8 Miles Wide

Music video

Storm Large
Live Review

Storm Large’s show isn’t straight comedy, nor is it a regular music gig or even a one-note cabaret experience. Large defies categorisation. It’s a rock gig with wit in abundance –in the banter in between tracks, in the chat that breaks out halfway through a song and within the lines of the songs themselves.

She has sass in spades and an extraordinary life story from which to draw upon. Her biography reads like a misery memoir, epitomising the notion that a fucked-up upbringing inspires the best art. Large’s mother was severely depressed, Large herself was then diagnosed with mental illness apparently largely based on that dubious logic that because her mother was ill she would be too. Large became a heroin addict, but was saved by music and Pat Benatar.

So what of the oeuvre that has grown out of this painful life? Well, it’s akin to listening to early PJ Harvey or Courtney Love in her Hole heyday. The songs are visceral and raw, particularly those that deal with depression such as Call Me Crazy. But they’re also greatly humorous – a lover she dumped but who has the audacity to be OK is admonished in the refrain I Wish You Would Die. Elsewhere it’s often celebratory too particularly in the anthem (My Vagina) Is 8 Miles Wide (Not Literally, Silly). Needless to say it’s a frank performance.

Large is compelling to watch, a naturally mesmerising, electric performer. And despite all the angst in her life she’s a joyful presence to spend an hour with. A skilled wordsmith too, though much of her dialogue is unashamedly sweary she has a great way with descriptions and depictions. One particular favourite was analogy of the state of her 41-year-old uterus as being like the dusty, haunted room in which she’s playing in the Underbelly.

Simply fantastic.