Vocal crew ready for local debut

TRADES Hall’s stage is set to host fifteen full voices when the Spooky Men’s Chorale perform in Ballarat for the first time.

Having formed more than 20 years ago at New South Wales’ Blue Mountains, the group will sing their acapella feats next month in the leadup to a show at the Melbourne Recital Centre.

Spooky Men’s founding director Stephen Taberner said the Ballarat gig will their most intimate show in their national tour.

“It’s the smallest venue on the tour,” he said. “I’d done a singing weekend there last year and have associations with Ballarat performers so I know the venue well.

“We’re looking forward to playing a nice intimate show in an awesome town. You can really see the audience. We can feel them and they can feel us.

“It’ll be a little showcase before the Melbourne show but as we all know, the dress rehearsal is sometimes better than the larger performance afterwards.”

The Trades Hall concert is one of 11 Australian dates for the Spooky Men’s Chorale and will mark their first Victorian concert since 2021.

With a full roster of vocals, Taberner said the concert will touch on a range of styles and themes while remaining grounded in humour.

“We begin by showing the audience what we do, something that shows off our general warmth,” he said.

“Then we move into whimsical self-mockery, exploring themes of masculinity through the perspective of a reconstructed man.

“It’s not either celebratory or self-deprecating. From there we take viewers elsewhere. We sing love songs, Ukrainian songs, Yothu Yindi’s Treaty. We venture into saying something real with ageing and death.

“It’s a delicate mixture but we hope stupidity is never far away.”

The Spooky Men’s Chorale will perform at Ballarat Trades Hall on Thursday 27 July. Tickets range between $30 and $49 and can be booked at bit.ly/45YPC1A.