Rudd, in trademark bare feet enters the stage along a support band of accomplished musicians from around the globe (Fijian drummer, Ethiopian bassist), to open with the hauntingly beautiful ‘Creancient’. The stage boasted an impressive array of instruments for this accomplished multi-talented musician, including an elaborately miked yidaki (didgeridoo), blues harmonica, percussion, guitars and stomp box.
The multi-instrumental Australian singer and songwriter is doing an exclusive Australian tour of similar small venues before setting out on a 2018 world tour to launch the release of Storm Boy, due out next month, his ninth studio album.Īt a well-priced $65 ticket price, the show sold out in under an hour, and the packed venue buzzed with delighted fans. But the album also shows maturity, both musically (“Comfortable In My Skin” – about Rudd’s surgery – is a gem with earnest vocals and a back-porch harmonica) and thematically, as the musician continues to enjoy and process the beauty and wonder of life.Arriving at the Factory in inner-city Marrickville, the vibe was a feeling of anticipation in the air for the many excited Xavier Rudd fans taking this rare opportunity to see him play such an intimate venue. Its representative of Rudds career, as the sparse and warm ∿ollow The Sun could have slipped onto 2004s Solace (and the way Rudd croons the word society conjures Into the Wild images yet again this time of Eddie Vedders soundtrack to the film), quiet Mystery Angel represents his sentimental side (You were there for me when I couldnt find myself), and the nearly instrumental, ten-minute ∿ull Circle dedicates itself almost solely to the guitar, which Rudd has an enormous talent for. Spirit Bird is exactly what any musician would want out of a seventh record. Spirit Birds 13 tracks embody this, as well as divulge deep emotion (times get tough for a bed-ridden surfer dude undergoing major surgery) and ever-continuing musical growth from a man who plays various types of guitar and drums, as well as the didgeridoo often all at once when onstage.įor several tracks, Rudd took a page out of Portlandias Moleskine and put a bird on several songs, including didgeridoo-heavy album opener Lioness Eye, ∻utterfly a delicate tropical tune which the singer says a bird in a tree sang back to him, line by line, while recording– and the title track, which Rudd wrote about a red-tailed black cockatoo that looked right through my eyes, right through the depths of my soul. He also called this the albums chief – with good reason, as it showcases his talent for restraint, ability to blend beautifully with a childrens choir, and capability for belting through the last fourth of a song as if emitting his final notes. The wilderness adventurer and the indie rocker share an unparalleled appreciation for ones connection to the Earth and a fervor to live life for the journey, not the destination. If Into the Wilds Chris McCandless had cared deeply about the rights of the Aborigines, played the didgeridoo, and dyed his unkempt hair a surfer blonde, he would have had just about everything in common with Australian musician Xavier Rudd.
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