Photo: Tony Bonney
I have seen Citizen Shrapnel and the Lords of Little Egypt play several times now. Each time it was an experience I was glad to have experienced. Many times seeing local musicians one is struck by the amateurism of the band. Indeed a quaint sort of amateurism pervades much of the art in Tasmania. This is not a bad thing, in fact it is one of the more endearing aspects of our island culture. as it allows a close mingling of performer and audience.
Amateurism, can however, spill over into a sloppiness, that may at times seem to detract from the performance. Citizen Shrapnel and the Lords of Little Egypt keep this feel of amateurism and intamacy, but without the sloppy falling apart. They are in fact a tight and professional outfit. This tightness comes from years of experience. For the band is the reformed and reshaped gypsy cabaret romp Shemozzle who were active members of the rich Tasmanian music scene back in the naughties, breaking up about 2007.
Music is a type of obsession and possibly even a disease. Once caught this illness is hard to shake off, and like malaria music is a recurrent sickness. So after a few years, and after a few children the singer songwriter Michael Shrapnel got some of the band back together for a new incarceration and another bout of fever.
The band is made up of Michael Shrapnel on microphone duties; Russell Dobie and Sean Brady, also from Shemozzle, doodling the double bass and drumming the beats respectively, while relative newcomer David McNamara chord pounds away on the piano. Like all bands the music is influenced from many different artists. The band cites such legendary performers as Jacque Brel, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone as major creative sparks.
On seeing The Lords of Little Egypt one is immediately immersed in flow of smoky, decadent, old world cabaret sounds; a swirling kaleidescope of thoughts and sounds. Maybe without the gallows humour of the Wiemar republic cabaret; but with Michael’s world weary lyrics and vocal styling (echoing to this critic’s ears David Bowie) they are an antidote to the creeping fascism that we find ourselves sleepwalking into.
One thing that I get from this band is a feeling of The Boethian Wheel, that life is a series of ups and downs. Or as the saint may have said: “It’s my belief that history is a wheel. ‘Inconstancy is my very essence,’ says the wheel. Rise up on my spokes if you like but don’t complain when you’re cast back down into the depths. Good times pass away, but then so do the bad. Mutability is our tragedy, but it’s also our hope. The worst of times, like the best, are always passing away.”
But do not take my word for it, you have two chances this weekend to see Citizen Shrapnel and the Lords of Little Egypt; on Friday night April 11 they will be playing, along with with special guests Steve Young & Ben Brinkhoff, at the The Night Owl Music Bar on Liverpool Street , and then again on the Saturday night April 12 at the always pleasant Lark Distillery on Franklin Wharf.
Thomas Connelly, http://bogong-moth.blogspot.com/
