Forming part of the City of Yarra’s Leaps And Bounds Festival, Muscycle is a free boutique music festival celebrating the notion that power can be generated without coal, natural gas, or nuclear fusion. Appropriately, the Yarra Energy Foundation soon got involved, along with a mixed bag of local musos.
Featuring Alan Brough of Spicks & Specks fame on MC duties, and starring musical acts such as Brian Ritchie from Violent Femmes, Vika and Linda Bull, The Black Jesus Experience, and The aforementioned Alan Ladds, Muscycle is going to be something else. And it will be the pedal power of stationary bikes, wielded by members of the audience, that will provide the juice required to run the PA system at the venue, North Carlton’s St Ali North.
“I came up with [the idea] with my brother who is actually a chef at St Ali North,” Gerner tells me. “We wanted to do a gig with the Leaps And Bounds Festival, but I contacted them and they were like, ‘How about an idea that’s a bit more interesting than just doing a gig?’
Having recently returned from a stay in the United States, one of the first things Gerner noticed about the City of Yarra was how absolutely “bike-crazy” it was. “So we [asked St Ali North], ‘Why don’t we have a pedal-propelled concert?’ and they were like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it!’ because Velo Cycle’s right next door, they’re all one thing, you know?
“[So] I contacted [Leaps And Bounds] and they were like, ‘Great!’” he says with a laugh.
One of the earlier proponents of the idea was Violent Femmes member Brian Ritchie, who Gerner describes as “absolutely bike-crazy”. “He heard about [Muscycle] and said he’d love to do it!” Gerner says excitedly.
“And it’s free, too, you know!” he continues. “It’s a good little event. And because it’s Bastille Day on the same day, we’re going to do an homage to the Tour de France. We’re going to do a competition called the Tour de Nowhere, And all the pedallers that enter it will have the opportunity to win a bike – and then that will be powering the PA.”
So not only is Gerner the progenitor of this fine idea, he’s also performing in it. His band, The Alan Ladds, formed earlier this year through a love of gritty story-based honkytonk country music. “I had just moved back here from the States – it’s been about two years – where I was making my solo record and playing with Ryan Bingham, who worked on the Crazy Heart soundtrack,” Gerner explains.
He met fiddle and mandolin player Luke Moller at a pub, and they hit it off immediately. “[Moller] was telling me this hilarious story about how he got kicked out of some MTV party for throwing a sausage off the roof!” Gerner giggles. “So I had ‘Luke Moller, Sausage Chucker’ written in my phone and he called me the next day; we went over to [pedal steel guitarist] Shane Reilly’s house and we just listened to records – and we were like, ‘Why don’t we start a band together?’ We did our first gig a week later!”
Gerner laughs at the memory, and informs me that they’re ready to record their debut record sometime soon. “We want to say what’s going on at the moment, in our own way,” he explains. “And I think it’s about being home, to be honest. It’s a band that can only happen when you’re in your home country, you know?”
BY THOMAS BAILEY
