All Stirr’d UP
Angus piper reviews: stirr, live at the union hotel 21/03/226 Guitars unorthodoxly utter. The saxophone wails while the vocals clarify the chaos. This is Stirr, live at The Union Hotel for the single release of ‘Broken Arm’. At the Courty for pres, the tables were still drying. You could hear sh
Hellp! Dimes Square is Leaking
Jesse Carpenter reviews: the hellp, live at Astra Kulturhaus 12/03/26 As SURG’s Foreign Correspondent, a coveted position that I recently made up, I went to see The Hellp live at Astra Kulturhaus in Berlin for the strict purpose of ethnographic study of the greater Schaeffer library scene. My find
Winter in Rear View: CAMERON WINTER, LIVE AT THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE 16/02/26
Vance McDonald reviews Cameron Winter live at the Sydney Opera House 16/02/26
Dissect HXC @ Monster Mouse Studios, Marrickville Saturday, October 11, 2025
It’s a balmy Saturday evening in Marrickville. Various band members (whom I mistake, on two occasions, for staff) direct people to bathrooms, re-fill the water dispenser, and perch on the couch propped up against a whitewashed wall in Monster Mouse Studios’ open-plan artist’s space. I realise
Old enough to know better, young enough to pretend: 25 Years of The Get Up Kids’ Something to Write Home About
There’s quite the line outside the Oxford Art Factory. Hoodies and canvas jackets are tied around waists, freeing hands to vape or authenticate, photographically, claims of ‘the last time they were here….’. The distribution of flannels is more than standard, but not in-your-face; offset by t
SURG TAKES ON KNOTFEST 2024
Whether it be by eventual death or Rapture, I hope I cross the pearly gates into something as entirely idyllic as the Centennial Parklands on March the 23rd. I sit with fellow journalists, not so subtly rolling my neck to prep for the feat of endurance that will surely be reporting 10+ hours of head
Mama Subpoena: Here We Plead Again – A Revue, Reviewed
Swapping the canvas page for the big stage, the Law Revue is back again! In a witty celebration of Sydney Uni’s law faculty, Mama Subpoena: Here We Plead Again was a glimmering example of the scrappy but sharp production of student theatre. Its self-reflexive humour tiptoped against the controvers
The day I went and saw Japanese Breakfast at the Opera House on a whim and a prayer
Japanese Breakfast is a musical project I had definitely heard of before May 2025, but my knowledge did not extend beyond this fantastically textural name. It was only when a friend mentioned that they were heading to the Opera House to see the act, who were performing as part of Vivid, that I sat d
Old mervs at the roundhouse
Henry Carringtonn-Jones and David House – the twosome that comprises Old Mervs – looked casual and comfortable onstage at the UNSW Roundhouse. It was as if they’d been plucked from the crowd in front of them and instructed to use just an electric guitar and a drum set to expertly command an ot
Gracie in All Her Grandeur
Abrams made Qudos Bank Arena feel intimate on the second of three sold-out shows Gracie Abrams’ penultimate sold-out show at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena boasted the power of the Teenage Fangirl. Led by Gracie – one of our very own – and exceptional opening act Ashe, 21,000 screaming fans found