Radio Birdman/Hard-Ons
Manning Bar, July 5-7
When a band announces a farewell tour it’s usually best to assume there’s a hidden disclaimer: “unless we change our minds at some point, which we probably will”.
Fifty years on, Radio Birdman are on a farewell tour.Credit: Anne Laurent
With this gig, Radio Birdman are saying goodbye while celebrating 50 years since inception, so who knows whether they mean it? (Superfan Anthony Albanese waxed lyrical on the band’s importance to parliament in 2018 and urged the ABC to buy and screen a Radio Birdman documentary, so there could feasibly be a PM sighting at one of the shows.)
Supporting will be fellow Sydney punk-rock royalty Hard-Ons – no slouches in the longevity department themselves, with 42 years as a band – so expect an old-school rock’n’roll throwdown.
Alice Ivy
Oxford Art Factory, July 12
At age 12, the first song German-born, Melbourne-based artist Alice Ivy (aka Annika Schmarsel) learned was Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water. But if you go to this show – which launches her brand-new third album, Do What Makes You Happy – expecting riff-heavy rock, you’ll probably come away disappointed. What you’ll get is immaculate, “summer vibes” pop from an ARIA-nominated electronic producer who throws a feel-good party that’ll have you considering blowing off work the next day.
Alice Ivy throws a feel-good party with her pop vibes.Credit:
Guests include Sydney-based singer-songwriters Tiffi and Mikayla Pasterfield, but the real star of the show will be Ivy’s expert blend of funk, hip-hop, R&B, soul and dance, which draws from disparate influences ranging from Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross to the bright psychedelic sampling of the Avalanches and J Dilla.
TV Girl
Hordern Pavilion, July 17 and 19
For all the brouhaha about the evils of TikTok, the app does have a few things going for it. Case in point: enabling songs from any era or genre to become surprise viral hits that go on to generate enormous streaming numbers.
Self-described “hypnotic pop” trio TV Girl are one such semi-obscure band to suddenly gain new levels of fame thanks to the social media platform. Their 2014 song Lovers Rock, which features a looped sample of the intro to the Shirelles’ 1960 B-side The Dance Is Over, hit algorithmic paydirt in 2022. More than 3 billion streams later, the so-hot-right-now Californians will be playing their ’60s-influenced, sample-heavy, Gen Z-friendly indie-pop at the Hordern twice, after being upgraded from a single show at the Roundhouse (thanks again, TikTok).
Kim Gordon
Art Gallery of NSW, July 18-19
As a member of New York City’s Sonic Youth, Kim Gordon pushed the boundaries of what rock’n’roll could be for 30 years, becoming the epitome of indie-rock cool in the process. When that band – and her marriage to Sonic Youth co-founder Thurston Moore – ended in 2011, Gordon kept busy with new bands, visual art exhibitions, acting gigs and writing a memoir.