Review: Dirty Three @ Hindley Street Music Hall
On a bitterly cold and miserable Monday night, the Dirty Three delivered a hellraising three-and-a-half-hour musical sermon that shook Adelaide from its winter’s funk. Three decades into their celebrated career, the trio reaffirmed their status as Australia’s greatest live band, still operating at the peak of their boisterous powers.
Words by David Knight
Image supplied
It had been a dozen years since the instrumental three-piece (guitar, violin, and drums) graced this city. The reason for the extended delay? “Life just got in the way,” apologised violinist Warren Ellis. It’s little wonder they’ve barely toured. Their last album Towards the Low Sun was released the year they last touched down in “fucking A-de-laide!” and their new album, Love Changes Everything, is due for release the day before their Australian tour ends. Classic Dirty Three.
Aside from that, the Paris-based Ellis has been busy as the creative partner of Nick Cave, collaborating with him in the Bad Seeds as well as composing film scores both with and independently of Cave. Drummer Jim White lives in New York as a gun for hire and member of Greek folk and free jazz outfit Xylouris White. Meanwhile, Melbourne-based guitarist Mick Turner, aside from exhibiting his art internationally, works with singers such as Mudburra and Garrawa woman Eleanor Jawurlngali Triad who opened the show.
The antithesis to the carnival that was going to crash land on the same stage an hour later, Jawurlngali Triad (who’s also a member of Kardajala Kirridarra and Rayella) was a calming stage presence with collaborator and cello accompanist, Stephanie Arnold.
Guided by the most unassuming of beats and loops, she hypnotised Hindley Street Music Hall from the moment she hit her first note. All eyes were to the front to see who was behind that heavenly voice as the audience fell silent and barely a camera phone was raised.
Her brief five-song set (in traditional languages and English) lasted just 30 minutes, ending with a stunning cover of the African American spiritual ‘Sinnerman’ (popularised by Nina Simone) but that was all that was needed for Eleanor Jawurlngali Triad to leave a lasting impression.
If Jawurlngali Triad was all about the ethereal beauty of voice, the Dirty Three had something altogether different in mind. Charging the stage to Boz Scaggs’ ‘Lido Shuffle’, Warren Ellis burst into the arena like a WWE wrestler from Brunswick, hyping himself and the audience for an exhausting lead role he was going to play for the next 210 minutes.
With his long druid beard, unkempt grey hair, open shirt and capacity for ranting, raving and philosophising, Ellis is part bush poet, part soap-box guru, and part mad genius conductor who whipped the crowd into a frenzy before a single note was played.
When White’s scatter-gun drum hits interrupted Scaggs’ perfect dose of 80’s blue-eyed soul, the three-piece kicked into ‘Love Changes Everything I’ from their new album, followed by ‘Part II’ (which saw Ellis swap the violin for piano for a Dirty Three meets The Necks by way of Brian Eno cut) and ‘Part III’.
Calling for a spit bucket and a towel to drape over his shoulders, Ellis told us the history of Dirty Three and Adelaide which took in Big Star Records (RIP), scoring great speed (RIP, Ellis is now 25 years sober), the roof falling in at the Tivoli (RIP), Two Dogs hard lemonade (RIP) and performing their first concerts in Adelaide with the Snuff Puppets (still kicking!). We are a city that stole his heart. Bless.
The show shifted into another gear with an epic performance of ‘Indian Love Song’ (with enthusiastic audience participation) before Ellis asked if anyone from the crowd could hand him a nail file (to fix a broken nail) and belt (“I’m a medium 60-year-old man”) to avoid getting cancelled if his pants suddenly fell to his boots.
‘Sea Above, Sky Below’ was dedicated to the late, great Steve Albini – who produced Dirty Three’s 1998 album Ocean Songs – and was followed by their dizzying, intoxicating cover of Giannis Spanos’ Greek folk song, ‘Mia fora thymamai’, aka ‘I Remember a Time When You Used to Love Me’.
With the show building serious momentum, Ellis launched into a surreal five-minute Billy Joel revenge fantasy against the Piano Man’s appropriation of the word crazy set against the opening notes of ‘Everything’s Fucked’.
By the time he got to his point, the powerhouse that is ‘Everything’s Fucked’ kicked in and what a track to witness in its wild, fervent glory. Ellis’ violin wailed over Turner’s intricate soundscapes while White’s precision post-jazz drumming was almost as eye-catching as Ellis, who was furiously kicking out his legs and jumping on the drum stand to meet his drummer’s eye who responded with a wry smile when things really clicked.
They followed ‘Everything’s Fucked’ with ‘Some Summers They Drop Like Flys’ and ‘Authentic Celestial Music’, the songs three of the most soul-wrenching instrumental tracks from late last century (I’m counting the year 2000 as last century). This moving three-song suite left this audience member with a lump in my throat and a hand to my heart.
Thinking this might be the emotional high before the final song (as the show approached three hours), the Dirty Three were far from done. Ellis continued to share more stories including a poignant one about getting sober. He recounted these humorous and crazy yarns from his past because he had gotten sober and was grateful to be alive to tell them today. The band then treated the audience to more unreleased tracks from Love Changes Everything (parts ‘IV’ and ‘V’), taking us to the encore.
This was an epic three-and-a-half-hour performance to witness, ever-building to a crescendo that ended with ‘Sue’s Last Ride’. With all members hovering around 60, I don’t know how they bring that energy, endurance, and emotion to the stage. I doubt I’ll see many shows in my lifetime that’ll come close to topping this.
