MONA FOMA

Music, art and commotion spilt out over Hobart, Tasmania between January 16-23 for the fifth anniversary of MONA's Festival of Music and Art. MONA FOMA is a dizzying carnivale of vaudevillian entertainment. An expansive scope of sights and events, performance art, food markets and workshops, and captivating installations are in abundance. I walk down the picturesque Hobart waterfront and into the main venue, a converted wharf warehouse. I stop to play with Robin Fox's interactive Giant Theremin. By the mezzanine a drummer (Tina Havelock Stevens) is being fully submerged by crane into the water. I hear for the first time in my life what a drum kit played underwater sounds like. At night, I can't help but marvel at the official after party, FAUX MO. Set in an alleyway, there is a projector lighting up a fire escape, while underneath a woman in a flesh-coloured body suit sings eerily in operatic falsetto, soon replaced by a house DJ and then a live band (Hunx and His Punx). Underneath the fire escape is a cinema that hasn't been open since Jumanji. Chicks on Speed (remember We Don't Play Guitar?) give an unhinged performance in front of the screen. Back into the alley and up through the rear entrance of The Grand Poobah bar. By the dancefloor is a glass tunnel. Crawling through I find myself standing on a bed of rock salt in a bubble made of oyster shells as coloured lights bounce through the gaps. Everywhere you look during MONA FOMA there is something to challenge your sensibilities and delight your senses. It is this quality that makes MOFO so very special and unique, small unexpected parcels of riches and wonder spread throughout the cityscape. The artists are meticulously put together from all over the world by an almost savant-like curator, former Violent Femmes bass player Brian Ritchie. Music headliners this year include David Byrne & St Vincent, Elvis Costello & The Impersonators, Pretty Lights, Death Grips, Dirty Projectors, Neil Gaiman, Hoodoo Gurus, Graveyard Train and Orchestre National de Jazz.

David Byrne & St Vincent (aka Annie Clark) deliver an outstanding collaborative performance to close the festival. The charm lying at the heart of the show is the mutual respect between the two musicians. The two share the stage together like old friends, taking turns to introduce their ten-piece backing band, and allowing each other respective moments in the spotlight. In the rapturous orchestral crescendo of one song, Clark and Byrne stand on either side of a Theremin, playing it in unison with full-bodied gusto.

Neil Gaimen performed a series of new stories and old '60s songs to a full theatre audience, backed by a string ensemble led by the brilliant Jherek Bischoff. Contrasting this intimate show, Death Grips (USA) were all raw power. MC Ride delivered his sermon of mayhem, danger and threat. Gyrating his bare torso he barked his horror rap lyrics of murder and fear over the brooding synths with the fervour of a rabid dog, a man seemingly possessed by the grip of a self-created web of paranoia and aggression.

Those that missed this first-rate festival should start saving as a premiere winter MOFO has been announced for 2013 with acts still to be announced.