Die Roten Punkte: Eurosmash!

A particularly dramatic moment, is it not, Comrade?

Poor little Otto. Poor little Astrid. When Mr. and Mrs. Rot got crushed by a train or eaten by an escaped lion (Otto and Astrid disagree on this point), the siblings were shuttled off to relatives who were mean to them and made them do, “folk dancing dressed like squirrels.” So they ran away and set up life in a Berlin squat.

Astrid got a job in a bakery and after getting Otto to sleep at night – and only when the guy in the next room stopped using his chainsaw! – Astrid went out and partied hearty.

Life changed when they went to see David Bowie who, says Astrid, “blew our freakin’ minds.” We can do this, she said, and after she “found” a tiny drum kit and several small guitars in the street near an elementary school, they went on to become the self-proclaimed, “Best Rock Band in the World.”

That’s their story and they’re sticking to it despite rumours that lewd and snarky Astrid and sweet baby brother Otto are actually a pair of unrelated Australian theatre artists whose outrageous punk rock music and onstage squabbling has garnered a worldwide audience of make-a-lot-of-noise fans.

Astrid, wearing a shiny, vinyl dress, a tight, boob-revealing bodice and something like a silver Elizabethan collar, rolls her body – like a beached whale – onto the two-foot high stage. Eyes ringed with dark makeup, she pouts and frowns, smashes the hell out of the drum kit and does some pretty dirty dancing. She says she’s sweaty under the dress and if any of the guys in the audience are interested in hooking up with her after the show, she darts a come-and-get-it look and says, “There’s a lot to do.” When Otto sings solo, Astrid voraciously eats potato chips and takes swigs from a mickey of gin.

Otto, in whiteface with darkly ringed eyes and a smear of red lipstick, is a raw, lowfat vegan. His new song, Automatic Door, he thinks is “arty.” (She thinks it’s “shit”, preferring her own punk rock number, “I Wanna Make a Party in Your Mouth Tonight.”) Because Otto believes Astrid saved his life, he is seriously, hilariously and even a little bit sexually, codependent. In previous shows (but with only a hint of it in Eurosmash), Astrid has had to scrape Otto off her.

Together these two performers – so different – are sublimely balanced. And the music – loud, percussive and often rude, really does rock. Explosive rock show lighting and a whole lot of fruit and balloons add to the colourful, noisy, crazy chaos.

Die Roten Punkte, a sendup of the American rock duo The White Stripes, is an acquired taste but once acquired, you can’t get enough of them. They’re loud, they’re fun, they’re sexy. He’s cute, she’s crude and together they make beautiful (well, maybe not beautiful) music. By the end of the performance on opening night, the soldout audience was fist-pumping and singing out, “Rock, Bang”. Chances are good you will, too.
Eurosmash! is a blast. Closes Sunday.

VENUE:  The Cultch Historic Theatre

RUN DATES:  August 29 - September 2, 2012

TICKETS:  Available at The Cultch online box office or by phone at 604.251.1363

 

By Jo Ledingham