Live at the Enmore Theatre, Sydney. Dark, twisted and downright sexy; you haven't experienced cabaret until you've done it Dresden Dolls style. Solo, frontwoman Amanda Palmer is a force to be reckoned with; she's ferocious, rebellious and eerily angelic all at once. At this show from 2012, she was joined by her partner in Brechtian-punk crime, the strong, silent Charlie Chaplin-esque drummer Brian Viglione. Together they're a formidable pair - and boy, they didn't disappoint. The vaudevillian duo kicked off the evening with their dreamy take on T-Rex’s 'Cosmic Dancer', but it wasn't long before they went plunged into what Palmer described as a "mishmash of shit". Vigilone pounded his kit like a man possessed as Palmer howled her lyrics that touched on everything from sexual disillusionment in 'Coin-Operated Boy' to stealing lawn ornaments from neighbors in 'Night Reconnaissance'. Palmer's playful eroticism ("take off my shirt? I'm not wearing a shirt!" she giggled at one stage) had the entire room under her spell, but not even she could have guessed just how much some fans – or at least the one who gave her a hickey during 'Mein Herr' – wanted to get in on the action. "If anybody else has that idea, just approach me from the other side so I have matching hickeys!" Palmer laughed afterwards.  

 

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