LIVE WIRE – Sydney Live Music Guide May 17th

This Friday May 18th, the Refugee Action Coalition is presenting a night of awareness and entertainment in support of refugee rights and end mandatory detention at The Standard. The night, which aims to draw attention to asylum seeker issues, will be headlined by Australian hip-hop’s most vocal advocates for political and social change The Herd and Sydney/Colombian good-times proponents Watussi. The night will also feature sets by Mohsen Soltani & Ember, Dog Trumpet and ROSiE. Profits from the night head towards the Refugee Action Coalition’s current campaign. Sydney pop starlet Catcall will be playing at the Oxford Art Factory to launch her much anticipated debut album The Warmest Place which has been receiving nothing but blistering reviews for its beauty, ingenuity and all round great songwriting. She’ll be backed by an amazing new band and it’s a night that promises to offer barrages of fun, featuring support from locals Palms. Across town, local trio Tales In Space will be playing a set of their blipped out atmospheric electro-disco-pop which ranges from the quirky and upbeat to being fragile and heartfelt. All this is done with the aid of live guitar, drums, bass and vocals augmented by sequencers, samples, loops and synths and they’re playing alongside The Dreamboats and Fox at Hermann’s Bar.

On Saturday May 19th, in what will be his last show before he bunkers down to write and record new material for a third studio album, singer-songwriting wonderboy Josh Pyke will be playing an intimate show at the York Theatre, Seymour Centre. His last album Chimney’s Afire debuted at number one on the Australian Aria Chart and placed two songs in 2008 Triple J’s Hottest 100. Check him out with his band before he bunkers down to write his next masterpiece. Over at the Annandale Hotel you can catch seminal 90s alternative rock group Crow. Known during the 90s for their electric and unpredictable live shows (largely owing to the nature of nervy frontman Peter Fenton) the group have reformed in recent years and are rocking the music once more that saw them tour with Jeff Buckley, Nirvana, Pavement and Sonic Youth during their heydays. Their 2010 release Arcane saw them return to much adulation and they’ll be performing material from that album as well as the classics with support from special guests, Peg, Medicated Youth and Post-Lobsterman.

Finally, on Sunday May 20th, Melbourne R&B singer Daniel Merriweather is playing a sideshow from his support of the sold out Kimbra show at the Standard, where he’ll be playing with a four piece soul band with additional back-up singers to ensure the night is extra soulful and smooth. The lad has worked with notable musicians such as Phrase and Mark Ronson and he’s got a bunch of accolades including a slew of ARIAs and an MTV Europe award. Merriweather will be previewing material from his upcoming EP with jazz-pop duo Toucan as support on the night.