Our Review of Sunday's EMU Theatre Benefit at the Replay

Let's take an interview break today and think about what we've witnessed and not witnessed on the scene lately.

We did not witness M83 at the Granada last night, though we monitored your effusive Twitter praise (of which we remain skeptical, since most of you were probably high on 'shrooms).

We did witness the latter half of EMU's variety show/fundraiser at the Replay on Sunday evening, and we can assure you it was delightfully weird even by the Replay's high standards of weirdness.  Here's a rundown of the acts we saw:

E100 (band):  

 Holy shit, that dude can shred!

"Sidekicks Club" (10 minute play):

Chip:  What the play may have lacked in any sort of dramatic arc, it more than made up for in dudes in funny suits with names like Kid Victorian and Boy Chubby prancing around and engaging in "ripping fisticuffs."

 


Will Averill (standup):  

 The "only in Kansas" routine seemed too much like a more vulgar version of the "You might be a redneck if..." jokes, but the act was redeemed in our eyes by a very amusing absurdist sketch involving those "press one for English" telephone menus in which the menu keeps getting progressively odder ("press one for complete satisfaction.").

Sonic Douche: 

 Wearing black masks that were simultaneously terrifying and hilarious, Sonic Douche opened with a song about ejaculations and closed with a song about wanting to fuck everything they see.  In between were songs about "hot motherfucking moms" (is "cougar humor" still funny?) and a lot of between-song chatter about how they were going to screw a bunch of children in their van after the show.   Did we laugh at their Tenacious-D style songs?  A bit (Chip:  "A lot."). But it never proved shocking.

Jordan Geiger (reading erotic fan fiction):  

It's hard to imagine anything could be filthier than Sonic Douche, yet the soft-spoken frontman of Hospital Ships dispelled that idea quickly with a deadpan reading of graphic gay fan-fiction regarding his old band Minus Story (written in "Penthouse Letters" style).  It was kind of amazing, both for his near-perfect delivery (only a few minor crack-ups) and for the audience's reaction (absolutely riveted and laughing very, very hard).   Sadly, no one seemed to be filming this, and Jordan is probably glad of that fact, but this was a true moment in scenester history.

Long Shadows (band): 

 Loud and sludge-y and probably kind of awesome if you dig that sort of thing.


Observations: 

We're very sad we didn't arrive in time to witness Scarlot A. Harlot prancing around in her underwears!

For a fundraiser, it seemed kind of odd that we didn't hear a single mention of why the funds were being raised: to support EMU's free outdoor performance of Waiting for Godot later this month.

Also: why not actually perform 10 minutes or so of Godot?  This is the Replay, after all.  We totally get existentialism!  (and of course, in a fascinating echo of the play's famous final lines, we're always standing around the Replay and claiming that we're going to go and yet not actually going).