Super Rats play hard-luck music, prison songs and lickety-split dances from the backstreets of Bucharest. The band especially features the cimbalom, a semi-extinct instrument that refused to go quietly. Imagine the offspring of a honkytonk piano and xylophone, backed up by blistering accordion, sinuous violin, and rumbling double bass.

From diverse and colourful strands – Ottoman court music, raw Balkan peasant folk, a handful of tango and jazz – Super Rats weave a magic carpet to whisk you away to distant times and places, in a show full of panache, humour and dedication.

Band leader and Australia’s ‘chief cimbalom nerd’ Tim Meyen studied with master traditional musicians in Romania for over a decade before assembling a hand-picked crew of rolled-gold local musicians to present this rich tradition in Australia. From WOMADelaide festival stages to underground bars, they careen through authentic muzica lăutărească with panache, humour and dedication, sure to please curious ears.

PERFORMANCE TIME

Sat 19 Aug: 2:45pm – The Tom Mann Theatre