Adrian Belew Power Trio - Wednesday, 3rd December 2008 - Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Note from 2012: Back to 2008! I think I might alternate between handfuls of old (2011) and older (2008) reviews. Seems like a more interesting thing to do.
Reading these older gig reviews is quite fascinating: I get to re-visit times, places and moments. The Crowded House concert mentioned in this review was at the Forum and was one of the best concerts that I've ever been to: they played for nearly three hours, played lots of new songs from the upcoming Intriguer, had a question and answer session, and a whole heap of people joined them onstage for an epic version of Private Universe. And yet, I never actually wrote a gig review for the Crowded House show! For shame... but I do have two different bootlegs of the show, so I can (rather neatly) relive it all over again.
As for this Adrian Belew Power Trio show: the running late story attached to this gig still amuses me to this day, but I'll be honest and say that I don't remember some of the individual songs at this show. The song e, I can't remember any of it (aside from the fact that it was fiddly and complicated), but it has actually been released in mid-2009 on an album of the same name, which I've yet to hear. Although I never asked the question I posed to Adrian, I suspect he just plays in standard tuning. I still have the photo of him on a hard drive somewhere: it was taken with my old phone's camera and is a grainy, crappy picture, but I can remember it quite clearly.
Oh yeah, and Julie Slick was especially lovely to meet.
Revisting this gig review has inspired me to dig out the copy of Side Four that I bought on the night, as I'd never actually listened to it properly until now. I've been working my way though the album: good grief, the musicianship on that album is fantastic, and it's a lot of fun!
I didn't see Adrian Belew when he performed in Melbourne a few years back. I ummed and ahhed a lot, but never went, and later regretted it after hearing stories of how good he was, and how he crowd surfed at the end of one of his Melbourne shows. So when he was to play a show at the Corner Hotel on his recent Australian tour, I was not going to repeat the same mistake: I made sure to buy my ticket weeks in advance. Carmen opted out: it wasn't really her thing, and with the Christmas season starting, she was (still is!) incredibly busy at work.
In case you were wondering "who the hell is this Adrian Belew fellow?": he's the frontman of legendary prog-rock band King Crimson (err... google/wikipedia them), and a really bizarre "stunt" guitarist. His guitar style is... interesting. There's very little bluesy-ness in him, and he seems to prefer a speedy, very jarring, effects loaded style of playing, with strange chords and weird, sorta uncomfortable melodies. He's also worked with a lot of people, including Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Trent Reznor, Porcupine Tree, Tori Amos, etc, etc. Talented and interesting fellow, in other words.
On the night, I seriously considered travelling by train since the amazing Crowded House gig the night before had taken a bit out of me, and I was wary of driving. I didn't want to doze behind the wheel on the trip home and drive into a ditch (or worse). And yet, I drove anyway: Carmen suggested that there may be a "VIP" event happening at Werribee Plaza which involved the shopping centre open late, and lots of bargains. So despite the possibility the "VIP" event may not even be happening, and the risk of a bleary late night drive home, I headed to Werribee Plaza, to look for some cheap CDs.
Thankfully, the VIP thingie was happening, so I hadn't made a pointless, time-wasting diversion. But unfortunately there were no overly fantastic bargains at JB Hifi, and I spent most of the time debating whether to buy a Black Sabbath or Motorhead album. Instead, I settled on Spinal Tap's self-titled. (?!?). I'm not joking: it was cheaper than both, and I'm a discerning shopper, y'know. The next step was to get some caffeinated stimulants to keep me going for the next few hours. But walking through the shopping centre, I began to feel something was amiss. Why was it so dark? Why was I so tired, when according to my watch, it was still fairly early? Had I really spent so little time at Werribee? Something was definitely wrong...
Turns out my watch had temporarily stopped: the "timing pin" had come out slightly, causing it to stop. I thought it was 8:10pm, but it was actually was 9:02pm. That meant I was definitely going to miss the support act, guitarist Penny Ikinger, and would probably miss the start of Adrian's set, unless I made it to the Corner Hotel before 9:40pm, which was going to be close.
Bloody hell!
I grabbed my coffee, dashed back to the car, and despite some dubious navigational choices, freeway roadworks, and difficulties finding a parking spot in Richmond, I made pretty decent time. Still, it wasn't enough, and when arrived at the Corner Hotel, Adrian and band were already onstage, and finishing a song. I'm pretty sure I didn't miss too much, since midway through the next song (King Crimson's Dinosaur!) Adrian welcomed the audience. He seemed like a likeable fellow and appeared to be really enjoying himself: smiling away, punching the air whenever they completed a song to his satisfaction, and chatting to the crowd between songs. And the other members of the trio were the brother and sister duo of Julie (bass, 22) and Eric (drums, 21) Slick. They were both ridiculously talented, and throughout the evening Eric did some particularly convulted and impressive drumwork.
The setlist was quite similar to the tracklist of the Side Four live album I bought on the night: mostly solo songs (with a somewhat focus on 2005's Side One?) and a small selection of King Crimson material. The solo songs included a swirly Matchless Man, some lengthy, ultra-winding, jam-heavy piece that may have been Beat Box Guitar (?!?), Young Lions (complete with drum solo intro!), the pounding eighties rocker Big Electric Cat, and an utterly ridiculous version of Madness. That song was a real highlight for me: it was a howling din and an absolute mess of noise with Adrian using a loop pedal to layer all manner of guitar lines over the top, and yet, it slowly began to untangle and make sense. I never quite got the song on Side One, but live it was very impressive. Bizarrely, Julie spent the song wearing sunglasses. Who knows why, but it was amusing, and she really did thrash at her bass during the song.
The King Crimson songs were sprinkled throughout the set: Dinosaur at the beginning, Neutrotica mid-way through, Three of a Perfect Pair closing out the main set, and for a single song encore, the scratchy, jagged Thela Hun Ginjeet. Then, in an extremely memorable moment, Adrian crowd-surfed! He remarked in a recent entry on his blog about how last time he played the Corner Hotel he crowd-surfed (for the first time in his lengthy career, from what I recall!), and wondered if it would happen again... and if they'd just pass him out the back door! Obviously there were a few people at the previous gig at the Corner, since the crowd at the front were beckoning him to do it again, and he amusingly complied. It was exceedingly cool to see him crowd surfing: he wasn't dropped, nor passed out the back door, and the looks of suprise/shock on Eric and Julie's faces were priceless. I wonder if it'll become a tradition at future Adrian Belew gigs at the Corner...?
After the gig, I bought a copy of Side Four, and got it signed by the band, who came out to talk, sign autographs, and pose for photos. I said a few mumbling words to Adrian, and got a photo of him (!!), shook his hand (!!!) and totally forgot a really nerdy question I wanted to ask him ("is your guitar tuned to Robert Fripp's New Standard Tuning or just "regular" standard tuning?"). It strikes me how different Adrian is to King Crimson head-honcho Robert Fripp: Fripp avoids autographs, photos or any contact whatsoever with fans like the plague, and stops King Crimson shows to confiscate people's cameras if they dare take a photo (ass!), while earlier on in the night Adrian jokingly invited the audience to film the band playing a brand new song, a hyper-complex instrumental called E, and upload it to YouTube. I also made particularly awkward chit-chat with Julie about her autograph. She seemed content to make small talk... which forced me wrack my brains for suitably "unmoronic" responses to her remarks. Gnnnh. Too much hard work!
So yes, it was a pretty groovy gig, and I got to see three extremely skillful musicians play some ultra complex and technical music. Sure at times it was a bit too headspinning (wanky) and did seem somewhat short (and maybe it was since there was some light booing after they left the stage for the last time... though I did miss the start, remember?), but overall, it was a very cool and interesting night. On reflection, if I hadn't stopped at Werribee Plaza, I would've seen all of Adrian's set and Penny Ikinger as well. Was a $5 Spinal Tap album worth it? Probably not. Maybe on the next tour (if there is one), I'll actually get to the venue on time!
Reading these older gig reviews is quite fascinating: I get to re-visit times, places and moments. The Crowded House concert mentioned in this review was at the Forum and was one of the best concerts that I've ever been to: they played for nearly three hours, played lots of new songs from the upcoming Intriguer, had a question and answer session, and a whole heap of people joined them onstage for an epic version of Private Universe. And yet, I never actually wrote a gig review for the Crowded House show! For shame... but I do have two different bootlegs of the show, so I can (rather neatly) relive it all over again.
As for this Adrian Belew Power Trio show: the running late story attached to this gig still amuses me to this day, but I'll be honest and say that I don't remember some of the individual songs at this show. The song e, I can't remember any of it (aside from the fact that it was fiddly and complicated), but it has actually been released in mid-2009 on an album of the same name, which I've yet to hear. Although I never asked the question I posed to Adrian, I suspect he just plays in standard tuning. I still have the photo of him on a hard drive somewhere: it was taken with my old phone's camera and is a grainy, crappy picture, but I can remember it quite clearly.
Oh yeah, and Julie Slick was especially lovely to meet.
Revisting this gig review has inspired me to dig out the copy of Side Four that I bought on the night, as I'd never actually listened to it properly until now. I've been working my way though the album: good grief, the musicianship on that album is fantastic, and it's a lot of fun!
I didn't see Adrian Belew when he performed in Melbourne a few years back. I ummed and ahhed a lot, but never went, and later regretted it after hearing stories of how good he was, and how he crowd surfed at the end of one of his Melbourne shows. So when he was to play a show at the Corner Hotel on his recent Australian tour, I was not going to repeat the same mistake: I made sure to buy my ticket weeks in advance. Carmen opted out: it wasn't really her thing, and with the Christmas season starting, she was (still is!) incredibly busy at work.
In case you were wondering "who the hell is this Adrian Belew fellow?": he's the frontman of legendary prog-rock band King Crimson (err... google/wikipedia them), and a really bizarre "stunt" guitarist. His guitar style is... interesting. There's very little bluesy-ness in him, and he seems to prefer a speedy, very jarring, effects loaded style of playing, with strange chords and weird, sorta uncomfortable melodies. He's also worked with a lot of people, including Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Trent Reznor, Porcupine Tree, Tori Amos, etc, etc. Talented and interesting fellow, in other words.
On the night, I seriously considered travelling by train since the amazing Crowded House gig the night before had taken a bit out of me, and I was wary of driving. I didn't want to doze behind the wheel on the trip home and drive into a ditch (or worse). And yet, I drove anyway: Carmen suggested that there may be a "VIP" event happening at Werribee Plaza which involved the shopping centre open late, and lots of bargains. So despite the possibility the "VIP" event may not even be happening, and the risk of a bleary late night drive home, I headed to Werribee Plaza, to look for some cheap CDs.
Thankfully, the VIP thingie was happening, so I hadn't made a pointless, time-wasting diversion. But unfortunately there were no overly fantastic bargains at JB Hifi, and I spent most of the time debating whether to buy a Black Sabbath or Motorhead album. Instead, I settled on Spinal Tap's self-titled. (?!?). I'm not joking: it was cheaper than both, and I'm a discerning shopper, y'know. The next step was to get some caffeinated stimulants to keep me going for the next few hours. But walking through the shopping centre, I began to feel something was amiss. Why was it so dark? Why was I so tired, when according to my watch, it was still fairly early? Had I really spent so little time at Werribee? Something was definitely wrong...
Turns out my watch had temporarily stopped: the "timing pin" had come out slightly, causing it to stop. I thought it was 8:10pm, but it was actually was 9:02pm. That meant I was definitely going to miss the support act, guitarist Penny Ikinger, and would probably miss the start of Adrian's set, unless I made it to the Corner Hotel before 9:40pm, which was going to be close.
Bloody hell!
I grabbed my coffee, dashed back to the car, and despite some dubious navigational choices, freeway roadworks, and difficulties finding a parking spot in Richmond, I made pretty decent time. Still, it wasn't enough, and when arrived at the Corner Hotel, Adrian and band were already onstage, and finishing a song. I'm pretty sure I didn't miss too much, since midway through the next song (King Crimson's Dinosaur!) Adrian welcomed the audience. He seemed like a likeable fellow and appeared to be really enjoying himself: smiling away, punching the air whenever they completed a song to his satisfaction, and chatting to the crowd between songs. And the other members of the trio were the brother and sister duo of Julie (bass, 22) and Eric (drums, 21) Slick. They were both ridiculously talented, and throughout the evening Eric did some particularly convulted and impressive drumwork.
The setlist was quite similar to the tracklist of the Side Four live album I bought on the night: mostly solo songs (with a somewhat focus on 2005's Side One?) and a small selection of King Crimson material. The solo songs included a swirly Matchless Man, some lengthy, ultra-winding, jam-heavy piece that may have been Beat Box Guitar (?!?), Young Lions (complete with drum solo intro!), the pounding eighties rocker Big Electric Cat, and an utterly ridiculous version of Madness. That song was a real highlight for me: it was a howling din and an absolute mess of noise with Adrian using a loop pedal to layer all manner of guitar lines over the top, and yet, it slowly began to untangle and make sense. I never quite got the song on Side One, but live it was very impressive. Bizarrely, Julie spent the song wearing sunglasses. Who knows why, but it was amusing, and she really did thrash at her bass during the song.
The King Crimson songs were sprinkled throughout the set: Dinosaur at the beginning, Neutrotica mid-way through, Three of a Perfect Pair closing out the main set, and for a single song encore, the scratchy, jagged Thela Hun Ginjeet. Then, in an extremely memorable moment, Adrian crowd-surfed! He remarked in a recent entry on his blog about how last time he played the Corner Hotel he crowd-surfed (for the first time in his lengthy career, from what I recall!), and wondered if it would happen again... and if they'd just pass him out the back door! Obviously there were a few people at the previous gig at the Corner, since the crowd at the front were beckoning him to do it again, and he amusingly complied. It was exceedingly cool to see him crowd surfing: he wasn't dropped, nor passed out the back door, and the looks of suprise/shock on Eric and Julie's faces were priceless. I wonder if it'll become a tradition at future Adrian Belew gigs at the Corner...?
After the gig, I bought a copy of Side Four, and got it signed by the band, who came out to talk, sign autographs, and pose for photos. I said a few mumbling words to Adrian, and got a photo of him (!!), shook his hand (!!!) and totally forgot a really nerdy question I wanted to ask him ("is your guitar tuned to Robert Fripp's New Standard Tuning or just "regular" standard tuning?"). It strikes me how different Adrian is to King Crimson head-honcho Robert Fripp: Fripp avoids autographs, photos or any contact whatsoever with fans like the plague, and stops King Crimson shows to confiscate people's cameras if they dare take a photo (ass!), while earlier on in the night Adrian jokingly invited the audience to film the band playing a brand new song, a hyper-complex instrumental called E, and upload it to YouTube. I also made particularly awkward chit-chat with Julie about her autograph. She seemed content to make small talk... which forced me wrack my brains for suitably "unmoronic" responses to her remarks. Gnnnh. Too much hard work!
So yes, it was a pretty groovy gig, and I got to see three extremely skillful musicians play some ultra complex and technical music. Sure at times it was a bit too headspinning (wanky) and did seem somewhat short (and maybe it was since there was some light booing after they left the stage for the last time... though I did miss the start, remember?), but overall, it was a very cool and interesting night. On reflection, if I hadn't stopped at Werribee Plaza, I would've seen all of Adrian's set and Penny Ikinger as well. Was a $5 Spinal Tap album worth it? Probably not. Maybe on the next tour (if there is one), I'll actually get to the venue on time!