I normally try to steer clear of television due to my obsessive nature. The rare times I slip up are mainly thanks to life-debilitating hangovers, when I forget that red wine + zero water = bludgeoned brains and an overturned stomach. Friday found me pinned to the couch with Dr. Phil’s straight-talking Texan aphorisms washing over me. I’m pinning the blame squarely on Sydney three-piece Devotional, who played one of their reliably mesmeric gigs at Cake Wines pop-up bar the night before. Devotional’s sparse, spacey arrangements romanced with singer Madelaine Lucas’ soulful crooning makes for the musical equivalent of submerging oneself into calm seas and being carried away on the fins of rainbow fish (think a marriage between Slowdive and Mazzy Star). This particular scenario is a fantasy of mine, so you can imagine I was pleased. Another thing that sent me floating was the excellent red wine drops at Cake Wines, which is situated between two houses on Cleveland Street, Redfern in a stripped back warehouse space. You might say that the music lifted me up and the wine kept me soaring out into the night. Magical. It then had me crash land into Friday, resigned to spend the entire day nursing my poor, spent body and catching up on Dr. Phil. Highlights from that little marathon include an interview with a wacked-out Dina Lohan, the forty-year-old teacher who left his family for his student and the teenage girl who won’t stop stalking boys and hating her mum. The couch now has an imprint of my butt and I’m pretty sure I accumulated bed sores, but it was worth it.

This week is unfortunately Cake Wine bar’s last, so find out more about them here and if you’re in and around the city of Sydney be sure to pop in.

On the Brightside, Devotional is sticking around indefinitely; do your ears a favour over at their bandcamp

 

-Lil G