Centralian Advocate, Friday, May 11, 2012 — 45

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ALICE LIVE

Festival adventuregets even better

Cameron Boon

Wide Open Space art Plenty of dancing

Circus skills in action The Super Raelene Bros

THAT’S it, I’mofficially dub-bing the three-d a y W i d e

Open Space festival atRoss River the ‘‘Festi-val of Ideas’’.

The musical extrava-ganza takes place onthe May Day weekend110km east of AliceSprings and while I feltI ’d s wal lowed anashtray full of TomWaits on Mondaymorning, this year hadto be the best yet.

One of the reasons isbecause the organisersdon’t seem to be afraidto try new things —including adding a poolparty and an extrastage, and expandingtheir musical selection.

I was told by multi-disciplinary musicianDarcy Davis that hefirst had the idea for a‘‘dub chi’’ (tai-chi todubstep) at 2011’sWOS, which came fullcircle on Saturdaymorning with morethan 50 people gettingin on the action.

There were manymusicians I’ve seengrow and develop dur-ing their time in AliceSprings who played atthe festival this year.

Seeing how they’vedeveloped over theyears makes me feeloddly paternal — de-spite me knowing onlya few of them personal-

ly. The space was dec-orated with what Ithought were the con-tents of local artist AlBethune’s back yard —turtles made out of hel-mets, birds made ofscrap metal and his in-famous Joe artworkfrom the Advocate ArtAward among manyother oddities.

But after speaking tohim, he said he prob-ably brought half hisbackyard with him.

While the heavymetal crowd has hadsome representation byhard-rockers over theyears (Iwantja Band,some Barons of Tang

songs) they had theirfirst real foot in thedoor this year.

Hardcore AliceSprings metalc r e w

Uncreation and SantaTheresa mob SouthEast Desert Metal werea core part of the line-up early on Fridaynight and while theirpositioning might nothave seemed to reallyfit the mood of the restof the festival, bothbands drew large, en-thusiastic crowds.

The hip-hop crowdw a s a l s o w e l l -represented, especiallyon Friday night with

Alice collective Catchthe Fly , returnedrapper Skank MC, Al-ice/Melbourne mixZulu Dub Zion, and USband Dirty Scientifix.

Of course, the insanemelodies of Melbournegypsy band Barons ofTang drew a hugecrowd. I’m sad to say Iwas ‘‘that guy’’ shout-ing the lyrics... prob-ably out of time and offkey. It was brilliant.

The Saturday morn-ing was met with howlsof ‘‘why is it this cold?’’and I was tempted tosteal all the dogs thathad been smuggledinto the festival and

use them as a livingblanket. The tempera-ture got down to 2C atthe Alice Springs Air-port on Friday night.That’s as cold as theinside of a fridge, justin case you needed acomparison.

The music set wasextremely eclectic onSaturday.

There were theyoung (Small Jupiter),the veteran (SuperRaelene Bros), the local(Catherine Satour) andthe returned (RonjaMoss), all playing dif-ferent styles.

The Rosie Bur-gess Trio hasconvinced me

that more terrible, ter-rible 80s/90s hip-hopshould be covered byfolk outfits after theirgroovetacular ren-d i t i o n s o fSalt’n’Pepper’s Push Itand Vanilla Ice’s Ice,Ice Baby.

Saturday night wasvery dance-orientated— if it wasn’t dirtyelectronica, it was foot-stomping hilarity.

Heavy dubstep madeappearances late in thenight and each of thestages had a throng ofwrithing bodies at onestage or another.

Headliners TZU hada very dark, bass-heavyset filled with new andold tracks.

Wide Open Space is agrowing festival andisn’t afraid to try newthings.

It’s always an adven-ture and I’m alwaysintrigued to know whatwill come next.

Oscar nominatedfilm from IranWHEN his wife leaveshim, Nader hires ayoung woman to takecare of his sufferingfather.

But he doesn’t knowhis new maid is notonly pregnant, butalso working withouther unstable hus-band’s permission.

Soon, Nader findshimself entangled in aweb of lies, manipulat-ion and public con-frontations.

T h e A r a l u e nArthouse Cinema film

this week, Iranian filmA Separation, wasnominated for BestOriginal ScreenplayOscar, winner of theGolden Bear and BestForeign Languagefilm at the 2012G o l d e n G l o b eAwards.

The Wall StreetJournal called it‘‘Flawless, elegant,mysterious — a world-class masterpiece’’.

n See it on Sunday atthe Araluen ArtsCentre from 7pm.

Not engagingLeigh Paatsch

THE title of the newNicholas Stoller film isnot just a title we havehere — it is a directc h a l l e n g e t o t h eviewer.

For if not, The Five-Year Engagement willlag like 10 years ofdrawn-out divorce pro-ceedings.

Urgency, energy andsnappy pacing — all thetraits a full-strengthrom-com requires toget to the top shelf — gom i s s i n g f o r l o n gperiods in this restless,yet curiously listless,affair.

Casting is certainlynot the problem. JasonSegel and Emily Bluntare exceptionally well-matched as a cutelyconflicted couple whojust can’t get them-selves to the church ontime.

When firing semi-affectionate home-truth zingers at close

range, Segel and Bluntare as appealing a rom-com pairing as it gets in2012.

B u t w h e n t h enudge’n’niggle ceases,The Five-Year En-gagement soon be-comes a drag for theages.

Levity levels pick upnoticeably when itfinally dawns on thefilmmakers that their125-minute endurancetest (at least a half-hour too long for thematerial worked with)had better wrap thingsup.

Look, this productionas a whole is by nomeans a bust. But itshould have been awhole lot better giventhe quality of person-nel involved (includingcomedy guru JuddApatow as producer).

n The Five-Year En-gagement is ratedMA15 and is on at theAlice Springs Cinema.

LAST CHANCE

TO WIN $3500

HOLIDAY PACKAGE

SEE PUBLIC NOTICES

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Pictured: Maddison Cronin - Winner St Philip’s College Wearable Art 2011

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ALL GIG GUIDE DETAILS MUST BE PHONED IN(8950 9777) OR FAXED (8950 9740) TO

THE CENTRALIAN ADVOCATE BY TUESDAY.ROCK BAR:

Fri David Garnham and The Reasons to Live from 8pm. Sat Duncan Rae

from 8pm. Sun Timbo Mariner from 8pm. Mon DJ Peaceful Panda from

7pm. Tues Damo Armstrong from 8pm. Wed Dom Costello from 8pm.

Thurs Duncan Rae from 8pm.

JUICY RUMP:

Fri Cain Gilmour from 5pm, DJ Jed and MC Locko from 10.30pm. Sat

DJ Jed and MC Locko from 10.30pm. Sun Mothers Day Joe Relic duo

from noon.

MONTE’S:

Sat Western Party Night with David Garnham and The Reasons to Live

from 8pm - entry is free. Thurs Pop Cinema Romantics Anonymous from

7.30pm.

BOJANGLES:

Fri-Sat Michelle ̀ `The Little Lady with the Big Voice’’ from 6pm, DJ Monte

from 10pm.

ANNIE’S PLACE:

Fri DJ Kam from 9.30pm. Sat DJ U-Wish from 9pm. Sun Mega Chill

Sesh Toby Robinson from 2pm. Tues Trivia from 7pm. Thurs DJ Annie’s

from 9pm.

TODD TAVERN:

Mon Katie Harder from 7pm.

UNCLE’S TAVERN:

Fri Kim Wainwright’s last Alice gig from 4.30pm. Karaoke from 9pm.

EDITORS NOTE:

Would you like your gig in our free weekly gig guide?

Call the Centralian Advocate on 8950 9777 or fax to 8950 9740 for a free

mention in every Friday edition.

www.therockbar.com.auAll new acts welcome at

The Rock Bar Ph: 8953 8280