Sydney Reviews

Photo - Scott Irvine

Amanda Palmer, one half of the American punk cabaret duo Dresden Dolls, was a curious performer for the Opera House. With Dresden Doll fans in strong attendance, Palmer’s post punk sensibilities and raging vitality found a fertile audience and her intensity cut through the large and weighty expectations created by an Opera House appearance. The Studio’s EP, Virginia Hyam has a wonderful eye for the diverse and unexpected and the programming supporting New Mardi Gras has been no exception, with Hyam having sought and found a range of queer performers for this years’ NMG cultural festival.

This is Palmer’s first world tour as a solo artist and with the new album Who Killed Amanda Palmer? produced by Ben Folds, she explored material that takes her away from the trademark thrash piano which drives the Dresden Dolls. In many ways she presented as an artist in transition, exploring new found depth and meaning in her work. The newer material was the most interesting in the context of the Studio, but these newer creative tendrils struggled to find oxygen, the performing atmosphere sucked dry by a tacky performance art group aka The Danger Ensemble. Palmer’s love of a Brechtian aesthetic is part of her trademark but its wholesale uptake by these performance artists rendered it little more than a cheap gimmick.

Palmer’s collaborator, cellist Zoe Keating, opened the show with a handful of tracks that looped and swirled about, showcasing her wonderful inventiveness. This followed a brief, self conscious and self indulgent introduction from Stephen Mitchell Wright, director and performer in the aforementioned Danger Ensemble. Unfortunately he pushed the overdone line that Amanda Palmer was dead – a cheap tie in to the album. No-one believed him and it was obviously untrue. The overall effect when Palmer appeared on stage was that she was unfortunately, inopportunely upstaged by actors who are sorely in need of firm direction.

Palmer was generous with herself and the audience and at her strongest when performing solo or with fellow musicians Zoe Keating and Lyndon Chester. Highlights included Runs in the Family, momus cover I want you but I don’t need you, my favourite things, and the Ben Folds influenced Australia which, with its raw but nuanced emotion and teasingly complex lyrics whispered the way forward for this flawed but intriguing and strangely compelling performer.


Amanda Palmer & The Danger Ensemble

Venue: The Studio | Sydney Opera House
Dates: 25 - 27 Feb 2009
Tickets: $25/$35
Bookings: www.sydneyoperahouse.com