When Mickey Avalon last came to Melbourne for his Search for Mrs. Avalon tour, rumours circulated in the weeks following about girls needing trips to the doctor’s office, complaining of throat infections after having made out with Mickey onstage. Adjectives used to describe the show centred on ‘perverse’. Avalon has a great fondness for St Kilda it would seem. When he last toured it was the Espy Gershwin Room he played, and this year was no different. Considering his extensive history as a Los Angeles prostitute, a love of St Kilda seems only fitting.
Supporting Mickey was Kid Mac, the south-Sydney MC who’s been touring the country for the past few years but only now gearing up to release his debut LP. Along with a drummer and a bassist (who appeared only there for show, for the most part), Kid Mac proved an energetic support. He had a more playful, than commanding, stage presence; filling the stage with women for his song “Lunatic”; before exclaiming “now we know who the easy ones are!” The seemingly sexist sentiment was juxtaposed afterwards as he stopped his next song to get an audience member booted for hassling a young woman in the front row. He didn’t let the potentially awkward moment affect the flow of his performance however, and continued with an altogether engaging set.
After a twenty minute break (the entirety of which was spent waiting in line at the bar), the stage lights went down and Toni Basil’s “Mickey” flooded the room; drawing scantily clad women to the front of the stage in droves like a twisted siren-song. To thunderous applause, Mickey Avalon sauntered onto the stage – leather jacket and hat attached – and dove straight into a barrelling one-two-punch of “Waiting To Die” and “Mr. Right”.
Avalon’s stage presence was overall quite polite, giving out high fives, thanking the crowd and telling everyone how much he loved them; also speding a good deal of time informing everyone of a meet-and-greet after the show. But any girls who managed to make their way up onstage were quickly dragged offstage by security, without Mickey doing any significant personalised performing. In fact, aside from his two dancer provocateurs who showered the crowd in water from time to time, his performance wasn’t nearly as depraved as one was led to believe.
The whole set had much more of a college party vibe, as opposed to an auditory lapdance. “Do you guys like Led Zeppelin?” he asked in a sleazy LA drawl, before launching into an anthemic garage hip-hop assault which sampled “Whole Lotta Love” to dizzying effect. Even Kid Mac came back out for a tribute to the late Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, “Fight for Your Right to Party” could have been the only choice; and the crowd fucking lapped it up.
By the time the set drew to a close and Avalon launched into “Jane Fonda”, the crowd was in an absolute frenzy. Girls atop shoulders peppered the expense of the Gershwin Room whilst Mickey’s dancers, now adorned with ‘Mickey Avalon/Fuck Me/Fuck Me’-tops were dowsing the audience, beer was being spilled everywhere; and all the while Avalon strutted across the stage, missing no lines, emboldened by the screams of hundreds of fervent female fans.
There was only one way the show was going to end; namely with an encore performance of “My Dick”. The crowd lost their shit. You could barely hear the singer above the screaming hoards of crazed women. Shirtless and drenched in water, Avalon once more thanked the crowd before leaving the stage. The show had lived up to the rumours – Mickey Avalon was perverse.
– Alastair Matcott
