Pussy Riot Live & Special Guests: A Night Of Music, Activism And Frenzy ~ Adelaide Fringe 2019 Review

[MUSIC ~ AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE ~ RUS] RCC Fringe – Maths Lawns, Thu 7 Mar. We’re not naïve; we know music alone cannot win a war for social justice. But shots of courage are essential for the troops. We come weary, parched, battle-scarred to gatherings like this and they help remind us we are fierce and we are not alone. This huge night, a packed four hours, rocked our socks off and we are restored to tribe. New York’s Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir’s warm-up cameo was full of light and love, a joyous feast to get our activist juices coursing. We loved their beautiful voices, spacious choreography and fabulous frocks, all helping remind us there is no beige in rebellion. In the captivating, broody Cash Savage & The Last Drinks, a detectable DNA connection to the Bad Seeds is more than ably taken forward and expanded upon by this all-original contemporary outfit. We especially loved the rangy, restless stage energy of Cash Savage and Kat Mear’s remorseless rock fiddle. Ecca Vandal and her band took us to a new high with rage, charisma and cool in an impressively sleek package. This relative newcomer is a bombshell on stage, completely unreserved, the band is tight and loose in all the right places, and we won’t be taking our eyes off her in a hurry, if ever. Yothu Yindi made us emotional, with a knockout stage show, glorious desert projections, traditional dancers, and that wonderful sound so ably continued down the generations. The other bands joined them onstage for a giant, moving finale: Treaty, of course! And so, at last, to Pussy Riot. A spoken preamble explained that two original members wished to express themselves individually with, respectively, sax and keyboard. The sax-based piece with some street-type theatre was the opener. Did we get it? Not really. The whole band’s intervening set was the full riot of fire and fury, trademark sweet punk screams, insistent beats and confronting images, but the venue was starting to clear. Night’s end was the keyboard/voice solo set, acoustically interesting but a spell-breaker for us and most others. A much smaller crowd stuck it out to the end. We felt honoured to have witnessed the global phenomenon that is Pussy Riot – a rare exception that literally has changed the world with their performance-based activism – and if we were left a little baffled, well, what did we expect from that powerhouse of anarchy: predictability? This night hit the peak for both affirmation and music, and I’d see any one of these acts again in a heartbeat. 4.5 stars Kate Battersby #ADLfringe #RCCfringe