REVIEW | Big Kids Night Out

The West Australian

Peter Combe.

MUSIC
Big Kids Night Out ★★★★
Circus Theatre | Review by David Zampatti

In her review of Peter Combe’s daytime show for ungrown-ups, reviewer Kate Prendergast perfectly caught the irresistibly silly magic that brews when Combe and kids get together.

In an inspired piece of programming, the Fringe had him back later — much later — when the tackers would definitely, absolutely be asleep (and not able to laugh at us), for another spin through his fantastic repertoire, this time for adults.    No, not with new nasty words or dressed-in-bondage gear but as straight-up, grown-up, rock’n’roll backed by the everlasting Phil Cunneen and a hot trio of Perth players.

The audience, mainly young women in their late twenties and early thirties, with a sprinkling of their parents (like me) and the odd little brother/ boyfriend/ spouse, lapped it up, despite a far from adequate mix that would have made Combe’s vocals all but incomprehensible to anyone who didn’t know the words by heart.

Before the show, in the queue, homemade triangular newspaper hats were passed to total strangers. In its pulsating finale, the crowd hit the dance floor with the sort of uninhibited delight they had when they bopped to Newspaper Mama, Spaghetti Bolognaise and Juicy Juicy Green Grass in pre-primary.

Here’s the thing. These songs prepared kids for so much in life, not least rock and pop music, and they haven’t forgotten it. The songs were then, and are now, totally unpretentious and non-patronising. The kids’ memory of them, and loyalty to them as adults, is as understandable as it is inevitable.

I realised, as I listened to Combe doing his only cover, George Harrison’s sweet, limpid Here Comes The Sun, that, like the Beatles, it’s a much stronger and deeper connection than mere nostalgia that brought these grown-ups back to hear these songs again.

For them, Combe and his music have never made way for other toys.