[2015006] Geraldine Quinn – MDMA: Modern Day Maiden Aunt
Geraldine Quinn @ Producers Warehouse
8:30pm, Wed 11 Feb 2015
It’s fair to say that I’m a pretty big fan of Geraldine Quinn: she has exactly the right blend of coarse ocker-isms, powerful vocals, and passion for wine. That she can create songs of such perverse comic intensity that are also musically adept is icing on the cake.
So… yeah. Love her work.
My big problem, of course, is that I turn into such a fucking fawning sycophant whenever I’m around Geri (dating back to an awkward bar incident at the Fringe Awards in 2010) that I wind up coming across as a super-creepy stalker… which is totally not me. Then again, maybe it is me, but I’m oblivious to the overt creepiness. Which is a bit more worrying.
Regardless, there was no way I was missing Geri’s latest rock-cabaret opus, Modern Day Maiden Aunt.
Whilst her previous shows have nearly always contained references – both heart-felt and irritated, but always comical – to her family, MDMA is an entire song cycle based around her child-free alcohol-laced singledom being a stark contrast to the lives of her siblings: breeders, every one of them, leading to Geri being an aunt many, many times over. Introduced with a rock-backed recording of her father bemoaning career choices, the show alternates songs with Geri’s wickedly acerbic musings on her siblings’ life choices, contrasting their familial decisions with her cabaret lifestyle.
The musical content is some of Geri’s best work yet: the show’s title track and The Great Invisible Woman seriously rawk, but there’s a lot of variety in the operatic overtones of The Kid Is Not That Cute, the AOR-love song of Don’t Call Me A MILF, and even some smooth beat poetry with The Cool Aunt. Lyrically, she’s also on-point: MILF features some blisteringly vicious putdowns in verse, the tail end of Remember You Can Talk To Me is sheer genius, and the closing reprise of the title track is beautifully touching… the recordings of her nieces’ impressions of Geri are also really quite beautiful.
Look – I just loved MDMA… I reckon it’s Geri’s best show to date, with a perfect mix of rock and comedy filtered through cabaret stylings. And, of course, at the end of the show I was anxious to tell Geri how much I loved it – but there was one rambling fan who just would not stop talking to her. After waiting a courteous minute or two, I eventually just leaned across to quickly offer my thanks – a little rudely, I suspect, but whatevs – and left her to deal with the fan (who, curiously, wasn’t even aware of her Sunglasses at Night shows). I kinda feel bad that I didn’t buy anything from her post-show, but I’d received my copy of MDMA (and some badges, and another copy of You’re the Voice) from Geri’s Pozible campaign literally the day before this performance.
Afterwards, Geri seemed somewhat satisfied with her performance… and – thankfully – pretty happy with my tweet. Which is nice :)
(6) Geraldine Quinn – MDMA- Modern Day Maiden Aunt: Ah man, that was fantastic. Perfect marriage of comedy & cabaret. #ff2015 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) February 11, 2015