In an electric gig, this performer proved that she isn’t bothered about norms

MUSIC
Tinashe ★★★
Forum Melbourne, January 7

With its memorable request – “is somebody gonna match my freak?” – Tinashe’s single Nasty was one of 2024’s most viral songs. The American singer also jumped on board the tail end of Charli XCX’s inescapable Brat summer, appearing on the remix of B2b – just two girls in the club together.

Tinashe performs at Forum Melbourne on January 7, 2025.Credit: Richard Clifford

But Tinashe has been around for much longer than these recent successes, having released her debut album in 2014. She’s honed a unique blend of pop, trap and R&B since. Her most recent album, 2024’s Quantum Baby, was her first as an independent artist – these days, it’s all on her terms.

Take, for instance, the fact that Nasty plays not once, not twice, but thrice at her sold-out Forum show – as the intro to the whole shebang, then as backing music for her four dancers while she’s absent, then immediately after that as the grand finale. Clearly Tinashe is not bothered about norms – if she wants it three times, then three times it is.

Tinashe is a dancer as much as she is a singer, and it’s in that realm that she impresses most live. Unlike many other modern pop stars, she’s as adept as her backing dancers, often joining them to mesmerising, sometimes erotic effect. Her pipes are pitch-perfect, and she also flows seamlessly into rapping on tracks such as Link Up.

The show focuses on visual effects, with an ever-changing screen featuring looped videos that vary from simple to abstract.

Tinashe is a dancer as much as she is a singer.Credit: Richard Clifford

There’s a playful use of shadow as both Tinashe and her dancers are silhouetted, with a platform providing a multilevel approach. A cameraman zooms in on Tinashe, then the dancers, then the crowd, stalking the stage to create a festival-like effect on the screen – a nice touch that whips the room into a frenzy.

It is a short set, at just over 70 minutes, and for all Tinashe’s energy, the transitions are sometimes disjointed, with the lack of a live band (which Tinashe has had on past tours) meaning there’s a certain dynamism missing. Some songs are shortened or changed – early single 2 On is missing its buzzy opening, and feature track All My Friends is reduced to a snippet. It feels more like a night at the club than a live show, but maybe that’s the point. And for the dancing alone, it’s worth the price of admission – with some of the best moves in the game, Tinashe is hypnotic.
Reviewed by Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen

MUSIC
The Roots ★★★★★
Sidney Myer Music Bowl, January 1

Just when I thought I knew hip-hop, the Roots came to Melbourne and spun it around to show it from so many angles that it was dizzying.

Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter performs at Sidney Myer Music Bowl on January 1.Credit: Richard Clifford

With a 10-man line-up that includes original founders Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter on lead vocals and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson on drums – not forgetting the showmanship of Damon Bryson (aka “Tuba Gooding jnr”) – the sheer energy of the band was enthralling.

Within seconds of the band walking on stage, people were jumping and raising their hands as they were pulled into hip-hop that dips into funk, visits reggae, toys with psychedelia and constantly calls on jazz.

It really could go anywhere. A thumping beat from Questlove on the drums leads into Kool & the Gang’s funk anthem Jungle Boogie and a riff from “Captain” Kirk Douglas’ lead guitar turns into a cover of Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin.

The sheer energy of The Roots is enthralling.Credit: Richard Clifford

But what really gets the crowd going is the Philadelphia-bred band’s original songs, especially Step Into the Realm with the lift and fall of its slow-burn piano chimes and chorus crescendo.

The song hails from their 1999 album Things Fall Apart (named after Chinua Achebe’s seminal novel), and it’s just one of the many tracks the Roots call upon from their extensive back catalogue stretching to the ’80s.

Many would only know the Roots for their role as the house band on Jimmy Fallon’s late-night TV show, but on stage at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, they are adored as hip-hop royalty.

Before he signs off, Trotter calls the Roots “the most hard-working band”, and it’s hard to deny. His constant rapping and rhyming, all with fine-tuned breath control, barely lets up. Questlove bobble-heads to the beat of his drums and never quits until the moment the music ends, when he stands to throw his sticks into the crowd.
Reviewed by Kate Jones

MUSIC
Peninsula Summer Music Festival ★★★★
Various venues, until January 10

Bringing the breathtaking vistas of the Mornington Peninsula together with astutely selected fine music, the Peninsula Summer Music Festival remains a deservedly popular and enticing holiday proposition.

Jacqueline Porter performs at Peninsula Summer Music Festival. Credit: D. Wilkinson

Once again, seasoned co-directors Melissa Doecke and Ben Opie have ensured this year’s festival celebrates its strengths, especially the encouragement of emerging performers and the promotion of new Australian music.

Rising musical stars featured in the festival curtain-raiser, the first of three concerts under the umbrella of the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra. In the atmospheric ambience of St John’s Flinders, violinist Helena Kozdra, violist Neil Wang and bassist Jude Hill from ARCO’s emerging artists program, the Young Mannheim Symphonists, offered a varied program permeated with optimism.

Georgina Lewis performs in Life in Light Years.Credit: D. Wilkinson

Accompanied by pianist Donald Nicolson, Kozdra gave a polished account of the first movement from Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.3, summoning the courage to present a brilliant cadenza. By way of contrast, Wang revelled in the Russian romanticism of Glinka’s Viola Sonata, projecting assurance and empathy in its first movement, while Hill enjoyed negotiating the technical challenges of the final movements of Dittersdorf’s Concerto No.2 for Double Bass.

Contemporary Australian music found a place in another concert featuring ARCO’s principal string players, led by Rachael Beesley. Commissioned by the orchestra, Wavelength by Brisbane-based composer Nicole Murphy is scored for historical basset clarinet and string quartet. Based on the composer’s experience of visiting the Cocos Keeling Islands, this evocative score is marked by an expert handling of texture and the unique sounds of the unusual instrument adeptly played by ARCO artistic co-director Nicole van Bruggen.

Melbourne composer Stuart Greenbaum’s Piano Sonata No.3 Life in Light Years enjoyed a wonderfully engrossing and energetic world premiere at the skilled hands of Georgina Lewis. A vast, eclectic minimalist soundscape cast in 19 sections and lasting some 70 minutes, the sonata demands enormous stamina from the player. Lewis was more than equal to the task, brilliantly illuminating this kaleidoscopic creation.

Other opening weekend highlights included a program titled Love & Life in the newly built Flinders Civic Hall. Soprano Jacqueline Porter lent ardent advocacy to well-known lieder (Schumann’s Frauenliebe und Leben and Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock) in effective arrangements for voice and string quintet by Shauna Beesley, with van Bruggen’s clarinet bringing added lustre to the Schubert.

Such appealing diversity set amidst splendid scenery can only leave listeners wanting more.
Reviewed by Tony Way

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