Two extremely different – but equally lovable – tours are happening in Australia at the moment: John Waters – the incomparable king of camp, the pharaoh of filth – has brought his trashtastic show This Filthy World to town; and Phoenix – French indie rock band – have landed on our shores for their “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix” world tour.
PHOENIX
They started out as a little-known indie French band with one of the great pop songs of the last decade (“Too Young”) have crossed over into wildly popular mainstream territory with their last couple of albums – It’s Never Been Like That (2006) and last year’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – and their tour is a bonafide rock show.
Last night’s sellout show at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion drew a hugely diverse crowd of 20-something hipsters, beautiful people, muscular teenage jocks, pimpled dags, your mum, your grandma, and a dude in a Pantera singlet – every one of whom collectively lost their shit as the handsome skinny French dudes ripped through almost two hours of beatific dance floor tunes.
It was a love-in of dancing, dripping sweat and an amazing number of people singing along word-for-word to virtually every track they played.
The highlights included: all the singles – “Lisztomania” which the opened with, “Consolation Prizes” and “Long Distance Call”; an insane metal version of “If I Ever Feel Better”; and – one the surprises of the set – a beautifully stripped back rendition of Air’s “Playground Love” – a track on which Phoenix singer Thomas Mars (AKA my boyfriend) performed the original vocals.
JOHN WATERS
To call legendary auteur John Waters a Gay icon would be like calling Animal from The Muppets an excitable fellow. His 30 year career of super outrageous, sexually deviant, provocative, stereotype-breaking (and -creating) film, photography, art and writing has helped define what it is to be queer in contemporary times.
His one-man show This Filthy World (containing highly offensive content – naturally) has been traveling around Australian cities for the last week and last night’s show at The Sydney Opera House was also a total sellout.
The crowd was choc full of his fans – and of course a strong presence from the gay community. Catherine Kelleher who attended the show described it as one of the most enjoyable experiences she has ever had:
“He talked about everything; living in Baltimore, anecdotes about Divine, the things they used to do growing up. He talked about all his films from his first work to his most recent. Most of it was dirty and amazing. He gave advice like “if you go home with someone and they don’t have any books at their house LEAVE IMMEDIATELY”… He had the audience in stitches, it was HILARIOUS.”
This is, after all, the man who’s most famous catchphrase is: “isn’t that the most perverse thing you ever heard?!”
For anyone who went to either of these shows we would love to hear your thoughts – remember, one man’s John Waters-style trash is another man’s throw-this-shit-in-the-garbage-bin trash.
Comment at will!
