The Last Prom, Fun Machine,nozl @ The Phoenix, Canberra(13/4/11)

Fri 15th Apr, 2011 in Gig Reviews

The switch was thrown to vaudeville on Wednesday night, as some of Canberra’s finest performing artists took over The Phoenix Pub for the second instalment of Gigmund Freud, a name that virtually invites the term ‘pop psychology’ to be used in its description. 


Held on the second Wednesday of each month at The Phoenix, the Gigmund gigs and their lineups are curated by a record label, magazine, or local celebrity. In this case, the lineup – nozl, Fun Machine and The Last Prom – was organised by the BMA crew.


It was with raucous chaos that the night opened, with a general cacophony of noise – idle bar chatter, interludes of cheesy groove music and ramshackle rumbles of rap – floating over the nigh-filled bar. Host Joel ‘The Curator’ Barcham got up to give a quick introductory spiel that was roundly ignored by the beer-swilling patrons, but that all changed when capital letters-averse bunch nozl got up, so too did the level of interest of the aforementioned patrons.


With static-bleary music, snatches of rap, gospel music and uninhibited rock-thrash, nozl gave their all on stage. It was fast, it was frenzied, it was confused and it was loud – a smash-up of every genre and a few more besides. Between the balloons, streamers and lurid lights, there were dancing men in dapper clothes with peculiarly painted faces, the unique summation of which made The Phoenix a smaller version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. nozl was a kick of adrenalin on the distracted night – and it just got better from there.


After a few more you-had-to-be-there jokes from The Curator, there was a short break before Fun Machine came on. 
These lads (and lady!) about town have been seemingly everywhere over the past few months, with gigs at Foreshore and Corinbank to their name. On Wednesday, they played the brand of irresistible dance-jib-snake-writhe for which they’ve become so well known. Theatrics were the order of the day again, as Fun Machine brought the showmanship and the audience supplied the dancing and applause.


Last act was fittingly, The Last Prom. This marked the band’s second Canberra performance, the first being their unforgettable debut during the recent You Are Here Festival and this second run was as delightful and thrilling as the first. They played with the gusto and careless abandon of those facing the impending apocalypse, which, as anyone can tell you is a pretty big theme within the band. The self-proclaimed ‘only high school dance band that features the Antichrist and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’ has quickly gained a rather loyal and frantic following, all of who were all over the dance floor during their set, fighting for room to bust a move in the overcrowded pub. The Last Prom’s eclectic, here-there-and-everywhere musical stylings capped of the evening in the style in which it had begun, slightly bizarre and completely brilliant.

Make sure you get yourself and your dancing shoes down to The Phoenix next month to see what the team at hellosQuare has in store for us.