Kuhlmann is a performer with a distinctive voice, unsentimental and witty, leavened with a heavy dose of self-deprecation, dealing gruffly and sardonically with the subjects of sex, drugs, love, and death in Red Light Songs of Lust, Love and Death.
He doesn’t just break taboos, he smashes them into oblivion with a deadpan expression on his face. Each song of his show was introduced with a vignette and series of one-liners about the people in his life who have touched his heart and other parts of his body.
Anyone who has ever fallen haplessly and hopelessly in like or love, or had a filthy daydream at the worst possible moment about someone else, can easily relate to the songs that string together Kuhlmann’s love and lust life. His intentions with his audience weren’t always pure, just like many of the subjects of his songs, and he got a gleeful gleam in his eyes a beat before a particularly raunchy punchline.
Kuhlmann’s songs are simple in their composition, often just a combination of acoustic guitar and his growly Papa Bear voice that carries the occasional sweet note. Though most of his set consisted of self-penned songs with titles like ‘I’d Be a Girl for Him’ and ‘Older Guys Do It Better’, he also put a personal spin on Tina Turner and Piaf numbers.
Along with the belly laughs Kuhlmann delivers, there were also gut-punching moments, like his wistful lament of two tragically lost lives from his “family” in the course of a week.
The insistent beat of dance music from outside the Feast Lounge where Kuhlmann performed actually didn’t detract from the performance, because it added to the feeling that this show was about the messiness of different spheres of life bleeding together. Things aren’t just neatly compartmentalised in life, and sex, love, and, yes, death are connected in weird ways we can’t always control.
This adults-only production that implores you to sometimes forget being an “adult” and enjoy the lusts and loves life has to offer was a hilarious and sometimes poignant night of cabaret.
Rating: 3.5 stars
Eric Kuhlmann – Red Light Songs of Lust, Love and Death
Feast Lounge – Feast Hub, Light Square
15 November, November 17–18
Feast Festival
November 12–27
