Last night ROCKED – literally!
Click on the pics for bigger versions.

Just after 7.00pm last night Ken Stringfellow called on my cell phone to check if Amy and I had tickets to his show with Even at the Northcote Social Club? Ken had put us both on the guest list but the show was oversold and the guest list had to be halved. In short, I was on the list but we had to try and “find” another ticket for Amy. Ken told me to call Bec at the club and see if anything could be done? After a couple of calls to Bec it was looking promising, so Amy and I finished getting ready for the show and then we set off.

Outside the venue we met up with Henrik – a new friend of ours, originally from Sweden, who’s doing an aviation and engineering degree here at R.M.I.T. – and Julian, a cool guy we’ve known for some time now who’s also a friend of Ken’s. Ken usually stays at Julian’s place when he’s in town (and not with the R.E.M. guys).

We first met up with Henrik and another new friend, Gail, a week or so ago at a “Murmur’s meet-up” before the R.E.M. show here in Melbourne. For those of you who don’t know, Murmurs is an R.E.M. fan site, R.E.M. are one of the worlds biggest bands and Ken has been playing keyboards with R.E.M. for several years now – mainly as an additional musician when R.E.M. tour, but also in the studio as well.

Ken used to be in a Seattle band called The Posies who, amongst other things, were Chelsea Clinton’s favorite band at one stage. Because of this The Posies got to meet the Clinton’s at The White House and also got to play a show there, I think? Ken has also been in other bands like Chariot and Big Star and is an excellent artist in his own right, creating 3 wonderful solo albums.

Ken does his best Schroeder impersonation

The three of us went inside the club and quickly found a spot to the right of the stage. Ken arrived a few minutes later and bought us all a drink (he’d said he “owed” Amy and I a drink over the phone). We talked for a short time and then Ken had to go and do a few things before he got on stage.

One of the things I was really looking forward to at this show was that it was going to be the very first time that we’d get to hear “The Guitar”! This would be a special moment as the guitar was an internet project that I did with Amy, Janine, Sarah, Michele and Suzanne about four and a half years ago now. We all decided what the guitar would look like and we voted on the various features that it would have. Amy designed the inlay shapes, Michele made the material that was used for the inlay and I was the one who did the grunt work of putting it all together. Janine, Michele and Sarah also wrote an accompanying story – kinda set like a legend – of the making of the guitar.

Anyhow, when it was finished it was not quite finished – the guitar needed “setting up” and tweaking but we’d run out of time. I had to get it to Ken when he played here in Melbourne in December 2000 so that meant that I didn’t even know how it handled, let alone sounded!

Needless to say Ken was over the moon with it and I don’t think he really believed his eyes when he first saw it. It was a cool experience to see him so taken by the guitar and I felt even happier that we had all worked on the project together as it was a really cool fun thing to do.

Back home in the States, Ken got his guitar tech to set up the guitar and to do all of the fine tuning on it. Ken started using it on various recordings and sessions as well as some of his live gigs. Now he was back in Australia after the massive R.E.M. world tour and the guitar was back here with him.

In full voice

When the lights dimmed Ken came out and sat at the keyboard to start the show. I’m crap with setlists and song titles but he started off with some standards and then did some tracks from his solo albums. The singing was superb and the emotions that Ken always conveys with his singing were spot on! He was really putting a lot of himself into the performance as always.

Part way through his keyboard set Ken asked a friend of his, Kelly, and Amy to step up to the stage as he wanted two “hot chicks” to do a demonstration as an introduction to his next song. Ken was trying to explain to the audience about his experience with ex-girlfriends and the like and how people react when they see their ex-girfriends/boyfriends while they’re out with their present one – dropping their previously held hand etc. and making it seem that they’re just friends or, worse still, not even together at all. The funny thing though was that after the demonstration Ken said “Actually, no wait. I’ve changed my mind now. I’m gonna do another song entirely” and everyone in the audience laughed.

Talking about the geee-tar

Ken played a couple more songs on the keyboard and then stopped and picked up the guitar for the next song. It sounded sweet and bright and….actually all kinds of sounds? It seemed really versatile to me – but then that has a lot to do with Ken’s own remarkable ability as well. But it worked! And it worked great! I was really happy with what I was hearing I have to say.

After the first song on the guitar Ken went into the story of how he came by it and what it meant to him. He introduced me and Amy to the audience and then swung the microphone over to me so that I could quickly explain how the project came together and what woods were used in the making of it – including the 16,000 year old carbon dated Redgum fingerboard. Ken thanked all the guys again for the guitar and then went into the intro for the next song – saying that he wasn’t gonna dedicate the song to us because it was way too sad and not appropriate at all for something so great.

Ken then went back onto the keyboard to finish the remainder of his solo set. After he was finished he told the audience to stick around for Even show because there might be a chance of something special happening after that. Curtains were pulled around the stage as things were rearranged in the background.

Rockin’ with the drums

Henrik, Julian, Amy and myself talked about various things and some of the other audience members came up to tell us how great the guitar looked and sounded and how cool it was that we made it. Amy was pretty good in the scheme of things but there were a few snide remarks thrown my way which I don’t think anyone else noticed.

The lights dimmed again and Even came on, playing their usual brand of hard rocking pop and catchy tunes. From where we were it sounded a little dirty in the mix but it still worked well and I’ve always loved Wally’s snakey and melodic bass lines. The drums were loud and thumping and the snare cut through the crowd like a hot knife through butter. Even is one three piece band that truly rocks!

At the end of Even’s set Ken came back on stage and played – or rather freaked out – on the keyboards a la Jerry Lee Lewis. It was wonderful and inspiring and I think Amy was particularly engrossed in it.

Choking that neck

Then Ken went out back to get his guitar for the rest of the set. Ken Stringfellow and Even make a damn fine team together and play very well. The guys played some old standards and some great Posies songs including Ontario, Grant Hart and, one of my favorites, Solar Sister. They were really lashing out and I was concerned that Ken’s guitar was gonna get dented, busted or possibly even spontaneously combust under the relentless pressure of Ken’s fury. Fortunately though he knew just how to look after it and protect it while making it seem like he was maniacal.

Ken did the last song sans guitar and did the whole “pop star” thang. It was great to see and the crowd loved it, as did we. I thought he was going to pop a blood vessel or something the way he was going – leaving a trail of upturned mike stands and detached microphones in his wake. Truly memorable!

Rockin’ out!

After the show Henrik, Amy and myself hung out with Ken backstage. Henrik and another couple of guys took turns playing Ken’s guitar and saying how great it was. Henrik added later that he thought the neck was nice and fast and had a great feel to it. It was cool to hear what they thought as pretty much everyone is a better guitar player than I am – especially nowadays!

After everything was packed away we all went up to the “green room” and sat around talking about old TV shows, politics, the beat up on murmurs.com and what hallucinogenic drugs Australian aboriginals may have taken, if any? Then we went back downstairs to the pub and continued talking politics, mental illness and various other topics.

At 4 am Amy, Henrik and I said goodnight to Ken, Wally and the rest of the guys and drove home, stopping briefly to get something to eat, and then dropping Henrik off at his hotel on our way home. It was a good night!

Up close and personal

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 14th, 2005 at 8:58 pm and is filed under Friends, Music, Projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.