All posts filed under: Reviews

Fringe Festival Review: The Sparrow Men

The fun thing about improv is that you can go to the same show every night for a week, and quite literally never see the same thing twice. Having seen these two in action before at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, I was once again (as always) impressed by their quick wit, fast ability to throw themselves into character and to draw energy and direction from each other with the smallest of cues. As with most performances of this genre, the audience are asked to throw out their best and brightest one-word ideas for the theme of the night’s show. In this instance we were visibly taken from the sumptuous, marble-roofed home of two fussy retirees, one nosily and jealously spying through the venetian-blinded windows on the new wealthy neighbours as they were moving in, over to the neighbours themselves, past two would-be assassins Russian with a penchant for ham (by the gram) – and then right back around to the beginning, each set of characters somehow linked to one-another as part of the story – it all becoming …

Fringe Festival Review: Showga

Published by We Know Melbourne

Reading the bio for this piece, I was expecting to go along and have a good laugh at someone satirically poking fun at the pretentiousness and fake elements of the yoga / wellness industry which at the moment, is so very trendy – and for the most part I did. What I didn’t expect was an hour-long performance which was actually quite insightful – playing on not only the aforementioned pretension and perceived judgement of many so-called wellness “guru’s” but also the hidden undercurrent themes of this genre like low self esteem and hiding one’s own self-loathing by projecting it out onto others… kind of like blowing out someone else’s candle, so yours can shine that little bit brighter. A clever and relatable piece, with plenty of crowd interaction, dressed up in 12 inch glitter platforms, a green two-piece and a feathered headdress reminiscent of of Bollywood-themed Priscilla, Chelsea Evans (aka Chakanunda Vaganunda Chikki Chikki Wa) is one flexible, funny woman. Showga has finished it’s Melbourne Fringe Festival run, with the last show running Sunday evening, 20 September 2015 at the …

Fringe Festival Review: Torte e Mort: Songs of Cake and Death

Published by We Know Melbourne

The biggest challenge one faces when they go and see a cracking Fringe Festival performance, is how do you talk about the show without actually giving away the best bits? It’s a bit like Fight Club – the number one rule is; you don’t talk about it… Channeling a gorgeous Marie Antoinette, Anya Anastasia, backed by Bec Matthews (aka ‘The Executioner’) on drums, kazoo, saw and more, delivered clever and catchy songs that took us at a rapid and humorous pace through the life, death and hereafter of the infamous French queen – from her hedonistic ‘let them eat cake’ beginnings through to her untimely end and beyond. The performance was rounded out with visits from prominent afterlife figures positioned throughout the show to add deeper, life lessons to the show which were packed with satire, wise-cracking puns and glow-in-the-dark paint. I actually was sort of sad when the show came to an end. If you are a fan of perfectly placed puns, don’t mind a little bit of intellectual humor balanced with gorgeous costumes, …

Hash Specialty Coffee & Roasters

Published by We Know Melbourne

New to Melbourne, Hash Speciality Coffee & Roasters is the epitome of Melbourne hipsterdom. From the logo (yes, it’s a hashtag), through to their range of filter and cold brew coffees, this cafe, is one you’ll take your out of towner friends to, that will make them question why they aren’t living in Melbourne already. While we chose to dine there for breakfast, one cooler Sunday morning we must admit that the main drawcard for us was the speciality hot chocolate – We even passed up coffee to drink it. You’ve probably seen the photos already, the one that makes you look twice and wonder how it even works. (To be honest, we thought the same thing). Served on a wooden board, their signature “Hash Hot Chocolate”, is made with Mork Dark Chocolate (80% cocoa) and served with fairy floss to sweeten the bitterness. Pour the hot chocolate over the fairy floss over and watch it dissolve like magic. For $6 it’s a chocolate mouthgasm! Visit the Hash Specialty Facebook page here.

A Night at Lido Cinemas

Published by We Know Melbourne

Having missed the opportunity to catch Dope at MIFF earlier this month, we have been eagerly awaiting it’s general release in Melbourne cinemas and on Thursday our wait was over. Lido were doing a special screening of it and we jumped to buy tickets. You may have been to Lido cinemas back in the day if you’re from an older generation, but for us, and what it seems like the whole audience (there was definitely a generation Y thing happening), we never got to experience it in it’s full glory. Lido Cinemas’ history dates back over 100 years, to when it first opened in 1911, but it hasn’t been a cinema this whole time. Closing down in 1960 to became a dance school, and then a cabaret theatre, the cinema then became an unused building about a decade ago. Upon entering the building, you can still notice a lot of the old fixtures and setup, but it no longer is a dated cinema. Given a fresh new look with lots of bright green couches, lighting projections and an overall modern hipster feel. …

Alumbra gets a makeover

Published by We Know Melbourne

Before we start this article, we must confess that although we have always known of the club/bar Alumbra, it’s Docklands location scared us and we have never made the trek there. Recently revamped and given a facelift by Roar Projects, last Wednesday they held an exclusive VIP event to launch the new look and the We Know Melbourne team went along to check it out. The venue had been given a new creative identity, based on the streets of New York and upon entering the warehouse conversion, we couldn’t help but feel that we were transported to a bar in the Upper West Side. All the guests were glammed up in high heels, dresses and suits. The venue itself now had an increased capacity with an extended floorplan. We loved the idea of the outside terrace for a cheeky cocktail under the stars. However the main attraction of the night was the foodie partnership with master chef Daniel Wilson – The man infamous for bringing to Melbourne, Huxtable and those delicious Huxtaburgers. The New York style menu …

Shaken not stirred at Please Don’t Tell

Published by We Know Melbourne

When we heard that the boys from New York’s most famous speakeasy were coming to Melbourne, we couldn’t help but get excited, and so did the rest of Melbourne it seemed. Tickets sold out (or should we say booked out – entry was free) within minutes and we were lucky enough to secure tickets for the first session. Now, we’ve visited a whole lot of speakeasies on previous trips to the US, and we had heard about Please Don’t Tell, but low and behold we never got there. Call it what you will, but we think this was definitely a sign, that we had to go! In case you don’t know what a speakeasy is (one of our friends who came along actually had to google it first), old mate, Wikipedia defines it as: “an establishment that illegally sells alcoholic beverages. Such establishments came into prominence in the United States during theProhibition era (1920–1930).” Although these days, it would be more used to describe bars with a retro style, think something out of the 1950s that …