Someday We’ll Find It:Rock‘n’roll tribute to JimHenson @ Thornbury Theatre,Melbourne (16/05/2010)

Mon 17th May, 2010 in Gig Reviews

CHECK OUT SOME OF THE AMAZING PHOTOS FROM THE NIGHT

A fundraiser for Thornbury primary school, a tribute to Jim Henson, a collaboration of some of Melbourne’s hottest new bands and the promise of an appearance from Kamahl – this gig sounded weird before it had even begun.

Someday We’ll Find It: A rock ‘n’ roll tribute to Jim Henson... It’s difficult to know where to begin with all that appeared over the night’s couple of hours, and even if the beginning seems the most logical point, trying to explain a chorus line of primary kids with sock puppets, dancing chickens, various random vegetable costumes and Eagle & the Worm performing Muppet Intro is a very odd thing to do. Even knowing the premise behind the Muppet Show (anarchy) didn’t stop this from being one hell of a strange experience.

Over the course of two sets, Thornbury Theatre became a real life version of The Muppet Show; variety theatre complete with Statler & Waldorf (*Jess McGuire* and Tony Biggs) up in the theatre’s balcony, plenty of songs, skits and even Kermit the Frog doing his best to MC the whole event. Musically, it was a weird, often laughable (and not always a good thing) and occasionally impressive collection of Muppet numbers. This was certainly a way to see Melbourne’s local scene in new light.

Opening the musical proceedings, Hawaiian folk duo Ukeladies appeared with some primary kids to perform Kokomo, a suitable number for the pair, before Heavy Mental appeared and hijacked the performance, cranking the volume and practically stabbing the folk right out of the song. Banana peels were thrown, kids shrieked with delight, and the night was off.

It’s hard to say what left the biggest impression in the first set of the night. The Swedish Chef certainly got people laughing as he bashed his living dough – a performance that lived up to the role. Geoff O’Conner and Jessica Says delivered a polite rendition of Yes, We Have No Bananas whilst dressed as a giant pea pod and carrot respectively – that’s something you’re not ever going to see again.

An abruptly shrill Miss Piggy certainly pierced a few ears with Sophie Brous on I’m a Woman – a number that happily reminded everyone how fantastically annoying Miss Piggy is. As for the other Muppets, Jess McGuire did little work on her Statler, losing any attempt for an accent after two lines, whilst whoever was behind Fozzie Bear tried a little too hard, turning the comedic bear into a totally ocker bogan – he could seriously have been sinking tinnies given that voice (and that would only have helped his comedy). Then there was Piggy’s antics later on – since when is a striptease in honour of Kamahl appropriate for a primary school benefit gig?

After a lengthy break between sets, The UV Race kicked off what was to be the better half of the evening with Sax & Violence – Georgia Rose doing a fantastic impression of Zoot and performing her best “one off” notes on the sax. An atrocious attempt at Manamanah followed, and what could have been the night’s best song quickly became one of its worst.

The show went on with a few more gems though; Super Wild Horses performing coolly next to a rampaging Animal on Wild Thing, Guy Blackman made a great canine pianist as Rowlf, Extreme Wheeze and Evelyn Morris performed a sweet and serious It Ain’t Easy Being Green and Ooga Boogas rounded out the greats of the set with a hilarious take on Hugga Wugga. Then there was Kamahl (the greatest human to ever walk the Earth, according to Fozzie) who let out his mighty voice before handing out one of his Gold records as a raffle prize – yes, the night was that random.

Yips Yips Radio won’t be forgotten either, with Shags Chamberlain, Miles Browne and Bum Creek delivering a lengthy sequence in which, as an audience member, you can only progress from “this is cool” to “this is annoying” to “ok, this is funny”. The Yips Yips certainly added a lot behind them, too.

To round things out, the entire ensemble returned to the stage for one final sing along via The Rainbow Connection – the kind of chorus effort you’d come to expect when attending a Muppet concert, and the kind that got the whole crowd finally involved as well.

So, all in all, Someday We’ll Find It was a serious case of hit and miss. There were certainly moments Mr Henson would have waved his finger at (Frankston Fozzie and Piggy the Stripper come to mind), but for each of these there was an equally enjoyable performance elsewhere. At any rate, good on all the performers for reviving a form of entertainment that’s been dearly missed.