Alternative Media Group

SYDNEY FRINGE: A SHRILL CHUCKLE OF IRREPRESSIBLE DELIGHT

Author:

Angela Bennetts

Posted:

Monday, 13 September 2010

Any event that has publicity featuring an eggplant cavorting in a teapot and a posy amongst other things has got my interest (and appetite) piqued. Upon further investigation, A Shrill Chuckle of Irrepressible Delight gets more inscrutable, not less. All I can say is it’s got some local musos on the line-up, some anarchic artists, and at $10 a ticket, is not too onerous a Wednesday night gamble. We speak to Joe Driver, the drummer from Sister Jane, to (attempt) to find out more.

While the title A Shrill Chuckle of Irrepressible Delight is intriguing and the byline oddly enticing (‘It’ll make your ears flap about your knees like a thousand wooden pigeons fleeing the local sawmill’), I still don’t really have any idea what this night will be about. Can you shed some light?
I know! What can I say after that introduction? It makes me think of Twin Peaks for some reason. Perhaps we should ask Log Lady what the log saw.

Sister Jane, drummer Driver second from right

Along with Bud Petal, Brian Campeau, Fag Panic and Jay Katz, Sister Jane will be providing the music half to the art/music parallel. For those who haven’t heard you before, how would you describe your sound?
We veer wildly between sultry smoking-room soundtrack blues… and something more closely resembling a tripping social science teacher on a freewheeling fun ride at one of those accident-waiting-to-happen fun parks that only opens during school holidays. Ton of Fun in Forster/Tuncurry springs to mind.*

And what is artist collective Punk Monk Propaganda bringing to the table? Did you all work together and ‘rehearse’, or is it more spur of the moment stuff?
Shedding light, is what the Punk Monk Propoganda kids do and it’s all reactive/suggestive, off the cuff. Sister Jane collaborated with them at the Psychedelic Circus in January, a night of circus acts, burlesque and psych music. The Punk Monks spent the whole night doing oil and other cool light projections all around the Annandale – it was vibey as hell. Seeing them all smiling, covered in paint up to their armpits at the end of the night was perfection.

This night is taking place as part of the inaugural Sydney Fringe Festival. How important do you think events like these are for emerging artists and musicians, particularly those working in ‘hybrid’ areas?
Very! What better way to play a pub show, than to make it a proper happening? For ears and eyes. If I had it my way – and I will one day – we’d have our own troupe of art-school freak-child light designers, a permanent 6th member, to set the scene for us wherever we play. I’d get off the couch for that.

Sister Jane. Plans?
We have this self recorded album that we just finished, see, but no label just yet…  the plan is for that to change. Suffice to say, we think it’s pretty special. We’re going on tour in November up and down the East Coast so watch out for us. Especially if you work at Ton of Fun.

*In no way, are Sister Jane suggesting that the safety of patrons at Ton of Fun are in any way more endangered than at any other dodgy brothers fun park at holiday destinations the country over.

Wed Sep 22, 8pm, Annandale Hotel, 17 Parramatta Rd, $10, 9550 3666, www.thesydneyfringe.com.au

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