Fringe Dwellers: Piano man rocks Wynnum festival
Bradley McCaw’s sensational Billy Joel tribute act was a hit at Wynnum Fringe on the weekend – and there’s plenty more in store for Fringe dwellers.
Wynnum Fringe headquarters has a friendly, laid-back atmosphere, an accessible arts hub caravan park vibe. Strands of colourful lights strung between modest venues including The Lunchbox Theatre marquee and Miles: The Caravan Stage, make it feel like a party.
A couple of food trucks sell superior hamburgers and deep-fried food “where cream meets crunch” and a well-frequented bar is topped by a rooftop container space. Customers idle around repurposed wine barrels. There’s a proliferation of hats, pork pies, tweed caps and beanies.
On this occasion -I was there to see Bradley McCaw: The Music of Billy Joel – the punters sported suburban barbecue gear, a fringed suede jacket, rock’n’roll tees, plaid shirts, jeans and leather jackets.
Many locals are supportive, the economy gets a massive boost, Bayview Terrace hums and Wynnum’s cafes are booked to capacity. Others resent the spill of big pumping sound into local homes.
Produced and commissioned by Gold Matilda Award-winner Tom Oliver, the artistic director and founder of Wynnum Fringe, Bradley McCaw: The Music of Billy Joel, like other Fringe specials including Highway to Hell, was a sell-out. A long queue waited outside the Augathella Spiegeltent to hear McCaw, who has been branded as Brisbane’s Billy Joel.
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When the doors opened, the crowd poured into the seats arranged in a horseshoe with an elevated circular stage at its centre. Asking why McCaw likes Joel’s music, he told me “each of his songs is a micro story”.
“They’re close to music theatre but in a rock space,” he says. “I listened to him every day growing up, which opened my imagination to what music can be.”
Artistically adventurous and a Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University classically trained former soloist with The Ten Tenors, McCaw recently released Worried Minds, an album of originals.
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Despite his devotion to Joel’s legacy, he isn’t a slavish imitator but brings a force field energy to his extreme, infectious delivery brushed with personal touches. Evidently a thrill seeker, he started the set with a frenetic take of Angry Young Man, executing the piano’s treacherous opening riff at nail-biting speed. My Life followed and to his credit the audience, egged on by McCaw, joined in. Suddenly stopping, the crowd roared the missing line. An elderly woman danced in the aisle.
The band was exceptional. Movin’ Out featured saxophonist Dave Cox’s sleek soloing. Billy The Kid revealed slinky, drawling guitar from Jeremy Stafford and a sharply spliced call and response between band and piano. Stiletto blazed with McCaw rocking honky tonk flair.
As a frontman he multi-tasks, plays with one hand while directing the crowd with the other, makes fleeting gestures to reflect the lyrics, dances from the piano stool while easing the mic across the keys to amplify a bite of solo piano.
Like spinning plates, he keeps his fellow musos on their toes, cracks one-liners – “I’ve said goodbye to Mozart” – and belts to blow the roof off. He’s a phenomenal frontman, whipping up riffs and licks, racing up and down the keys, revving up the fans to clap or wave their arms. He pushes himself to the edge. Like his idol, he’s a virtuoso and drives the baby grand mercilessly with foot-tapping chord-drenched grooves until the piano shakes and trembles.
Who was listening? Billy Joel “freaks”, as McCaw fondly calls them, who knew every lyric of every song, older people recapturing younger days, a midlife fraternity savouring every note of McCaw’s intense playlist and arts cognoscenti. McCaw performs in a wild trance, a man possessed, unstoppable. A brilliant entertainer.
Richie Canatta, the iconic saxophonist enshrined in the recordings of Billy Joel’s early hits heard McCaw in New York and invited him to jam with the original band. Next year, Canatta is keen to bring former Joel instrumentalists to tour the show across Australia. A thrilled McCaw joked “That’s gonna be a Sydney Opera House event.”
Wynnum Fringe continues until July 12 at 166 Bay Tce, Wynnum.
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