MUSIC
Jelly Roll ★★★
Rod Laver Arena, October 28

The audience starts counting down aloud alongside the timer. A voiceover recites a monologue that appears onscreen about self-acceptance, disregarding judgment and absolving past actions. The crowd’s attention is suddenly diverted to a smaller stage at the back of the stadium. They cheer as the tall, heavily tattooed country singer Jelly Roll wades his way through the audience to reach the spotlight. A flaming frame resembling the shape of a house lowers from the ceiling as he starts singing, I Am Not Okay.

The 40-year-old Tennessee-born singer and rapper, whose real name is Jason Bradley DeFord, started his career in hip-hop before moving into country music, winning the Country Music Award for New Artist of the Year in 2023.

He’s been candid about his struggles: addiction, depression and spending nearly a decade in and out of jail for drug possession and robbery, among other charges. He gives a shout-out to two audience members holding signs disclosing how long they’ve been clean of drugs, which inspires him to spontaneously perform Winning Streak in their honour.

It’s clear faith has played a key role in his recovery, as he talks to the audience about the healing power of music. His lyrics are littered with references to biblical terms, such as “hallelujah”, “devil” and “sinner”, synonymous with country music and the culture of America’s deep south.

The set list includes songs from albums released over the last five years, including 2024’s Beautifully Broken as well as Whitsitt Chapel (2023), Ballads of the Broken (2021) and A Beautiful Disaster (2020). He brings support act Shaboozey back onstage to perform their joint single Amen.

The band and back-up singers dance along to the tracks enthusiastically, with the harmonies, drums, guitars and keys heightening the country music fervour. Liar and Son of a Sinner get the audience excited and singing along.

He appeases Melbourne fans with covers of Keith Urban’s Somebody Like You and The Angels hit Am I Ever Going to See Your Face Again. He even encourages the drummer to do a shoey, twice! A medley of his favourite American hits, including How You Remind Me from Nickelback and Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd, feels random given he has a huge catalogue of his own music to draw from.

Jelly Roll finishes his set on the smaller stage as water pours down on him - as if to wash his sins away. He descends into the crowd, his fans reaching out for one last moment of connection before he disappears.

Reviewed by Vyshnavee Wijekumar

MUSIC
M.I.A. ★★★
Forum Melbourne, October 26

On her first visit to Australia since 2019, the genre-bending visionary M.I.A. brought her trademark blend of party and politics.

Performing in Melbourne after appearing at Adelaide’s nostalgia-tinged Harvest Rock festival, the iconic London artist sounded anything but old-fashioned, even with a set mostly comprising tracks from her first three albums, Arular (2005), Kala (2007) and MAYA (2010). Cuts from the game-changing Arular in particular, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, sounded as relevant and forward-thinking as ever.

Supported by fire-cracking First Nations MC Miss Kaninna, M.I.A. began her set with the clanging South Asian dancehall beats of Bamboo Banga, a fan favourite that set the tone for the night. Flanked by silver-clad dancers, all dressed in her controversial – supposedly 5G-resistant – Ohmni fashion line, M.I.A. performed a high-energy set that belied the fact that she’s now 50.

Launching into her inherently political back catalogue, the provocative MC promised the crowd, with tongue in cheek, a party free from “heavy subjects”. While there was really no way she could keep that promise, she did deliver on the party, rapping against a backdrop of lasers and kaleidoscopic animations, looking almost exactly as she did when she released her debut album 20 years ago.

The ecstatic crowd was hit with all the anticipated classics, including Bucky Done Gun, Boyz, Galang and Bad Girls, as well as deeper cuts like XR2 – dedicated to Julian Assange – and Story to Be Told, culminating in the expected closer of M.I.A.’s brilliant but overplayed juggernaut Paper Planes. Without an encore, it felt like a slightly anticlimactic ending to the night.

I wonder how much fuller the Forum would have been if the gig was on a Friday or Saturday night instead of a Sunday.

Nonetheless, despite some technical issues, M.I.A.’s fans, young and old, embraced the icon’s long-awaited return. Let’s hope it’s not another six years before she comes back.
Reviewed by Kelsey Oldham

MUSIC
James Blunt ★★★
Rod Laver Arena, October 26

James Blunt’s show opens with footage of 9/11. The inauguration of Barack Obama. The fall of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Firdos Square, Baghdad. The launch of the iPod. The landmark moments of the ’00s. Then on comes Blunt, acoustic guitar in hand, playing High, the opening track from his 2004 album Back to Bedlam.

Of course it’s ironic. Blunt is famous for writing schmaltzy songs and getting roasted online for it, and he’s second only to Rick Astley in his embrace of his punchline reputation. But this irony might be lost on an audience who plainly love him.

This tour marks the 20th anniversary of that album, and he plays it straight through. It was one of the best-selling albums of that decade, and spawned the single You’re Beautiful, which remains a wedding standard. His banter is initially full of self-deprecation: “How many of you are here ’cause your girlfriend dragged you along?” (It’s a common line and one Keith Urban delivered a few weeks ago). And another: “I wouldn’t go to a f---ing James Blunt concert myself. Not unless they paid me. And they did.”

Frankly, I don’t like to see him doing himself down like this. He’s not that bad, dodgy lyrics aside. He acknowledges You’re Beautiful is about being high in a train station and following a woman around, and the image of three wise men with “a semi by the sea” remains hilarious. His voice is scratchy and thin, but he’s aged into it, in a Rod Stewart way. He throws himself into it, delivering hokey lines with conviction.

The beginning of the set is fun. Blunt moves between guitar and piano, and the audience carry the choruses – timelessly, warmly, with the weight of 20 years of not admitting publicly that this is alright, actually.

Albums and live shows are structured differently, however. After You’re Beautiful, he announces, “Team, that’s the hit. It’s all downhill from here.” With all the best stuff out of the way in the first 20 minutes, Blunt cycles through the rest of the album and in the second half plays material from the rest of his career. Later songs like Cuz I Love You and OK, full of Millennial whoa-oahs, are a more contemporary kind of bland that I have less patience for.

And as his confidence grows I like him less. I want the self-deprecating James back, not the running-around-the-audience, “Let me see you jump!” James. It doesn’t suit him, and I’m increasingly bored by the generic middle-of-the-roadness of it all.
Reviewed by Will Cox

MUSIC
Convergence ★★★★★
Australian String Quartet, Melbourne Recital Centre, October 27

Setting the seal on its 40th anniversary year, the Australian String Quartet has pondered the big issues of life and death with engaging dedication and probing insight.

Schubert’s Death and the Maiden was the obvious choice to finish such a program, but Paul Stanhope’s String Quartet No. 1, Elegies & Dances proved an ideal point of departure. Its initial sliding between pitches suggested a quiet keening, yet it was not long before first violin Dale Barltrop cajoled the group into rhythmically taut dancing, characterised by deft and varied string writing, before eventually returning to the opening’s sombre mood.

Even 80 years on, Benjamin Britten’s String Quartet No. 2 in C major, Op. 36 pays tribute to Henry Purcell with an extraordinary freshness and ingenuity. Clearly energised by Britten’s style, the players leant into the first movement’s athletic lyricism and gave plenty of bite to the strangely muted fast second movement.

Built on a ground bass, the final Chacony (based on a work of Purcell) included an eloquent cello soliloquy by Michael Dahlenburg alongside beautifully shaped contributions from violist Chris Cartlidge and second violin Francesca Hiew.

A source of endless colour and expression, the ASQ’s matched set of instruments by legendary 18th-century maker Guadagnini give vibrancy and depth to all the quartet’s music-making.

This was particularly evident in the Schubert where the ability to morph through emotions from exultation to reverie to fear brought touching immediacy to the famous score. All the work’s rhythmically vigorous moments were energetically treated and sensitively counterpointed against Schubert’s supreme melodic gift, especially in the second movement variations and the trio of the scherzo. The tarantella finale ended with an apt sense of euphoric exhaustion.

Despite some challenges over the years, the current ASQ’s united artistic voice bodes well for the next 40 years.
Reviewed by Tony Way

JAZZ
Melbourne International Jazz Festival – closing weekend
October 24-26, various venues

A procession of jazz heavyweights descended on Melbourne for the closing weekend of this year’s Melbourne International Jazz Festival. The vagaries of artist and venue availability meant that many of the festival’s biggest shows were shoehorned into the final few days, including all three Hamer Hall concerts and Jazz at the Bowl.

Gregory Porter’s show at Hamer Hall sold out swiftly – a testament to the US singer’s ever-expanding profile as a performer. He’s one of those rare jazz artists whose critical acclaim is matched by immense popular appeal, and his concert on Friday revealed an artist at the peak of his creative powers.

Porter’s upbringing was steeped in gospel music, and the spirit of that tradition (along with the faith that informs it) coursed through every song. His luxuriant baritone and effortless projection lent his delivery a velvety sheen, but the suave demeanour never came at the expense of emotional authenticity.

When he urged us to empathise with those less fortunate (Take Me to the Alley) or shared the wistfulness of unrequited love (Hey Laura), his lyrics resonated with palpable sincerity. And when he urged us to clap or sing along – accompanied by a marvellous band that mirrored Porter’s conviction and innate optimism – we willingly surrendered to the mood of spiritual uplift.

Bill Frisell’s six shows at JazzLab were also quick to sell out, but fans who missed out on tickets had another chance to see the renowned guitarist as part of the Jazz at the Bowl line-up on Saturday.

Somehow, Frisell and his companions (bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston) made the cavernous stage at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl feel almost intimate. Their hour-long set flew by as they roamed through a characteristically eclectic repertoire encompassing traditional folk, a Beatles tune and a Bond movie theme, along with some alluring Frisell originals. The guitarist’s tone was equally expansive – lushly reverberant one minute; grainy and distortion-flecked the next – and the trio’s empathic rapport made the music feel like a convivial, constantly-evolving conversation.

Later that evening, bassist Linda May Han Oh – whose career has reached stellar heights since she moved from Perth to New York – presented the world premiere of her new work, Invisible Threads. A festival commission, this ambitious and compelling suite was loosely inspired by personal and familial experiences, but with an overarching theme of human connection. Accompanied by evocative animated projections and the striking electronic manipulations of voice artist Pamela Z, it incorporated passages of sweeping majesty, vigorous momentum, spiky dissonance and tender lyricism.

On Sunday, two of the festival’s international headliners performed almost back-to-back at Hamer Hall.

In the afternoon, American singer Samara Joy (who at just 25 has already won five Grammy awards) made her Melbourne debut, fronted by a superbly polished septet. Recovering from a cold, Joy curtailed her set slightly, but the extraordinary range and elasticity of her voice – and the inventiveness of her phrasing – were still very much in evidence.

And on Sunday night, Japanese pianist Hiromi set off sonic fireworks in the company of the brilliant American string quartet, PUBLIQuartet. Hiromi’s phenomenal technique and restless creativity were on typically flamboyant display – extravagant glissandi, impossibly fleet runs, plunging chords – while her body added spontaneous exclamation marks. The string quartet magnified the kaleidoscopic drama with thrilling precision, but also brought out a more delicate side to Hiromi’s playing, with interludes of ravishing beauty and eloquence.

On her previous visits here, I’ve sometimes found Hiromi’s untrammelled virtuosity a little exhausting. This time, it was exhilarating – akin to basking in sunbeams that radiated from the stage to envelop the ecstatic audience – and made for a fitting farewell to this year’s festival.
Reviewed by Jessica Nicholas
NOTE: No star rating has been applied

THEATRE
Control ★★★★
Keziah Warner, Theatre Works Explosives Factory, until November 1

Despite imagining future worlds, science-fiction typically explores present questions about human life and society. Works in the genre can date rather quickly, so it’s a tribute to the dramatic imagination of playwright Keziah Warner that her sci-fi theatre triptych, Control, feels as vital and pertinent now as it did at the Red Stitch premiere six years ago.

This revival comes to us from the indie newcomers at flatpack, founded by director Olivia Staaf in 2023. Staaf works in science communication and brings a clarity to both the storytelling and the play’s triple vision of how technology and human behaviour exist in a complex feedback loop.

A retro-futuristic vibe does pervade the Big Brother-style space odyssey in the opening act: four misfits are aboard a capsule bound for Mars, their every move captured on camera and witnessed by an audience back on Earth.

It’s been some time since that style of reality TV has been – democratised isn’t the right word – supplanted, perhaps, by social media influencers broadcasting their lives to the universe.

Big Brother was old hat in 2019, to be honest, and I thought then, as I think now, that intentional camp – of a Galaxy Quest or Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs variety – is the best way to tackle the comedy.

Actors Seon Williams, Faran Martin, Lachlan Herring and Alex Duncan don’t quite go all in with the lampoon of time-worn sci-fi tropes (or the obnoxious performativity of reality TV contestants). There are laugh-out-loud bits, but they may need to forge a stronger comedic conspiracy with the audience to prevent it being the weakest link.

The following two acts slide further into the future and deeper into a dramatic dance between tech and human psychology.

We’re thrust into a digital archive in Melbourne, where a human worker (Williams) deletes people’s unwanted memories under the noses of dancing robot overlords. And the climax is a poignant duet between a programmer (Martin) and a freshly minted childhood education android (Williams) which – like Blade Runner and the Pygmalion myth before it – probes the relationship between creator and creature, the problem of consciousness, and whether being “human” is more about how you’re treated than any quality you may possess that’s outside your control.

Martin and Williams are especially fine in the closing scenes, but the acting is strong across the board – sensitively tuned to conflicts arising from our use (and abuse) of tech, from the curse of big data and surveillance culture to the wonder, and the threat, of AI.

Lo-fi but evocative design elements – Silvia Weijia Shao’s versatile set, Tomas Gerasimidis’ highly differentiated lighting, Lili Wymond’s glitchy sound, Ami Salinas’ static-filled projections – create three totally distinct sensory panels for the actors to play within.

A brisk and thought-provoking, funny and ultimately moving sci-fi production from an indie company worth watching.
Reviewed by Cameron Woodhead
This review was written from a preview

MUSIC
Impressions of Paris X MSO ★★★★
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Hamer Hall, October 23

A young Venezuelan conductor and a young English pianist born without his right hand walk into Hamer Hall. The result? An energising, life-affirming program with two famous works by Parisian composers.

Rodolfo Barráez, only 31 but already in demand across the globe, directed the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with infectious enthusiasm in César Franck’s Symphony in D minor and Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand with soloist Nicholas McCarthy.

Before leaving for Paris, the premiere of Newport Lakes by James Henry, the MSO First Nations composer in residence, gave the audience a touching evocation of somewhere closer to home. For the most part, Henry’s score intrigued the ear with its gentle but quickly changing harmonic and instrumental colours, including his interesting underscoring of bass passages with tuba contrasting with harp and high percussion.

McCarthy brought impressive confidence and flair to Ravel’s Concerto, dazzling those present both with his stunning technique and touching pianistic poetry, especially in the dizzyingly difficult cadenzas. Both he and Barráez did their best to mitigate the work’s passages of heavy-handed orchestration that at times threaten to overwhelm the solo contribution.

From the murky opening through the jazz-infused central section and the reminiscences of Bolero, the orchestral playing was consistently colourful and included many perfectly pitched cameos including those by principal bassoon Jack Schiller and principal trombone José Milton Vieira.

Barráez charmed the orchestra into a particularly sensual, adrenalin-fuelled account of the Franck Symphony. Abundant, impassioned surges of sound that pointed every phrase in the outer movements were offset by the delicate pizzicato and harp-writing in the second movement, surmounted by Michael Pisani’s haunting cor anglais melody. Such a rapturous performance can only raise hope that Barráez will return to Melbourne soon.

The maestro’s ardour and McCarthy’s single-handed determination left listeners with more than musical inspiration.
Reviewed by Tony Way

The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from Jason Steger. Get it delivered every Friday.