...ADRIAN BELEW! = Road Tales & Guitar Theatre
The Basement
Monday 24th of April
If you don't know who Adrian Belew is, you should do an online search on him right now with google, wikipedia, whatever. Discovered by Frank Zappa and then going on to work with the greatest, most talented and many well-known artists ever since. This main is a guitar genius. He plays like no one else. And those of us who recently attended any of his gigs in the past few days are the first people to see him perform in Australia.
Adrian Belew came out dressed up for the occasion in a red suit with a black shirt. He went straight into the music while giving friendly nods and smiles to the audience. To complete the power trio needed for the songs, talented Australian musicians Al Slavik on bass and John Prior on drums joined Adrian. Considering that they had to play the parts of Les Claypool and Danny Carey (on certain songs) and also the short amount of time (less than a month) that they were given to learn the material, these two are living proof that there's world class talent of the highest standard here in Australia right beneath our very noses. Between songs, Adrian would say a thing or two to the audience, being very comfortable and cheery. It was all material from his solo albums, including "Matchless Man" and "Writing on the Wall" which Claypool and Carey performed on Side One.
After what would have been a very exhausting set for the three very talented musicians, Al Slavik and John Prior went offstage and Adrian Belew sat down for an interactive conversation time. In this he answered questions from the audience, told stories and also played some songs by himself (one of which was from Side Three (just about to be released in Australia), as well as "Walk Around the World" from Side One). After a few more questions and replies, he told us to go lubricate ourselves but still stick around because there was still a second set of music to be played which he promised would contain some King Crimson.
When the break was over, that many did indeed use to buy drinks while others (such as myself) stayed were they were to maintain a reasonable position for viewing the stage, Adrian, Al and John returned and delivered some more mind-blowing music. And after presenting us with one or two more songs from his solo career, he delivered the eagerly awaited King Crimson material as promised. Al Slavik adopted the instrument known as a "Stick" which is like a long bass neck with ten strings and no body and they played "Frame by Frame" from the legendary album Discipline. Followed by another King Crimson song and later "Thela Hun Ginjeet" also from Discipline. Adrian thanked us all for coming and told us he hopes to return to Australia to tour again sometime, waved goodbye and went offstage. There was a very enthusiastic applause which must have had many people feeling like their hands would fall off from clapping so hard and Adrian, Al and John came back out and gave us a much appreciated encore of King Crimson's "Elephant Talk" (the opening track from Discipline). At the end of which, they said goodbye again and bowed before leaving the stage for the final time that night. The whole thing was filmed, so hopefully it will turn up on the ABC programme "Live at the basement" in the not too distant future.
Later on Adrian Belew signed posters and CDs and let fans take photos with him. I feel privilege to have been one of the many who were able to meet him and managed to have him write a short quirky Birthday message on the CD I bought. Adrian Belew is more than simply an amazing and "sonically perverse" (his own words) guitarist, but an wonderful artist and a genuinely nice person.
http://www.adrianbelew.net
Monday 24th of April
If you don't know who Adrian Belew is, you should do an online search on him right now with google, wikipedia, whatever. Discovered by Frank Zappa and then going on to work with the greatest, most talented and many well-known artists ever since. This main is a guitar genius. He plays like no one else. And those of us who recently attended any of his gigs in the past few days are the first people to see him perform in Australia.
Adrian Belew came out dressed up for the occasion in a red suit with a black shirt. He went straight into the music while giving friendly nods and smiles to the audience. To complete the power trio needed for the songs, talented Australian musicians Al Slavik on bass and John Prior on drums joined Adrian. Considering that they had to play the parts of Les Claypool and Danny Carey (on certain songs) and also the short amount of time (less than a month) that they were given to learn the material, these two are living proof that there's world class talent of the highest standard here in Australia right beneath our very noses. Between songs, Adrian would say a thing or two to the audience, being very comfortable and cheery. It was all material from his solo albums, including "Matchless Man" and "Writing on the Wall" which Claypool and Carey performed on Side One.
After what would have been a very exhausting set for the three very talented musicians, Al Slavik and John Prior went offstage and Adrian Belew sat down for an interactive conversation time. In this he answered questions from the audience, told stories and also played some songs by himself (one of which was from Side Three (just about to be released in Australia), as well as "Walk Around the World" from Side One). After a few more questions and replies, he told us to go lubricate ourselves but still stick around because there was still a second set of music to be played which he promised would contain some King Crimson.
When the break was over, that many did indeed use to buy drinks while others (such as myself) stayed were they were to maintain a reasonable position for viewing the stage, Adrian, Al and John returned and delivered some more mind-blowing music. And after presenting us with one or two more songs from his solo career, he delivered the eagerly awaited King Crimson material as promised. Al Slavik adopted the instrument known as a "Stick" which is like a long bass neck with ten strings and no body and they played "Frame by Frame" from the legendary album Discipline. Followed by another King Crimson song and later "Thela Hun Ginjeet" also from Discipline. Adrian thanked us all for coming and told us he hopes to return to Australia to tour again sometime, waved goodbye and went offstage. There was a very enthusiastic applause which must have had many people feeling like their hands would fall off from clapping so hard and Adrian, Al and John came back out and gave us a much appreciated encore of King Crimson's "Elephant Talk" (the opening track from Discipline). At the end of which, they said goodbye again and bowed before leaving the stage for the final time that night. The whole thing was filmed, so hopefully it will turn up on the ABC programme "Live at the basement" in the not too distant future.
Later on Adrian Belew signed posters and CDs and let fans take photos with him. I feel privilege to have been one of the many who were able to meet him and managed to have him write a short quirky Birthday message on the CD I bought. Adrian Belew is more than simply an amazing and "sonically perverse" (his own words) guitarist, but an wonderful artist and a genuinely nice person.
http://www.adrianbelew.net