Memorial Hall + Spooky Men = remarkable concert

October 21st, 2012
[Reviewed by David Armstrong]

The revamped Memorial Hall passed its first major performance test last night when the world-class Australian men's chorale, Spooky Men, put on a classy show filled with laughs and great singing.

The hall was nearly full, with almost 400 people flocking in after a three-wide queue formed along Pah Street in front of the neighbouring library for a quarter of an hour beforehand.

They were treated to a stunning performance of a unique combination of choral perfection and laugh-out-loud, dead-pan humour. Such is the quality of the sound system built by Mark Wentworth that even in the quietest of passages every syllable was clear, while the solid pieces resonated around the hall.

The evening kicked off with five songs by the Ukes of Hazard (pictured, right), a lively Appleby-based duo whose hillbilly/country blues songs got everyone in the right mood.

Playing their "guitars that were left in the drier", they showed not only a pair of strong singing voices but also some skilled country blues licks on the ukulele.

Their final two songs were their own, with one getting the audience laughing with their Kiwi lyrics taken from a range of pub conversations about how everything always goes wrong in the most predictable of ways.

The Spooky Men comprised 12 men plus their leader, all dressed in black with a variety of suits and headwear styles and some impressive facial hair. The "spooky" part is their ability to remain absolutely still and expressionless while singing powerful, complex and often hilarious, blokey songs.

Led by Christchurch-born Stephen Taberner (who from the back looked spookily like Michael Palin with his lumberjack cap), the humour was dry, sly and dead-pan, using long gaps to keep the audience anticipating the next self-deprecating witticism.

Stephen helped establish the Inakord choir based at Motueka's Riverside community, and there were many current Riverside residents and friends in the audience last night.

Stephen formed the Spooky Men in the Blue Mountains community of New South Wales. It now has members in four countries and can put on concerts around the world by building combinations of musically talented men for each tour.

Remarkably, they learn and practise their parts by sending sound files over the internet, and then come together before a tour to perfect their exquisite timing.

For their current tour of New Zealand, they chose Motueka for their one Top of the South performance because of the reputation that Memorial Hall is fast building.

It's not that the Spooky Men never moved - but when they did it was always with some slow and subtle gesture. But they went over the top with their final number (which brought a standing ovation and demand for an encore) spoofing a Swedish and un-rhythmic version of Abba's "Dancing Queen" (see the photo below).

You can see their "Dancing Queen" yourself in , and while you're there you'll find links to many other items they perform.

Another hillarious spoof was of self-affirmations and the book "The Promise", done to the Anglican chant tradition. Earlier was what they called their anthem, "Don't stand between a man and his tool", as well as "The man in the 17th row doesn't look very happy" as a Gregorian chant.

Two songs that required the audience to stand up and repeat actions garnered unquestioned, full participation - no mean feat for reserved, middle-aged Kiwis.

But it was not all humour. A few serious pieces, including a Beatles number and a 1000-year-old polyphonic Gregorian chant, would have dispelled any doubts that this is a world-class ensemble.

An A-plus for both Spooky Men and Memorial Hall, with a special mention to Ukes of Hazard.

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