Chunky Move's Risky New Show thrills Melb Festival

An Act of Now
Chunky Move
Melbourne Festival
18-27 October 2012

This review re-printed kind permission Stage Whispers

Beautiful and risky, disturbing and passionate are just some of the ways in which to describe Chunky Move's new contemporary dance piece, An Act of Now. As the very first production by the company's new artistic director Anouk Van Dijk, An Act of Now is a thrilling moment for anyone who cares about dance and its possibilities.
The show begins with audience members placing headphones over their ears and walking along a sloping field at the outer edge of the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Voices whisper words of warning, or reassurance, in our ear. Dancers guide the audience down the sloping field to the stage in what is an atmospheric start. Music pounds into our ears and up through the floor of the stage. There are times you will wish you could get up and dance yourself, other times when you are glad it is not you trapped within that glass set. Eight dancers in hoodies, and loose, urban clothing appear inside the smoky glass box. They could be individuals waiting for something to arrive, or members of a gang, and the effect is an uneasy one. They could be any of us.
Once the dancing begins, it is fierce, powerful even dangerous. Every part of the glass set is used. Dancers hang from the rafters, cling to the 'glass' panels, and come up out of the floor, legs first. Women dance with muscular men in exchanges that are dangerous-looking, but these women are also quite strong. Highlights are plentiful. Dancers lie together on the floor, and twirl upwards in a wave formation. Another time they are slapping their arms and legs on the stage, or writhing as though they are all having nightmares. I kept looking at their arms and legs to check for bruises, so frenetic and physically challenging were their moves. The intensity of their dancing even had me worried about their welfare at certain points. How did they get through without any injuries? The answer is: they didn't. One dancer had to leave early on due to an injury.
Certain audience members just sat and watched, mouths gaping. It is such an intense, dark piece of work. It will make you feel a whole range of emotions. The final moments are about hope and relief for audience and dancers alike. Absolutely not to be missed.

Cool Dude Thurston Moore at Hamer Hall

Thurston Moore,
Supported by Kieran Ryan
Arts Centre, Hamer Hall,
Melbourne Festival
Oct 25

This review is re-printed kind permission of Stage Whispers

Ex-Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore is a musos' musician, rated as one of the world's greatest guitarists and for one night only he brought his new band to Melbourne's Hamer Hall for the Melbourne Festival. Arriving onstage to little fanfair, and still jetlagged, Moore launched into songs from his 2011 Demolished Thoughts LP. From jangly pop to blues-tinged rock, and with his trademark cool vocals, Moore still bears the musical character and spirit of the great Sonic Youth. In fact, seeing this concert shows just how much that band was shaped by him.
For the audience, this was a new way to see Moore. He has been to Melbourne before, playing gigs at the Big Day Out and grungy bandrooms with the 'Sonics', in front of a mosh pit of swirling arms, legs and boots. Almost in defiance of the genteel Hamer Hall, his audience refused to stay seated, with many patrons going back and forth to the bar for more beer. You can't take Sonic Youth out of Thurston, and you can't take pub culture out of his audience.
What makes Moore an exciting artist is his songs and the sounds he extracts from his guitars. He can play sweet, catchy indie songs about friendship and then unleash guitar discord that sounds as though the apocalypse is arriving on the back of a swarm of jet-powered wasps. The long slides into guitar fuzz and feedback is well known to anyone with a Sonic Youth album, and it's interesting that Moore still incorporates this into his new work with the new band, Chelsea Light Moving. It might make me sound like a geek, but these moments of sonic anarchy are more like agony to me. I can't abide guitar feedback, personally, and it does get a bit pretentious, if not painful to the ears.
But Moore is trying different things, incorporating a concert harp, and violin into songs like 'Orchard Street', 'Blood Never Lies', and 'Circulation' giving them a sweetness and folk-like feel. The guitar-playing is still super-hot, though.
Those few who left before the encore missed out big time: Moore previewed a new song from an upcoming album that is as incendiary as Sonic Youth at its very best. Apparently the album is out next March. I'm excited.
On stage, Moore played alongside Keith Wood (gtr), Samara Lubelski (bass),John Moloney (drums), and Mary Lattimore on harp.
Support act Kieran Ryan impressed with a full band, with even more instruments than Moore, and a sound with shades of The Smiths and Arcade Fire.