Friday 3 December 2010

that1guy - on the Gold Coast

last night we went off to a small club in Miami (Gold Coast) to watch "that 1 guy". I was first introduced to him by a friend in about 2004, with this clip:



and assumed (wrongly) that I'd never get to see him live. His more modern stuff shows the development of his instrument and his style ..



speaking of his style, think Frank Zappa combined with a little electronic stuff and a touch of Tom Waits ... but like all good performance artists he's much better in the flesh than on the small screen.

P1100506The gig was a cosy little place which was enabled a laid back attitude where we could just get in and sit right up close to the action of the musician on stage.

You can see this 'trademark' instrument at the end of the bar up on the stage there.

We sat right down there on the last couch on the right.

Great view, great feeling of engagement with the performance and man was it loud!!

P1100628As you can see from this stack there was not any lack of PA volume. This shot from just in behind the stage looking forward.

But That 1 Guy is the kind of act where you want to get personal and involved (not back 200M and using the binoculars like big name acts).

In an era of canned music its really refreshing to have live music which engages you even if its only one a one man band.

In the end however its not a problem that he's up there alone because he's a good performer, I don't think I felt like "what time is it" for the entire act.

This is how it looked from where we sat ...

P1100695


and while it was quiet at first the floor filled up with people dancing and bopping around after they'd all had enough to drink ..

P1100587

You may notice from the clips that he likes his shoes, and this night he had some really cool aluminum aligator skin shoes on

P1100604

and you can see the pedals here he uses to activate drums, change sequencer tracks and control some of his digital recordings for "backing".

And he really gets into it ...

P1100651

variously playing the strings on the pipe like a guitar

P1100676

or bowing it ...

P1100684


and naturally attracts one "drunken love chick" who he tried really hard not to encourage, but not ignore either

P1100674

poor bastard...

I really liked the hand puppet bit for adding some character to the sounds of one of the acts ...

P1100633

compared to his earlier stuff his "pipe" is really developing ... this one is looking very engineered and space age ...

so if you get the chance, go along and see "That 1 Guy"


the pipe

P1100509

The show started with a fellow called "Mr Percival" he's a vocal only guy who (like Bobby McFerrin) uses digital pedal controlled recording loops and sequencers to give his stuff extra depth. This is him:

P1100563

In case you may like to see a slideshow of the performance ... here it is courtesy of my flickr account

1 comment:

200ok said...

Glad you liked the show :) We saw T1G and MrP on Friday night... it was awesome as always! I've actually had Mr Percival's 'i don't have a problem with you...' song in my head a lot since :)

T1G's current pipe is actually a new one, the old one is safely at home ready to be shipped out if emergency requires.