i've been looking forward to the day i start a blog posting with that one word
the name of the sydney 3 piece band that has taken me in with their glorious noise
i first saw them 3 years ago at the wangaratta jazz festival
and have been to every performance i can get to since then
which amounts to a total of 6 shows that i can recall
in that time they have recorded and travelled overseas extensively
tonight they generously shared their billing with a local duo called simpatico
andrew robson on alto saxophone and paul cutlan on tenor sax and bass clarinet
they were very, very good, plugging their new cd, improvising with ease, and telling us all about it
it's a full house and more tonight complete with the mob imported from the basement
the ones that want to spend the performance telling their friends how good this band is
or something else equally as important judging by the enthusiasm of the conversation
that continued on even with triosk on stage and into the first tune
lucky me had snagged a seat at the front of house directly in front of master drummer laurence pikes
so with head leaning forward i could very successfully block out the ambient crowd noise
which obviously did not bother the band as they wound into their show
slightly to my left stood the upright bass and it's master ben waples
and further to the left was seated supreme noise maker and keyboardist adrian klumpes
it took all of about 10 seconds of the first piece to realise things had changed again
and we have gone up another notch in the intensity and skill barometer
this outfit was never lacking in self-belief or self-confidence
but it's rare to witness a performance where there is no on-stage eye contact
except for the rapport in between songs where the band inadvertently demonstrate their comradarie
otherwise there is a complete confidence in each other and therefore the option to submit completely to the music
laurence pikes is an unbelievably talented drummer/percussionist
the first tune started out with quite gentle yet rapid playing using very light drumsticks (think chopsticks)
ended up with an almost heavy rock style attention to the drums in his kit
and had every conceivable noise in-between and a few other tricks
including man removes jacket and casts it off while retaining the beat perfectly
or better still man removes cymbal laying on top of snare drum in the same manner
thus mid-flight completely changing the sound coming from that instrument
adrian klumpes has changed from a pianist with the added job of knob twiddler
to an on-stage engineer with access to various noise-making devices
one of which is a grand piano and another an electric piano
in most tunes he had at least 3 different devices adding exceptional noises to the mix
one being a small microphone in a cable that he used to add and distort his voice
my non-expert impression was that all his machines were analogue and relatively vintage
so this is far removed from any computer-based noise-noodling
in the middle of the stage ben waples seems very content to lay down the beat
no need for any flourishes or impressive soloing when surrounded by these 2 musical geniuses
his upright bass provides the unique triosk bottom end
in one tune he repeat played a note as low as you could go
and amplified very cleverly using the stage itself to provide a deep rich beat
he is a man very much in awe of his instrument and in this tune in particular
was able to play the riff then look on with great respect as the notes resonated
it was a mesmerising set of tunes they played with great focus and intensity
laurence very sincerely thanked the audience for coming out to see them
and then left us to retrieve jaws from floors
this band can do anything and will go anywhere
watch this space
triosk
