The Drones

Tonight’s set from the Drones was going to be unique and special because it was the launch of their new DVD, "A Thousand Mistakes", all the songs in tonight’s set were either b-sides or rarely played songs, so it was a real fans night.

I had been wanting to see Adalita perform her solo act for quite awhile now, since I had heard her heartbreaker of an album earlier this year, and what better opportunity than to see her play as well as supporting the Drones. Adalita’s solo stuff is entirely different beast than Magic Dirt, the Dirt’s sound is all about feedback and drone, and where Adalita’s solo stuff is is more nuanced and focused.

Adalita’s performance tonight was more than stripped back, it was more like her body was translucent and the audience was able to see her heart beating with every song performed, when she performed Hot Air, the single from the album, the way the red light struck her face, it was like standing alone in the middle of searing sand storm, with just that amazing guitar and voice just wailing, the audience cant see through the storm all they can do to lead them into the light is follow that voice that will lead them home, on songs such as Fool Around, Adalita had a Tom Tom drum on stage with her every note was like a dying heartbeat, it kept steady, but as the song came to end, my body collapsed yearning for more.

It was all too brief for me, I could have stood there for hours and totally forget about time and place forever.

The Drones are a relentless touring machine, who don’t the word stop, If the band aren’t touring, Gaz Liddiard is doing his solo thing, most bands would crumble under this type of pressure, but for the Drones all it does is fuel the machine and makes them go even harder. Some of the lesser known songs that were played tonight were River of Tears, the cover of the Kev Carmody songs, last time I had heard this song was at Golden Plains a couple of years ago, where they turned it into a runaway storm of a song, it had so much power if you were to stand in front of the band you would have got sucked into the vortex.

The Drones popularity has always baffled me, not that I think it’s undeserved, quite the opposite it’s because the Drones are least conforming bands around, they break every rule in the book and still manage to sell out the corner 3 nights in a row. I think this really is a sign of the times, people are willing to stand to the left instead of the middle of the cue and be fed the crap of mainstream radio, and the popularity of the Drones is a lot more significant than people think.

One of the highlights of the night was Gaz acoustic version of "Locust", the lyrics in this song depicts a brutal scene, where the main character is a raging alcoholic who speaks about growing up in Colonial times, and about the immigration of the Chinese and Indigenous population, I can not think of any contemporary songwriter who writes about songs and colonisation with such amazing imagery, that transport you right to the scene, and keeps the listener transfixed at the same time.

The red desert blues of the Drones encapsulates the wind, the water the land and fills in the gaps of our broken past, they depict our country and lives like no other band around, look past the wall of feedback and what you have is a modern day Henry Lawson or Banjo Patterson, they were writers who wrote about what you find in the crevices of our culture and the people you would find in the out reaches of our vast country , Gaz Liddiard continues in this tradition, and tonight’s gig was perfect example of why the Drones are so important to our music culture and the growth of our scene.

Share this review on Facebook