Northern Territory Gigs

Carl Riseley Sunset Jazz
Swing King' Carl Riseley will light up the dry season night sky on May 30 as he performs his debut Sunset and Stars concert at SKYCITY Darwin.

The experience of playing trumpet in everything from the concert band to the jazz quartet broadened this young musician's horizons, strengthening his skills and versatility. This versatile nature is how Carl ended up falling into singing and though relatively new to the art, decided to give Australian Idol a go, where he got as far as the Top 12. Hailed as the next Harry Connick Jnr, there is no argument that the future is bright for this young and incredibly talented musician.

Upgrade your ticket with an Up Tempo Gourmet Concert Package and make an incredible night even more spectacular.
Up Tempo allows you to arrive at your leisure to a reserved seating area, relax in a comfortable chair and enjoy a gourmet picnic hamper and fully stocked esky by your seat.
Adult package $80
Includes reserved seating, gourmet picnic hamper and beverage package featuring sparkling, red and white wine, beer, soft drinks and water
Child package $50

Includes reserved seating, gourmet picnic hamper and beverage package featuring soft drinks and water.
For the purposes of Up Tempo children are classified as under the age of 18 years and must be accompanied by an adult.
Up Tempo bookings close 5pm on the Thursday prior to the concert event.

link to page http://www.skycitydarwin.com.au/Whats-On/Carl-Riseley-Sunset-Jazz.html

By what I've found, Carl's band will consist of the "Michael Story Trio", which comprises of Michael Story on bass, Daniel Farrugia on drums, and Luke Howard on piano. Not sure if Luke is back in Australia from Germany, but the show is listed on their website.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/territoryfm/ here is a couple of photos from the NT gig at the weekend. mmmmm.

Honeyman's had a haircut....

I've been advised by SkyCity Casino (After Carl told Amanda and I he would be back in NT), that Carl will again be performing at the Casino on May 29th.

I'm planning on heading up for it - I haven't been to the NT, but I've always wanted to go, I don't think we have any NT members on here, but I'll post it anyway!

Just dropping in quickly to say last nights gig was fantastic. I'll write a full review on the plane home, i"m actually tethering the internet from my iPhone to my laptop at the moment so im not too sure how much it costs hahaha

The weekend began Friday evening, with my flight from Sydney to Darwin, a four and a half hour flight, which was predominately empty. I arrived in Darwin at around 2am Saturday morning, with my first thought being of how warm it actually was.

Saturday was spent exploring the local area, but as I was a bit under the weather, I didn't venture too far from our apartment.

On Sunday, we started doing the usual tourist thing - visiting the War Museum at End Point, and Fannie Bay Gaol, which wasn't really all that great…but, it was in Fannie Bay, so it got a laugh out of me. I got home and started getting ready to go see Carl perform at the casino.

We arrived at the casino about an hour before the "doors" opened, and could hear/see Carl soundchecking, he sound checked Smooth Operator and Come Away With Me, which had me wondering whether the set would be different to what we usually see. The weather was beautiful, in an absolutely picturesque location alongside Mindil Beach, as the sun set. We had previously been assured by casino staff that our seats were "Front row centre", so we were a little disappointed to discover we were in fact, fourth row, far right. We still had an okay view, but for $85 a ticket, we at least expected the casino to deliver what it had promised - and not put three rows of casino management in front of us, when we could have paid $15 and had a much better view.

There was a support act before Carl, whose name I can't remember, but they were okay, your standard run of the mill pub band, playing all the expected covers.

The venue was packed - I believe there was 2000 people there last year, and I'm led to believe there was similar this year. Carl came on stage to tremendous applause, along with John Morrison and his three piece band, and of course, Skippy. The set was opened with Pure Imagination - it was beautiful, and so unexpected, I'd actually geared up for The Letter - and then BAM. I was wrong!

The set continued with Reminiscing, Does Anybody Really Know What Time it is, and Hello Dolly. Carl spent a lot of time talking, and Skippy threw a few one liners in - about leaving his shampoo in Sydney (for those of you who've never had the pleasure of meeting Ken, he's bald haha), a joke which Carl later said was completely unrehearsed - and completely out of left field.

Carl sang happy birthday to about four different ladies, and even my sister had her hand up saying it was her birthday (It's still about 6 months away haha), I contemplated saying it was my birthday (in two weeks), but I figured, let the people who are actually celebrating their birthday have the fun lol. The first set was rounded out with On The Street Where You Live, Rise and The Stillest Hour (I enjoyed this song the most out of the whole set, it really is beautiful). He recycled Ashley's "We're going to take a five minute break, for ten minutes, and we'll be back in fifteen.", before the intermission began.

After the intermission, the second set commenced with Caravan, with an absolutely mind blowing drum solo from John - he was drumming on mic stands, on speakers, on pretty much everything that didn't move, he even threw in some tap dancing! (Again, unplanned according to Carl haha), John is a show man, and he really brought the instrumental alive, and had the whole crowd laughing. Skippy also produced a train whistle out of god knows where, and started making train noises at random intervals.

The set continued with All Of Me, with of course, Carl and Skippy coming into the crowd to dance, and venturing as far back as they could through the crowd of people, before moving on to Minnie The Mermaid. He and Ken gave the kids at the front toy musical instruments to play along with, with harmonica after harmonica appearing out of Ken's bag of tricks (There was even a pair of beer goggles in there - very appropriate for the little ones haha). Everybody got into Minnie, before Carl and the band launched into Bourbon St/Bill Bailey (a one man rendition by Carl this time), except, Bill Bailey kind of blended into Bourbon St a bit, but I don't think anyone apart from us could tell. The set was rounded out with Lets Fall In Love, Lido Shuffle and The Letter (which Carl determined was now The Email). He gave a spiel about social networking, and how the record company made him get Twitter, and how when people @reply him, it makes his phone vibrate "like a text message". I meant to tell him how you can turn the push notifications off so that doesn't happen, but I forgot (woops).

So the show finished, and I was going to go see Ken and say hi, but my sister spotted Carl, so we headed in that direction instead. Said hello to Skippy, and made introductions, then waited whilst Carl chatted and mingled amongst the casino management. A couple asked if I could take a photo for them, and then Carl spotted me and hellos were said. Got photos with Carl, and my sister demanded he pull a "normal face" in the photos, so it took three goes to get that to her satisfaction (fussy!) haha.

Chatted with Carl and Ken for a bit, before they had to go pack up their instruments, and get a move on out of there. I don't really remember much of the conversation, I was pretty tired haha. I think my family was more than ready to go by this stage, so goodbyes were said, and we left.

On Monday, I went to the Crocodylus park, where I got to hold a baby crocodile, as well as witness a monkey having a bit of a err… good time with himself, and see the giant 500kg crocs be fed (And jump out of the water!) We also went to the Museum, where we saw the Cyclone Tracy exhibit, which included a sound booth of the noises heard during the cyclone - scary, even when you know it's only a recording. We also saw the stuffed body of "Sweetheart", a 500kg croc which used to enjoy eating boats before being caught.

I flew home early this morning, and after a horrible 5 and a half hour flight, I'm home, very tired, but it was well worth it.

From what I saw, Darwin is a beautiful place, and I really do want to go back there - the weather was perfect, the bays around the whole city are breathtaking - and the sunset over Mindil Beach is mind blowing.

great reveiw jodes sounds like you had an amazing trip, so wish i could have been there but just by reading the reveiw it was like i was. thanks for that. :)