Fringe review: Loops! I Did it Again
Australian loop master Jobe mixes storytelling, anxiety confessions and pedal-powered soundscapes. ★★
Jobe’s well-known across Australia for his otherworldly abilities as a beatboxer, so draws a huge crowd, including lots of children, to the excellent Plant 4 Bowden on a public holiday Monday. This show is something of a departure for him, though. Loops! I Did It Again is the second outing for a storytelling/song-based show, based loosely around a public toilet incident in Bogantungan. Caught short while exploring the region in his campervan, he found himself in what can only be described as a 30-minute ‘flow state’ after which he meets the mayor who talks him out of a heavy bout of performance anxiety and so back on stage.
This is a show that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be, which is frustrating as underneath the loops and the pedals and the trauma dumping lurks a truly excellent songwriter. The songs themselves are by turns beautiful, profound and true: almost all have a lyric or two capable of stopping you in your tracks. ‘Free’ is a stunning love song, ‘I Forgive You For Trying’ is profound in its universality and ‘I Think I Might Be Weird’, as the name suggests, is a barnstormer of an acceptance anthem. Peeling back a few layers and taking out a few elements would allow the music to shine.
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Loops I Did it Again is playing at Plant 4 Bowden from February 20 – March 20
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