MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL
The The at the State Theatre.Credit:Jim Lee
MUSIC
THE THE ★★★★
State Theatre, October 4 & 5
When the great collapse comes, expect scant comfort from the old protest songs. You might recognise the tune and whisper along with the words, but those nostalgic pleasure centres will have a hard time overcoming the bitterness of the message.
At his first Melbourne show in 30 years, Matt Johnson's latest incarnation of The The celebrated a unique legacy on one hand and slapped us awake with the other. "Mobilise, globalise, hypnotise, homogenise … Kentucky fried genocide," he muttered under an ominous pulse cut with cold electronic interference.
The hits soon began to rain, but not quite as we knew them. Sweet Bird of Truth and The Beat(en) Generation were stripped to bones and wire as the backdrop burned with apocalyptic images of shelled-out buildings, riot cops and angels.
The ruined film stock visuals drove home a theme of fading hope and unheeded warnings, Johnson's younger self returning again and again to stare with heartbreaking resignation through time, empty buildings and barren streetscapes.
From the teenage angst of Bugle Boy to the midlife reckoning of Soul Catcher, his world has always been rotting and the sigh of mortality inching closer. This year's band, including long-time compadres DC Collard (keys) and James Eller (bass), wore black and played in lockstep harmony.
It might all have been a bit grim if not for our host's purring gallows wit. Like a graveyard-shift DJ, he brought intimate perspective to 40 years of anxious reflections, from flashes of youthful optimism in This Is The Day and Uncertain Smile to the censored prophecies of Armageddon Days Are Here (Again).
Whether we'll meet again is anyone's guess. "After all the brooding, abstraction and evasion, there isn’t much time left to do the work and tell the truth," he mused guiltily at one point. As it is, he left us with plenty to ponder.
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