Crazy Arms – A Few Centuries of Piano Tinkering with Damon S

Born in Perth and now a Melbourne resident, Damon Smith, brings a unique and virtuosic performance to Fremantle's newest and best live music venue, the Duke of George.

"Damon Smith on piano is a blues/boogie virtuoso." - Adelaidereview.com

Along with absurd, comedic buffoonery and world class musical moments taken from his Critically acclaimed, live cabaret shows, Smith and his long time, musical cohort; also a fellow Perth Native, Adam Coad, will perform with Melbourne upright bass player extraordinaire, Trent Mckenzie.

Audience members will be urged to bring extra socks as replacements for the ones that will be inevitably blown clean off by Smith's polarising, Melbourne three piece band, as they perform finger busting boogie Woogie—classical music mash ups, jazz interludes and a serving of new Orleans piano music from Dr John, Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, James Booker and more, making up a seriously eclectic, genre busting set list.

Crazy Arms – A Few Centuries of Piano Tinkering, is a preposterously zany, musical adventure that spans the origins of the piano from its birth in 1709 through to the 20th century. With absurd, improvised humour, musical wizardry and incredible stories about the piano and its players, acclaimed writer & pianist, Damon Smith will perform virtuosic piano tinkering in homage to some of the great musicians that have ‘tickled the ivories’ throughout the ages. Featuring music and stories from Liberace, Jerry Lee Lewis, Winifred Atwell, Scott Joplin, Dr John, Mozart, Beethoven, Harry Connick Jr, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Elton John and so many more, you’ll hear finger busting boogie-woogie music, delicate sonatas and huge rock and roll hits like ‘Great Balls of Fire’ and ‘Blueberry Hill’. Suitable for an all ages audience, this unique comedy-cabaret documentary will blow the audiences socks clean off their perpetually tapping feet. 

Crazy Arms is pure musical magic…don’t miss it live at Chapel Off Chapel in Prahran from June 27th to 29th as part of the Melbourne Cabaret Festival. Damon Smith is a composer, lyricist, music producer, writer, instrumentalist, film maker and performer living in Melbourne, Victoria. As a creator, Damon invites you to pull up a seat next to him at the bar. There’s a sense of intimacy, a hint of sass, and more than a hint of the real man behind his work. As a musician, he has performed at Theatres across Australia, written countless jingles, songs and compositions and has appeared as a session player on numerous recordings and has had his music featured on television, on stage and in short films.

In 2016, in a short break from his music, Damon produced and filmed the YouTube video performance series, The Night Sky is a Jewellery Store Window and made over 50 videos that featured local and international singer-songwriters performances. After co-writing the critically acclaimed cabaret show, Sun Rising, Damon turned his hand to writing a second stage production pertaining to Mental Illness named, Mental As Everything. This semi-autobiographical project also received critical success after debuting at the acclaimed Adelaide Fringe Festival in February 2018.