Red Bennies swings with the fiendishly talented sextet - The Woohoo Revue!

How did the band form?

A bunch of escaped mental patients and circus freaks wound up at a party together and fell in love.

How would you describe your music?

A phrase that tends to get thrown around is 'somewhere between a Balkan gypsy brass band, roaring twenties swing ensemble, Wild West fiddle contest and a soundtrack for Looney Tunes'.

What makes your music so unique?

Aside from the quirky instrumentation, and of course personalities, the band draws inspiration from genres that don’t often find themselves in a room together.

Who are your main inspirations?

Romani bands Fanfare Ciocarlia and Taraf de Haidouks. New Orleans second line marching bands. Gene Krupa. Buddy Rich. The Electric Mayhem Band from The Muppet Show.

Do you have a favourite band of the moment?

Gogol Bordello.

Do you have a most memorable performance?

We’ve had a lot of life-changing moments at festivals and shows, for both ourselves and others, featuring injuries and inseminations, but performing amplified on a 7pm moving train, filled with people dressed in animal costumes and general public on their way home from work, was something that stands out as appropriately ridiculous.

Where have you toured?

This is a band that likes to travel. We’ve performed at festivals in every state of the country in the past year including WOMADelaide and Woodford Folk Festival. Australia’s shores can’t contain us much longer.

What are your views on the current Australian music industry?

If everyone were to burn their TV we would all be better off. This is kind of an essay question but I’ll be as brief as possible. For most musos it’s a full time job just trying to pay rent and the majority have to spend more time undertaking menial tasks over utilising their real skills to do so. If the average Joe were to put a little more value on the art that has effected their lives so positively and were to support the music industry by doing something as simple as going to see a show once a month, the lives of both parties would be richer.

Where would you like to see the future of live music in Australia?

I’d like to see a future of live music in Australia. Oooo, too cynical? STOP CLOSING LIVE MUSIC VENUES.

What do you hope people take from your music?

Our ambition is for individuals of the audience to have an experience that is so aurally and visually encapsulating that they are compelled to abandon their preoccupations of today and tomorrow and to simply dance and drink and celebrate life until it hurts, or doesn’t.

You are due to release your second album in 2012. Can you give us a brief description of the album?

The Woohoo Revue’s second album ‘Moreland’s Ball’, is an album of instrumental tunes inspired by the dance-floors of the world.

Imagine if you will a well worn and wildly decadent ballroom scene, plush velvet curtains and ornate fixtures carved in beautiful hard woods. The thick red carpet on the imperial staircase is soft under foot as you make your way up to the viewing platforms and theatre boxes.

The room is full of people dressed to the nines becoming enchantingly transformed with animal-like qualities, wings and tails, hoofs and scales. Some of guests invited by Moreland to his party “Van Boldrin III”, “R’ambo”, “The Goose, The Moose & The Boose” and “Espaneasca” are dancing a loose waltz to the sounds of The Woohoo Revue.

What else does 2012 hold in store for you?

As a part of the national tour to launch Moreland’s Ball, we have been invited to perform at some of the country’s most well renowned festivals, including Port Fairy Folk Festival (VIC), The National Folk Festival (ACT) and Fairbridge Festival (WA) as well as a residency at The Famous Spiegeltent.

You have become quite a Bennies’ regular. What do you love about performing at Red Bennies?

The environment just suits us. The neo-speakeasy/ballroom/bordello personality of the room is worn by the band most comfortably.

You are joining us for the NYE party. What can the audience expect from your performance?

If there were ever a band with which one may deem most suitable to get loose…

Let’s just say this is one NYE that won’t be an anticlimax.

Thanks guys!