Vivid is pairing Australia’s most exciting artists with Sydney’s best venues. X|Celerate is a program that delivers emerging music to local inner city and inner suburban venues over the Vivid period. The program began in 2017 and returns this year, and we are excited. The gigs are fun, diverse, genre bending and best of all, affordable.

A lot of these gigs are under $15, even better, a lot of them are free!

WHAT IS X|CELERATE?

X|Celerate is a set of gigs with diverse and divergent artists in a smorgasbord of different Sydney venues across the city. Think emerging musicians, and a lineup that brings artists from the fringes of music to the city’s inner city and suburban spaces and venues.

X|Celerate is all about pairing artists with venues; think quirky electro dudes and gals with natural wine at a teeny wine bar; there’s immersive art performances on garden rooftops in Redfern with ensembles of dancers; a ‘90s Garage rave throwback that kicks off at 10 PM at the bottom of Oxford Street. If the Emo revival is your thing, AM/PM is throwing a double room DJ party of classic emo hits and party bangers.

X|Celerate is taking place all across Sydney, in venues like Golden Age Cinema and Bar or Venue 505 in Surry Hills, The Lady Hampshire in Camperdown, Freda’s in Chippendale, Oxford Art Factory on Oxford Street, Leadbelly in Newtown, the Burdekin on Oxford Street.

Below is a (small) selection of our tastiest picks venue and artist pairings for X|Celerate. You can check the full lineup here.

DUSTY FINGERS EIGHTH BIRTHDAY at FREDA’S in CHIPPENDALE

Dusty Fingers is eight years old, eight years dusty. Marty Doyle is one of the most special DJs in the world, according to me. Listening to Marty is to make you remember what it’s like to listen to your parents music, if your parents were cool jetsetters; international club owners, or whatever.

It’s nostalgic and smooth, super rare, records dug from crates in shops you don’t know the address of. You’ll hear classic disco from records with original coke lines baked in from the seventies (maybe) and obscure reggae that will make you want to skank like a teenager on ganja (probably) and you’ll be reminded what the true value of a tastemaker and music lover can be (definitely).

Dusty Fingers is playing at Freda’s, a venue that is a sweaty, seventies dance cave. You can party on and celebrate Dusty Finger’s 8th birthday at the sweaty seventies dance cave Freda’s until 2am on Friday the 1st of June.

PET SOUNDS at CAKE WINES CELLAR DOOR

With JONTI AND FRIENDS

Cake Wines Cellar Door is the kind of venue that was unimaginable in Sydney six or seven years ago. Our nightlife used to be mega bar multistory monoliths and superclubs. Bars are local now, they’re local in size, they’re local in scope. We now have a cellar door in Redfern. 

X|Celerate partners with Cake Wines Cellar Door to bring us Pet Sounds, where you can sample from 30 Pet Nat local wines and listen to Pet Sounds played by the ineffable and completely incredible Jonti + Friends.

I have seen this lineup play at no less than the Sydney Opera House, however I actually used to live with Jonti and would regularly hear these guys rehearse, while I drank wine in my bedroom. It was a good time, which I would recommend replicating if it weren’t such a niche experience. Yet, here it is, replicated for you!

GABRIELLA COHEN at GOLDEN AGE CINEMA AND BAR

Gabriella Cohen is all sunshine and longing, sparkles and rumination, love and regret. Her songs expose the inner drives of what it is to be a woman – oppositional drivers that both help and hinder. Her songwriting is close to the bone and raw, her openness is deeply endearing. Gabriella Cohen is playing for free at the intimate and velvety Golden Age Cinema and Bar. Register here to attend.

PHANOSLAND at GOLDEN AGE CINEMA AND BAR

Golden Age Cinema and Bar is a venue that’s hard to believe is real. Part Twin Peaks dream, part midnight rendezvous point, all plush and boozy. It’s a cinema, its a restaurant, it’s a bar. It’s velvety, its loud, its parodic, its classic, nostalgic, derivative, unique.

There are a lot of descriptors I could assign to these descriptors could also be assigned to Phanosland, who is playing at this venue for X|Celerate 2018. His music is compression pedals and reverb, it’s spooky and romantic, its new wave.

MORE FROM X|CELERATE

The full program of Xcelerate 2018 is taking places across venues including Golden Age Cinema and Bar or Venue 505 in Surry Hills, The Lady Hampshire in Camperdown, Freda’s in Chippendale, Oxford Art Factory on Oxford Street, Leadbelly in Newtown.

You can catch the full program of X|Celerate here.

The article was originally published on Brag Magazine