Xavier Rudd, Kind Of
On the Artscape afternoon, we purchased tickets on a whim. The show was
Xavier Rudd at the 8x10. Our friend at the box office, Charlie, highly recommended the artist. He exclaimed that the show was almost sold out. That was enough for us, and the tickets were ours.
I ended up grabbing one of his albums, Food In The Belly. I was pleasantly surprised with the mellow rhythms and sooth sounds. He has his upbeat moments as well. Overall, the entire album is excellent. Xavier is a native of Australia. He is big on his countries routes. He accents all of his music with Didgeridoos and various percussion instruments. I was excited to see his performance.
Unlucky for us, Teresa was schedule to visit family. Her plane was due to land around 9pm at BWI on Sunday. In theory, this would give us plenty of time to catch the performance. Of course, this was Southwest. Are they ever on time? She was delayed for three hours on the way up to Massachusetts. This evening, she was delay about two hours. To be fair, there were some thunderstorms, but not anything major. The two hours we spent waiting bleed into the show. We were due to meet Steven and Emily. They text'd me at 10:15pm to announce that Xavier had taken the stage. I was still at BWI waiting. We finally made it back to Federal Hill by 11:15pm. After decompressing from the trip, we walked down to the 8x10.
The door man was really surprised we were trying to get into the venue. The show was sold out. It looked like people were trying to listen from the street. The venue was extremely packed. There were hippies and wookies everywhere dancing. It was crazy. It was so packed that we could barely make it up to the second floor. Unfortunately, Steve and Emily had called it an evening. The over packed house and late night were not a great combination. I can't say I blame them.
Image courtesy of Kirsty Umback/bbc.co.uk
We found some open floor space stage right over Xavier's right shoulder. Now, the stage setup is very impressive. He flies an Australian Aboriginal flag. He sits stage right and a drummer sites stage left. After the performance, Charlie told us they use 38 channels for two people. Xavier's setup is sick. He has three Didgeridoos, multiple percussion instruments and a guitar surrounding him. He really gets into the music, and the atmosphere is very intense. His electric guitar much grittier live than the album. The songs are a foot stomping good time, and the floor was bouncing under the wookies feet. He did slow down for a bit, but this was just to catch his breath. He took time to kindly thank the crowd, draw attention to environmental concerns and generally smile. I really wish I was there from the beginning. He mentioned that his tour of the states would not repeat until 2008. At least I was able to catch about 45 minutes!
Well, I have found a new artist to enjoy. I think Xavier Rudd has a ton of talent. You can't deny his unique sound. His awesome stage presence helps create an energetic live show. What else do you really need? I just hope this wasn't my only chance to catch a performance.
Update
Xavier Rudd on Rolling Stone Rock & Roll Daily
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