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sharplittleteethI started writing this last night, after we got back from the Amanda Palmer gig. It's long. Very long. And a bit rambling. My apologies. The actual review bit is at the end, if you want to skip over the blow-by-blow descriptions.
SOME BACKGROUND
Friday night we saw Jason Webley's gig at the Evelyn Hotel. Jason Webley is a sort of gypsy/gutterpunk/Tom Waits accordion player. He's supported Amanda Palmer on previous tours, which is where I suspect most of his fan base in Australia comes from.
Supporting him was Evelyn Evelyn, a pair of Edward Gorey-esque conjoined twins who were "discovered" by Webley and Palmer. And yes, by "discovered" I mean they're characters played by Palmer and Webley.
The chance for Evelyn Evelyn to play at a venue called The Evelyn was too good for them to pass up. Even if it confused the hell out of the poor sales assistant at Polyester when I tried to buy our tickets.
So...
FRIDAY: THE EVELYN
Doors were meant to open at 8. We got there at 9 and there was still a massive queue outside. It was 9:30 before we made it inside, and the Evelyn was packed.
First support act was Tom Dickins from the Jane Austen Argument. He reminds me a bit of Tim Minchin. Mainly it's the accent, and the eye shadow.
Next were the Evelyn twins. Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley in black wigs and single dress. The back-story is that the twins are painfully shy, so there was a lot of miming tarrified looks. Which was funny, if you were one of the ten people there who could see the stage over the crowd of people. The Evelyn Evelyn music has a great ragtime feel to it. And it's impressive to see them play the piano or ukelele with just Amanda's right hand and Jason's left.
Third support: Kim Boekbinder. Who looked like Delirium from the Sandman comics, and danced a bit too much like a precious little pixie, but I liked her music. She only played three songs, using a loop pedal to build up a wall of sound out of guitar, backing vocals and squeaky toy crocodile.
Finally, Jason Webley came out, armed with his accordion. His music is a bit gypsy, a bit cajun. Music for people with goatees and battered port-pie hats. He played some 80s covers. He told some jokes. Amanda Palmer joined him for a few songs, and the set had that wonderful loose, chaotic, friends-getting-together-to-jam vibe that she does so well.
SATURDAY: THE FORUM
We slept late Saturday morning. Had dinner at ACMI Lounge, and reached the Forum a bit after 8. The Jane Austen Argument were playing as we came in. We'd missed Kim Boekbinder's set.
We said hello to several friends. Found a seat up the back. It occurred to me the previous time we saw the Jane Austen Argument support Amanda Palmer last year, they hadn't dressed quite so arty. Amanda Palmer's influence at work, I suspect. (A. disagrees with me on this - she thinks the JAA were just as arty last year, and my memory is at fault.)
Evelyn Evelyn came out and played one song.
Mikelangelo and the Tin Star followed, with their surf-Western music. I love Mikelangelo, but we'd seen his play twice recently (at the St. Kilda Festival, and at the Famous Speigletent), so I ducked out to the Gents.
When I came back, I bumped into p_cat and her husband, so we sat in a booth with them for the rest of Mikelangelo's set.
Jason Webley came out a played one song.
And then the sound of an unamplified ukulele drifted down from the statuary above the stage. Amanda Palmer was up there, in a call-back to the finale encore of her Forum show last year.
The Tin Star came out and vamped the intro to "Miss Me" while Palmer ran down and changed into her stage costume on stage. (There was some bare Amanda Palmer boobage.)
The first half of her set was very down beat. Lots of sad songs on piano. She did a spare, slow cover of "Such Great Heights" with Kim Boekbinder, and a dirge-like verion of "The Drover's Boy". Palmer's action on stage seemed very theatrical, almost as though she was covering how worn-out and fragile she felt.
But the energy picked up in the second part of the show, culminating in riotously camp version of "Map of Tasmania" with all her guests playing and dancing on stage, including a pair in koala suits who stripped down to pasties and merkins.
For the final encore, everyone came back out and sang Jason Webley's "The Drinking Song" again. Which was fun, in a beer-hall sing-along way. Except it was the same encore as the night before, with exactly the same banter between Palmer and Webley, which to me undercuts the whole spontaneous, drunken message of the song.
Ah, ignore me. My inner Presbyterian is showing.
THE ACTUAL REVIEW
Look, we saw Amanda Palmer play the Forum exactly a year ago. And that was one of the best concerts of my life. Intimate. Shambolic. Joyous. Utter magic. Irrepeatable magic, too, because it came just after the SLAM rally, and she had Paul Kelly and Mick Harvey join her on stage. There was just so much love flowing on the stage, and between the stage and the audience.
Last night was a great performance from a great performer. And if I sound hesitant about it, it's only because you can't catch lightning twice.
It was a great show. She had the entire audience on their feet, all the way to the back rows of the Forum. And part of what makes her shows so great is the rag-tag family of musicians she surrounds herself with. Mikelangelo joked she had so many guests on stage it was like the Johnny Cash Show.
And that rag-tag family extends out into the audience, too. Palmer was booked to play Christchurch the day the earthquake hit. She sent go-go dancers out into the crowd with donation buckets for the New Zealand Red Cross.
You can't catch lightning twice. But Amanda Palmer can throw a party. It might start out a bit maudlin. But it ends in strippers wearing koala suits, and every one cheering like mad.
I'm glad we went. I also glad went to the Evelyn the night before, and caught something more intimate.
SOME BACKGROUND
Friday night we saw Jason Webley's gig at the Evelyn Hotel. Jason Webley is a sort of gypsy/gutterpunk/Tom Waits accordion player. He's supported Amanda Palmer on previous tours, which is where I suspect most of his fan base in Australia comes from.
Supporting him was Evelyn Evelyn, a pair of Edward Gorey-esque conjoined twins who were "discovered" by Webley and Palmer. And yes, by "discovered" I mean they're characters played by Palmer and Webley.
The chance for Evelyn Evelyn to play at a venue called The Evelyn was too good for them to pass up. Even if it confused the hell out of the poor sales assistant at Polyester when I tried to buy our tickets.
So...
FRIDAY: THE EVELYN
Doors were meant to open at 8. We got there at 9 and there was still a massive queue outside. It was 9:30 before we made it inside, and the Evelyn was packed.
First support act was Tom Dickins from the Jane Austen Argument. He reminds me a bit of Tim Minchin. Mainly it's the accent, and the eye shadow.
Next were the Evelyn twins. Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley in black wigs and single dress. The back-story is that the twins are painfully shy, so there was a lot of miming tarrified looks. Which was funny, if you were one of the ten people there who could see the stage over the crowd of people. The Evelyn Evelyn music has a great ragtime feel to it. And it's impressive to see them play the piano or ukelele with just Amanda's right hand and Jason's left.
Third support: Kim Boekbinder. Who looked like Delirium from the Sandman comics, and danced a bit too much like a precious little pixie, but I liked her music. She only played three songs, using a loop pedal to build up a wall of sound out of guitar, backing vocals and squeaky toy crocodile.
Finally, Jason Webley came out, armed with his accordion. His music is a bit gypsy, a bit cajun. Music for people with goatees and battered port-pie hats. He played some 80s covers. He told some jokes. Amanda Palmer joined him for a few songs, and the set had that wonderful loose, chaotic, friends-getting-together-to-jam vibe that she does so well.
It finished with "The Drinking Song", an ompah-ompah beer-hall singalong, interspersed with exhortations for the audience to sing even louder.
SATURDAY: THE FORUM
We slept late Saturday morning. Had dinner at ACMI Lounge, and reached the Forum a bit after 8. The Jane Austen Argument were playing as we came in. We'd missed Kim Boekbinder's set.
We said hello to several friends. Found a seat up the back. It occurred to me the previous time we saw the Jane Austen Argument support Amanda Palmer last year, they hadn't dressed quite so arty. Amanda Palmer's influence at work, I suspect. (A. disagrees with me on this - she thinks the JAA were just as arty last year, and my memory is at fault.)
Evelyn Evelyn came out and played one song.
Mikelangelo and the Tin Star followed, with their surf-Western music. I love Mikelangelo, but we'd seen his play twice recently (at the St. Kilda Festival, and at the Famous Speigletent), so I ducked out to the Gents.
When I came back, I bumped into p_cat and her husband, so we sat in a booth with them for the rest of Mikelangelo's set.
Jason Webley came out a played one song.
And then the sound of an unamplified ukulele drifted down from the statuary above the stage. Amanda Palmer was up there, in a call-back to the finale encore of her Forum show last year.
The Tin Star came out and vamped the intro to "Miss Me" while Palmer ran down and changed into her stage costume on stage. (There was some bare Amanda Palmer boobage.)
The first half of her set was very down beat. Lots of sad songs on piano. She did a spare, slow cover of "Such Great Heights" with Kim Boekbinder, and a dirge-like verion of "The Drover's Boy". Palmer's action on stage seemed very theatrical, almost as though she was covering how worn-out and fragile she felt.
But the energy picked up in the second part of the show, culminating in riotously camp version of "Map of Tasmania" with all her guests playing and dancing on stage, including a pair in koala suits who stripped down to pasties and merkins.
For the final encore, everyone came back out and sang Jason Webley's "The Drinking Song" again. Which was fun, in a beer-hall sing-along way. Except it was the same encore as the night before, with exactly the same banter between Palmer and Webley, which to me undercuts the whole spontaneous, drunken message of the song.
Ah, ignore me. My inner Presbyterian is showing.
THE ACTUAL REVIEW
Look, we saw Amanda Palmer play the Forum exactly a year ago. And that was one of the best concerts of my life. Intimate. Shambolic. Joyous. Utter magic. Irrepeatable magic, too, because it came just after the SLAM rally, and she had Paul Kelly and Mick Harvey join her on stage. There was just so much love flowing on the stage, and between the stage and the audience.
Last night was a great performance from a great performer. And if I sound hesitant about it, it's only because you can't catch lightning twice.
It was a great show. She had the entire audience on their feet, all the way to the back rows of the Forum. And part of what makes her shows so great is the rag-tag family of musicians she surrounds herself with. Mikelangelo joked she had so many guests on stage it was like the Johnny Cash Show.
And that rag-tag family extends out into the audience, too. Palmer was booked to play Christchurch the day the earthquake hit. She sent go-go dancers out into the crowd with donation buckets for the New Zealand Red Cross.
You can't catch lightning twice. But Amanda Palmer can throw a party. It might start out a bit maudlin. But it ends in strippers wearing koala suits, and every one cheering like mad.
I'm glad we went. I also glad went to the Evelyn the night before, and caught something more intimate.
