Support by Josh Pearson from Texan band Lift to Experience was the
perfect choice for tonight: just enough apocalyptic fire in his
belly to get the crowd excited but subdued enough to keep them under
control. Strumming country songs and hymns straight from the back of
the bible he was great; and far better then with Lift to Experience.
Unfortunately his choice of effects pedals marred some of the songs as
they seemed to cut out whenever he stepped on them.
Dirty Three descended on the stage like a bunch of outlaws. In Ellis’s case, a cardigan-
wearing outlaw. Stomping on a loop pedal to start playing some intense wall of violins obviously
recorded during sound check, the band jammed freely for a couple of minutes before breaking
seamlessly into “Ever Since” from their new album. I have raved about Cinder
before but as usual Dirty Three’s live renditions are more chaotic and
blissful than in the studio. I'm guilty of starting to pine for familiar material at
gigs but not this time. I was enraptured the whole way through.
Pearson
returned to the stage later to play mandolin and bass on a couple of
songs. “The Zither Player” (again from Cinder) stood out as being one of the best performances of the
evening. The rest of the material was a smattering of songs from most of their back catalogue, a
couple of tracks from Ocean Songs, “Everything’s Fucked,” “Hope,” and some Greek traditional
music.
A mighty version of “Sue’s Last Ride” from Horse Stories stands out in my mind as an
example of why I love Dirty Three. Powerful and emotional without the need for words,
there are few bands that can do this. Jim White continues to astound me as to just how he is the
best drummer on earth because he doesn’t play drums but plays through them. There was little if
anything to fault about the performance. Well maybe one thing, as entertaining as Ellis is when he
does his pre-song rants it does cut down on the amount of music played. Then again, he is a funny
bastard.
