Right off the bat I am going to have to admit that this is not a fair review. I Held a bit of bias on the night of Monday the 1st of February as it happened to be my birthday. Despite this I will try to hold the upmost stance of professionalism and objectivity regardless of the fact I was having a pretty good day already.
Who am I kidding? It was everybody’s birthday this Monday, well, everybody who made it down to the Astor theatre for the Peaches Show. It was a real treat.
Now I have to admit I was holding some reservation for the night because of its orientation on the Monday after a festival weekend. But, this quickly evaporated when I arrived (a little bit late, mind you) to the undeniable buzz in the auditorium. Now this was my first time inside the Astor Theatre since had started being utilized a venue for live music of this calibre and I was immediately impressed to say the least. The place had the sleaze and swank that would perfectly compliment a Peaches show. I managed to catch Peaches in Melbourne at the BDO so I thought I new some of the things to expect but I was also wary of the myths and rumours surrounding her.
She took to the stage at 9:30pm with a “ballsy” rendition of “Why don’t you talk to me” off her latest album “I feel cream”. The performances by her and the band were flawless but it seemed they were almost eclipsed by the spectacle and showmanship on offer. It was “staged” mayhem with choreographed hip gyrations. Everything was thought out down to the last key-tar sway routine. But this made it in no way predictable. At one point, peaches decided to walk across the hands of the crowd, saw someone filming on his I-phone and proceeded to lean down and punch it out of his hand, all while singing and giving the finger. As she explained to all the “Peaches show virgins” that this is was special moment between her and Perth, “so, no cameras”. I am not even sure if I am allowed write this review …
She had a point though, the set really had a “happening” kind of vibe, especially when she collapsed spat fake blood over the audience (including me) and got carried off stage. It was that James Brown-esque dramatic showman ship that really won the crowd over. Her in between song banter was executed with such uber-cool enthesis it sounded like dialogue from a Tarentino film.
The costumes (I say costumes because she went through 5 changes) were completely insane and looked like they come from the mind of Jim Henson. A personal favourite was the 2 metre long skeletal cock tail that she wore from the back of her leotard. The show was definitely not just an aural experiance, it was a complete package hand delivered by one of the most entertaining woman in music. I am sorry to say I missed the support of Sweet Machine and Quan Yeomans because I had a birthday cake to cut. But I heard good things from a few other punters and the room was definitely full of excitement when I did rock up. As far as my birthday went I couldn’t have asked for more, especially on a Monday. Things were just… Peachy blllleeeerrrghhh! Shame on me, haha
