Hands up who is super excited for a short week & an extra extra long weekend! I'm still catching my bearings but when has it already become Easter! Now with the realisation of how the dates have fallen, I will admit I am a little slow at planning any annual leave so my long weekend will be majority spent in Sydney but with my little cousin visiting from Scotland in July my annual leave will be better spent elsewhere! Easter Monday I'm also going to check out the Easter Show & I'm just a teensy bit excited as I've not been for years!
Whats everyone's plan for the Easter Long Weekend?
Well last Friday I finally got a chance to see Illy & boy was he fantastic! He really has picked up his game over the years & like a fine wine he can only get better with every performance! Spanning across 5 albums Illy was able to mix up & play new as well as old tracks. He played a number of tracks from his latest album "Two Degrees" but with a solo career spanning over 8 years he also stole the show with rapping tracks such as "It Can Wait", "Tightrope", "Swear Jar" & "Youngbloods". Throughout the set he also rapped from his new album tracks such as "Hazard to Myself", "Catch 22", "Two Degrees", "Extra Extra" & "Forget it " to name a few. The icing on the cake was his mean cover from Triple J Like a Version which is a mix of tracks from Silverchair, Hilltop Hoods, Paul Kelly & Flume (Which if you are keen to see a live recording of you can so by clicking --> here) before ending the show on a complete high returning on the stage to sing crowd favourite & triple platinum winning "Papercuts".
The Enmore theatre was such a great venue for the sold out show, as wherever you stood you could see Illy running & jumping across the stage pumping the audience up. The best part of it all is after all these years Illy is still humble, throughout the night he mentioned to the crowd that this is his largest selling concert & thanked us for the support over the years. Unfortunately I was unable to see any support acts Maribelle, Spit Syndicate & Paces & all from my doing as I misplaced my drivers licence & had to cab it home quickly to retrieve my passport. But all up it was a fantastic set!
I also managed to score presale tickets yesterday for Queens of the Stone Age, they are coming to Australia for Splendour in the Grass but only recently announced these sideshows. They are performing at the Hordern Pavillion on the 19th July, it's going to be a big crowd I'm sure as the presale sold out in under half an hour! QOTSA are also tying their Australian tour this year to the release of their latest album which is still without title. Splendour in the Grass 2017 also sold out completely last week, so it will be a scramble for all 8th May for their resale option.
This week's track is a sweet sweet folky tune that I have been obsessing over for a good couple of months now, prepare to fall in love with these vocals as they truly are something else! Wrap your eyes & ears below:
Julia Jacklin is a 26 year old artist from The Blue Mountains in Sydney. Growing up in a family of school teachers, she was actually musically inspired by Britney Spears & from the age of 10 took up classical singing lessons. "Pool Party" which was one of Julia's first singles released at the beginning of last year before her official debut album "Don't Let The Kids Win" was released in early October last year. "Pool Party" has especially over the past few months become my ultimate favourite track & now in the past month that I've owned her debut album I've become quite a fan of her tracks "Lead Light", "Coming of Age", "L.A Dream" & "Small Talk". It was only late last year I became a fan of Julia Jacklin after hearing her self album titled track "Don't Let the Kids Win" through her appearance on Triple J's Like A Version as well as her cool cover of "Someday" by The Strokes.
She gained her audience through her first two singles "Pool Party" & "Coming of Age" & since March last year she has been touring extensively through the US, UK, Europe & Australia. Continuing on the wave of that touring success Julia Jacklin has released another tour for this April & May across Sydney (25th May; Metro Theatre) & Melbourne (24th May; Corner Hotel).
Holy Holy actually did a beautiful cover of this above track for the APRAs last week & it is absolutely delicious, if you are keen to give it a listen you can --> here
Hope you like the track as much as I do! Have a fantastic rest of your short week & have a safe/happy Easter!!
Cheers Amy
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