Mr Bungle – California Screaming
Adelaide Uni Cloisters
7:30pm, Wed 15 Mar 2000
Score: 7
Short Review: Uneventful
This is neither a Fringe nor Festival show, but I’m writing something about it so no-one thinks I took a night off :) Mr Bungle return to our fair city for a show beset by sound problems, but which was reasonably entertaining nonetheless.
Neil Hamburger came out to cop some shit from the crowd before the arrival of the Bungle boys. He was crap. ‘Nuff said.
Bungle opened up with a cover of “What The World Needs Now”, swiftly followed by “None Of Them Knew They Were Robots”, “Air Conditioned Nightmare”, “Ars Moriendi” and a rhumba-esque version of “Carry Stress In The Jaw”. The crowd was pretty placid, though, until “Travolta” kicked in, followed by “My Ass Is On Fire” – the old ones always seem to get the crowds a-jumping. Other highlights included “Desert Search For Techno Allah” and “Merry Go Bye Bye”, as the main set & encore closers, respectively.
To be quite fair, this was a pretty average show. There were sound problems a-plenty, and even when the sound was clear, the live renditions of tracks from “California” were less than inspiring. On the plus side, there was “Merry Go Bye Bye”… But no stage antics, no amazing live versions, no great covers. Just plain-jane entertainment.