This week, it has been messy. Ideally not one of my best weeks. News stories, essays, people frustrations, pre-21st-mid-mid life crises. The usual stuff that plagues a 20 year old university journalism student. But oh, life goes on.
Anyway, I highly doubt that reading an emotional filled rant on my life right now is what you're after. So instead, here's a review I wrote for debate Magazine on Axis of Awesome's comedy show. Which was excellent. And worth it as I got to laugh with one of my great friends, and sit in the company of a popular New Zealand newsreader who is quite nice. Faaaaamous.
It's worth checking Axis of Awesome's comedy stuff online btw. Hilarious stuff. :)
The Axis of Awesome World Tour 2006 review – Monday 30th April 2012
Rating: 4 ½ out of 5
It’s a rare occurrence for a performance to start off with an apology. But before Axis of Awesome picked up their instruments, they walked on stage and told the audience they were more used to performing in large amphitheatres and sports stadiums, which Auckland's Town Hall is not. They also said they normally have a more decorated display of fireworks, animatronic dinosaurs and a caged dancing Madonna in the background, but all were unfortunately confiscated by Auckland Customs.
Fortunately, for Australia’s comedy ‘man-band’, this stuff isn’t needed to get laughs out of the audience. Axis of Awesome brought plenty to the stage with their hilarious songs, playful banter, and their rockstar attitudes.
Some of their best songs parody music’s most cliché and annoying quirks. One of their best songs was singing a love song in their “boyband” style - but not just a generic love song. They created the most generic cliché love song one could create for a “non-specific girl”, which includes singing backup breathily and passionately changing the key “to let you know we take it seriously”. And quite fairly, it sounded better and more honest than actual love songs.
Another great original song they had parodied those annoying people who like to pump out loud music from their cars, accurately titled “Can you hear the f*cking music coming out of my car?” While a song like sounds irritating in concept, the song was surprisingly catchy and made me want to buy the song in order for people to hear loud f*cking music coming out of my car. To which they admitted after their song “I think we’ve taken awareness to a problem and just made it a hell of a lot worse”.
While someone could compare any musical comedy band to the likes of Tenacious D or our own Flight of the Conchords, Axis of Awesome bring something different through the strength in the personas they take on while on stage. Jordan, the lead vocalist (who looks a lot like Jack Black), has a large personality and attempts to use his “sex appeal” to please the ladies by unbuttoning his shirt and growling like a (“diseased”) wolf. Lee, who plays the guitar, behaves as a cliché dim-witted sidekick, but still manages to be likable in his naïve ways. Both Jordan and Lee would spend most of their banter between songs making fun of keyboardist Benny, the short but most classy of the group, who surprised me in his fluency in German and his resemblance to Chicken Little. The banter that occurs between the three of them does feel a bit too scripted at times, but helps keep the flow between songs easy and very humorous.
Of course the main highlight of the Axis of Awesome performance (and, from audience reaction, why most people bought tickets) was for their infamous Four Chord Song – the song that can play almost any pop song with four simple chords. While most people may have seen it on Youtube already and think they’ve heard it all, Axis of Awesome kept it new and relevant by throwing in recent releases like Rihanna’s “We Found Love”.
Overall, Axis of Awesome didn’t need to apologise in the beginning of their performance. The only thing they should apologise for is the sore ribs I gained from laughing throughout their show. All expectations I had of a good comedy show were blown away by the reality of a fantastic and hilarious comedy show. In fact, I can hear the f*cking music playing inside my head right now. Brilliant.
