Review: Applespiel make a band and take on the recording industry

Applespiel Make A Band Photo: Alina Gozin’a

In this premiere work, the eight young musicians and performers who comprise Applespiel create a one-hour music documentary in front of a live audience as part of Show On, the Performance Space two-week season now at Carriageworks.

The result is an exuberant and entertaining parody that has overtones of Spinal Tap but is much more self mocking.

The performers – Simon Binns, Nathan Harrison, Nikki Kennedy, Emma McManus, Joseph Parro, Troy Reid, Rachel Roberts and Mark Rogers – met as students at the University of Wollongong.

Together they play out their rock star fantasies, to “be adored, talked about, written of”, and they do this with contagious energy and considerable wit.

The performance is very tightly choreographed and carried out with split second timing. The occasional snag, like tripping over one of the wires, is treated as part of the performance without anyone losing a beat.

The audience was able to see the documentary on a large screen at the back of the stage and the shooting of the footage at various parts on the stage. This provided a fast-moving multi-media feast.

Applespiel are first cabs off the rank in the program that opened on July 25, and that includes six Australian groups that delve into audience participation and the intersection of art, life and popular culture through music, dance, live cinema, story, animation and humour.

Tonight will see the opening of several productions that will run from August 1–4: Dance theatre company Force Majeure presents Culminate ; Tamara Saulwick draws on theatre, sound art, movement and innovative design in Pin Drop, a part-documentary, part urban-thriller that explores the most private experiences; and Christine Johnston, Lisa O’Neill and Peter Nelson present RRAMP: the Collector, the Archivist & the Electrocrat, an electronic dance metal rock set on animal love, childhood imaginings and human frailty.

Also opening tonight is Thrashing Without Looking, an experimental piece created by the audience, for the audience. Presented by artistic cultural group Aphids, it combines performance and live cinema, with video goggles, champagne and loud music.