Live: Dirty Three - 10/15/2005 - Chicago, IL

Performer: Dirty Three
Location: Metro - Chicago, IL
Date: 10/15/2005

Review: Australia's Dirty Three don't tour the U.S. very often. So when I heard they were embarking on a whirlwind six-date tour with one stop in Chicago, I made a note inthe back of my skull that this would be yet another moving, earth-shattering music experience that I would miss. The stars seemed to align in my fovor though, as I learned that not only was the concert scheduled for 11:30 PM, but they were also including the opening act of Freakwater.

So, despite having to work my weekend job as a water... Despite having to accompany my friend back to his apartment to retrieve his mis-pocketed ID... Despite waiting an absurdly long time for the CTA's Blue Line... Despite all of this, I was able to make the show in time to catch a few songs by the opner and the entirety of Dirty Three's Set.

Freakwater made a good impression on me. Two southern-sounding women strumming and singing a throwback country style set reminiscent of Marianne Faithful and a bit of Dolly Parton thrown in. Also on stage, playing violin with the girls was Dirty Three's Mick Turner, giving the perfectly-sized audience a prelude of sorts of what was to come.

When the Dirty Three finally took the stage, they did so casually. Jim white at his sparse drum set, Warren Ellis and Mick Turner both sporting violins and a Chicago native playing guitar with them to form a quartet that was preparing to surprise everyone present for the show.

Ellis began the eventing by introducing the band as a band, not individually, forming an image in my mind of the Dirty Three as a living, breathing musical entity beyond individual musicians. As the show went, I realized how the band's music has an unspeakable quality that I haven't heard replicated before. Even though I have witnessed Mick's playing before with the Bad Seeds, this was something different altogether. As the band got their wits about them, they played a few songs from their new albu, Cinder, which were moderate, melodic, meandering pieces that built to an anticipatrory crescendo.

Being most familiar with the Dirty Three's 2003 release, She Has No Strings Apollo, I was expectinga mood-ladedn evening of music to wash over me in gentle, dire waves. Nothing could have prpared me for the controlled chaos that shortly followed.

It was with the song, The Zither Player, that the energy of both the band and audience started to heighten and converge. White's drumming is some of them ost simultaneously frenetic and masterful that I have ever seen live. Armed with little more than a snare, a bass and a small collection of cymbals, he made some of the most apocalyptic sounds these ears have heard. Throughout, Ellis' bow was slapping the strings of his instrument, drawing from it a sound like a distorted stand-up bass.

Throughout all of this, the most amazing feat on stage was Mick Turner's ability to keep the rhythm of the song crawling on, even when the rhythm was lost and unplayed behind the noise.

As the night wound on, each member of the band continued to pour their sweat into the music. You could tell that the medium-sized crowd suited them and that they wanted to play these songs. Each tune gew larger and noisier. I witnessed audience members crying from the energy in the air as I wandered from balcony to stage-front. Since these people weren't young kids, I have to view this as a testament to the power of the Dirty Three's unique power as a band and not just raging hormones.

The band's set ended with Ellis laying on the stage, cradling his instrument, slowly building up the chaotic harmonies of the song, Sue's Last Ride until each member was playing their instrument like a guitar and, somehow keeping the noise inside the realm of control, managing to pull unique sounds out with every strum.

We only had to wait a miute or two before the band reappeared happily to the calls for an encore.

What followed was a 10+minute rendition of Indian Love Song which still resonates inside me.

Rating: 4.5 / 5

Dirty Three Discography:
click links to buy from insound.com

- Sad & Dangerous - 1994 - CD
- Dirty Three - 1995 - CD
- Horse Stories - 1996 - CD LP
- Ocean Songs - 1998 - CD
- UFKUKO - 1998
- Whatever You Love You Are - 2000 - CD
- Lowlands - 2000 (limited release)
- In The Fishtank #7 (with Low) - CD 12" vinyl
- She Has No Strings Apollo - 2003 - CD LP
- Cinder - 2005 - CD LP