Cabaret Punk
Cabaret started off primarily in Europe with intelligent lyrics and more importantly, the aesthetics, attitudes and decontructionalist attitudes of both the Weimar Republic and punk rock music.
Originally coined in the 70s by a band that nobody can really remember the name of, the saviours of the Punk Cabaret genre have, without a doubt, been the Boston-based duo the Dresden Dolls.
They’re one half Amanda Palmer and one half Brian Vigilione, who also plays drums in the band/gang/mob (delete as necessary) group the World/Inferno Friendship Society.
Cabaret wasn't always the shiny image with Liza Minnelli that it's portrayed to be today. It wasn't the sort of things our Nan would go to, either. It was played alongside burlesque, a strong counter-culture movement throughout Europe.
In the days leading up to the Nazi rule of Germany cabaret was a way to poke fun and satirise politicians and laws. A burgeoning scene before Hitler's succession (he passed laws that banned all cabaret, thus killing it in Germany), it also played a part in some of German playwright Bertolt Brecht's best plays.
One of them, The Threepenny Opera, is essentially a Marxist critique on Capitalist society set in Victorian London. A story based on the English play of The Beggar's Opera, it deals with some extremely dark and unsettling themes such as prostitution, murder and exploitation. Composer Kurt Weill successfully brought jazz and cabaret into the play.
Amongst the first bands to emerge were British 'Cabaret Noir' punks Tiger Lillies, but musicians like Siouxsie Sioux had been using cabaret in their music years before.
Somehow it seems apt that one huge counterculture meets another prominent counterculture to fuse with each other. Damn, it sounds good, and I can't explain why it's happened. It seems like we're seeing a resurgence of traditional forms of entertainment but modernised, such as neo-burlesque, alternative carnivals and contemporary nouveau circque.
It's not everybody's cup of tea, given, but it's fascinating nonetheless.
For information on the performing arts in Cardiff have a look here.
IMAGE: ppz
