Thursday Balkan Boogie with MZAZA & Greshka

Swing into the fabulous "It's Still a Secret" on Montague road for a delicious cocktail, some nibbles and be blown away by bombastic beats, silly segues and phenomenal French um music. And lots of alliteration.

MZAZA

“…a world where the past is ever-present and music knows no borders. FOUR STARS” – The Courier Mail

Three-time Queensland Music Award winners MZAZA deliver Balkan-French inspired sounds to folk lovers internationally. Led by enchanting French-Sephardic vocalist Pauline Maudy, this group of musicians from around the world has been mesmerising audiences with powerful and inspired performances.

The show is in the midst of a national tour that is taking the multi-award winning band to Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales and the Northern Territory during a two and a half month tour spanning August to October 2024 that will see the 6 piece ensemble visit over 22 major venues and arts festivals, including Darwin Festival, New Annual Festival in Newcastle, and the North Australian Festival of Arts in Townsville.

Guided by enchanting French vocalist Pauline (2023 Australian Folk Music Awards Artist of the Year), these remarkable musicians and songwriters hailing from diverse corners of the globe recently won their third Queensland Music Award for their music, which features vocal harmonies, accordion, violin, shah kaman, percussion, drum kit, double bass, and guitar. 

Recorded in Greece and drawing inspiration from astronomy, philosophy and mythology, MZAZA's third album was released in 2020, explores what links us to each other and the world around us, and was described by Songlines Magasine as “A supernova of an album”.

With an aesthetic said to recall the free-spirited romanticism of Lhasa de Sela or redoubtable France-based collective Lo’Jo (who also blend Gypsy music with jazz, French chanson and Spanish and North African rhythms using a swag of instruments from all over), MZAZA are sure to take you on an unforgettable musical journey.

Have you been feeling run down? You probably have a Vitamin S deficiency. Come to a Greshka gig for a big healthy nourishing dose of Vitamin Silly. They play music from Eastern Europe, gypsy, Balkan, klezmer – and all of it made extra silly with synthesisers, cimbaloms and singalongs. Greshka play music which sounds like the contents of Spongebob Squarepants suitcase as he sets sail for Sweden. There’s snappy sârbăs, synthonic ska and Serbian-style swing. It’s incessantly sporadic, spectacularly stupid, seldom stodgy, syllabically superfluous and unceasingly exceptionally SILLY!

Bar open from 4pm.

Music from 7pm.