CASS MCCOMBS

Perth Festival Gardens
Monday, February 20, 2012

Over the last few years California-born singer-songwriter Cass McCombs has built a good-size following by holding back: his voice is a well-worn croak; his folky arrangements are unabashedly old-fashioned; his songs usually build toward nothing stronger than a shrug. And on Monday night he filled up the Perth Festival Gardens: not only with the usual self-effacing indie rockers, but also with some more vociferous fans (proof, perhaps, that his appeal extends beyond the indie subculture). One concertgoer was even overheard loudly describing McCombs as “phenomenal!”

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE

Perth Festival Gardens
Saturday, February 18, 2012

From those humble days in Bellingham, even the members of Death Cab For Cutie would never have expected that they would one day be regarded as one of the most consistent live bands going around. The band clearly take their live show seriously as they recreate their records with ease from their alcohol free stage where they ensure that as a punter, you always know what you are going to get.

U-RAM CHOE

Metal Beast

A selection of kinetic sculptures by U-Ram Choe are on display at the John Curtin Galley at Curtin University until Friday, March 2, as part of the Perth International Arts Festival.

SMRTS

smRts Have Friends And Visit Them At Night
Heartless Robot

If the old adage “everyone in rock just rips each other off” is to be believed then the true test of artistry is moving past simply “ripping off” those influences and recombining what you’ve learned into such an idiosyncratic package that it becomes distinctively yours. With smRts Have Friends And Visit Them At Night, supremely talented local outfit smRts come very close to doing just this.

Moving past the most obvious of their garage-rock influences, Predrag Delibasic leads his band into bold new territory, mixing those very influences into a nearly unrecognisable pastiche of hypnotically pop-centric songwriting.

PASSENGER

All the Little Lights
Black Crow Records / Inertia

UK-based Mike Rosenberg, known on-stage as Passenger, has been adopted as an honorary Aussie: he recorded his latest release All The Little Lights in Sydney, spends more time here than in his home country, and you may have just seen him busking in Freo over the weekend.

BAND OF SKULLS

Sweet Sour
PIAS Recordings / Liberation

When English rockers Band Of Skulls released their 2009 debut record Baby Darling Doll Face Honey, they “had no idea that anyone would come to our shows” according to vocalist and guitarist Russell Marsden but, the Southampton three-piece’s tune I Know What I Am made Single Of The Week on iTunes, Friends made the cut on the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack and they went on to tour extensively and support Muse in 2010.

KILLER ELITE

The Feather Men Get Heavy

Directed by Gary McKendry
Starring Jason Statham, Clive Owen, Robert De Niro and Firass Dirani

Killer Elite opens with the disclaimer that the story you are about to see is real. It’s 1980 and the war in the Middle-East threatens oil reserves and the world economic crisis worsens.

EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE

Life is Beautiful Again

Directed by Stephen Daldry
Starring Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock

From the director of The Hours and Billy Elliot comes a remarkable film dealing with the small and tragic repercussions of an outrageous and grand scale catastrophe.

CONTRABAND

Contrabad

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Ben Foster, Giovanni Ribisi, Kate Beckinsale

Contraband is an odd film. Not odd in a David Lynch sort of way, but just odd in general.

ST JEROME’S LANEWAY FESTIVAL

Saturday, February 11, 2012
Perth Cultural Centre