They sauntered in. All rumpled casual clothes, unshaven faces and boisterous manner. It wasn’t until they had shuffled between the narrow aisle of the Butterfly Club and stepped onto the stage, that I realised this rowdy bunch of men weren’t audience members making their way into the tiny fifty seat theatre, but the a Capella singing sensation Saude. All male, all singing and no dancing. A white lie, the boys began the evening with “The Longest Time” (A crowd favourite) and a bit of ‘man-choreography’.
The show was to be a debut of Suade as a cabaret. While the boys have been fronting up to competitions and singing festivals for nearly 10 years, they were all cabaret virgins. The group even admitting to researching the definition of what cabaret actually is (A slippery concept to grasp even for the most veteran cabaret goer). The transition from concert to cabaret however was a lot like their beards, rough around the edges, but perfectly appropriate. In between originals like “Can’t we just be friends” a song about taking one for the team, there are also some great covers in the mix. A medley from Greece was aptly performed, and the idea of Sandy being played by a man, seemed surprisingly right.
The stand out parts of the show were when the boys deviated from the script and joked amongst themselves and the audience. Even though it took the members of Suade 10 minutes or so to warm up, with their natural showman antics, comic charm, and cheap testicle jokes (funny non-the-less) they soon had the crown eating from the palms of their hands. Despite clunky segues and obvious differences between scripted and unscripted dialogue, the larrikin spirit and manly boisterousness contrasted beautifully with angelic harmonies and impressive musicianship.
Do you ever get that feeling, as you are watching or listening to a great performer, when your heartbeat increases and the bottom of your stomach falls away? The feeling that usually accompanies a Tim Minchin song or a great ballad at a rock concert? Well Suade can make you feel that way for the whole hour and 15 minutes they were on stage. Apart from my aching smile and laugh muscles, the hardest part about this show was picking a stand out moment. Was it the Korean Boy Band tribute in reverse karaoke, or was it the song where one man donned a giant testicle suit for the entire duration? Maybe it was the poignancy and joy in the song about one band member’s son. For a first time cabaret, I have never seen an audience applaud so long or call so loudly for an encore. The blokes from Suade graced us with one last song, an upbeat cover of “All Night Long” and as the boys shuffled, minced and sidled back through the narrow aisle and steamy room to the exit, I have no doubt that every single person in the audience were wishing that the show could have gone all night long.
Suade will be returning to the cabaret stage at the Inaugural Melbourne Cabaret Festival in July this year. For more information visit www.melbournecabaret.com
Rating: 4 out of 5
Venue: There are not many venues in the world that would allow a performer to pelvic thrust into the owner’s face, who happens to be sitting in the front row...loving it.
