Romy Vager and Chloe Alison Escott- Northcote Social Club

I was back at the Northcote Social Club tonight, this time with Belinda, to see a co-headline show with Romy Vager (RVG) and Chloe Alison Escott (The Native Cats) being put on by Chapter Music. We arrived just as Sleeper and Snake (the folk side project of Amy Hill and Al Monfort of Terry) were finishing their set.

Chloe Alison Escott was next up on the stage, and played solo on a keyboard. She did songs off her newest album Stars Under Contract along with some of her favorites that she felt weren’t getting enough plays on streaming services. There was some fun banter with members of the crowd along with several amusing anecdotes throughout the set.

Romy Vager was the final act of the evening, playing solo on electric guitar. She opened with "Vincent Van Gogh" and her set consisted of a mix of unreleased tracks, a few RVG songs, and a cover of a song by The Triffids. The RVG tracks were quite stripped back with "Cause and Effect" (a personal fave of mine and the first time I've heard it live), "Feral Beach" and "Photograph," which was the final song of the night. I always love seeing Romy live and it was a privilege to listen to the reworked arrangements to some of her songs.

Cry Club- God I'm Such A Mess Album Tour

Tonight Ash and I headed to the Northcote Social Club for Cry Club's album launch tour, which had been delayed a month due to lockdown and COVID restrictions. The opening act for the evening was three piece Melbourne pop punk band Baby Shower. Their lead singer was on electric ukulele and the set included their new single "Look At Me I'm An Asshole" and a cover of Delta Goodrem's "Born To Try." Next up was the drag king Jesse Dean, who did lip sync performances to The Killers' "Mr Brightside" and Doja Cat's "Boss Bitch" (complete with an outfit change).

Cry Club hit the stage and launched the evening with a new song (there were several sprinkled throughout the set). However, tonight was a celebration of the duo's excellent debut album God I'm Such A Mess, and we were treated to hearing the album played in full. Highlights for me were "DFTM," "Don't Go," "Lighters," "Quit," "Nine Of Swords," "Robert Smith" and the last song of the night, the album closer "Two Hearts." The band are fantastic live, full of energy, and had everyone dancing and singing along in the crowd for most of the set. Definitely check them out if you get the chance.

 

Here's the video for "Two Hearts"

Farmer's Daughters

Farmer's Daughters is one of the new restaurants in the 80 Collins Precinct that opened earlier this year. Kate, Sally and I have had a couple attempts trying to eat here that were thwarted due to lockdowns, but tonight we finally got into The Restaurant for our Gippsland Getaway set menu dinner for $110 per person.

 

All the dishes in each course were part of a seasonal farm-to-table journey through the Gippsland region of Victoria. Even my cocktail, the Farmer's Collins, contained Gippsland Vermouth, pink grapefruit and elderflower (it's fantastic). The set menu can be tailored to meet different dietary needs, which happened for us having a vegetarian and pescatarian at the table.

The first course was the Lakes Entrance crudo with preserved tomato, Cafresco Organics vegetables and chargrilled O'Connor rip cap on a metal skewer.

Next was my absolute favorite course of the night with the house baked soda bread and cultured cream, and baked Baw Baw Alpine trout with mountain pepper cream and trout caviar. The dark soda bread was so good that we ordered more to eat and then had them chop up a loaf three ways that we could take home. The cream sauce and the trout were also excellent - I would eat that dish any day of the week.

The next two courses were the Sugarloaf cabbage with clam butter and Snowy River Station seagrass, and the Campfire Corner Inlet fish, with Japnut pumpkin and marjoram.

 

Our final main dish was the Terramirra Park venison with baked quince and pine mushrooms, which tasted great.

For dessert we had a little Carob and mandarin pavlova, which was a light dish to finish the menu with. Overall we really enjoyed all the courses of the meal along with the excellent service from the staff as they explained the origins of each dish when they brought it out to us.

Farmer's Daughters is located at 95 Exhibition Street, Melbourne. The Deli on the ground floor is open Tuesdays - Saturdays for lunch and dinner, with The Restaurant on level 1 open for dinner on those days.

Financial New Year's Eve with Karen From Finance

Last night a group of us from work headed to 170 Russell to celebrate Financial New Year’s Eve with Karen From Finance. Having come out of lockdown a few weeks ago there were still some public health directions in place such as wearing masks, social distancing and having bar tables and stools on the dance floor to try to prevent dancing. However, this didn't stop people from having fun just like at a regular drag show.

Each of the performers did two numbers and DJ Argonaut played tracks both before and in between the performance sets. The evening opened with RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under season 1 finalist Karen From Finance doing a Dolly Parton medley that included "Jolene" and "9 to 5." Next was Aysha Buffet dressed as a scout with balloons tied to the back of her shorts lip syncing to audio of a scout helping a senior citizen to get a badge that merged into Cardi B's "Up." Then D Flowers came out and did a Britney Spears medley which included "Baby One More Time," "Oops!...I Did It Again," "Stronger" and "Toxic."

During the performance break we all danced together to DJ Argonaut and enjoyed being out in a club and not in lockdown at home. Karen From Finance came out first for the second performance set in her sequin shark outfit from Drag Race and did a number to the Jaws theme and Lady Gaga's "911" (complete with a severed leg). Aysha Buffet was up next with a performance to "Heartbreak Anthem" by Galantis, David Guetta and Little Mix. Then D Flowers finished up the set with a Beyoncé Coachella lip sync featuring "Single Ladies" and "Love On Top."

As we neared midnight all the girls came back onto the stage and counted us down into the new financial year. We were then treated to the debut of Karen From Finance's new single and video for "Out Of Office," which features a lot of her costumes from Drag Race. We all had such a great time and it was almost like we were back in pre-COVID times.

Here's the video for Karen From Finance's debut single "Out Of Office":