Melbourne Festival sideshows:Shellac, Lee Ranaldo, PaulKelly

The Melbourne Festival lineup includes plenty of musical highlights and while you’ll have to make your way to Melbourne for exclusive shows like the Antony and the Johnsons performance backed by a 44-piece orchestra there are a few sideshows to make sure other cities don’t miss out on all the action. Billy Bragg has already announced a run of sideshows and now Shellac, Lee Ranaldo and Paul Kelly has also announced extra dates.

Shellac sold out their two Melbourne festival shows in just 48 hours and have added Hobart, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Sydney to their first Australian tour since 1993. Since then the band has released four albums including their most recent release, 2007’s Excellent Italian Greyhound.

“We all work for a living and the band is our pastime, so we don’t tour often or for very long. Concerts and touring have no correlation with album releases, but we tour when we have the time and inclination. We love playing music together. The band will continue to release albums and play concerts at the same sporadic pace indefinitely.” – Shellac.

Shellac shows:
Sunday 21 October – Republic Bar, Hobart
Tuesday 23 October – The Zoo – Brisbane
Thursday 25 October – Rosemount Hotel, Perth
Saturday 27 October – Fowler’s Live, Adelaide
Sunday 28 October – Metro Theatre, Sydney

On sale now

Fans of Sonic Youth can see almost all of the band members on tour in October with both Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo playing at the Melbourne festival in separate performances. Ranaldo will be joined by a band including fellow Sonic Touth member Steve Shelley plus an all-star cast including Nels Cline, Alan Licht, John Medeski, bassist Irwin Menken for the Melbourne Festival gig and shows in Brisbane and Sydney.

Lee Ranaldo Band shows:
Saturday 20 October – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Sunday 21 October – The Zoo, Brisbane

On sale from 9am Wednesday 15 August

Iconic Australian singer/songwriter Paul Kelly will be joined by “recorder virtuoso” Genevieve Lacey to present Conversations With Ghosts, a new song cycle based on texts of Paul Kelly, Les Murray, W.B. Yeats and Lord Alfred Tennyson at the Melbourne Festival and at a solitary sideshow in Sydney.

Paul Kelly’s Conversations With Ghosts:
Wednesday 10 October – The Capitol Theatre Sydney

On sale now