The Super Musikant [Super Musician] Show of Die Roten Punkte [The Red Dots]  ostensibly a duo from Berlin, who appear for the second year at the Nelson Arts Festival. Judging by the name, I mistakenly think I am going to a rock concert. My friend mistakenly thinks he is going to a cabaret.

The guitarist, Otto looks like a cross between Robert Smith from The Cure and Mick Jagger at the same age. In fact, the music is similar to early Cure recordings. The costumes and face paint accentuate both men’s features in Otto.

Otto’s elder and much larger sister Astrid is a big bosomed German Frau in a frilly red petticoat and black boots that could carry six German glass Beer Steins in each arm.

The effect is enhanced by the micro-drum set. Even the symbols are small. Combine this with a booming voice and the result is the look of a behemoth with whom all but one will argue.

We have many characters in Nelson. One vocal woman in good form, fond of her own few wise cracks, gets a reaction from the audience and then can’t shut up. Astrid prevails by digging out her best sarcastic repertoire and ghastly glares, before wresting the stage lights back onto her black-boned bustiere.  Kudos to the pair’s professional hard yards in public bars no doubt.

With only drums and a guitar, the music takes a back seat to the lyrics of each song,

The themes of abandonment and loss through their most famous piece ‘There’s no going back’, is about the loss of their parents in a train accident.

All this theatre supports a thoroughly plausible and endearing image, tarnished only slightly when we learn these two are actually Australian.

Apart from that small point, the show is an entertaining array of cabaret, comedy, stand-up and psychological counselling sessions. They even play music in between the entertainment. The crowd favourite is the sing along to the Irish chorus of Astrid’s drinking song. Both siblings spat with each other and flirt with different members of the audience. Otto entertains the audience by getting confused about the boundaries around sexual attraction with his sister.

Astrid’s response – “Hey what’s so great about your family then?”

Down to earth comedy, early Cure music, in your face entertainment. A first for me, that is for sure!

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer

‘Die Roten Punkte’ (German for ‘The Red Dots’) are dysfunctional ‘siblings’ Otto and Astrid Rot, part White Stripes, part Spinal Tap musical cabaret rock-opera, touring their Kunst Rock and family therapy comedy around the globe. 

Earnest Otto is perhaps not quite ‘all there’… He’s an online nerd who doesn’t see daylight and looks like a cross between The Joker and a wannabe Mick Jagger. Astrid, the matronly older sister, is coming off a stint in rehab and sits astride her tiny drum kit like a Veruca Salt-infused Queen of Hearts, dipping in to her ‘fruit water’ to lay off the drinking… And, well, just drinking. 

Nominated for the top Cabaret award at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, the show is a riot, and it is irresistably hard not be swept up in the mayhem. Otto leaps about the stage with his miniature guitar, Astrid hammers at her wee drums with true rock dramatics as they thrash out ‘It’s a rock and roll concert / I’m a rock and roll monster’ to open the show.

The duo do a number of musical styles, from 80s electro (complete with keytar and cowbell) to an audience-assisted Irish Drinking song, Green Day-ish 90s rock, a rock opera/soap opera, the compulsory middle of the road ballad, and Nick Cave-inspired moody inner city art rock, among the rest.

Interspersed with workplace disputes, sibling bickering and banter with an enthusiastic audience, their stylised German earnestness is incredibly endearing. And they play off each other, and the crowd, well.

It is obvious these two enjoy doing what they do, which makes it all the more enjoyable to watch. I am thrilled to see a full show after seeing them as part of ‘The Burlesque Hour’ in Melbourne a few years back. ‘Ich Bin Nicht Ein Roboter’ (‘I Am A Lion)’ would have to be my highlight.

These guys are fun, flippant, mad and a great time. Be prepared to sing along, cheer, shout, fall in love with one of the duo and ‘Rock Bang!’ your friends. The New Plymouth crowd were a little loose and I got the sense that a few things weren’t quite firing as they usually would, but then, that’s live comedy. Leave your self-consciousness at the door, and enjoy this crazy hysterical ride.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer