Five music gigs you need to catch at Vivid Sydney 2022

When: Jun 9-10, 8pm
Where: St Stephen's Uniting Church

Who better to restart the Vivid Sydney party than the queen of pop, funk and soul – living legend Marcia Hines? It’s hard to imagine the Australian music scene without the presence of the Boston-born marvel who moved down under at sweet 16 to star in the first-ever local production of musical Hair in 1969 and never looked back. Still going strong some 50-plus years later, she’ll bring a little bit of that Boston spirit to Vivid Music when she performs the world premiere of her latest album, The Gospel According to Marcia, in the heritage-listed surrounds of St Stephen’s Uniting Church. Joined by a gospel choir and a live band strutting their stuff as candlelight flickers in stained glass windows, the honey-voiced diva will channel her childhood spirit delivering a heart-soaring experience. Hines credits those Sunday morning visits to church with her blind Aunt Florence as kick-starting her love of soul – we’re all the richer for it.

When: Thu Jun 16, 8pm
Where: Luna Park

It’s been over a decade since spaced-out British band Spiritualized touched down in Sydney, so it’s one giant leap for Vivid to land their uplifting brand of psychedelic pop punctuated with sublime gospel harmonies. Phasing into existence in a big way in the 1990s, the band’s line-up may have transformed several times since, but Spaceman J Pierce has stood solid at its heart. He’ll help blast your higher consciousness into outer orbit when Spiritualized unleashes the sonic waves of latest album Everything Was Beautiful under the Big Top at Luna Park. The album name borrows a line from celebrated author Kurt Vonnegut’s trippy sci-fi masterpiece Slaughterhouse-Five. The oft-quoted sentence in the book finishes up with “and nothing hurt,” which is also the title of Spiritualized’s 2018 album. This radiant continuation is packed full of far-out prog rock magnificence guaranteed to bring you a good time.

When: Fri Jun 17, 8pm
Where: Oxford Art Factory

One of the pioneering forces rewriting what hip hop can sound like and whom it can champion, Brooklyn-based rap star Cakes Da Killa brings the fierceness of NYC’s bold and beautiful ballroom culture to bear on some seriously sick beats. Uplifting queer and POC folks with his heat-seeking sass, the artist otherwise known as Rashard Bradshaw has been blowing up boundaries that needed to be gone. Working trademark takedowns like, “You did it for the clout, I did it for the culture,” in hit track ‘Don Dada’, his magnificence has featured on Netflix talent show Rhythm + Flow, where he seized the attention of judges Cardi B, Jadakiss and Fat Joe. He recently teamed up with Aussie queer hero Sam Sparro for a track on his latest EP Muvuland, Vol 2. Thanks to Vivid Sydney, you can mainline his hotly provocative sound when Cakes bakes it until he makes it at Darlinghurst institution the Oxford Art Factory.