Musician: The Strokes
Tour: Summer Twenty-ten Tour
Date: 30 July, 2010
Location: Festival Hall, West Melbourne
Rating:   

The Strokes are in Australia to play this year’s Splendour in the Grass festival.  (Look up the line-up if you haven’t already and you’ll wish you had camped out for tickets).  As a result they have been playing a few sideshows.   

On July 30th I was lucky enough to see The Strokes play at Melbourne’s Festival Hall.  As a long time Strokes fan, it was a very exciting evening.  Standing in the mosh with hundreds of other Strokes fans was electrifying.   

There were two opening acts.  Gypsy and the Cat were the locals for the night.  They hail from Melbourne and you may have heard some of their tracks on Triple J.  I suggest that you look them up.  I think they have a big future ahead of them.  The second act of the night hailed from California and have a 1960s motif.  The Like played a tight set with non-stop up-beat tracks that had the audience bouncing along with them.   

The energy kept growing while we waited for the lights to dim and the main act to come out.  Audience members chatted about their favourite Strokes songs and made bets on what they would open with.  New York City Cops was that opening track and, for lack of a better phrase, it went off.  The audience was singing along with every word and even helped out when lead vocalist Julian Casablancas (in his now famous studded leather jacket) forgot his lyrics.   

Nick Valensi ate up the guitar solos and the crowd rewarded him with screaming recognition.  Albert Hammond Jr. was the smartest looking of the group in his white suit.  Nikolai Fraiture kept with Albert’s motif and wore a blazer.  Fab Moretti kepts it much more casual in jeans and a t-shirt.   

As an audience member I like to know that the band is enjoying the night just as much as I am.  So when the crowd started humming the riffs at the beginning of tracks and I saw Albert had a giant grin on his face, I was even more ecstatic to be there.   

The band played a tight and neat set.  Blasting out all the favourites and to my surprise not playing any new tracks (not that anyone minded).  The encore consisted of five tracks and left the audience hoping for a second coming.  Sadly there wasn’t one but I can tell you that this did nothing to deminish the amazing gig that was The Strokes. 

Check out the set list after the jump.  

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Director: Christopher Nolan Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard 
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
Running Time: 148 minutes
Rating:

To properly review inception would mean ruining the film. I went into the screening with only a general knowledge about the plot. Turns out it wasn’t really what I thought it was going to be. Nevertheless, it was mind-blowing.

Inception works on the idea that there are a group of people who have been trained to enter your mind while you dream in order to steal ideas that your competitors may be lusting after.

A good part of the film is used to set up the story and explain the process of ‘extracting’ from people’s dreams. The actual plot though deals with the concept of ‘inception’. ‘Inception’ is the notion that one can visit a dream and use this dream to plant an idea into the subconscious of the dreamer. The dreamer would then wake up and believe that they idea was all their own. However, this is a very difficult task. Inception has only succeeded a couple of times. The story may be at times a little hard to follow but if you concentrate your hardest your patience will be rewarded.

Inception is not only a visual feast but it is also the first film I’ve seen in a long time that asks the viewer to think about what they are watching. In my opinion what makes Inception great is not only the amazing cast and directing, but the concept itself. It’s a relative original idea that plays with the reality of the mind. As a viewer you can never be sure of what you are watching. Is the scene a dream? Are the characters in reality? Maybe none of the 2.5 hours that you have been watching was real? My advice? Go into Inception knowing as little as possible about the film and you’ll be in for an exceptional ride.

Inception is in cinemas now.

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Below are the major pieces of movie news recently:

Some pretty exciting news for fans of the new Batman films.  The third film in the series has been given a release date!  Clear your diaries for July 20, 2012.  Like The Dark Knight, the third film will also be released in IMAX.

Go here for your first look at Chris Hemsworth as Thor.  Natalie Portman also stars as Thor’s love interest.  The film is set for a May 6, 2011 release.

Like all fans of Brian Singer’s X-Men, I was very disappointed to hear that he will not be directing the new X-Men: First Class.  But according to Deadline New York, Matthew Vaughn is in talks with Fox to direct the film.  Vaughn has directed the recent Kick-Ass, Stardust and Layer Cake.

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Media Voir (MV) is a non-profit entertainment website primarily posting film, music and novel reviews. We also provide (or at least try to) the latest media industry news, especially within the Australian realm.

Brilliant!

Very good!

It's alright.

Boredom killer only.

Uhh... wtf?

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