Oh Mercy- Melbourne Music Festival

Today is the last day of the Melbourne Music festival so I headed into the city to watch Oh Mercy play at the closing concert in City Square.  As always it was great to see them and we got a mix of old and new songs in their 45 minute set.  Of the new ones I really liked "Confessions," and as always it was good to hear "Broken Ears," "Get You Back" and "Lay Everything On Me."  Alex did a brief and amusingly awkward interview with Dave O'Neil after they finished playing.  The exciting news for the band is that they will be the opening act for Crowded House's Australian tour in November.  I look forward to cheering them on from front and center at Rod Laver Arena.

Here is the new video for "Keith St"

Melbourne On Stage

Today I spent my lunchtime at City Square watching the free Melbourne On Stage musical performances, which were part of the Melbourne Music festival.  We got to see a medley of songs performed by the cast of Hairspray The Musical, an aria sung by Emily Wang from the upcoming Melbourne Opera production of Madame Butterfly, assorted songs from past musicals sung by music theatre students from the Victorian College of the Arts, and the cast of Mary Poppins- The Musical singing "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."  All the performances were really amazing and highlighted the quality of theater productions that come through town.  There was also a running theme of So You Think You Can Dance Australia throughout the hour with judges Jason Coleman (choreographer of Hairspray) and Matt Lee (Mary Poppins), as well as Season 1 winner Jack Chambers (Hairspray) all up on the stage.

The Frowning Clouds- Melbourne Music Festival

After work today I headed down to City Square on Swanston Street to see The Frowning Clouds play a free show as part of the Melbourne Music festival.  The festival is running from 29 September - 10 October and provides the opportunity to see acts from different musical genres at various venues around the city (and mostly for free).  It is a true showcase of what the Melbourne music scene has to offer.

It has been a while since I've seen the The Frowning Clouds play live, and their set was filled with songs from their debut album Listen Closelier, which I finally managed to pick up a copy of after the show.  Highlights of the set were "Purple Heart," "Snake Charmer," and "I Saw You."  It was fun to see a band playing outside in the middle of the city with people and trams going by in the background.