Lost Animal are the sole support tonight and their set starts unfashionably early. Fortunately there’s already a solid crowd in attendance, although most people seem to be milling about waiting for the headliners rather than paying rapt attention. A two-piece, bass and keyboard/vocals, the duo are using a backing track to generate much of their music tonight and the mix really isn’t doing them any favours; the backing track is too low and vocals far too high. This loses much of the delicacy of the recorded work and brings into focus a weakness in the vocals, which is a surprise after the easy swagger of the album. Perhaps it’s just a bad night, the pair never look fully comfortable in the opulent surroundings of The Tivoli and Jarrod Quarrell comments that eating a pizza just before performing was a bad choice, but tonight Lost Animal don’t live up to the promise of their album.
Dirty Three, on the other hand, are entertaining before they even start playing. Warren Ellis dances to the backing music while he finishes setting up and throws the middle finger at an early heckler, before launching into a long story that starts at Ian Turpie’s moustache and finishes at Gina Rinehart, leading the opener tonight (better known as “Rain Song”) to be re-titled “Gina’s Arse is Fucking Hell”
As always, the band is a juxtaposition between Mick Turner’s restraint and Warren Ellis’ wildness. While Turner and Jim White control the rhythm, Warren Ellis throws his distorted violin on loop and dances around the stage before picking his instrument up again and attacking it with a feverish intensity. The bass in the mix is a little muddy early on, but the band still sound amazing – teetering at the edge of cacophony, but always just falling back into a sweet and melancholic melody. This is certainly a much heavier sound then last time the trio were in town, for their Ocean Songs retrospective, and while the song ends with Ellis howling near the microphone, the music fades out with a delicacy that belies the rest of the track.
More stories follow, before Ellis moves across to the piano for their second track. It creates an interesting sonic difference to have him off the violin, but trapped behind a keyboard it removes some of the presence and threat that the Dirty Three normally exude. It also lays bare the remaining problems with the mix, as the hats sizzle and take over the song. That’s soon fixed though and, as Warren Ellis returns to the violin, the mix settles into near-perfection for “The Pier” and “Rising Below”, played back-to-back with consummate skill. As the last note rings out, the audience erupts into prolonged and enthusiastic applause, clearly appreciative of the amazing talent on display.
Amidst more audience interaction Warren Ellis comments that the band has been playing together for twenty years now, to applause, before launching in to the new track “Moon on the Land”. It’s a great song and well-played, but it’s soon completely blown away as they reach further back in their catalogue. “Some Summers They Drop Like Flies” is perfection. With eyes closed it takes shape, colour; a tactile presence that can’t be denied. The music is a cry of angry loss, screamed through instruments, and it cuts through the room sweeping the crowd along. An absolute highlight, this is ten minutes that would be hard for any band in the world to improve on.
While the mic breaks can be a little distracting, pulling the listener out of the music-led trance, this time it’s a welcome respite, giving everyone a chance to breath and readjust. “Restless Waves” follows on, as Ellis climbs down into the photo pit to play and howl. They continue straight on to an absolutely brilliant rendition of “The Zither Player”, which again draws long and heartfelt applause from the crowd.
The band look genuinely pleased and call for a request from the crowd, leading to a long back and forth between Ellis and various crowd members that shows one of the oddest dichotomies of the Dirty Three. They are hugely influential, make beautiful instrumental music and are playing in the prettiest venue Brisbane has to offer, but at the same time they feel like a pub rock band at heart; happy to trade jibes with their fans and seemingly truly pleased to get to play their music, without the pretension that can often infect successful bands. The eventual request is “Everything Is Fucked” and it leads into the longest story of the night, tying up all the previous tales, as Ellis imagines cooking drugs and travelling to Port Macquarie to share them with Gina Rinehart and Bono who are, in the make-believe world of The Tivoli tonight, selling meat pies to tradies.
Ellis seems even happier at the end of “Everything is Fucked”, complementing the sound at the venue and asking the stage crew if there’s a curfew (it’s about 10:45 at this point) before announcing the next track as “Hope”, which leads to the line of the night. When some punter starts shouting Barack Obama, Ellis mishears it as ‘barber ‘ and responds with “My wife would rather I have a crack habit than this beard, but it’s fucking staying.”
Hope makes way for “Authentic Celestial Music” and after the massive earlier tracks, these quieter ones feel almost anti-climactic. The slower music, combined with the hour, seems to be some people’s cue to leave, as a few small groups file out of the room. It’s disappointing given the quality of the show, but it is a school night. The band certainly gives no sign of faltering though and they keep the songs coming until, almost two and a half hours in, the closing notes of “Ends of the Earth” echo around the room. There’s still room for an encore however and when the Dirty Three return to stage, they launch into the much heavier “Sue’s Last Ride” to cap the night off and send everyone stumbling off home in a haze of distortion and emotive reverb.
– Sky Kirkham
