Russell Crowe enthralls crowd at Karlovy Vary with music, story of tarantula bite

Actor Russell Crowe rocked the audience at the 57th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) by playing a 90-minute set with his band Indoor Garden Party.

The actor also recalled how he had been injected with venom by a large tarantula during the shooting of a film in 1994.

The Gladiator actor was felicitated with the Crystal Globe for outstanding contribution to world cinema at the Czech film festival.

When Crowe took the stage, he shared stories about his songwriting process, and filming a scene with a tarantula.

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According to reports, Crowe took the stage just before 11 p.m., with a drink in his hand, to loud cheers and applause.

After playing several songs, he welcomed the people of Karlovy Vary who responded with much noise, saying: "You look fantastic, you look amazing."

The actor recalled filming the movie Rough Magic (1995) with Bridget Fonda in 1994 and having to shoot a scene where a tarantula, bigger than his hand, crawled up his naked body and into his mouth, before being snatched away by a spider handler.

In one case, the spider stopped at his neck and spread its legs out. Crowe said the next day he woke up with a rash on his chest and elsewhere and saw a doctor.

"When a tarantula becomes aroused, it ejects these very fine hairs," meaning his body was "full of tarantula venom", the doctor explained, Crowe recalled.

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The doctor gave him stuff to put on and take, with the promise he would be fine within a week.

Crowe added the punchline: "I'm pretty sure that in the history of cinema, I am the only Academy Award winner who has been f***** in the neck by a tarantula."

Around 20 minutes past midnight, Crowe thanked Karlovy Vary and said farewell. But after loud cheers and chants of "Maximus!", the name of Crowe's famous character in Gladiator, the band performed a few more songs until 12.40 a.m., followed by a fireworks display.

Crowe has been making music since the 1980s, with his first solo single being called I Want to Be Like Marlon Brando.

In the 1990s, he performed with Australian rock band Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts, releasing three albums with it.

He formed Indoor Garden Party with Canadian musician Alan Doyle, the former lead singer of folk rock band Great Big Sea, in 2017.