Friday Nights at NGV returns for Degas: A New Vision

ARIA Award winning singer-songwriter Clare Bowditch; PJ Harvey-collaborator Mick Harvey; critically acclaimed five-piece Augie March; Brisbane indie rock trio The Grates; and legendary US rock singer Kid Congo with The Pink Monkey Birds lead the lineup for the next Friday Nights at NGV series for Degas: A New Vision. 

Over thirteen weeks, Friday Nights at NGV will showcase after-hours art, live music and entertainment, with an outstanding lineup of headline acts including:

Friday 24 June – Clare Bowditch

Friday 1 July – The Goon Sax

Friday 8 July – The Grates

Friday 15 July – Husky

Friday 22 July – The Apartments

Friday 29 July – Halfway

Friday 5 August – Jen Cloher

Friday 12 August – The Painted Ladies

Friday 19 August – Jess Ribeiro

Friday 26 August – Kid Congo & The Pink Monkeybirds (USA)

Friday 2 September – Mick Harvey: Intoxicated Man – The Songs of Serge Gainsbourg

Friday 9 September – Pierce Brothers

Friday 16 September – Augie March

Tony Ellwood, Director, NGV, said, -Friday Nights at NGV continues to be one of the most popular events on our programming calendar, offering a unique opportunity to see an array of local and international music acts as well as late-night access to Degas: A New Vision, pop-up talks, foods, drinks and more.' 

American rock musician Kid Congo Powers, best known as former guitarist for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Gun Club and The Cramps, will present his newest album with The Pink Monkey Birds, La Araña Es La Vida, when he brings his raw style of garage-punk to the NGV Great Hall on 26 August.

Fresh from a European tour with PJ Harvey, Melbourne-based musician Mick Harvey will play tracks from his latest album Delirium Tremens and previous two volumes Intoxicated Man and Pink Elephants on 2 September. Featuring reinterpretations of songs by seminal French artist Serge Gainsbourg, this special performance will complement Degas: A New Vision by bringing together the work of Degas and Gainsbourg, two iconic French artists.

Collaborative Australian music act, The Painted Ladies, will honour the music of Aboriginal music pioneer Vic Simms, who toured with Buddy Holly and Shirley Bassey while still in high school in the 1960s. Tracks from Simms' album Loner, considered a lost classic, will be performed when The Painted Ladies take to the stage on 12 August.

The Friday Nights lineup also includes teenage trio The Goon Sax who have built up a distinctive indie-pop sound and been hailed by Pitchfork as a -distinctly Australian blend of honesty and unpretentiousness.'

Other highlights include Melbourne singer Jess Ribeiro with a new, darker sound honed while working with producer Mick Harvey on her sophomore album Kill It Yourself, as well as indie folk band, Husky, whose love of Bob Dylan and Neil Young is apparent through the artful songwriting of Melburnian Husky Gawenda and his cousin Gideon Preiss.

Eight-piece band Halfway will present their unique Australian take on country music, including tracks from their new album, The Golden Halfway Record, which was recorded in the home of country music, Nashville, Tennessee.

Melbourne singer-songwriter Jen Cloher will showcase the husky-voiced tunes for which she has earned ARIA and Australian Music Prize nominations, while multi-instrumentalist twin brothers the Pierce Brothers, who recently finished a world tour, will also perform.

The setting for Friday Nights at NGV is inspired by 1920s Parisian café style, with live jazz, food and drinks. Instrumental and vocal ensembles will set the tone for a sophisticated and relaxed evening of art, dining, music and conversation.

The world premiere exhibition Degas: A New Vision will display the biggest collection of Degas works ever seen in Australia, with more than 200 pieces which reveal the artist's talent in a new light; not only as a great master of painting, but also as a master of drawing, printmaking, sculpture and photography.