Scared Wierd Little Guys

 The Famous Spiegeltent - Venue 87

http://www.melbourne.net/scared/

Comparison with Corky and the Juice Pigs is unavoidable - they even got mentioned in the course of the evening. Basically, two Australians with guitars (and sometimes mandolin, tin whistle and even plastic tube didgeridoo) do comedy songs. Sweeping generalisations aside, the only thing I can think about this show that may make some people like it less is the occasional slowing of pace - some of their songs are not laugh-a-minute jobs. However, if you can appreciate a good song you'll love it all. Musically they are top-class, both at playing and singing.

Bits that stuck in my mind include a song, allegedly written for the Australian Tourist Board, with the refrain "Come to Australia, you might accidentally get killed...", listing some of the more poisonous and toothy of Australian fauna. In fact, their speciality is songs which show off the fact that they can list things very fast... a good example of this a version of "I've Been Everywhere" where they rattle off a list of Australian place names, and then give it a bit of local flavour by doing a verse of Scottish ones too.

The show is held in a very large and impressively furnished tent with a wooden floor, and the vibration of many tapping feet is apparent - this is good toe-tapping music. They also love to present familiar songs with unusual musical styles, substitution of words and so on. I'd love to tell you more but that would give too much away - suffice it to say that one of their encores was a song called "The Bastard Child of Abba and Frankie Lane" - and I hope that this creates an interesting enough picture in your mind to make you come and hear it for yourself.

The noise of the crowd stomping the wooden floor for more probably carried for miles - two encores well deserved. I hope to meet them later in the festival for an interview... so watch this space.

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