The Shambles Launch Party

Who ever said music and comedy didn't go together? (I think it was my friend Jamie: "Hey Lisa…music and comedy don't go together"). Regardless, tonight is an impressive mélange of the comedic stylings of Melbourne's sons The Shambles and a feast of local music acts. The shindig was to celebrate and launch the boys’ Comedy Festival Show, of which every mouth in the room was greatly anticipating aching to (Geddit? Because they’ll be laughing so much? Ha-ha...who’s the comedian now??).

Super Fun Happy Band! kicked off the night with their indie-electro stylings. Jangly, jittery, with a slightly rock edge, the boys had the unfortunate duty of popping the evening’s cherry, but embarked upon the task with as much of the style and professionalism of any of their older and more practiced counterparts.

Indie kids Junior Anti Sex League took to the stage next, giving the burgeoning crowd a dance-injection. The Toff was slowly filling, and people needed a little boogie with their beer. Personal favorite track What She Says is a dainty morsel of indie-pop, the kind that makes your head bop from side to side, Ringo Starr- style, and do those funny hand moves to the music.

The amiable thing about The Shambles boys’ was, despite their mushrooming fame in the Australian comedy scene, they haven’t lost touch. They haven’t let their faces on T-shirts and two (two!) DVDs in stores make them any less than the boffo charmers they began as. It was heartening to see them mingling with their fans, whose initial shyness was gradually depreciating with every vodka-raspberry.

Having only seen a smidgen of Major Major’s set (you see, the Toff has these booths, and you can close the doors and stuff and, well, they’re probably the most awesome thing in the world to someone after a few too many glasses of wine…and, amazingly, I don’t mean me! That’s right, pull those eyes back into your heads, Lisa was stone cold sober on this night, though the same cannot be said, in the least, for her companion…) anyway, I shuffled to the stage and funked on regardless.

The Basics. Need I say more? Well, I suppose I should, or else this review is gonna come up well short. The Basics are a lighthouse; a sign in the musical skies of better times. Come to us, they call; we will make you sing and dance. Even after having seen the Basics boys scores of times, their retro charm and exquisite ditties are as damn close to perfection as you’re gonna hear, boy howdy.

My only denigration of the night was the less than enthused crowd response. Are we such Melbourne clichés? Why don’t people applaud? And why is there always a 2, 3-odd metre semi-circle near the front of the stage because people don’t like to stand too close? Alas, I am a critic and must bring these issues to the public’s attention, lest they destroy us all! Regardless, an awesome night had by all, especially the comedians themselves, who, above all else, proved my friend Jamie wrong.

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