The comedy duo behind “Beer Song” are back with a fresh ode to the wonders of craft beer. Dave and Ern from ElbowSkin have just released a video for “Craft Beer”, a song which they debuted live at our People’s Pint launch at Temple during Good Beer Week in May. Shot by film student Tim Clark, it details an ascent from the miseries of mainstream lager to the joys of craft beer, ending with the refrain: “We’re not snobs, we’ve just got good taste.”
“Beer Song” became the song of the first Good Beer Week in 2011, played at the opening of the Australian International Beer Awards Gala Dinner, following a chance conversation at the first Collingwood game of that footy season.
“What have you been up to since last season?” The Crafty Pint asked Dave.
“We’ve written a beer song,” came the reply.
“Ah, we’re working on a beer festival,” we said.
A few weeks later and, thanks to support from Mountain Goat, Moon Dog, theRoyston, the Courthouse Hotel and The Post Project, said beer song had become “Beer Song” and had an accompanying video, which has since been viewed tens of thousands of times.
So, when planning was underway for the 2012 festival, we invited them to play at an event and they came up with “Craft Beer”.
“We wanted something new for Good Beer Week and at the very last minute came up with this song,” says Dave. “Then when Tim Clark approached us wanting to film a piece with us, we figured it was a perfect opportunity to record something for this song.”
The pair, who met at school and have performed all over Australia and at a dozen Melbourne Comedy Festivals, have a long association with fine dining, wine and beer after working at some of Melbourne’s leading pubs and restaurants. They have held comedy degustations at which beer or wine have been matched to the comedians and, as such, have a wealth of songs based around beer, food, wine and coffee. They’ve even written a few on footy that featured in Channel 7’s coverage of the 2010 season and led to them being invited to open the Grand Final Day Breakfast.
“We try and keep the wine and beer stuff separate in our shows,” says Dave. “We don’t believe in mixing drinks.
“We’ve played at Meet the Brewers events, at the Australian National Homebrewing Conference awards night and did a beer show at Illawarra Brewing Company recently. We also did the Beer Factor with Tom Gleeson. It wasn’t very good and no one saw it, but we ended up with a few new beer songs.”
With registrations now closed for the third Good Beer Week in May 2013, perhaps it’s time to start work on a third song. In the meantime, here’s where it all started… “Beer – it’s like drinking God’s tears.”
Beer Song by ElbowSkin from The Post Project on Vimeo.
For more on ElbowSkin or to book them for a show, head to their website.
