pm. $45.

TOBY BARRETT TRIO

Wesley Anne. Northcote. 6pm.

ISABELLE SKY BAND. LUCY CLOUGH, JIM JIMS

Shotkickers. Thornbury. 2pm. $18.70.

WET KISS

John Curtin Hotel. Carlton. 8pm. $22.85.

DAILY J

Northcote Social Club. Northcote. 8pm. $39.90.

THE AUSTRALIAN NEIL DIAMOND SHOW

Bird’s Basement. Melbourne. 7.30pm. $40.

ECHO BRAVO 2026

FT: Blind Girls, Craning, Gil Cerrone, Ritual Disorder, Gush, In Her Palms, Wriding, more Bergy Bandroom. Brunswick. 2pm. $38.25.

BY STORM Corner Hotel. Richmond. 8pm. $77.10. SWORDS BROS. + RUNYAMOUTH. ELKIE KERSHAW, JAPAN FOR Bendigo Hotel. Collingwood. 5pm. $12.25.

HAYWIRE. FEEL

THE PAIN

Howler. Brunswick. 8pm. $44.37.

2000S EMO NIGHT

FT: DJ Queen Dani Leadbeater Hotel. Richmond. 8pm. $25.75.

IILYSH

Hotel Esplanade (aka The Espy). St Kilda. 2pm. $41.35.

THE MOONEE VALLEY DRIFTERS

Edinburgh Castle Hotel. Brunswick. 8pm.

SUPERMODELS. VIOLET, THE REVERIE

The Old Bar. Fitzroy. 8pm. $13.30.

THE DISTANT SOUTH. THE PLEASURES

Brunswick Ballroom. Brunswick. 8.30pm. $36.72.

THU 27 AUG

OPEN MIC NIGHT @ THE MERRI BAR

The Merri Bar. Preston. 7pm. THE TOBY AITKEN DUO

Wesley Anne. Northcote. 6pm.

THE SACRIFICE OF FARINELLI

Bluestone Church Arts Space. Footscray. 7.30pm. $42. CHRIS JOHNSTONE QUARTET Bar 303. Northcote. 9pm. $20.

FLOPPENHEIMER

The Motley Bauhaus. Carlton. 8.30pm. $10.63.

FRI 28 AUG

LIAM BYRNE & LAURA VAUGHAN

Melbourne Recital Centre. Southbank. 6pm. $55. MONTAIGNE. ULLAH, HANNIE DAY

Corner Hotel. Richmond. 8pm. $50–55.

GRIM RHYTHM. SWEET NOTHING, DOG WATCH Bendigo Hotel. Collingwood. 8pm. $22.95.

BAD NEIGHBOUR. WIN BIG, DIVE DOWN

Bergy Bandroom. Brunswick. 7.30pm. $22.95.

DRAG BINGO: GABRIELLA LABUCCI, ABRA KADEBRA Kingston City Hall. Moorabbin. 7.30pm. $20.

MIKE RUDD + TIM GAZE

Wesley Anne. Northcote. 8pm. $44.

SAMBA REGGAE PARTY

FT: Ras Jahknow Band, Sambrazuka, Paulo Almeida & Band Howler. Brunswick. 8pm. $28.41.

THE HEIGHTS. FOOL ME TWICE, SPILLKIT

Hotel Esplanade (aka The Espy). St Kilda. 7.30pm. $14.80.

SAT 29 AUG

STRIKE A CHORD 2026

Melbourne Recital Centre. Southbank. 2pm. $50. MONTAIGNE. ULLAH, SHERRI PARRY

Theatre Royal Castlemaine. Castlemaine. 7pm. $50–55.

THE NIGHT CREATURES PRESENT

THE GRAND JAZZ DINNER SHOW

FT: The Night Creatures DOLLY European Restaurant & Cocktail Bar. Melbourne. 6pm. $145.

HEARTLINE. NIGHTLIGHT, EAST CAPRI, NIKA

The Workers Club. Fitzroy. 7pm. $29.90.

GLENN RICHARDS

Hotel Esplanade (aka The Espy). St Kilda. 4.30pm. $44.40.

CAPTIVES. TINY RED HOUSES, COPPERHEAD

Bergy Bandroom. Brunswick. 8pm. $31.15.

NASH LEE TRIO Wesley Anne. Northcote. 6pm.