Dirty Three
» The Dirty Three announce first national tour in over three years - April 24, 2006
Its always worth celbrating life when the Dirty Three are in town, they dont visit that often but when they do they make their presence very clear.
The Dirty Three last played in Vic was at the Meredith Festival in 2004, so a welcomed returned was assured. They were doing a few club gigs this time around personally I would rather see them play bigger venue's there sound is built for arean's last time I saw them at The Forum about 3 yhears ago and suited the band to a tea, when Warren Ellis fires up he writhes around like a man possessed and at smaller venue's he has to constrict himself a bit.
They started the set with a brand spankin new one named "Flutter" of their new album "Cinder",halfway through the song Warren drops his violin and picks up a mandolin and starts shredding that to bits "Flutter" is defiantly one of the heaviest song's in tonight's set ,by the end of the first song Warren is almost drenched in sweat.
At the start of each song there's a small introduction or rambled musing whatever you preferthey dont always make sense but the dont need to the music speaks for itself. There weren't to may new songs in tonight's setit wasmainly a greatest hits set(or crowd favorites might be a better term) tonight Mr Ellis was at his Karate kickin, Jesus Christ posin best,after being a fan for 12 years they never fail to dissapoint.It's like a ocean of noise and pure beauty washing over your mind,as intense as the music gets it's never over the top the band pulls the reins just when you think they may lose control.
I have to give mention to Mick Turner the guitarist when Jim(the drummer) and Warren are kicking it doing their thing he's shyly standing in the corner strumming away, each player complements each other greatly and together the three of them make a huge collective sound.
The Intro to "Hope" was quite amusing Warren said his dad thought it was the second greatest song ever written, even though he thought he might be a bit biased. As I looked around the crowd I saw quite a few people including myself just standing there with their eyes closed with these slight smiles on their faces.
The Dirty Three's music is the soundtrack to dreams and nightmares at times they can be serenly beautiful then the next minute in songs such as "Sue's LAst Ride" you feel like your caught in the eye of a hurricane with a huge carcophony of sweeping violins,drums and guitars and it's impossible to resist being dragged into the storm.
The Dirty Three make grown men weep and they make most punk band's seem like a bunch of sooks, they have more intensity and sheer power then most most bands I have ever seen.
They closed their set with an absolute blider "Last Night" of thier self titled classic.
Come Back Soon, Melbourne Need's You
