June tunes: The best gigs to see in Sydney this month

The Age

5 days ago

Warren Ellis
City Recital Hall, June 8
Yes, there will be a short solo set from the Dirty Three and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds member at this event (billed as 'An Evening With Warren Ellis'), but the real draw here will be a conversation with Ellis covering his life, music and work in animal conservation, all topics covered in the new documentary film Ellis Park, which will screen before this Q&A as part of the Sydney Film Festival (a separate ticketed event to this one, it should be noted).
10 Years of NLV Records
Metro Theatre, June 8
Australian DJ and music producer Nina Las Vegas (born Nina Elizabeth Agzarian) started the electronic music label NLV Records in 2015 (on the same day she left her gig as a triple j presenter), with this mammoth anniversary show set to take over both rooms of the Metro. Acts set to appear include rising EDM star Ninajirachi, Trinidadian-born Australian singer and rapper Gold Fang, afro swing vocalist Big Skeez, Korean boyband 1300, South Florida ravers Jubilee, plus a host of others.
Black Star
C arriageworks, June 10
Yasiin Bey - the rapper, singer and actor formerly known as Mos Def - was at Carriageworks last year to perform both a solo show and a show covering the work of late rapper MF DOOM. He's back this year with Talib Kweli, his rhyme partner in hip-hop duo Black Star. They'll be performing music from across the decades, including the aptly titled 2022 album No Fear of Time, which arrived almost 25 years after the pair's classic 1998 debut, Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star.
Supergrass
Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, June 10
Although a champagne supernova's worth of hype has been directed at the upcoming Oasis reunion tour, more discerning Britpop fans will be excited to see Oxford quartet Supergrass back in action for their first headline Australian shows in 17 years. The band will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of debut album I Should Coco, featuring hit singles Caught by the Fuzz and Alright, by playing it in its entirety; expect bandmates and brothers Gaz and Rob Coombes to behave better than the Gallagher siblings.
Mel Parsons
The Vanguard, June 15
New Zealand singer-songwriter Mel Parsons has proved herself a master of indie-folk and alt-country over half a dozen celebrated albums, including last year's excellent Sabotage, which has been nominated for three Aotearoa Music Awards. A seasoned live performer with a spellbinding voice, Parsons will be playing old favourites and a few new tunes; if recent singles Brick by Brick and Post High Slide are anything to go by, her winning streak shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon.
Cloud Control
Enmore Theatre, June 20
2010 feels like a lifetime ago, but anyone paying attention to Australian music at the time would be familiar with Blue Mountains four-piece indie band Cloud Control. The recently reunited group will be touring to celebrate the 15th anniversary of debut album Bliss Release, which was everywhere in 2010: Five of its 10 songs were singles, it scored two ARIA Award nominations, took home the Australian Music Prize and, bizarrely, had a song that wound up in Channing Tatum stripper flick Magic Mike.
Jimmy Barnes
State Theatre, June 27
Fifteen solo number one albums in Australia - more than any other solo artist - and an induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame as both a solo performer and as part of Cold Chisel: at 69, Jimmy Barnes has nothing left to prove. It's a pleasant surprise, then, to discover his 21st solo album, Defiant (out June 6), is an absolute belter, featuring some of his strongest songs in decades. Head along to her Barnsey belt them out live, along with the classics.
June is jam-packed with great gigs, including visitors from the US (indie rockers Soccer Mommy and DIIV, astronaut Katy Perry, hip-hop producer Knxwledge), the UK (septuagenarian rappers Bas & Dave, much younger rapper Central Cee, alternative rockers Palace), South Korea (rapper Sik-K, girl group Nmixx, rockers Boohwal) and Europe (James Vincent McMorrow and Inhaler, both from Ireland, and Germany's Tangerine Dream). Australian artists doing the rounds include indie pop band Spacey Jane, Ngaiire, debuting her new show PAIA (provocatively described as 'an eruption of rage, sex, ecstasy, ceremony, ancestry, and cleansing'), Skegss, Polish Club, Short Stack, The Superjesus, Straight Arrows, Parkway Drive, Chasing Ghosts, Eggy, Kisschasy, The Beautiful Girls, Ruby Fields, Party Dozen, The Ferguson Rogers Process, Bachelor Girl and Killing Heidi.