Real Deal

The combination of a rubber band, a guitar pick-up and a violin back when it started for the Dirty Three made the trio memorable from their first gig in ’93. They were based in Melbourne and brought a whole lotta grit to the idea of instrumentals.

With Warren Ellis playing his violin like a Fender (he’s also of Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds fame), Jim White’s electric guitar and drummer Mick Turner, the Dirty Three could change a person in the time between the start of their set and the end.

Still can.

They get into their songs; claw around every crescendo, nook and dusty corner, uncover the truth of whatever they find, hold you there for a while and then move on.

One of their more epic creations, ‘Deep Waters’, clocks in at 16 minutes and 30 seconds.

To say their reputation is a credible one by those in the know is putting it lightly.

London-borne music festival All Tomorrow’s Parties, which for the past ten years has been curated by all sorts of musical marvels like Mogwai, Mike Patton and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, name drop the band as a stand out at ATP’s Aussie debut last year.

They’re not a band happy dwelling in one place too long so it’s surprising for many to hear their current Australian tour (Ellis has been Paris-based for 12 years and White lives in New York) is a huge return to familiar ground.

Yep - the band’s first return in four years is all about their fourth album, ‘Ocean Songs’, released in 1998.

Recorded the year prior in Chicago with the reputed Steve Albini, ‘Ocean Songs’ was the Dirty Three’s magnum-opus, according to their PR. Their big and beautiful concept album: an aural and for many, ethereal exploration of all things ocean.

But Ellis remembers things differently.

It’s 11am in Paris and he’s had four interviews already. He invites questions on anything and throws back some answers that he’s given in interviews of old: familiar material.

But he’s frank.

“When they asked us to do it I was against it ‘cause it seemed retrospective and I was never really interested in that,” Ellis says in his pitched Aussie accent.

“And then I got out-voted, as is often the case, and we agreed to it, much against my better judgement, and actually enjoyed it a whole lot. It’s interesting because it’s an album I don’t particularly recall enjoying the recording of.”

Then the phone line turns to shit as Ellis goes into depth on why ATP’s side project, Don’t Look Back - which is associated with the Dirty Three touring ‘Ocean Songs’ - is just so very awesome. Don’t Look Back tours bands that play albums in their entirety. Just as they appeared on an LP, from start to end.

The end of Ellis’ take Don’t Look Back becomes audible …

“ … you know an album has really meant something to you and you’ve really taken it on and at a certain point in your life it’s been really crucial, and suddenly it’s like they’re playing the album for you.

“For me, watching it was the closest to the feeling that I’ve got if I’m playing my own music. There was something, an extra element to it you know, the invovlement that I had as a listener (was more) than I would at another concert and I found it to be a really enjoyable experience, as a listerner and a performer,” he says presumably, of ATP last year.

“It’s a really different thing, I mean I love going to see concerts and I love how they can change you in many ways, But here you actually knew what was coming up and you know what was going to happen so you could sit back and kind of enjoy what you purely love about the group and about the music they made. And I hadn’t expected that you know?”

So the Dirty Three return to their epic ‘Ocean Songs’ without any fear of re-tredding.

For fans who caught it when it first dropped, it should be revealing what the intervening 12 years has done to the sounds of Dirty Three.

Dirty Three play the Tivoli January 25.