Mike Patton’s Mondo Cane

16-17 Jan ,

Sydney Festival

Love, heartbreak and despair, there's an orchestra, choir and band

First published on 31 Oct 2011. Updated on 18 Jan 2012.

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It’s an obvious point, but it bears repeating: Mike Patton has a phenomenal voice. And it’s not like the man doesn’t enjoy using it: he was a hell of a hard-rock belter in Faith No More and Mr Bungle, a crooning loverman on the Lovage project and a demon from beyond the grave with Fantomas, and now here he is fronting a 28 piece band (three backing vocalists, three keyboard players, drummer, percussionist, guitarist, bassist, woodwind utility player, electronics/theremin player and the sixteen-strong Accidental Strings) singing Italian pop songs of the 50s and 60s. Because of course he is.

The thing about Mondo Cane is that it’s neither a pisstake nor a tribute: these people clearly have an authentic love for the music, and the arrangements are stunning – playful, inventive and dense without being overdone.

However, there’s no doubt that it’s Patton’s show. While most of the set featured his remarkably affecting croon, he unleashed his Fantomas roar on ‘Urlo Negro’, dropped to a sepulchral baritone to open ‘Deep Down’ before jumping to a soprano falsetto – the man’s vocal range is astonishing. Also astonishing is the man’s range of facial expressions: few performers can snap from matinee idol dreamboat to demented ventriloquist dummy so startlingly swiftly.

The show drew heavily from the Mondo Cane album, but it’s a fair bet that most of the audience were unfamiliar with the material and didn’t speak the language – which meant that the sheer joy in the room came from the beauty of the songs and performance rather than a recognition of the ol’ favourites.

Banter was kept to a minimum, although his comment about his having too many keyboard players did inspire one punter to holler “Roddy!” and receive a lupine grin in response to the reference to Patton’s Faith No More colleague Roddy Bottum. All in all, a surprise early frontrunner for best show of 2012.

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Words by Andrew P Street