Play to make Melbourne warmer: Lapkat gigs in July
Sometimes, usually around July, Melbourne likes to remind us the next stop is Antarctica. It never really digs far below 10 degrees in the city but somehow it still always seems like kind of a surprise...I'm responding, as usual, with a lingering headcold/ache. This August I'll escape to the warmer side of the planet, for now, I have the opportunity to warm up with a couple of nice gigs in July with some inspiring people, so here's the plug: Monday coming, something I love to do, playing mixes of international poets and multilingual voices in the context of a local poetry gig. This time a true classic, La Mama Poetica, a monthly poetry night that has been around forEVER. La Mama is a sweet old lady of a theatre - cosy, historic and ghost-visited - in the inner Italian burg of Melbourne, Carlton. Run by Andy Jackson these days, July features Myron Lysenko, Laura Jean McKay, and from Brisbane up north, Julie Beveridge and Graham Nunn. I'll be playing multilingual spoken word and gentle minimal global sounds in between the poets and to warm up the wine (some ghost whispering may be necessary.)
The following night Tuesday 17th it's up-tempo as I'm sharing the speakers with the excellent Turkish vinyl specialist Mondo Loco, at 'Nostalgia for an Age to Come' in the city. Saca La Mois (Moses Iten of the Cumbia Cosmonauts) is running this weekly night of 'Retro-Futurist Beats and other influences' in the saloooooobrious sexy secondfloor loft of Ferdydurke (top floor, 239 Lonsdale Street, just around the corner from where I used to live many years ago, between the Chinese and Greek 'precincts' - used to be my playground) This Tuesday I'll be playing new and (very) old voices from Turkey, the Middle East and Egypt, from 8. Next Tuesday 24th I'll be joined by Simon Winkler of Triple R RM fame. If you're in town, come down!
And then, I'll be packing for leaving, for explorations in the world of summer and poesy.....stay warm, stay happy, stay smart! Keep on listening.
