We were thrilled to be invited by the Fringe Festival to put on an alternative show as part of the festival. We came up with this unique concept of drag persons x music and, after many stumbling blocks, created a show that was a lot of fun. Thank you so much to the Fringe Club for pushing us out of our comfort zone! Thank you to JUNK! for his craziness! Thanks to Marsha Mellow for jokes and MC-ing. Extra thanks to Penny Poutine, who I had no idea was a burlesque dancer and made another first for Underground. Thank you to Cat for the cool photos and thanks to Raven for the poster drawing and ‘dragging’ me to do this.
This show was a great way to kick off our 21st Year Anniversary Series. Thank you, everyone!
我哋好開心受到藝穗會嘅邀請，喺佢哋嘅活動入面搞個另類嘅表演。我哋諗到變裝同音樂結合嘅獨特概念嘅時候，雖然中間遇到唔少困難，但最後都整到個好好玩嘅節目出嚟。多謝藝穗會令我哋跳出舒適圈！多謝JUNK!嘅瘋狂！多謝Marsha Mellow嘅笑話同主持功力。特別多謝Penny Poutine，原來佢仲係個滑稽歌舞雜劇舞者，為The Underground開創先河。多謝Cat影咗好多靚相，多謝Raven畫海報同「拉」我去做呢個表演。
呢個表演真係一個好正嘅方法去開始我哋21周年紀念系列。多謝大家！
❤️ Chris B xx
JUNK!
I wanna Go Home
LOOK AT ME
Cherry
You Won’t Hurt Me Again
Show Me Your Boobs
I Just Can’t Get to Sleep
Another Friday Night
Not Today
I Really Wanna Fuck Your Girlfriend
I Remember
One Hit Wonder
S.M.D.
Love Shack (cover)
Get Naked
A chilly Tuesday night sets the stage for The Underground’s unconventional cabaret during Fringe Club’s Fringe Festival. Forbidden from booking bands, Chris B selected madcap electronic artist JUNK! to pin down an eclectic lineup that was assembled nail-bitingly close to curtains up. JUNK!, aka Australian producer-performer Glen Lloyd, bookends a pair of drag and burlesque acts. He’s played The Underground more times than any other act, apparently, and rarely says no to a show. While prerequisite technical issues dog his set, he marches gamely on, bringing lightness and charisma that helps loosen a largely seated room.
Many of the tracks showcased are selected from his upcoming record, Sweet and Sour, released in mid-February. Opener I Want to Go Home signals a changing of the times; a more sincere, serious JUNK! who’s focused on upping his songwriting chops and experimenting with a more polished production and wider range of musical tools. There’s also a certain axe-grinding, societal fist-shaking to his new era, from the shouty, attention whore-bashing Look at Me, albeit still delivered with his signature wit, wordplay and, ultimately, warmth.
Aside from VR, the limits of which he explored during online pandemic gigs, AI is a key tool JUNK! has begun employing to great effect, especially live. His DIY, colourfully entertaining backdrop visuals, many works of art themselves, have been given a boost with AI-generated video, often to project the lyrics as he machine-guns through them. The falsetto-laden, Prince-inspired Cherry, for example, features a woman dancing with a skirt made of smoke. The track finishes with a dialogue with various different women, ending on, “Mama, can you pick me up from the kerb tonight?”
You Won’t Hurt Me Again is more straight pop rock than anything he’s produced before. Layered, and with a driving beat and piano embellishments, the song delivers pangs of wistfulness. A segment of mysterious backward vocals accompanies a fade out. “It’s about problems with a family member,” he explains. “Feels good to get it out – like sweating!”
Already a live mainstay, the gloriously silly Show Me Your Boobs offers a well-timed lightness. A chide of “silly little boy” kicks into a boxy, Backstreet Boys-esque beat, and he sings, “You don’t have to tell me that you’re feeling cold/those things could cut like diamonds/I’m fully licensed to drive your motorboat.” Incredible. With its catchy chorus and images of doves and rose petals on the backdrop, it has all the feel a naughty karaoke. “It’s all jokes, ladies and gentlemen; none of it’s real,” he says before launching into a rap-based paean to perky pillows.
A drag performance ensues, then JUNK! is back with I just Can’t Get To Sleep, straight out of The Strokes’ playbook with ’00s jangly indie rock and vocal distortion, and Another Friday Night, which blends an a capella, beatboxed beat and melody and clever use of looping with relatable lines about being young and broke.
Not Today is a JUNK! classic and set high point; nostalgic, emotive and melancholy; a song about deciding to enjoy life before it’s all over. “What if the best years are behind?/What if we’re too slow to keep up?” it goes, as Dan Deacon loops and synthwork combine with JUNK! personality, aided by a rapid carousel of photos of the artist growing up in Melbourne as it builds to joyful crescendo.
It’s back to pure goofing with “I Really Want to F**k Your Girlfriend”, as JUNK! is joined by music teacher and local karaoke circuit legend Krista C. The song, exactly what it sounds like it’s about, is all riotous ’90s alt-rock energy laced with profanity, lust and elastic vocal skills.
’Twas a time when I Remember was the most pensive part of a JUNK! set. Now it doesn’t stand out to the same extent but still strikes a thoughtful chord. It’s a break up song that, further evokes Dan Deacon in its build and introspective lyrics contrasted with an upbeat synth-driven melody. George of the Jungle drumming, floor-level bells he plays with his feet and autotune throughout keep things whimsical, but the heart-rending bridge simulating a phone call between a splitting couple never loses its poignancy.
Often likened to other musical comedy acts stretching as far back as The Mighty Boosh and Flight of the Concords, as well as, more recently, Bo Burnham and Marc Rebillet, JUNK! is clearly fed up of people asking him when he’s going to hit the big-time and write a transcendental, life-changing hit. One Hit Wonder “would if I could” deals with the notion of struggling to gain traction as a musician. “About to make the nice songs that’ll never get played/About to write the dumb songs that’ll never get played,” he sings as one hit wonder bands float behind him, which could explain the more serious songwriting of his new record and shows where he’s at currently: caught between two worlds and trying to figure out what the next chapter will be.
The angry, punk Suck My Dick and a cover of Love Shack on speed follows, with audience members invited to get up, dance and have some fun, which many enthusiastically do. Lusty bo-po anthem Get Naked makes for a rowdy closer, ending with his signature strip to a pair of scandalously tiny undies to roars of laughter and applause. He says it was burlesque act Penny Poutine who saved the show, but it was definitely JUNK! who stole it. Don’t miss checking out Sweet and Sour!
– El Jay
Photos by Cat.
攝影：Cat
Poster by Cadence.
海報：Cadence
Drawing in poster by Raven.
海報插畫：Raven
