Imagine being an international tourist visiting Sydney while Vivid festival was on. You’d be chillin at Circular Quay, paying an excruciating amount of money for dinner at one of those harbourside restaurants, then suddenly the Opera House starts changing colour as the sun goes down. You look across the harbour and the sandstone walls of the MCA start to melt.
Trying to escape this unwanted trip, you accidentally find yourself following a ‘light walk’ through The Rocks. Was there something in the calamari you just ate? Anyway, we live here, so we know what’s coming, but it would be nice to be surprised by something once in a while.
Kicking off tomorrow night, Vivid 2014 is boasting a pretty damn impressive lineup of acts both local and international – Midlake, The Pixies, Liars, Night Slugs, Phuture and so much more. Our pick for this first weekend of Vivid festivities however comes from right here at home.
First appearing at Astral People’s own OutsideIn, Since I Left You – A Celebration Of The Avalanches is a live rendition of The Avalanches seminal turn of the millenium album Since I Left You, a comprehensive performance of that entire album cover to cover. Does that sound awesome or what?
First a bit of a history lesson – created by Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi in 2000, Since I Left You was a reaction to the electronic music that came out of the previous decade. The antipodal answer to DJ Shadow’s …Endtroducing, the album was made up of 3500 vinyl samples and like …Endtroducing it had come to define the contemporary style of local electronic music.
It was the Avalanches’ only full-length album, Since I Left You, but reached the top 10 of the UK Albums Chart in 2001 and the group received nine nominations and won four categories, including “Best New Artist – Album” in the ARIA awards that year.
Bringing it all full circle are Jonti and a ragtag crew of eclectic musicians, playing guitars, strings, harmonising vocals, live percussion, brass, kazzoos and a live horse. Actually, I think they might just use a sample for the horse noise on Frontier Psychiatrist. Nevertheless, this is a show that no Avalanches fan should miss – nor any fan of modern Australian music.
Tickets from $40.00 (worth every cent), kicking off this Saturday the 24th of May at 8:30pm in the Joan Sutherland theatre of the Opera House.
FIND OUT MORE:
▲ VIVID PAGE ▲ BUY TICKETS ▲ ASTRAL PEOPLE
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