What is your show about?
Stupid and Contagious is an attempt to capture the essence of that feeling you get at the greatest concert you’ve ever attended. It’s about what happens in the space between the speakers and your ears at that gig. Using the music of Kurt Cobain and others, we explore nostalgia and explore why songs mean so fucking much to us.
What was the process of putting your show together?
I stood in a field (or more accurately many fields and sweaty clubs and cavernous arenas) and tried to dissect the feeling I have when a band and a crowd connect. Time moves more slowly; each note and feeling and gesture feels more significant than it would anywhere else. So I sipped my overpriced beer out of a plastic cup and scribbled notes on the backs of receipts until it started to become its own concert.
What motivated you to put this show on?
The first time I saw Radiohead was on their Kid A tour. The lights dimmed and Jonny Greenwood jumped onto the stage before anyone else and ripped into the first chords of The National Anthem with an intensity I’d never encountered before. I felt like I had gotten laid, eaten a perfectly cooked steak, fallen in love, and been punched in the face all at the same time.
What does your show say about today’s music culture?
I don’t think there can be another Kurt Cobain or Michael Jackson or Beatles today. I think we hear a great record today, and we love it, but we don’t live it. I remember very carefully selecting which onealbum I could buy at the music store when I saved up my 15 bucks as a teenager. That decision had stakes. I’m not saying the past was better, but there is a comparison to be explored.
Venue: Fringe Hub: Lithuanian Club – The Ballroom
Dates: September 24 – October 1 (except Monday)
Times: 10.30pm (Sunday 9.30pm)
Tickets: $20 – $25
