Shellac’s first Australian shows in nearly two decades, Billy Bragg paying tribute to Woody Guthrie and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo are just some of the musical artists playing at the Melbourne Festival in 2012.
Also included on the bill are Paul Kelly, James Ledger, Genevieve Lacey and the Australian National Academy of Music in a show called Conversations With Ghosts which sees nearly twenty musicians on stage paying tribute to the works of W.B. Yeats, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Judith Wright, Kenneth Slessor and Les Murray with some newly composed Kelly material thrown into the mix.
A cruise will take place on Friday, October 26 with music provided by Puro Instinct from the USA and Melbourne’s NO ZU – which looks like it could be the most interesting way to spend $30 at the whole festival.
Dreamy Antony and the Johnsons return to Melbourne with a “never-to-be-repeated concert” which sees the band backed by a 44-piece orchestra in what promises to be a highlight of the festival.
Also returning to Australia after confusing the hell out of the crowd at the Meredith Music Festival last year is Big Freedia & The Divas, this time playing with Theesatisfaction. Be prepared to put your “azz everywhere” at this show.
Melbourne’s iconic Federation Square will celebrate its tenth birthday over the weekend of 25 – 28 October with a whole bunch of events taking place on the stage as well as free public tours of the square and cool stuff happening at the various venues throughout the architectural wonderland.
Duo Amal will cross an unnecessarily difficult to cross cultural border as two classical pianists from Israel and Palestine take to the stage.
Other events include shows from 24 Hours in Lapa, Astra Chamber Music, Tim Fain and the Monash University School of Music, Hahn-Bin, Membra Jesu Nostri, Pierrot Lunaire, Speak Percussion (whose set will include John Cage’s exaggeration on minimalist composing, 4,33) and Text of Light.
This article would set a new Noise11 record for length if I were to list all the non-musical highlights of the festival, so I’ll just tell you to head on over to The Melbourne Festival’s official site where you can check out what else is on and buy tickets to anything listed here and more.
The festival takes place at various venues from October 11 – 27.
Follow the author Tim Cashmere on Twitter.
Have no idea what I’m talking about? Check out some of the artists below:
Antony and the Johnsons – Hope There’s Someone:
Big Freedia – Azz Everywhere:
Shellac – Prayer To God:
Lee Ranaldo – Off The Wall:
