Following in the artfully-placed footsteps of German electronic music group Kraftwerk, Arthaus are finally showcasing the accumulation of their life’s work this MICF. Little do they know – it’s hilarious.
Meet Clauter, Hans Michael and Pierre – European existentialists who make up the band Arthaus. Theirs is a story not even one year in the making, one that started as a five-minute open-mic bit during the Edinburgh Comedy Festival last year. In their own minds, of course, Arthaus are one of the most influential art/electro groups to come out of the last century. Maybe even the greatest…?
“We got approached by a couple of producers down at the BBC and they said ‘you guys should make a show out of this’,” says Ben Kazlauskas, aka Hans Michael.
“I’ve lived in Germany for eight years and so I’ve been wanting to get my own back for a while, but it’s not a complete kick in the nuts towards Germany…”
In the band’s alternate universe, moreover, the MICF is actually an international arts festival and fans are simply there to witness the magic that is the Arthaus reunion tour.
“There’s going to be a lot of really interesting elements in the show,” Kazlauskas explains. “I mean, we’ve got a live twitter feed up, so you can sit there and tweet us during the show and it’ll show up on the screen behind us. You can even tweet when you’re not there and it’ll pop up… You could say something like, ‘Wow, your show sucked’ or something like that. Whatever!”
Nicolas Darling and Tim Bright – aka Pierre and Clauter – are the tech-savvies at the helm of Arthaus. Their joint technological expertise (accompanied by Kazlauskas’ convincing German accent and skivvies) is sure to be a piss-take like no other – rich in digital media, lighting and, of course, living and breathing electronic music.
“We just think it’s a really interesting idea where we can get the audience involved but they don’t have to come up onstage and embarrass themselves. We’ll already be doing plenty of that.”
Arthaus perform Existentialism With An Interval at The Lithuanian Club from March 30 – April 23. It’s at 8pm Tuesday – Saturday. Tickets are $15 – $20 and available from arthaus2011.wordpress.com or on the door.
Cayce Hill
