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.

The 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!!

As 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 ...




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 ..



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



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 ...



variously playing the strings on the pipe like a guitar



or bowing it ...




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



poor bastard...

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



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



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:



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