MICF- Tommy Little & Gossling, Rose Callaghan and DeAnne Smith

For tonight's Melbourne International Comedy Festival shows I started at The Famous Spiegeltent at the Arts Centre to see Tommy Little & Gossling perform Heartbreak & Hilarity. Combining the music of Gossling and Tommy's stand-up, it was a great mix of storytelling and songs about love and heartbreak as Tommy talked about trying to get his unicorn. Touching at times with a hilarious musical ending, this was a fantastic and unique show you should definitely check out if you get the chance during its limited run.

Next I went to The Forum for Rose Callaghan's Will You Accept This Rose? As you can guess from the title it was themed around The Bachelor, which is one of my guilty pleasure tv shows (both the US and Australian versions). Rose even got Osher Gunsberg to record the intro and voice overs throughout the show. Along with stories about run-ins with former contestants, Rose also spoke about the adventures of her dating life, with one particularly spectacular story to finish the show.

My final show for the evening was North American comedian DeAnne Smith's Post-Joke Era at Taxi Riverside. DeAnne's show was very entertaining and touched on topics such as depression, gender and identity, equality and how straight men should be treating their women. There were so many mike drops it was hard to keep track, and she finished with a great story about what can happen when you respond to someone's texts to the wrong number.

Oh Mercy- Last Melbourne Shows For 2013

The last two nights have been spent at the Northcote Social Club with Tash and Mary (on Thursday only) to catch the last Melbourne shows for a while by Oh Mercy before they relocate overseas.  It was coined as a celebration and both evenings were a bit of an Oh Mercy fest.

The opening act was Slow Dancer (aka Simon Okely) accompanied by James Harding on bass and Myles Wootton (The Panics) on drums.  They played an excellent set both nights.  There is such a great groove to all of Simon's songs, especially the single "Leave It To Me" (see video below) which has been a favorite of mine since I first heard it over a year ago.  I can't wait for his debut album Surrender to be released sometime this year.



Next on the bill was Alexander Gow solo on electric guitar playing some older Oh Mercy songs.  He began with "Hold Out Your Hand" and "Blue Lagoon" from Great Barrier Grief.  I was so thrilled to hear "Salvation Jane," which is one of my all time favorites and a b-side from one of their first singles.  Interestingly it was "In Good Time" (only played on Thursday) and "By The Collar," the two Privileged Woes tracks, that sounded the strongest to me in the set.  This could be because I haven't heard them live in years.

Alex did covers of songs by Kieran Ryan (Thursday) and The Panics (Friday) and Jae Laffer of The Panics returned the favor by singing his version of Oh Mercy's "Labour Of Love."  Alex also invited Gossling (aka Helen Croome) onto the stage to sing their duet "La Minute De Silence," which was recorded for the Melodie Francaise album of French songs sung by Australian artists.  He finished the set with the Deep Heat b-side "Lady Eucalyptus."

Here's the video for "La Minute De Silence," which was shot in Paris a couple months ago:


For Oh Mercy's set Alex returned to the stage with Rohan and began with "Europa" before Eliza and Simon joined them for "Lay Everything On Me."  The set was mostly songs off Deep Heat including my favorites "Rebel Beats," "Pilgrim's Blues," "My Man," "Still Making Me Pay" and "Drums."  We also got a few Great Barrier Grief tracks with "Keith St," "Stay Please Stay" and Kieran Ryan's lovely cover of "Doldrums."

The funniest moment of the two shows revolved around Simon's birthday on Thursday, which his band members completely forgot about until he announced it on stage.  The reason they gave was that they did so many fake celebrations of his birthday at shows that they didn't know the actual date.  To make up for it they brought out a birthday cake (complete with a penis drawn on the top) and Jagermeister shots on Friday as we all sang "Happy Birthday" to Simon.

The band was quite sentimental at both shows since these will be the last Australian shows for at least a year.  Alex thanked all the familiar faces in the crowd who have supported them over the years.  They finished the night with a ripping version of The Waterboys' "Fisherman's Blues" before taking a final bow on stage.  It will be a new chapter for Oh Mercy with Alex and Rohan moving to the US for a while but I have great faith that we will get their best album yet from the experience.

Oh Mercy- Great Barrier Grief Tour

Last night Mary and I met up at Mexicali Rose for dinner before heading to the Corner Hotel to see Oh Mercy's sold out show.  The first band of the evening was The Ocean Party, who I have been wanting to see live for a while now.  They had a good set of indie music with some standout tracks, and contained members of other bands that I saw at the Kins residency a few weeks ago.

Next up was Gossling (aka Helen Croome).  Her songs and band were decent but I just couldn't get past her voice, which sounds like a chipmunk.  It was like they had some sort of helium effect on the microphone, but no, it was her real voice.  Very unfortunate.

Before Oh Mercy took the stage they played a very good selection of classic Aussie music over the PA while we waited.  The band started their set with "Keith St" and then played my favorite song off Privileged Woes, "Broken Ears" next.  We were very fortunate to hear all of the new album Great Barrier Grief played live.  Highlights were "What You Do" with a great guitar solo by Simon, "Let Me Go," "Tenderness," and having Eliza sing lead vocals on "Doldrums." They finished the main set with "Stay Please Stay," and for the encore did a ripping cover of Leonard Cohen's "Memories" before finishing the night with "Lay Everything on Me."  It's exciting to see them become more popular and to sell out the Corner was a great accomplishment.

Here's the video for the fabulous "Stay Please Stay"