Dylan Moran is a star but this gig left a lot to be desired

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This wrap of shows around Melbourne includes a new show by Dylan Moran at Hamer Hall, an eclectic and timeless gig by The Smashing Pumpkins, a performance where circus and dance collide, and an arena show by a talented young singer-songwriter.

COMEDY
Dylan Moran | We Got This ★★½
Hamer Hall, until May 1

On the closing night of the Comedy Festival, it was a deficient offering served up from Dylan Moran. His delivery and structure was unkempt, and with frequent stumbles, much like the ventures of his titular alcoholic and misanthropic character Bernard Black in Black Books.

Dylan Moran performs We Got This at the Arts Centre Melbourne until May 1.

It wasn’t a train wreck, but the ticket-buying audience deserved much more from a seasoned international veteran.

His deliberately awful musical material failed to land throughout. Barbs targeting all age brackets divided the room; shock-gags surrounding butt-plugs seemed unnecessary at best; and his American political humour and Peter Dutton lines trod jokes done to death. I’ve heard about the “potato” 1000 times.

That’s not to say there weren’t highlights.

A hypothetical tale of Scotland, England and Wales sharing a car trip was sensational. He delivered deft material on lockdowns (although, one could argue by now this territory should be left in the past). Quips of ageing male genitalia elicited red levels of laughter – the visual dictation of a “melted elephant embryo” will live on in the audience’s mind for years to come. But they were few and far between over 100 minutes.

In what has become a tradition in his performances Down Under, in the encore he took a bite into an Australiana snack new to his palate – this time a “snot block” – known to most of us as a vanilla slice (on Friday he tried a lamington for the first time) – and gave his pithy thoughts. A limp ending to a doddering show.
Reviewed by Tyson Wray
The Age is a Melbourne International Comedy Festival media partner.

MUSIC
Smashing Pumpkins: World is a Vampire Tour ★★★★
Port Melbourne Industrial Centre for the Arts, April 22

Almost as memorable as your very first rock concert (Oasis, Melbourne’s Tennis Centre, the 1998 Be Here Now tour, accompanied by my older brother) is the first rock concert where it hits you that … you’re old now.

Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins performs in Port Melbourne on Saturday night.Credit: Rick Clifford

So it was for me and my brother – and I suspect many others – when The Smashing Pumpkins brought their World is a Vampire tour to an industrial shed in Port Melbourne on Saturday night, along with Jane’s Addiction, Amyl and the Sniffers, and a bunch of wrestlers from the National Wrestling Alliance, which is now owned by frontman Billy Corgan.

A “no crowdsurfing” sign on the stage scaffolding seemed to wink at the crowd of millennials and Gen Xers. Would we? We would not. But Corgan and the band brought the requisite energy, charisma and musicianship for a proper mosh with a well-paced setlist of beloved songs (Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Zero, 1979), newer material from rock opera Atum (including some blistering guitar on Beguiled), and a few covers and fun bits.

The Smashing Pumpkins brought energy, charisma and musicianship to their Melbourne gig.Credit: Rick Clifford

Corgan has long had a reputation as a cantankerous perfectionist, but in recent years he’s mellowed, and his vibe was both playful and statesmanlike. Dressed in a long black coat and wearing gothic make-up, he looked like a mash-up of Neo from The Matrix and Uncle Fester (in a good way).

But his banter was light, touching on the crowd’s enthusiasm, the correct pronunciation of Melbourne, and his mood (“I’m feeling confident, positive, it’s a new thing”). There were corny but wholesome riffs with bandmates on John Farnham (including a chorus of You’re the Voice) and chicken salt.

Corgan’s voice was strong and resonant throughout, nailing the unmistakable twang of “rat in a cage” like it was 1995. An acoustic cover of The Church’s Under the Milky Way provided a gentle moment of respite.

The sweeping, orchestral grandeur of Tonight, Tonight was also stripped back to bare acoustics, highlighting the romance of the song and the intimacy Corgan can generate through his stage presence alone – Big Frontman Energy, indeed.

A cover of Talking Heads’ Once in a Lifetime was less successful, but the inclusion felt like a clever nod to the inexorable passage into middle age, if we have the good fortune to make it.

I was struck by the timelessness of 1979, one of the last songs – and one of the highlights – of the night. The sound is unmistakably ’90s, but Corgan wrote it about his childhood in Chicago in the ’70s, and yet, for me, it evokes the nostalgia of an early-aughts coming of age.

“This is such a perfect song,” I exclaimed to my brother, a vault of teen feelings coming unlocked decades after our first gig together. Corgan knew what he was doing then, and he still knows what he’s doing now.
Reviewed by Elissa Goldstein

The Smashing Pumpkins also played at Kryal Castle in Ballarat on Sunday. The second concert at Port Melbourne Industrial Centre for the Arts on April 27 is sold out.

DANCE
Arterial, Na Djinang Circus ★★★
Northcote Town Hall, until April 30

Arterial is a signature work for First Nations-led company Na Djinang Circus because it celebrates diversity, reflects the thrills of teamwork and is full of heart and palpable good feeling. It’s also a highly theatrical piece, bringing together dance, acrobatics and physical theatre with a densely layered sound and light experience.

Tamara Bouman, Johnathon Brown and Dylan Singh perform Arterial. Credit: Darren Gill

The company, founded in 2017 by director Harley Mann, creates circus for a generation taught to question what it means to be brave and to take risks. What, these performers seem to ask, is real courage? Is it high-wire virtuosity or a willingness to be vulnerable and to address social concerns in public?

The message of this piece is community and connection. The dancers and acrobats combine speed, stability, coordination and strength in routines that invite – or insist on – metaphorical interpretation. The need for solidarity brings them together in tight clinches; hands are gripped with the conviction of a desire to stand as one.

Maggie Church-Kopp performes in Arterial, a work about community and connection.Credit: Darren Gill

If there’s a lack of look-at-me aerial tricks, there’s nonetheless plenty to admire in the tidiness of the tumbling and acrobalance. A comradely adagio act with Dylan Singh and Maggie Church-Kopp, for example, is remarkable for its radical representation of the equality of the sexes in the Circus Oz tradition of normalising female supports and bases.

There are, however, problems with all this atmosphere and sentiment.

The company’s movement vocabulary is not original enough to modulate and develop the expression of strong emotions in a way that is consistently engaging. The theme of arterial vitality can therefore seem gestural rather than embodied because there is a lack of surprise and wonder.

This is a return season for a show that premiered in 2021. The ensemble of four now features two new faces: Johnny Brown adds grit and strength while Sydney Dance Company member Tamara Bouman adds rhythmic delicacy and precision.
Reviewed by Andrew Fuhrmann

MUSIC
Ruel | 4th Wall Tour ★★★
Margaret Court Arena, April 21

Stepping out on stage to an arena packed with screaming fans, Ruel embarks on what will turn out to be a crowd-pleasing hour of entertainment.

Ruel performs to an exhilerated crowd at Margaret Court Arena.Credit: Rick Clifford

After rising to prominence as a talented teenager, and even capturing the attention of Elton John, with precocious musical talent, the now 20-year-old singer-songwriter has been steadily building up an audience on social media, his popularity highest among adolescents across Asia, Europe and his home country of Australia.

His debut album – 4th Wall – has been years in the making. The album title is inspired by The Truman Show and the idea of being surveilled, something which is quietly nodded to throughout the performance.

Everything turns pitch black and a robotic voice announces itself as “The 4th Wall Authority” while a faux aerial police searchlight scans the crowd for the young performer. The back screen lights up with a visual of his silhouette falling through the sky before he eventually “lands” on stage.

The packed mosh pit responds ecstatically to Ruel with shrill squeals. Performing hit new tracks Growing Up is____, Someone Else’s Problem and I Don’t Wanna Be Like You, his crystal-clear vocals drip in the angst of seminal coming-of-age experiences, recalling a young Justin Bieber.

Ruel captivates a packed Margaret Court Arena.Credit: Rick Clifford

He throws back to his Aria-award-winning track Dazed and Confused and covers One Direction’s Night Changes. His strongest performance is his collaborative track Flames with SG Lewis, coaxing crowds with the instruction “I want everyone to jump this time” and entering an electric strum-off with his lead guitarist.

His between-set banter oozes Australian casualness, detailing an encounter with Daniel Johns and a heartfelt reflection on the show: “This is going pretty well”.

The lo-fi set up and Ruel’s youthfulness means that at times the event feels like a high school concert, scattered with excessive use of confetti, snow and smoke.

There’s an awkwardness to his stage movements, which happens to singers more comfortable holding an instrument while performing. The videographer documenting the show was distracting on the compact stage but Ruel manoeuvres around them with ease.

A solid arena debut, his fans will utter his name fondly when reflecting back on their first gig.
Reviewed by Vyshnavee Wijekumar

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