Oh What A Night ! Amanda Palmer is the new black and very close to replacing sliced bread as "The Best Thing" from which to draw comparison.
To tell the truth, I'm usually too busy weeding out the best lo-fi garage/punk rock n roll in the alley ways of Melbourne and surrounding suburbs to take a flying leap out of that obsession to attend "a show" at a larger venue like the Northcote Social Club. Happily, I found myself in Northcote last night.
A friend from Tasmania saw Amanda Palmer perform at Mona Foma with "The Dresden Dolls" and was so blown away by Ms Palmer that he very kindly purchased tickets poste haste for the final show of her residency at Northcote Social Club with her band "The Grand Theft Orchestra". Best 30 bucks ever spent (he purchased three tickets for the criminally low amount of $10.00 each).
If you could bottle the creativity and songwriting prowess of Kate Bush with your best friend, combine it with the E Street band and throw in the makeup of Pat Benatar circa 1983 you would have Amanda Palmer swirling around inside, said bottle.
For nearly 2 hours Palmer and her band performed, laughed, played, celebrated a birthday, courted Bahaus bass player David J on stage and generally made a spectacular show of their musicianship and ability entertain.
Throughout the course of the evening these excitable, delicious characters played everything from tunes by the "Dresden Dolls" to the brand new songs that are dynamic odes to thoughts, relationships, life and death that aurally explode like lava out of a volcano to envelope you in brassy brilliance, passion, pain and strength. Included was a solo performance of Lana Del Rays "Video Games" by Palmer, that spellbound (I know it sounds corny, but there is no other term for it) the crowd and was one of the most poignantly pleasurable moments I have experienced at a live show.
The final encore was a rich theatrical cover of "Bauhaus's" Bela Lugosi's Dead, complete with David J of Bauhaus on bass and two silthlike creatures from the grave posturing around Palmer and eventually carrying her off stage on their wings and away through the crowd.
Musically, visually, sonically this was a great show. Thank you to the fantastic multi talented Grand Theft Orchestra who can shake it on any instrument including vocals, keys, synth, bass, guitars, trumpet and drums. Not to forget the Melbournian five piece horn section that blasted forth the most goose bump inducing accompaniment for the last half of the set.
Tomorrow these magnificent musicians will go into the studio to make a record for the next two weeks. I don't think I'm Robinson Crusoe in saying how excited I am for the release.
