Review by Steve Bennett

Among the familiar tracks are Bird-Plane, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme tune, updated now the heroes in a half-shell are older, and the four-chord medley that shows just how many pop songs share the same structure. They’re all decent songs, especially the last one which is like seeing a hundred cover bands in five minutes, but I’m not sure they should be doing greatest hits in only their second festival show.

They are likeable performers, but play things remarkably safe, with mildly funny lyrics poking limply at easy pop culture targets. They look like the sort of young men who spend too much time on World Of Warcraft – lead singer Jordan Raskopoulos’s cape doesn’t help – and their very narrow frame of reference suggests their entire experience is limited to the mass media, with quips and songs about Karate Kid, fantasy adventures, MacGuyver and the aforementioned ninja turtles.

Musically, they are sharp, but their humour always follows the easiest path, with gags about how they look, or how German isn’t a romantic language or lazily deconstructing the words of Hotel California, because that wouldn’t be a very good place to spend the night, would it?

Despite these serious shortcomings, Axis Of Awesome Vs Bee is still a breezily enjoyable show – especially if all the songs are new to you – thanks to the upbeat music and the easy interaction between the trio. They make a little in-joke near the start about how they will bicker, as comedy trios must, then play out that dynamic despite pointing out how clichéd it is. Yet still it’s quite charming, and the lads quite sweet.

But when it comes to originality or memorable jokes, Axis Of Awesome are more like Axis Of Average.

Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Melbourne, April 2009

Review date: 1 Jan 2009
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett