Sean and I went to the NGV today for their latest world premiere exhibition Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines. Haring and Basquiat were both part of the New York City art scene in the 1980s and their works involved social and political commentary using a variety of media including street art, paintings, sculptures and other objects.
This exhibition explored each artist's career and how they intersected with each other through more than 200 artworks and materials from their archives. They both developed their own visual language of signs and symbols in their works. Many of Basquiat's pieces featured a crown, while Haring's common motif was the crawling baby. Both artists were friends, and occasionally collaborated and referenced each other in their work.
Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines is on at the NGV until 13 April 2020.
There was huge anticipation in the crowd for tonight's show with country crooner Orville Peck on his first Australian tour. The show sold out so fast it was upgraded from Howler to the larger Corner Hotel. Melbourne singer-songwriter Gena Rose Bruce opened the show playing her dreamy and melancholy songs as a duo on two electric guitars.
Orville Peck came out in a gold fringe mask and powder blue embroidered suit with pink button down shirt and started the evening with "Big Sky." He and his fantastic band played nearly every song off his debut album Pony, ranging from the ballads "Dead Of The Night," "Queen Of The Rodeo," "Roses Are Falling," and "Kansas (Remembers Me Now)" to the upbeat "Winds Of Change," "Turn To Hate," "Buffalo Run" and the barnstormer "Take You Back (The Iron Hoof Cattle Call)."
Orville was such a great showman on stage as he intro'd each song, joked around, and even stated he wanted to move to Australia and work in a koala sanctuary. We were lucky enough to be treated to a new, unreleased song called "No Glory In The West." He also played covers of songs from some of his country idols with "Something To Brag About" by Tammy Wynette and George Jones (which he sang with band member Brea Salvede), "Ooh Las Vegas" by Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris, and for the encore "Fancy" by Bobby Gentry. It was such an entertaining show and Orville's voice and talents brought together people from different backgrounds to watch him perform live.
It has been six years since Vampire Weekend last played in Australia, and tonight's sold out show at the Forum was surprisingly their first ever headline show here. This was supposed to be a Falls Festival side show, but it became their only show in Victoria as the Lorne site was shut down due to extreme weather conditions and bushfire fears in the lead up to New Year's Eve.
Belinda joined me on the absolutely packed main floor of the venue. There were no support acts so the crowd was ready to go when Vampire Weekend hit the stage and started the set with "Bambina" off their latest album Father Of The Bride. It was an epic concert that lasted nearly three hours as they played songs off all four of their albums. I had no idea they
were a bit of a jam band live with multiple drummers, guitar players
and keyboardists.
"Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" was played a few songs in and nearly became the undoing of the entire show due to a loss of power to the guitars and bass twice mid-song. This led to a couple of lengthy delays as the road crew tried to fix the problem. Thankfully the third time was a charm and they made it through the whole song to the relief of everyone in the room. The band sounded amazing and frontman Ezra Koenig’s singing was just like the
vocals on the albums. My highlights were the older tracks from the first two albums, including "A-Punk," "Oxford Comma," "Holiday," "White Sky," "Horchata," "Cousins" and "Giving Up The Gun." With the stage backdrop of a giant globe that rotated on its axis, Ezra talked about current events during the show, including the impact of the Australian bushfires and his support for US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
The main set finished with "Jerusalem, New York, Berlin," and for the encore they started with "Sunflower." Ezra then asked for audience requests, which included "Diplomat's Sun" and "The Kids Don't Stand A Chance." To close out the evening they played "Ya Hey" as two large inflated globes bounced through the crowd on the floor of the Forum.
