Fake Russian choir Dustyesky are the real deal, and who are we to argue with a pun as good as that? You might have seen the intriguing tale of this band of 28 bearded comrades on the ABC’s prime time show Australian Story. In truth, their take on the traditional Russian greats hails from Mullumbimby, not the Motherland. While they do love to sip on ice-cold vodka, not a one of them speaks Russian. But they sure do love the country’s music and passion, and they wound up forming this harmonious band to belt out Morther Russia's greatest hits at their local RSL.
Posting their efforts to the interwebs, they were as surprised as anyone when it went viral, and not in a worrying lockdown way. And it’s not just here in Australia that they have sparked a sensation. Nyet. It appears that the Russians are totally up for it too.
Now you get to see why when the lads make their way to the Sydney Opera House to storm Bennelong Point’s “bourgeois fortress” with borscht-fuelled abandon over two nights from May 21-22. “We are 28 men driving one Big Lada from Mullumgrad to the summit of high culture, bearded and sweaty, eager to melt the permafrost hearts of Sydney,” the lads say.
They’ve already wowed WOMADelaide, the Woodford Folk Festival and Melbourne Fringe Festival. Now we can march to the beat of ‘Orchy Chornye’, ‘The Red Army is the Strongest’ and ‘Kalinka’ too. “As rough as sawmiller’s beard, as gentle as his touch, Dustyesky is elusive yet eternal,” they add. “Like the wind of the Siberian steppes, we shall blow within you forever. Your heart will soar. You will smile and cry for sure.”
