Late to the Party: Five of Melbourne’s Best Gigs in September

This month, rapturous queer pop and techno from Kazakhstan sit alongside one of the concert events of the year, when Fleetwood Mac teams up with Australia’s favourite NZ uncle, Neil Finn.

Collarbones
It’s been a five-year wait for the new Collarbones album Futurity, out this Friday. The Sydney-Melbourne duo produces the kind of bombastic pop R’n’B that deserves to sit high on the charts. But its accessibility comes with a heavy dose of sonic experimentation, and – most-importantly – heart.

The album’s delicate piano-and-vocals opener Church slowly fades into a sea of insect chirps, rustling leaves and rushing wind before a cavernous silence opens up for the record’s second track, AI – a cathedral of hope, awe, swirling strings and devastating bass. The visceral one-two punch of the opening tracks is indicative of the dynamism the continues throughout the record, which includes a wide breadth of production techniques – from liquid drum and bass to the sun-drenched torch song Everything I Want.

The album is in part based on the ideas presented in the seminal 2009 book Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity, in which theorist José Esteban Muñoz argues concerns of the pragmatic present – such as same-sex marriage – serve assimilationist goals, rather than encouraging the development of yet-to-be-discovered queer expression.

Futurity’s intellectual underpinnings may run deep, but they’re given room to breathe through breathtaking productions and singer Marcus Whale’s rapturous set of pipes.

Collarbones play the Curtin on September 21. Tickets here.

Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are surely one of the most storied acts in the rock canon. The band has a tumultuous and soap-opera-esque history filled with well-documented drug use, inter-band romantic relationships and a revolving cast of members.

Last year Lindsey Buckingham – considered a core member of the line-up, along with Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, John McVie and Stevie Nicks – left the band (Rolling Stone reports he was fired). For this new Australian tour, Buckingham’s been replaced by beloved Crowded House frontman Neil Finn and former Tom Petty guitarist Mike Campbell.

Despite the turmoil, the band is responsible for some of the most beloved rock’n’roll songs of the 20th century, from ’70s blues rock to shimmering ’80s pop and devastating ballads. The band’s towering discography includes classics such as Dreams, Rhiannon, Little Lies and Go Your Own Way. Having Uncle Neil on board is just the icing on the cake. Reports from the first Melbourne shows include a duet between Nicks and Finn on the latter’s classic Split Enz track I Got You.

Fleetwood Mac play Rod Laver Arena on September 4, 7 and 9. Tickets here.

Nazira
For young Kazakhstanis, experimental techno club night ZVUK is a rare opportunity for expression in a country where political freedoms are virtually non-existent and the culture remains broadly traditional. The night is run by boundary-pushing techno DJ Nazira, a 28-year-old woman who discovered the harder side of dance music while studying molecular biology in Glasgow. What she picked up from that city’s famed Sub Club, she transported back to Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty, where she staged parties that subverted the city’s mainstream club scene.

Nazira’s sets can be obtuse, abrasive and unsettling – ranging from EBM to industrial and leftfield techno. But by embracing the outer reaches of club culture, she’s created a safe space for the young residents of Almaty to explore their own diverse identities.

Nazira plays The Gasometer Hotel on September 6. Tickets here.

Leikeli47
With her face constantly shrouded by a balaclava or bandana, Leikeli47 is an imposing figure. It’s a look that may intimidate some, but the rapper says the anonymity the masks afford is freeing – and whether you see the face coverings as a villainous disguise or a superhero’s cowl says as much about you as it does about Leikeli47. (It’s a costuming trick used to similar effect by revered rapper MF Doom.)

Leikeli47 says the masks also help to keep the focus on the music in an industry that frequently trades on the objectification of women (a sentiment shared by pop star Billie Eilish, known for her oversized clothes).

Independent women and single mothers populate the songs on her 2018 album Acrylic. The title refers to the long polished nails worn by African-American women in the Brooklyn neighbourhoods where Leikeli47 grew up, and the salons in which they counsel each other and build community in the midst of trying social and economic circumstances. Yes it’s political, but it’s also a righteous, riotous party record.

Leikeli47 plays the Espy on September 27. Tickets here.

Troye Sivan
by Liam Armstrong
Perth-born popstar Troye Sivan is heading home. He’s here on his Bloom tour, in support of his best-selling sophomore album of the same name, which was released last year.

Following the success of his debut studio album Blue Neighbourhood in 2015, the 24 year old has taken to the stage with Taylor Swift, partnered with Charli XCX and starred in the acclaimed 2018 film Boy Erased alongside Nicole Kidman (which was directed by fellow Aussie Joel Edgerton).

Bloom – Sivan’s second LP – has attracted praise from critics and fans for its unapologetic and honest expressions of queer desire. And for fans, this tour is an opportunity to belt out the choruses to i’m so tired..., Dance To This and My My My! in the stadiums and arenas they were destined to be played in.

Troy Sivan plays Margaret Court Arena on September 25. Tickets here.