More than half a century into a career that has repeatedly dodged nostalgia’s trapdoor, Sparks arrive at Vivid LIVE looking like the blueprint for every eccentric pop act that followed them. Returning to the Sydney Opera House after their acclaimed 2023 appearance, brothers Ron and Russell Mael with support coming from Eli Pearl (guitar,) Darren Weiss (drums) and Max Whipple (bass) bring a career-spanning set to the Joan Sutherland Theatre, carrying with them six decades of strange brilliance, razor-wire wit and songs that continue to sound slightly ahead of the culture around them.
Part of the enduring fascination with Sparks lies in the tension at the centre of the band itself. Russell Mael remains all kinetic energy and theatrical movement, his falsetto still capable of vaulting into impossible territory, while Ron Mael sits motionless and impassive behind the keyboard with the expression of a man silently judging the entire concept of rock stardom.
Since breaking through with 1974’s Kimono My House, Sparks have drifted through glam rock, synth-pop, new wave, electronic music and orchestral pop without ever fully belonging to any of them. Tracks like This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us, The Number One Song In Heaven and Angst In My Pants now feel woven into the DNA of modern alternative music, their fingerprints stretching across everyone from New Order and The Smiths to Björk, Justice and Franz Ferdinand.
That influence has only become more visible in recent years. Edgar Wright’s 2021 documentary The Sparks Brothers reintroduced the duo to a younger audience who suddenly realised just how much of contemporary art-pop traces back to the Maels’ strange universe.
At Vivid LIVE, that strange durability feels almost unreal. Ron Mael, now 80, still plays with intricate mechanical precision, while Russell remains a blur of movement at centre stage. He is dressed in a black polka-dot suit, even his fingernails are painted with dots, offset by a shocking pink shirt and shoes that make him look less like a conventional rock frontman and more like he has wandered out of the same surrealist dimension occupied by Angine de Poitrine. (Now wouldn’t that be an interesting collab?) The audience spans generations: longtime devotees who first discovered Sparks during the glam era sit beside younger fans pulled in through streaming algorithms, film soundtracks, collaborations (Gorillaz, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Gos and many others) and the lingering afterglow of The Sparks Brothers documentary.
Even now, Sparks continue to feel slightly alien to the mainstream, which is exactly why musicians keep falling in love with them. For one night at the Sydney Opera House, your favourite band’s favourite band once again prove that pop music can still be theatrical, absurd, intelligent and completely unpredictable all at once.
Images Deb Pelser
