Melbourne Festival

Snap Scene

Snap Scene: The Magnetic Fields at the Melbourne Festival – Hamer Hall – Saturday 21st October 2017

October 22, 2017 Mary Boukouvalas

On February 9th 2016, Stephin Merritt, the man who is The Magnetic Fields, sat down and wrote a song. The day was his 50th birthday and there were 49 more songs to follow, one for every year of his life on earth so far. Released in March this year as The 50 Song Memoir album, it’s an autobiographical concept album that tells an entertaining story both musically and lyrically. As part of the Melbourne Festival, Merritt and his band, opened the book of memories and in the first of two nights at Hamer Hall, proceeded to regale and beguile the audience with musical tales from the first half of his life. […]

Review Scene

Review Scene: The Magnetic Fields at the Melbourne Festival – Hamer Hall – Saturday 21st October 2017

October 22, 2017 Maryanne Window

We heard how he stayed up late watching tv in ‘Hustle ‘76’ and subsequently ordered the compilation album of the same name (which he informed us actually never arrived!). He started his first band in ‘The Blizzard of ‘78’ and got big laughs from the line “At rehearsal we made The Shaggs sound like Yes”. The audience was clearly on his wavelength. Musically, the live band brought the songs to life flawlessly. […]