Xavier Rudd

In any show it is truly an awesome experience to stand and sing amongst a group of dedicated fans of the performer. For the Xavier Rudd and Dallas Frasca line up, these fans went the extra mile of buying tickets within the first few hours of sale, so it was honestly a honour to be counted among the crowd that night. The night also marked the first show for the Dark Shades of Blue Tour.

Arriving pre first performance is sometimes a little confronting, a small group of people, watching their phones indicating that others are coming soon, awkwardly dodging the eye contact of others. Polar opposite was the case for Tuesday night at the HiFi bar, I began to wonder if I had actually waited much longer whether I would even be within decent viewing range of the stage. Sensing the room swelling with eager fans the scarlet dreadlocked beauty Dallas Frasca bounced onto stage accompanied by only one ‘gentleman’ (Jeff Curran) this time. Always a treat to watch the fiery songstress, I quickly calculate and realise I’ve actually only ever seen her outside on festival stages. I jump up from the corner position I had seated myself in, curious to see how she will translate to an indoors darkly lit gig. Well the lighting in itself was a spectacle worth watching, with sunset pinks and fire truck reds shooting across the stage in time with her kick drum. Dallas had the crowd in her hands, from her first raspy cry of “This is going to be a great night!” Keeping them entertained with her stompy grooves and her captivating stage presence, Dallas proved she was the best choice for a tour buddy for Xavier Rudd.

With hints of a big show to come, with mysterious shapes on stage cased by drapes of black material, and Dallas Frasca claiming she had heard the sound check earlier and we were in for a treat, the excitement was more than building in the air. It was mildly off putting how long there was to wait between Dallas’ set and Xavier’s, but well worth the wait when the mere shadow of the man caused an entire room to attempt raising roof palings with screams of delight.

Taking to the stage and immediately residing behind the now distinguishable arrangement of didgeridoos XavierRudd opened his set with a soulful number that kind of gets your excitement glands racing from your guts to your heart and shooting back down your legs making I virtually impossible to remain still. He is so uniquely talented in his musicianship, you can not help but feel like this his shows are some kind of religious ceremony that you have been lucky enough to be allowed to watch.

With a name for himself as one of Australia’s greatest Aboriginal and human rights ambassadors, it was no surprise to see the large aboriginal flag flying above the stage where he stood. Xavier introduced his newest edition drummer Dave Tolley within the first few songs, at one stage Dave gave such an enticing performance that Xavier abandoned his guitar and begun an aboriginal tribal dance from one side of the stage to the other, rounding off the song, by thrusting his hands towards Dave, Xavier erupted in applause joined quickly by the rest of the room.

Touring for many years now, and with some of the biggest names in music at the moment, Xavier has certainly learnt how to please his loyal fans, throwing in plenty of old songs, causing people to swing around to be face to face with their buddies and exclaim “oh my god I LOVE this one!” this was especially evident during Messages and Better People.

He has a way of getting the patriotic tears to burn behind your eyes, if you stop and listen long enough to the lyrics they may just spill over into a proud Aussie moment, and increase the motivation to just be a better person.

If I had the opportunity to write the set list for this night, I would not have changed much at all, and the one I agreed with the most was an extended version of Let Me Be to finalise the night and the musically spiritual journey that is the Dark Shades of Blue.

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