Concert Review: KACEY MUSGRAVES, The Tivoli, Brisbane, Australia

 *scroll down for a gallery of the event!* 

Plot twist: I secretly moved halfway across the world just so that I could see my favourite artist perform twice on the same tour. 

Not quite, but the fact that Kacey Musgraves was doing the Australia leg of our Oh, What A World tour a mere six months after I’d seen her in London (you can read about that here) was definitely an added bonus. I’d also heard plenty of good things about the venue it was going to be held in, The Tivoli, so I was keen to see how that compared with the venues I’d frequented back in the UK.

I’d had to travel a long way to get down to Brisbane, so was surprised that there was still a queue winding around the block by the time I got there, with doors only eventually opening after 7pm. The Tivoli was indeed a pretty venue, looking like an old theatre, although I was dismayed to find that there were absolutely no seats available, as any of you who have read my reviews before will know just how much I dislike general admission standing, particularly as it usually means I have nowhere to sit and write down my review. 

I chose to head up to the balcony, thinking it would be a bit less squashed up there (spoiler alert: it wasn’t) and waited for the opening act to come on stage. Bahamas, aka Afie Jurvanen, entered with a John Mayer-esque guitar intro, with this style seeming to be his vibe, which I wasn’t mad about.

As he played songs like So Free and No Expectations, this John Mayer vibe merged more with Mac DeMarco – long groovy guitar intros and interludes and a hell of a lot of funk, with Afie warning us ‘Watch out, this next one’s funky’ as he launched into Opening Act (The Shooby Dooby Song) which indeed did have a lot of shooby doobies. 

Afie showed off his impressive vocal range and guitar skills on songs like Caught Me Thinkin, Lost In The Light, and All The Time, and I was sad to see so many people on their phones. Like me, it was understandable that most of them were there to see Kacey, but I always try to be there and be present for the opening act as they are often very talented musicians themselves. 

The excitement was palpable as we waited for Kacey to grace the stage, which she eventually did in silhouette form. Dressed in a sixties style dress and thigh high boots, she began plucking away at the recognisable opening chords of Slow Burn. I appreciated how the set began the way the album does, and almost expected to carry on singing right into Lonely Weekend for song two. 

This wasn’t the case, but the second song was my current favourite (aren’t they all?), Wonder Woman. I just love the lyrics like ‘I can show you strong, I can fight for you / I can try to move mountains if you want me to / But baby, I ain’t Wonder Woman’ so hearing it live made my heart sing. 

It was here that she stopped to greet the crowd, promising us that she wouldn’t mispronounce Brisbane as I’m sure many an artist does. One of the best things about this concert, even more so than when I had seen her back in London, was the aesthetic set design, both in terms of lights and the screens behind her. During Butterflies, the screens shone circling butterflies and flowers, with Kacey taking a moment to revel in the fact that fans this side of the world knew the words to her songs, letting us sing along to the chorus as she held out the mic. 

Lonely Weekend and Happy & Sad were backdropped by beautiful colourful natural landscapes, with the latter being exactly how I felt at that moment – oh so very happy to be seeing Kacey perform live and yet very sad to know that it would soon be over, and who knew the next time I would be at her gig? 

Fans got a treat with Merry Go Round, the song that very much put Kacey on the map a few years ago, with subsequent hits and albums allowing her to stay there. Kacey’s guitarist got to go to town on the intro to High Time, one of my favourites from Pageant Material which now has an even deeper meaning for me.

Again, the set design astounded me as Golden Hour was literally backed by a golden hour projected onto the screen behind Kacey and her band, which just made it all the more vibey. This part of the set ended with what I think is one of Kacey’s underappreciated but incredibly fun songs – Die Fun – with Kacey riffing on the notes in a different style to on the album which was super cool to hear. She truly is a fantastic vocalist and I cannot fault a single note she sung throughout the concert. 

This led us into the acoustic section of the set, a red curtain pulled over the screen and the band coming to form a semicircle around Kacey. They kicked off with Mother, before moving into Oh What A World. The trippy music video for this song had just been released that day, which made me even more appreciative of the banjo solo (watch the video to find out why!) This again is a beautifully written song with lyrics that really make you think. 

At this point, Kacey took a good look at the crowd, admiring a fans t-shirt with a picture of Kacey as Barbie from the Met Gala just a few days prior, and asking how people could live in a country where things like Huntsman spiders exist (I ask myself the same thing every day). With the realisation that there could well be one in the venue that very moment, she said simply ‘F*** that’, a sentiment I certainly can agree with. 

We got a fun throwback with Family Is Family, followed by Love Is A Wild Thing which exploded back into an electric set midway through, which I thought was very well done. There had obviously been a lot of thought put into this tour and setlist, and I for one certainly appreciated it. 

I think every time I listen to the Golden Hour album, I get a new appreciation for Kacey’s songs, and most recently this has come with Velvet Elvis, the first song she played in this third part of the set. We did a fun ‘When I say Yee, you say Haw’ thing here, and the Aussie crowd showed her how they do this with a call of ‘Aussie Aussie Aussie Oy Oy Oy.’ I was pretty glad she wasn’t forced to do a shoey as many of the other artists I’ve seen over my time in Australia have been – keeping it classy here. I did hear she did a shoey out of a glass slipper in Melbourne though, which is indeed perhaps the classiest way to do it. 

The tear-jerking Space Cowboy was next, followed by the sassy Follow Your Arrow which is perhaps one of the best songs to sum up who Kacey is – an artist not afraid to push the boundaries but in such a way that you can’t help but appreciate it. 

Our encore came in the form of Rainbow and then yet another of my favourite songs, the incredibly fun, disco-inspired High Horse. I loved this particularly firstly because the groovy lighting really made it seem like we were in the disco this song was meant to be played in, and also because it seemed like Kacey really let herself go in this song, dancing along as she sang and looking as if she was having just as much fun as us (just with a bit more space)

I really can’t fault this gig, with the exception of being squashed in general admission. It was everything I had wanted it to be – wonderful vocals on my favourite songs, and with an incredible design that just worked and worked and worked. Golden Hour is the most deserving Best Album Grammy Winner in my books, and I cannot wait to see what Kacey has in store for us next – no doubt another fantastic album followed by another fantastic tour. 

Thanks for reading! Drop me a message in the comments below if you're a Kacey fan like me, and make sure to follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry to be kept up to date on all the latest interviews and reviews I cover! 

Gallery

  

Australia Working Holiday Visa Checklist

I’d got it into my head a couple of years ago that I wanted to move to Australia, with no better time than the present. The good news is, I could, and quite easily at that with the Australian Working Holiday Visa, which offered young people from eligible countries the opportunity to come and live and work in Australia for up to two years. For anyone interested, I thought I’d share my initial experiences and checklist of things to do when preparing for a Working Holiday Visa! Please note that some of these tips may apply more specifically to WHV travellers from the UK, and are based on my experiences and suggestions.

1.      Find a job

This was the first thing I wanted to get sorted, as I didn’t want to find myself in a situation where I had my visa and was ready to go, but with nothing in particular to go to. I know some people fly over and then start searching for a job, handing out CVs and hoping for something to turn up, but having this security was important to me. I began by collating a list of industries and companies I was interested in, and then sending out cover letters and CVs to those at the top of my list. Doing this in advance was necessary, as some companies took a fair while to reply, although it was the ones who replied sooner rather than later that I ended up pursuing – so I guess preparedness from both sides counts!

2.      Get a visa

Job secured, I should probably think about getting my visa so as to make sure I’m actually around to do the job. This had the potential to be a fairly straightforward process, simply filling in a questionnaire with my details here: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/work-holiday-417/first-working-holiday-417; but became horrendously more complicated when the system didn’t really seem to understand that someone can live in a country that they are not a citizen of, as I had been doing for the past 20 years! Eventually the problem was solved, and I almost immediately got an email from the Australian government to say that my visa had been granted – aww yeah!

3.      Book flights

As if spending a lot of money to secure my visa hadn’t been fun enough, it was now time to splash out on flights. The more in advance you can do this, the better as flights can be pretty expensive – my flights ended up being more than £500, and that was just for one way! I looked around for the best deal, checking out sites like Skyscanner, Kayak and Google Flights before settling on STA. Bear in mind as well that you’ll basically be travelling for a day, and will no doubt be pretty jetlagged, so I gave myself a day leeway to rest once I’d arrived before I had anything else planned.

4.      Find accommodation

Now you know you’re going, you should probably find somewhere to stay. I was lucky enough to have relatives who were happy enough to put me up for the first few weeks, but other options for easy to find accommodation are the YHA, and www.flatmates.com.au

5.      Sort our currency
      In order to enter Australia, you are supposed to be able to show that you have AUD $5000 or more in your bank account. I did this using Revolut, a foriegn currency cashcard that allowed me to transfer GBP to AUD when the conversion rate was best, and meant that I could show customs officials my current balance in AUD on the app if needed. This also meant that I already had some money in my hand as soon as I got off the plane rather than worrying about converting currency upon landing. It's also worth bringing some cash with you as well, just in case you find yourself somewhere that doesn't accept card!

5.      Arrive!

Packing my life into 23kg wasn’t the easiest things to do, and we had to do some pretty nifty rationalisation to make sure everything fit. The good news is that you’ll be able to buy pretty much all you need once you arrive in Australia, although I have noticed that things are a bit more expensive over here, so if you can pack it, do. Unless of course it’s on the prohibited items list (particularly food) – make sure you check this before you go so you don’t get caught out at customs!

6.      Set up a bank account

I used my first day in Australia as an ‘admin day’ – get all the boring important stuff out of the way so I can then begin to enjoy my adventures. First up was setting up a bank account so I had somewhere to put my salary when it started coming through, as well as pay for things without having to use foreign exchange rates which is how I’d been paying for things up until then. We did a bit of research to find out the best bank for me, and then it was a simple case of heading into one of their branches (don’t forget your passport) and setting one up. Easy peasy.

7.      Enrol in Medicare

Being a UK resident, I was entitled to reciprocal healthcare in Australia thanks to Medicare. I didn’t need to do anything in advance, just show up to a Medicare centre (with passport, visa and proof of a reciprocal healthcare agreement from my home country - in this case a valid European Health Insurance Card), fill in a simple document, and I was good to go. A few days later, my Medicare card arrived in the post, ready for use should I ever need it.

8.      Apply for a TFIN number

The last admin thing that needed to be done was applying for a tax file number, which every WHV needs to have. This again was super simple, simply heading to https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/tax-file-number/apply-for-a-tfn/foreign-passport-holders,-permanent-migrants-and-temporary-visitors---tfn-application/, filling in a document and waiting for my number to arrive in the post. Simple!

9.      Enjoy yourself!

So here I am, officially ensconced in Australia. I think I’ve got pretty much everything sorted, at least for the next few months, so have been taking the time to enjoy myself while I’m here – be that from exploring Brisbane after my arrival (coming soon to the blog!) or doing a scuba diving course (also coming soon!) in the hopes of using it in the Great Barrier Reef at some point during my time in this lovely country. There’ll be lots more exciting activities to come, so make sure to stay tuned to the blog and my Twitter @CiarasCountry to be the first to know when I post new articles about my time in Aus on a WHV!

Concert Review: POST MALONE, Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane, Australia

*scroll down for a photo gallery of all the artists!*

I might seem something of a surprising fan of Post Malone since rap / hip hop / R&B wouldn’t be up there amongst my favourite genres to listen to, but there’s something about Post that stands out to me in a way that most artists don’t. Perhaps it’s his blending of musical genres that make him so appealing, as there are certainly elements of genres that I very much enjoy in his songs; or the way he actually sings in songs so it’s not just rapping all the time. Either way, I knew that if he was touring in Australia, I was going to see him.

We had a different layout at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre from the last time I’d been here, as this time the whole floor was General Admission. I, on the other hand, was up in the Gods. Concerts are super expensive here! I had been expecting two openers for the show, but in actuality we ended up more with two and a half, as DJ E Nice started with an attempt to hype up the crowd which I think ultimately fell flat as he seemed to be playing songs none of us had heard of.

Tyla Yaweh seemed to have better success as he came on stage with the words ‘My name is Tyla Yaweh, I’m from Orlando, Florida, and I’m here to F***ING RAGEEEEEE!’ One thing that can certainly be said of Tyla is that he certainly is a showman as he threw himself around the stage, and even into the crowd, making me incredibly glad that I was not in the pit as the crowd rushed in to surround him.

I didn’t mind some of his songs like Who Shot Johnny when they blurred the boundaries with other genres like Post does, but some were simply too vulgar for my taste with lyrics I’d rather not even print here. He made a very good attempt to hype up the crowd, getting on a security guards shoulders and wading into the middle of the pit, which he tried to make open up into a mosh pit to little avail. I mean, who wants to lose their space at a Post Malone gig for the sake of ‘f***ing raging’ before the headliner is even on?

I enjoyed the quote-unquote ‘softer’ songs of his like They Ain’t You, Chiquita, and She Bad, although at times it was difficult to tell if it was Tyla singing or the backing track. Nonetheless, he danced and put on a show, so props to him as that’s a lot more than some artists do.

Next up was Jaden Smith, with my immediate thought being ‘Wow, that’s a lot of autotune’. Even his speaking was autotuned which sounded super weird. He didn’t really do much on stage as he sang (with the exception of a couple of Fortnite dances) and had his music videos playing on the screens at the back which ultimately, I was more drawn to than his performances.

Thankfully, doing so made it a lot easier for me to figure out the songs on his setlist, which included Icon, Plastic, Goku and Fallen. I’d love to give Jaden the benefit of the doubt, but his performance really made me question whether it was his talent or his name that got him this far. I’d love to hear him some other time, this time without the autotune, to really make a clear judgement on that.

And so we came to the main event, Post Malone who kicked off with the loudest fireworks I’d ever heard which truly made my heart stop. Really, with all of the attacks on music events over recent years, was starting your show with loud bangs really the best idea?

Posty appeared on the very simple stage, just a strip extending into the crowd, dressed in a super colourful Wow suit, starting off with Too Young and Over Now complete with trippy visuals on the screens behind that might lead you to believe you’re on drugs or on set of Requiem For A Dream. He really does have a lovely voice when he sings, as highlighted on one of my top tracks, Better Now and No Option to which he shook his booty.

It didn’t take long before the Aussie crowd was chanting ‘Shoey!’, but Post made the smart decision of asking the crowd to volunteer a shoe for him to use rather than ruin his no doubt pretty pricey ones. We continued with 92 Explorer and Candy Paint.

For me, Post has a great percentage of what I would consider ‘great songs’ that you really want to sing along to (although perhaps the youngsters in the crowd, of which there were a few, probably shouldn’t have been singing along to), and we got to hear many of in his set for this tour, including new hit Wow, Paranoid and Psycho, which honestly I had no idea what it was about before, but can now reveal it is in fact about ‘owning a really cool which’.

Post said very little throughout the show, and whilst I would have appreciated more interaction with the audience, when he did talk to us, he was incredibly polite, saying things like ‘Thank you so f***ing much, ladies and gentlemen.’ Tell me when you’ve ever been called a lady or gentleman by a global superstar before.

We had a track for the broken hearted in I Fall Apart and then one about smoking weed to get away from your problems with the very vibey Up There which would be my one track to recommend to you after this show. We had another of my favourites after this with Stay as Post sat down on a stool with his guitar (more on that later) to show off all this singing talent that I’ve been banging on about for so long. It’s songs like these three that really make Post stand out for me.

He continued with Go Flex and what he considers to be the only good song of his (your fans disagree) White Iverson. The whole crowd was vibing out to his Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse hit Sunflower, during which I absolutely loved his comment ‘Brisbane, you’re my f***ing sunflower!’ If we weren’t totally hyped before this, we certainly were now, and this only continued with rockstar, after which he utterly obliterated the aforementioned guitar by smashing on the stage in complete rockstar style.

We finished with a somewhat surprising but totally relevant inspirational speech about pursuing whatever dream you have and not letting anyone tell you any different. Case in point: all of those people who had told Post he would never be anything, and are now the ones saying Congratulations. In spite of being so far away from the stage I could pretty much only make out colours, this was a super fun concert to attend. There was no choice but to let loose and enjoy yourself, rock out, and have a lot of fun. If rap / hip hop / R&B isn’t up your street, I really recommend you give Post a chance – you might be surprised. 

I hope you enjoyed today's review! If you did, feel free to drop me a message in the comments below, and make sure to follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry for more reviews and interviews coming very soon - thanks for reading! 

Gallery

  

TRAVEL: Cairo & The Pyramids of Giza, Egypt

Before you begin, read the rest of my Egypt adventures here!

Cairo is certainly more of a city-like city than any of the others that we'd been to in Egypt with absolutely massive billboards above the huge roads lined by towering apartment blocks. Such reading material seems necessary given the traffic problem the city has as road rules just don't seem to apply with cars whizzing left, right and centre without indicating and squeezing into whatever tiny spaces are possible, beeping raucously as they go. As our driver aptly said 'The lines on the road are just for decoration.' 

We drove for about an hour or so across the river and into Giza where we would be staying at the Le Meridien hotel for the next two nights. The location of the hotel couldn't be better, a stones throw away from the pyramids themselves. Our main tour of Giza was the following day, so we settled in before braving the streets of Giza. The traffic was no less bad here, and to cross the road you really were best closing your eyes and hoping the drivers weren't doing the same. 

The roads clearly weren't made for pedestrians and we found ourselves ducking around cars and other obstacles in the way. I have a feeling that such excursions can't have been good for my health, and we joked about how many years the pollution was taking off our lives, although the noise of the horns was just as bad! 

We were searching for the number one restaurant in Giza on TripAdvisor, but a lack of clear directions meant we weren't entirely sure where we were going, so it was just luck that I looked up at one particular moment to see the sign for Dar El Dadak where we had intended to go. I wasn't quite sure how it had managed to make its way to number one on TripAdvisor given its out of the way location, but we were willing to give it a shot anyway. 

We had an early dinner consisting of soup, a selection of appetisers including baba ganoush, sesame sauce and white beans in tomato sauce, followed by a main of whatever meat or veg we desired, and some basic fruit for dessert. For less than $7 a head, it wasn't a bad experience and hit the spot, giving us the energy needed to brave the walk on the way back and a well deserved rest. 

I've decided that perhaps Cairo wasn't the best idea for the final day of our trip, as it certainly wasn't a relaxing one! We were picked up at 8:30am and whirled across the city in horrific morning traffic back to the centre of Cairo. We pulled up right outside Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the revolution back in 2011. Security was insane for a while after that although it has since died down, there are still armed guards outside most important buildings. 

On the edge of Tahrir Square is the Egyptian Museum, evidently somewhere all tourists seem to go judging by the crowds. I've never seen queues quite like it for a museum before! Over the next few hours, we worked our way around the museum in chronological order - it gives you an impression of just how extensive Ancient Egypt was. Highlights for me were some of the statues they had which were quite different to those we ha previously seen, in that their eyes were made of glass and shone in the light. I can imagine that would be quite eerie for the first person to discover them!

The museum is also home to many of the finds from Tutankhamun's tomb, including his famous golden mask and casket. We were told that these were two items that the museum would never loan to any other museum or bring to any exhibits as their worth makes it impossible to insure such items as their value could not be matched if anything happened to them. I wondered why Tutankhamun had been buried with so many impressive items - historians believe that all the Pharoahs probably were, but much has been plundered over the centuries - it is only that Tutankhamun's tomb was so hard to find, buried under another, that such items were not already stolen. 

We endured the traffic again to head back to Giza for lunch right opposite the pyramids. They're clearly not used to vegetarians here as I was offered pasta with tomato sauce, although we did also get some rather nice hummus and rice pudding as well. 

The remainder of the day was spent at the Pyramids themselves, along with half of the rest of Egypt's tourists it seemed! The structures really are quite impressive and given the chance to go inside, I couldn't resist. Bring your student card for this one, as you'll save yourself half the price to go inside the Grand Pyramid. However, it's certainly not for the faint of heart, as it's quite claustrophobic, steep, and very, very hot. You begin by crawling into a tunnel, and then it's up and up some steep ladders until you reach the central tomb, a small granite room with a sarcophagus in the centre. We were told that some people come here to meditate, which I could understand, although it was unbearably hot. I was pleased to have had the opportunity to go inside one of the most incredible buildings in the world. 

I felt a bit rushed as we raced our way around the three main pyramids to take photos as the site closed at 4pm to clear up for the Sound & Light Spectacular. Our final stop was the Sphinx, which I felt was less impressive that the Pyramids themselves, but I suppose that goes for most things. Still, the fact that something had endured thousands and thousands of years cannot go unacknowledged, and it is undoubtable that the Ancient Egyptians were one of the most forward-thinking civilisations of all time. 

It wouldn't be a Ciara trip without searching around for a snowglobe to take home, so we spent the last part of our day in Giza searching a few bazaars for one, although they seem to be much less prevalent in Egypt than I've found in other countries. Having secured one, I was content with our time in Egypt, and there was time to watch one last sunset before we prepared to go home. Until next time!