Sydney blogger Permanently Out To Lunch rolled along to the final Jurassic Lounge last week to give us his thoughts...
Punk Monk jelly-wrestlingAfter only three short seasons, Jurassic Lounge has already become a mainstay on the Sydney social scene. Ownership of Tuesday nights has been achieved through innovative entertainment ranging from live artists, burlesque performances, snake handling, comedians, spoken word and that new band from that thing with that song, you know? Oh, and did I mention the jelly wrestling? You read correct but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Upon entry to the Australian Museum, the elaborate setting for Jurassic Lounge, a coupon is passed across the counter that soon turns into a Pipsqueak pear cider. Before you can have two sips of your cider you are at the gig of an upcoming band nodding your head to the dance-punk rhythms along with other equally hip individuals. Conics is the band: five Foals-esque Sydneysiders whose set livened up the crowd and made the newly-made revelers want to explore the playground of pleasure that awaited.
We meandered past skeletons of humans, dinosaurs and humans riding dinosaurs while discussing whether “fishes” was a word and collecting a Little Creatures Pale Ale to massage our curious linguistic discussion into the back of our minds. What dwelled on the top floor of the museum, amongst exhibitions of the world’s deadliest creatures, was a performance of the unexpected variety: near naked jelly wrestling. Describing jelly wrestling is a bit like trying to explain a cartoon to someone who hasn’t seen it, but let’s just say that it made some of the hipsters in the crowd much less indifferent.
Venturing back into the bowels of the museum, we passed a three metre Twitterfall and a group of ten or so dancers mimicking a computer screen in near darkness. I can honestly say I didn’t quite understand who was winning or losing in the Just Dance Tournament but I couldn’t fault their enthusiasm. Trekking down a level, we gravitated toward a crowd of people curious as to their oohs and aahs. Clasped around one man’s neck was a diamond python and a phasmid the size of a large hand was nestled in another lady’s hair. A phasmid is, of course, a stick insect and having one crawl up your arm does not get any less creepy after two beers. Though, I’m not sure if I would have volunteered without some of that liquid courage.
We escaped the live exhibits and took sanctuary within the confines of a silent disco. All your favourite pop hits were playing as punters were ploughed with glow sticks producing an eerie luminous visual accentuated only by the deafening silence. Being quiet in a museum has never been so fun. Through a window at the disco we spied a scantily-clad woman becoming more so only to reveal what looked like the diamond python from the other room - that snake clearly gets around. We made a note to catch the second burlesque performance before cantering on to another exhibit.
Glam Rock Burlesque pole-dancing
Chris Hook was waxing lyrical about something or another but we found it hard to concentrate knowing that a snake and a naked lady were slithering about on a stage downstairs. We were brought back into reality with Shannon Crees’ live painting that was engrossing, as was the end result of the collaborative paste up board by some of Sydney's favourite street artists. However, we were in need of some aural pleasure and caught the end of Jenny Broke the Window’s set, whose indie pop beats were so enchanting that I didn’t leave without picking up a copy of their CD.
And at last, we arrived for the Glam Rock Burlesque extravaganza. A fine femme fatale spider crabbed her way up and down a pole much to the delight of onlookers capping off a night of risque entertainment, educational chic and musical delights. Jurassic Lounge is a novel idea that combines an intelligent use of an under-utilised facility with a festival-like atmosphere creating one of the most interesting Tuesday nights you’ll have for some time to come. I can’t wait until the next season!
Tuesday, May 1, 2012 at 2:01PM 
