The Jester Ball - Albert Hall- 09/05/07

Sun 13th May, 2007 in Gig Reviews

It surely was a feast for the eyes; Canberra folk obviously had spent quite some time preparing costumes, masks, feathers and fishnets for their appearance at The Jester Ball. The outcome was incredible! Inhibitions had clearly been left at home, looking at the lengths everyone had gone to come in disguise and look the part. Encouraging ‘anything goes’ in regard to costumes, many came as vampires, robots, monkeys, superheros and all sorts of characters, while most came in typical burlesque and ball gown fashion.

The night was in the style of a traditional masquerade ball, only far more casual and modernised. Some of the music and bands didn’t quite fit the rest of the well-themed burlesque entertainment and sights, but who cared, the audience seemed to enjoy it all.

It was very clever to organise the event in this way. There was a double purpose behind the event, as the venue and the audience also served as the backdrop for a film-clip for songwriter Tom Woodward’s tune Drinking the Dregs. Film crew waltzed around throughout the night to capture Tom’s performance, the antics of several animated actors, a teasing striptease show by Miss Kitka’s House of Burlesque and of course the wonderful liberated and costumed audience.

Albert Hall suited the ball wonderfully. Unfortunately, it didn’t do justice to the live music, since the building’s acoustics were more suitable to a piano and a string quartet, that actually also played there that night. At times, voices and vocals came across as booming echoes that were hard to make sense of. This worked at a disadvantage for the bands that performed, but the crowd didn’t need to notice – already familiar with the music, they danced frantically and were unstoppable.

To encourage and rev up the audience in-between acts, there was the MC, a strange character, bear-chested and dressed only in black tights, black eyeliner and a jester hat. The audience seemed mostly confused by his rather annoying and incomprehensible recurring appearances, but he was certainly amusing.

The Tom Woodward Ensemble was the main theme of the night and the crowd got pretty excited about them. With saxophone, violin, keys, percussion and bass, and Tom on guitar and vocals, they created a pleasant but slightly sombre sound. Dancers from Miss Kitka’s House of Burlesque provided some cheeky entertainment in-between the bands. The audience quickly became divided into the blokes, the feminists and the curious, but the dancers were well received and were praised immensely.

After some more jester antics and strange music and poetry, The Spirits of the Dead appeared on stage. Apart from some great and unique vocals from Konrad Lenz and some extra instruments, it was as if Tom and his band had returned on stage to play a few more songs. Nevertheless, they did encourage people to dance and everyone soon forgot that it was even cold outside.

After all the performances were over, funky music was played over the PA. This probably was the highlight of the night. Maybe it was the costumes and masks that provided a level of anonymity – there were few hesitations and everyone started to dance quite unashamedly and without inhibitions. Just like a fairytale, the ball had to end at the stroke of midnight when the costumed folk got kicked out of Albert Hall, but the party continued long into the morning at the Transit Bar, in Civic.