I don’t go out much at night now. Partly because I’m running out of energy, (I’ve been known to fall asleep in Federation Hall concerts and at the cinema), partly because there’s not much on that stirs my interest and partly because between emails, British Farming Forum, Gumtree, Tasmanian Times, the free to air TV channels – not to mention iView, On Demand and radio, my entertainment is catered for.
But when a pair of complimentary tickets to the “Some Kind of Genius + RocKwiz” show at Wrest Point were offered by one of the principals (met a few months ago via a family connection) how could I say “not interested”?
For fear of falling a sleep – or indeed being hit in the ribs for fidgeting – I had a longer than usual snooze after lunch on Saturday – and it worked! I felt not the slightest need for a snooze during the show, nor did I fidget (that I’m aware of) although I confess to some mind-drifting during some of the longer songs; in my view Joe Camilleri didn’t know when he had come to the end of the number. Also, curiously, to watching the screen projections of the stage, rather than the stage itself, quite often. Maybe I’ve watched too much TV.
All that aside, it was a great show and probably worth the money we didn’t have to pay.
I was curious as to how the contestants would be chosen and was duly impressed – knocked out, even – when the randomness of it turned up some pretty good local talent. Sure, there were a couple of people of the initial 24 selected by random placing of cards under chairs who didn’t continue to selection, but there were also a couple of people who were very impressive with their rock industry knowledge and participation.
I have no knowledge of Brian Nankervis’s past work (nor Julia’s for that matter) but clearly RocKwiz (is that Rock wiz or Roc Kwiz?) is more than just the current job for both of them. Energy, sharpness of repost, humour, stage craft all were evident in Brian’s warm up and selection of the contestants and in Julia’s compering. If anything, I think her performance was better than the norm seen on SBS TV: she was on show, engaged with the contestants, the guest stars and the audience. On more than one occasion, she had to warn the audience to “back off” because they were so responsive to her that the contestants were swamped.
Even her “slip” of confusing Bob Brown’s name with the name of the Franklin River (understandably) she handled with barely a pause; very professional indeed. Moreover, she looked the part in a tailored red fringed black pants suit topped by softly curled long blonde hair. (I’ll refrain from following that line of thought further for fear of being called sexist, or something).
Never having been a rocker, the guest stars didn’t do a lot for me and I wonder yet again why extreme volume seems to be an essential part of a rock show. Don’t these people understand that producing volume requires humungous amounts of electricity and there is no free photovoltaic-sourced electricity available at night when rock shows are held? Besides, the carbon content of last night’s show is more than I could imagine – even allowing for some hydro produced electricity (we still get charged the carbon tax on hydro).
All in all, a great show and a memorable night. I predict that if and when Julia leaves RocKwiz, the show will be dead. Mort. Finito.
Instantly.
John Maddock
