Live music
Darren Hayes – a comeback with panache
11 February at Brisbane Entertainment Centre
The self-titled debut album by 90s pop duo Savage Garden sold 12m copies worldwide and was laden with chart-storming ballads including I Want You, Truly Madly Deeply and To the Moon and Back. Twenty-five years after its release, singer Darren Hayes marks the album’s anniversary, performing a mix of fan favourites as well as solo material from his latest LP, Homosexual, a celebration of his sexuality that, during his Savage Garden days, he says he felt compelled to keep hidden from the world.
Laura Jean – haunting folk tunes
11 February at Brisbane Powerhouse
To call Laura Jean one of Australia’s most polemic singer-songwriters might be to oversimplify her beautiful, eerie and intricate compositions. But the label, regardless, is fitting for her latest record Amateurs: an extended discourse on art, success and money – and whether the former can exist without the others. Jean’s tracks are full of simmering class tensions and quiet desperation, sublimated beneath tales of toil – of folk festivals and nowhere gigs that don’t pay the bills. It’s sure to make for a wonderfully wry live show.
Marlon Williams – Māori disco bops
16 February at Queensland Performing Arts Centre (Qpac)
With gentle strums, a newly sunny disposition and that voice which could make any listener weak at the knees, Marlon Williams’s third solo album, My Boy, is about as balmy as they come. “I can’t help but write dark songs most of the time,” he told Guardian Australia, “so I set up the world around me to make sure I kept it upbeat.” It’s the musical equivalent of laying in a hammock, full of distinctively Māori guitar plucks. Let it all wash over you at the Qpac.
Julia Jacklin – Australia’s finest (and jangliest)
26 February at The Tivoli
During the writing process of her latest album, Pre Pleasure, Julia Jacklin left her instrument of choice – the guitar – to go tinkle some ivories for a change. The result is an impossibly jangly record, where everything from her Catholic upbringing to a cheeky plea for a lover to stop smoking is given the toe-tapping treatment. This is music for waltzing down the street, headphone volume turned up – or better yet, experienced at full blast live. “I just needed there to be a bit of joy,” Jacklin told Guardian Australia – and it shows.
Charli XCX – hyperpop hedonism
28 February at The Tivoli
After no doubt delighting the queer community at her WorldPride performance in Sydney, the UK pop auteur is heading to Brisbane to play two headline shows. Australians are big fans of Charli XCX, with her latest album, Crash, debuting at No 1 on the Aria charts. Expect a spectacle, and a lot of vigorous dancing.
Stage
John Mulaney – comedian dusts himself off
12 February at Brisbane Entertainment Centre
It’s been a wild 18 months for the US comedian. For years Mulaney’s onstage persona – a disarming blend of wife guy, man-child and altar boy – kept comedy fans flush with excellent Netflix specials and scene-stealing Saturday Night Live appearances. But after some public personal upheavals (which are nobody’s business, really) Mulaney has had to jettison many of his old faithful beats and lay himself bare. Whatever remains for his latest From Scratch tour, it’s still going to be very funny.
Six: The Musical – raucous pop musical
Until 19 February at Queensland Performing Arts Centre
The six wives of Henry VIII battle – and belt – it out for who suffered the most under the Tudor king, turning their woes into a 75-minute pop musical. The Tony award-winning production, which premiered in Edinburgh in 2017 and is still going strong, is fast, feminist and furious, with costumes that wouldn’t look out of place on Lady Gaga. Right royal fun. Recommended for kids over 10.
Visual arts & family-friendly
Play Moves – touch the art
Until 16 April at Museum of Brisbane
The spectator becomes the contributor at Play Moves, the newest exhibition at the best-kept secret in the city centre – the Museum of Brisbane. In this all-ages celebration of creative expression, six large-scale installations rely on the audience’s movements to make the art expand, morph and spring to life. Where else can you “time-warp into a subverted office of the 80s to find a hidden party and jiving pot plants” or “embrace yourself within soft cocooned sculptures”. Roam the joint after dark at the opening party on 9 December.
Air – international art bonanza
Until 23 April at Queensland Gallery of Modern Art
Air is an ambitious exhibition featuring a series of major works by more than 30 international and Australian artists. Journeying through five chapters – Atmosphere, Shared, Burn, Invisible and Change – the show invites questions about the cultural, political and ecological dimensions of air. The centrepiece is a major commission from Argentinian-born, Berlin-based artist Tomás Saraceno: a constellation of 13 partially mirrored spheres suspended in the central atrium space of Goma. Breathtaking stuff.
Superpowered – Indigenous art for kids
Until 16 July at Gallery of Modern Art
“Don’t touch anything,” is the mantra oft-whispered by parents as they drag their little tikes through cavernous art institutions. The Children’s Arts Centre at Goma is a haven from such adult rules, a place where tiny hands and budding artists can interact with the work. The Superpowered exhibition invites kids to immerse themselves in the murals of Aboriginal superheroes and wild animals via four interactive projects created by First Nations artists Kaylene Whiskey, Tony Albert, Gordon Hookey and Vincent Namatjira. It’s all about encouraging play, empowerment and curiosity.
Parties & festivals
SummerSalt
12 February at Broadwater Parklands
Fingers crossed the weather holds up for this one because there’s little better than watching a glorious sunset to the gentle strums of folk on stage. SummerSalt, a one-day outdoor event, brings together an array of festival acts who have well and truly earned their stripes – Angus and Julia Stone, Alex the Astronaut and America’s bluesy Ben Harper – for an appropriately chill afternoon. Get a seated ticket and bring the cool box.
Tickets are $142, or $102 for under-18s
ΩHM – festival of new music
15 February at Brisbane Powerhouse
Brisbane has a whole new festival on its hands: ΩHM (pronounced OHM), which is set to blend music and art. For a first-time event, it has a pretty stellar lineup: Future Islands, Peaches, Kate Tempest and the Chills, the latter – Dunedin’s finest – touring their 2021 album, Scatterbrain, as well as hits from their back catalogue (Wet Blanket, I Love My Leather Jacket, Heavenly Pop Hit).
