WHAT happens when an award-winning performance about teenage musicians from regional Australia meets three real-life teenage musicians from Coffs Harbour?
You get the award-winning AUTO-TUNE followed by a set with local band Razer on Saturday 10 October at the City of Coffs Harbour’s Jetty Memorial Theatre.
AUTO-TUNE is a wild, funny and energetic rock opera set in Wagga Wagga in the early 2000s, created by acclaimed performance collective re:group, the team behind Coil, UFO and POV.
The production opened at the Sydney Opera House and has since been praised as “a brilliantly inventive, totally engaging piece of theatre” by Theatre Red, while Theatre Thoughts called re:group “the most exciting performance collective” and described AUTO-TUNE as an “absolute must-see”.
The 55-minute production follows Michael, a teenage Silverchair fan who discovers he has the strange ability to ‘auto-tune’ his life, travelling back in time to erase awkward moments, dumb decisions and embarrassing mistakes.
With 17 live songs and a healthy dose of teenage chaos, AUTO-TUNE is a love letter to millennial culture and growing up in regional Australia, complete with Nokia phones, bad decisions and, of course, Silverchair.
But that’s not all. Coffs Harbour High School students River, Baxter and Charlie, all 17 and better known as local band Razer, will perform a set following the performance.
Formed earlier this year, the trio have come together from different musical backgrounds, with River on drums, Baxter on guitar and Charlie on bass and vocals.
Their musical influences include the very same bands that feature in AUTO-TUNE’s world: think Silverchair and Rage Against the Machine.
For Razer, being part of Coffs Harbour’s music scene is an exciting opportunity.
“There’s a really great local scene in Coffs and there’s almost always a show on,” the band says.
And that makes their appearance alongside AUTO-TUNE particularly fitting.
AUTO-TUNE’s early millennia backdrop of teenagers discovering music and finding their place in the world is exactly what Razer is living through.
It’s a chance to see a little of Coffs Harbour’s next generation of musicians, alongside a theatrical celebration of the messy, loud and unforgettable business of being young.
AUTO-TUNE is recommended for ages 15 plus, and for music and theatre lovers of all ages.
School student tickets are available for $10.
Bring some mates, bring some teenagers, and before you know it, you’ll be back in your memories of a Big Day Out mosh pit with the world’s biggest grin and some mild heat stroke.
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