Carla Lippis has a lot going on. Irresistible magazine caught up with her just before her next round of shows with 27 Club. Lippis is a key member of the group which she describes as, “A fantastic reunion every year with some of the best musicians in Australia, as well as a beautiful way to honour the great artists who left us too soon. It’s just like band camp.” The group has been on stage all over Australia, and can do long runs, recently completing 29 shows during Adelaide Fringe Festival, and they’re about to be a highlight of Sydney Fringe Festival for 23 performances during August and September. The fun apparently never stops and the chemistry is evident on stage. Audiences return time and time again for a really good night out and pitch perfect renditions of songs that are already etched into the collective consciousness.
But there’s plenty more.
Mondo Psycho is her band, which Lippis describes as “Post- Apocalyptic Rock.” Not for the faint- hearted, their website states a concert is, “An avant- garde descent into rock ‘n’ roll purgatory,” and that Lippis’, “Relentless vocal power grinds audiences everywhere into a state of submission.” The group have recently released a new album and have been taking the launch show on tour around the country to top-notch festivals Like Dark Mofo and Darwin Festival, and all over their home state of South Australia. It’s loud and raw, “Full of rage,’ she said. “I’m working out my demons on stage. It’s cathartic for me, and will have the same effect on anyone who has something they’d like to let go of.” A journalist once described Lippis as a “Satanic Liza Minelli.” The moniker has stuck and Lippis likes it. She’s certainly just as glam. Lippis and the whole crew have a great look, completely striking and a photographer’s dream.
The current Mondo Psycho band lineup consists of some of Adelaide’s most dextrous musicians: ‘Shaolin Afronauts’ afro-futurist band leader Ross McHenry on bass and Matriach Moog; the celebrated film sound designer Duncan Campbell on synths sound effects and piano; Glaswegian-born avant noise specialist, Geoffrey Crowther on guitar; NYC-based Angus Mason on drums; and the aptly named Django Rowe on second guitar.
Lippis was overseas for a few years and made the sudden pandemic- induced decision to come back to Australia as the borders were closing. Coming from a family that migrated from Italy, and confident to get by in Italian, she was invited to tour with a group over there, and while sometimes challenging, she found the experience a powerful and valuable insight into her own background and family, and the complexity of the Italian culture. She also performed in Glasgow and London, getting herself into the heart of the West End with a residency at the Café de Paris, as well as regular performances with Black Cat Cabaret and at the Box Nightclub in Soho. All in all she was living her best life, and had to leave, as so many did, without a plan, or the opportunity to say her proper goodbyes. Her husband, who is her creative partner in all her endeavours and often contributes to her writing and compositions, was with her, and even though he is from the U.K. and it all happened so suddenly, they have found they are more than happy to be back in Australia, and if anything are having a burst of creative energy and finding the partners to help turn their ideas into realities. And it’s not only the reboot of 27 Club and the birth of Mondo Psycho.
There’s Lippis’ extraordinary show Private View which is being produced with the groundbreaking South Australian Restless Dance Theatre Company. The show is performing soon as part of Brisbane Festival and then later as part of Alter State in Melbourne. Restless Dance Theatre Company comprises of 7 dancers living with disability, and Private View aims to challenge the taboos around people with physical or intellectual disability and their sexuality. Haunting melodies from Lippis are deeply intertwined within the work and serve as the heartbeat of each scene, underscoring the dancers’ stories and intensifying their emotional resonance.
And there’s still more.
Currently in development and slated for 2025 with Brink Productions, the innovative theatre company based in Adelaide, is Love Don’t Live Here Anymore. Lippis is developing the work with Christos Tsiolkas, Dan Giovannoni and Stephen Nicolazzo (Loaded, Merciless Gods.) It will be a live music theatre work celebrating post-punk Melbourne and Adelaide in the early 1980s and it explores how migrants evolve within the context of an underground music scene and how it influences their position within the Australian cultural diaspora. The story will follow a fictional lesbian rock band, “Nietzsche” through various time periods – the present day at a reunion gig at a shopping centre pub; 1983 – their humble beginnings; and, 1986 – a cataclysmic moment of change for their careers. It sounds like it will be a lot of fun and Lippis’ involvement will guarantee the tunes, as well as her own insights into the migrant experience and the nature of displacement.
Alongside all the performing Lippis manages to squeeze in being a board member of MusicSA, the peak body and advocate for the South Australian contemporary music industry. Just another sign that Carla Lippis really has come home.
27 Club
30 Aug – 29 Sep
Sydney Spiegeltent/ Sydney Fringe Festival 2024
Mondo Psycho
Currently on their new album launch tour
Check out their website and insta for next dates.
Private View/ Restless Dance Theatre Production
18 Sep – Sat 21 Sep
Brisbane Powerhouse/Brisbane Festival 2024
and
2 – 6 October
The Show Room Arts Centre Melbourne/Alter State 2024
