Marc Rebillet – Powerstation: January 11, 2023

Marc Rebillet plays his first New Zealand concert, fully improvised from start to finish. An energetic and exuberant performance and he maintained his hard-on for the sold-out crowd for close to ninety minutes.

Rebillet is the genuine Paris, Texas. A French father and an American mother. He has divided his life between Texas, Paris and New York City.

Started piano lessons at age four. He attended the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, where he studied classical music. Later he took acting lessons.

His popular music career began when he posted YouTube videos of himself producing electronic beat music using loops. All the while leaping and dancing around his bedroom in his underwear. His early persona was Loop Daddy. This became livestream performances, where followers could interact with him as he improvised from their feedback.

This was picked up on social media sites like FaceBook and Reddit, and he went viral. Going from a few thousand streams to millions in a short time.

He has livestreamed with Erykah Badu and Reggie Watts, just to name a few.

He started doing live shows in Texas bars in 2017.

This Australasian tour has been delayed at least two years due to the pandemic. In that time, he has tried performing in drive-in theatres in America, and producing livestream shows on Twitch. Doing my best to survive, he has commented.

Halfqueen

Halfqueen is a popular DJ, and she has been gaining a following through small shows and large stadium concerts over the last few years. But she confesses to being nervous tonight in front of a fast-filling crowd and warming the room up for Rebillet.

But she gets straight into it with sounds from the disco soul of the late Seventies. Hard and on the beat. Doesn’t take long for people to groove and boogie. Especially when her spins venture into modern takes on Northern Soul.

On the big screen are videos of female pro-wrestling legend Trish Stratus. The top rope bombs and flying drop kicks synchronise nicely with the beats.

Towards the end of her set, we hear sounds reminiscent of the early Jackson Five, along with snatches of lyrics. Come on/ Come on/ Dance that shit/ Bang that shit.

 Marc Rebillet

At least a third of the audience are dressed in flowery colourful robes with not much else underneath. I soon find out why.

Rebillet races out dressed in a multi-coloured robe and underwear. It is more like the pro-wrestlers’ outfits from the Sixties and Seventies. The great days of the WWWF before they became completely theatrical, like the WWE now.

He starts with a fast rap which ends up in full glossolalia. Channelling Jim Carey from Liar, Liar in his famous courtroom scene.

As much a great physical stand-up comedian as he is musician. The antecedents for this can go way back to the Firesign Theatre, Cheech and Chong and probably some Beastie Boys too from more recent times.

I’m not ready/ No one’s ready/ JUST GO!

Some psychedelic sci-fi vocals follow. Fuck that rain/ Masturbate. You come to New Zealand in the middle of summer for your first tour, and what do you get?

The big screen shows erotica. Nice butts and bodies. Bananas and oranges for male and female privates. The vocals get pornographic and very horny.

I can be your little slut, baby. He has a good rhythm’n’blues voice, gritty and soulful. Then he can switch into the vocal style of the singer from The Hold Steady. All it takes is a little dedication and skill/ Just believe! Too modest, really.

Alert/ Virus detected… appears on the big screen. Hypnotic trance music follows, and the virus explodes and transforms. Rebillet is finding ways to subsume the fear of the cold virus and turn it into vibrant art.

He primes the audience before he does a full horizontal leap into the audience. Simultaneously pops a champagne cork and sprays the punters.

The fans are an essential part of providing the inspiration for his improv. The first three climb up. Most memorable is the dude with a long ginger beard and what looks like bondage gear under his robe. Then it’s an invasion of the masses on stage.

First rule. Don’t fuck with the table. All his gadgets and props are there.

Second rule. Get down motherfucker. Shake that dick! Followed by the rhythms of a Blanco Brown.

Big beats and fast rhythms rule, but he can slow things down as the mood requires. Atmospheric music with gothic overlays and merging into psychedelia.

He has his own version of James Brown’s celebrated cape routine. This involves choosing his next robe from the ones offered by the ecstatic audience.

Watching him throwing himself around with no restraint and I am suddenly time-warped back to this venue 35 years ago, where the Cramps performed a legendary set. Later preserved as a live album, especially Lux Interior who gave a manic and borderline psychotic performance. The audience are of a similar ambience to that night, although I doubt there is anyone else here who was present for that one.

‘It’s time for Grandma’, yells the crowd. He agrees. The one set piece of his performance. Prefaced by deep sub-sonic rumbling bass. Rolls through your guts and up your spine. How could you not love this?

As the backing lasers appear to ejaculate light beams over the crowd, Marc Rebillet comes up with some inspiration for the ecstatic audience. Sadness will turn into happiness/ Grief will turn into joy. It may be sex and drugs and rock’n’roll but it’s also a lot more than that.

Rev Orange Peel    

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Brenna Jo Gotje

Marc Rebillet:

Halfqueen: