Music Is My Sex (FringeTIX)
Nina Nicols @ Electric Light Hotel (Producers Bar)
10:15pm, Wed 5 Mar 2008
Disclaimer: I was tired (but had consumed about 6 shots of coffee in the three hours prior to the show). I could possibly be deemed to be emotionally fragile (but had just enjoyed two comedy acts). I was snuffling away in cold-fighting form.
But, honestly, it’s been awhile since I’ve been so unmoved in a performance.
The fractured timeline in the telling of this tale was the most interesting thing about this show… and by “interesting”, I mean “confused”. And “detrimental”.
We’re presented the tale of a Daddy’s-Girl Rich-Bitch who gets a record contract with her band before she’s 18, traipses around the world before falling victim to the sex’n’drugs’n’rock’n’roll of the music industry, goes into rehab and winds up a successful lawyer after a stint at Oxford… all before her 30th birthday.
So – why am I supposed to empathise with her? Sounds like the luckiest girl in the world to me. At the end of the performance, I imagined that I was applauding her efforts in life, rather than the acting out thereof.
And, as any reader of this blog would know, my writing leaves a lot to be desired. But still, when I’m faced with song lyrics such as these…
Music is my sex
It’s the best
When it cums inside of me
Sets my soul free
…there’s something in my brain which just says “you know what, Pete? I’m only here under sufferance.”
And they were some of the better lyrics.
I really, truly try to support anyone who steps on a stage in front of me. Try to feedback some energy, let them know – no matter how poor their performance is – that it’s appreciated, because they’re the ones with the guts to get on that stage, not me. But I struggled to do that here; I feel my forced smile may have appeared as a grimace. Still, there’s positives to be had: Nina Nicols has a decent voice, and certainly looks the part of the rock goddess. But as for the rest of the show… nup. Just… NO.
(Jesus – the ‘Tiser gave this a three-star review. Boy, is my thumb not on the pulse of Adelaide Fringe Quality.)