The bright lights of centre stage have always held something of an allure. I’ve got hazy memories of being ejected from a Fuzzy party at the Metro Theatre in Sydney last year after I climbed up onstage to dance (err, twice), and at the Smirnoff Experience with Armand Van Helden I was given a camcorder to document the night “from the punter’s POV”, but instead tried to use is as an AAA pass to position myself onstage to get a better perspective of the night.

The common thread linking these two incidents was – of course – the excessive intake of alcohol… it’s not as if I have a burning desire to perform, I’m just an idiot when drunk. So imagine my delight when offered the chance to be inside one of Pnau’s – now legendary – character suits at a sold out show on their – œWe Are Back’ tour. This was a dream come true; an opportunity for me to finally get some payback for all those times I’d been told to “get off the fucking stage you clown.”

The email came through casually on the afternoon of the gig, with Pnau’s tour publicist asking if anyone from inthemix wanted to wear a suit at their Enmore Theatre show that night. It took me about 0.0007387 seconds to reply with an emphatic “YES!”, but as soon as I’d hit send I became instantly agitated. It dawned on me, in a few short hours I’d be dancing in front of 3,000+ people at one of Sydney’s most legendary live venues. What had I gotten myself into? Word came back that I would be wearing the – œDove’ costume, which my friends were quick to dub – œDead Bird’ (it’s the blue and white bird with big X-eyes). I proceeded to watch as many YouTube clips of the Pnau live show as I could find, hoping to glean ideas for dance moves… Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

Arriving at the Enmore that evening I was introduced to a few of the other people who were to be in costumes the same night – there’s eight of them all up – and we were quickly ushered backstage. Stopped by a security guard before we made it all the way, I took great delight when the tour publicist firmly told him, “these are my back up dancers!” I’ve been called a lot of things in my life… sadly, up until this point – œback up dancer’ wasn’t one of them. Another thing to tick off the list.

We waited patiently for Will, who headed up Pnau’s costume department, to arrive with the suits. Finally making it to the venue just before the 9.30pm onstage time, we were each given a lyric unitard/bodysuit (not flattering in the slightest sense) and told to get changed. Trying to relax until it was time to take to the stage, I downed a few beers and few Red Bulls, and worked up a mental picture of what I’d see when stepping out onstage in a few minutes time.

When word came that it was time for us to head upstairs we quickly walked up single file and climbed into our costumes. Being the – œDove’ turned out to be a blessing of sorts. I had a detachable head/helmet that I could take off myself (so I didn’t feel quite so claustrophobic), and I was also able to freely move my arms (err, wings?) In most of the other costumes (- œStrawberry’, – œDiamond’, – œSkull’ or – œLightning Bolt’, for example) you were a pair of legs inside a big suit, so I gave myself a mental high-five as I was able to bust out infinitely more expressive dance moves.

Led out onstage, we were each positioned in a spot and more or less instructed to – œstay put’. I did what I was told, as the fear of knocking over mountains of equipment outweighed the need to step outside my personal space. Also, the fact that you can’t really see a great deal through the suit’s eye holes didn’t instill a whole heap of confidence. So, with my arms flapping and my legs kicking, I quickly found my groove and went about being the best goddamn dead dove those 3,000 people had ever seen.

After a few minutes, the fatigue set in. Hardcore. Jesus this suit was hot! I had a river of sweat literally dripping down my face and burning into my eyes. I tried to push the thoughts of how many other people had been inside this very same costume – sweating like a maniac – to the back of my mind (they’d done the whole Big Day Out tour, a run of shows for Bacardi in February, and then half of their Australian tour so far…) This was not the time or place to wonder about such things. I had a crowd to entertain.

Initially we were onstage for about three or four songs, I couldn’t tell you exactly because I lost track of time/space. I might have even travelled outside my body… who knows. I don’t know if it was the heat or the adrenalin, but the time flew by. Once backstage we had a few more songs to relax (at which point I ran into Gus Da Hoodrat from Bang Gang, who commented on how hot my legs looked in lycra. Thanks Gus), before we were trotted back onstage for the finale. This time I got a bit more creative with my moves, doing a few hip thrusts and even throwing in an air guitar bit during the intro for – œNo More Violence’. Naturally, the crowd lapped it up. I felt like a god.

All in all it was one of the most surreal experiences of my life and I’ve taken great delight in telling anyone that will listen to me for more than 30 seconds all about it. I might never get the chance to legitimately dance onstage in front of that many people again (and to be honest, it’s probably for the best), so I’m saving this memory in the vault. I might even add it to my CV. I mean, why would I want to work for inthemix anymore?! I could get a job at Movie World, with The Wiggles or as the mascot for an NBL team! The sky truly is the limit for this little bird.

Check the YouTube clip below to see the madness first hand!

Photo credits: lead and first image by Anna Warr.