A solid stitch-up, well executed, is a thing of true beauty. The perfect stitch-up is subtle in its execution and effortless in its payoff and, dear reader, Triple J darling boys Ben and Liam have managed to pull off exactly that.
How well do you know what Kevin Parker from Tame Impala looks like? Sure, you know he’s a dude with long hair and a beard who wears loose clothes, but other than looking like the standard guy you’d run into at Burning Man, do you really know what he looks like? Maybe you do, but a bunch of people at the ARIAs sure didn’t.
Ben and Liam posted a picture to their Instagram earlier this afternoon of them riding in a limo with Kevin Parker, Meg Mac, and Adam Hyde from Peking Duk – OR DID THEY:
Yes, as implied by that winky face emoji, the trio were, in fact, absolutely not the people they purported to be. The doppelgangers were apparently enough to fool people in the comments of that IG post and also enough to fool some of the reporters on the red carpet.
Pictured: Absolutely not Kevin Parker. (Photo: Facebook)
If you want to see how convincing this performance is (it is not very convincing), I thoroughly recommend you look at around the 1 hour 31 minute mark in this video.
Not all of these imposters went undetected, however, with Brendan from Deep Sea Arcade (who was masquerading as Adam from Peking Duk) being uncovered by no other than… Adam from Peking Duk:
Brendan(keys) got caught pretending to be Adam Hyde from @pekingduk by Adam Hyde at the @ARIA_Official @triplej pic.twitter.com/E0m7ZO5yxx
— DEEP SEA ARCADE (@deep_sea_arcade) November 28, 2017
It seems very likely that this is the product of the very ominously named Operation Winterfell, for which the boys were trying to recruit operates at the start of November:
It’s got something to do with Australian music. We can’t say too much. It’s big. Red carpet big. We’ll be out of our element, so we’ll need backup. It’s a secure event – we’re talking tailored suits and ear pieces as far as the eye can see – and we barely got tickets. To get in is borderline impossible. Unless you blend in. Unless you’re one of those special people who don’t even need a ticket, because your face is the ticket.
If you look like an Australian musician, we need to hear from you. If someone has pointed it out in the past or if you just know you do. If you look like Vera Blue or Dave Le’aupepe or Amy Shark or the Peking Duk boys or Illy or any Australian muso, get in touch.
Who knows how deep this web of deception will go, but it certainly looks like it was at least a partial success.
