The Spooky Men's Chorale in Concert

The Spooky Men’s Chorale is a vast, rumbling, steam-powered and black-clad behemoth, seemingly accidentally capable of rendering audiences moist eyed with mute appreciation or haplessly gurgling with merriment. Based on the twin pillars of grand foolishness and the quest for the perfect subwoofer-rattling boofchord, the Spooky Men seek to commentate on the absurdity and wonder of the modern male armed only with their voices, a sly collection of hats and facial hair, and a twinkle in the eye.

Formed in the Blue Mountains of NSW in 2001 by Christchurch-born spookmeister Stephen Taberner, the Spooky Men present an enticing array of Georgian table songs, pindrop beautiful ballads, highly inappropriate covers, and immaculate man anthems like “Don’t stand between a a man and his tool”, all of which amount to a manifesto for the new breed of man: happily suspended between thug and wimp.

They have taken their pointless grandeur to major festivals in Australia, the UK and Europe, performed more than 800 shows, and recorded seven albums.

In this delicious live performance, the Spooky Men dig deeply into their multifarious themes: Georgian male polyphony, a running joke on man as a vast, oblivious useless object, whispers of clown, bouffon and Monty Python, and forays into massively pleasurable grunting tribalism. You are invited to first joyously endure a wall of mansound, then laugh stupidly, then venture into areas of great tenderness. It is ideally not so much comedic as hilarious, not so much shimmeringly perfect as human in a very deeply resonant way.