It’s been a minute since we’ve had a stage show from Tim Minchin, the UK-born, Western Australia-raised musician, comedian, and self-proclaimed “rock ‘n’ roll nerd”.
Which is not to say the kohl-eyed crooner has been slack—after all, the second season of road trip dramedy Upright just landed, and the film adaptation of Matilda the Musical, his take on the Roald Dahl children’s classic, will be in our eyeballs very shortly. But Minchin’s natural home is the stage, so fans will be enraptured to know that his latest concert film, Tim Minchin: Back, will be available to rent and buy digitally at all the usual VOD vendors from December 12.
Minchin’s first UK tour in eight years and his first live tour of any kind in six (to be fair, everybody gets a pass on 2020-2021 for reasons that should be perfectly clear), Back was immortalized on, well, digital at The Empire in Shepherd’s Bush with ol’ Minch, backed by an eight-piece band, offering up a catchy array of “Old songs, New Songs and Fuck You Songs”. A heady combination of concert, comedy show, personal history, and political snarl, Back sees Minchin in fine, provocative form.
While Minchin has often been a rather intimate performer—one wild-haired man in a tux, sans shoes, crooning at the piano about George Pell and white wine in the sun—Back has him in a more grandiose mode, with older songs invested with new energy and a sense of scale, which means even devoted fans who have pored over his back catalogue will find something new to enjoy here.
But rest assured that even amped up to rock opera levels, Minchin’s lyrical dexterity remains as impressive as ever, even when he’s slipping the knife between the ribs of some of our most sacred cows. So, if you’re in the mood to invite the rock ‘n’ roll nerd into your loungeroom, you know what to do.
