The Necks - Live - The Basement Monday September 26.

Went and saw The Necks at one of their fave haunts on the second last date of their tour.

We had a group of 8 in a stall off to the side of the stage, viewing Tony Buck’s and Chris Abrahams’ back. You wouldn’t think this was a good vantage but in the words of Kiersten, Buck was “like some mad drumming spider creature” on the skins…

Their first piece was soft, somnanbulent to begin, soft grand piano motifs coming and going with expert use of foot pedals from Chris Abrahams. Like chimes, played backwards. Very odd. After 15 mins some of us felt like the soundtrack to our lives had gotten stuck in a particularly slow part of the record, but the build of the piece slowly dragged all of us in. Microscopic investigation of one piano note featured in one section while Lloyd Swanton gently provided the heartbeat at the back of the stage. Slow crescendo is an understatement. A laptop was on stage which I think was providing sound effects of strange irons clunking, random and unsettling.

There was also a single ceiling fan rotating sooooo slowly as though stopping, going at about ¼ revs per second, but never stopping, never speeding up. The night was even more Lynchian!

Tony Buck gave two alternating effects on his cymbals with single brush stabbing in a fast crescendo-diminuendo, which then reappeared at double-speed as he hit different cymbals on the down and up strokes. Enjoyable for the exploration of micro and repeated sounds once again. Sometimes it’s nice to hear something small scale explored and over explored, in a showy world.

A nice looking old couple walked out, not just for a cigarette. What it was doing to their ears I am not sure.

Time did it’s usual mid-Necks-gig standstill and the piano and cymbals increased volume and intensity. The piece forced us to re-assess harmony and dissonance and find something beautiful. Were it out of context of a 50 minute piece I may be cringing, Chris Abrahams’ piano whirled around searching the room for curious resonances and leaving no stones unturned. Coming off the boil slowly, the piece wound down and was suddenly over, but the stop caught the crowd by surprise and it took a few seconds for us to wake into applause.

Worth a mention was the table of CD’s on sale out front of the gig which seemed to have more content than many jazz sections of most music stores you would visit.


The second piece started with a strong Swanton lick, impossibly fast and funky after the first set! I didn’t think they could sustain the pace, it was cracking… the Necks had had their weetbix that day though.

Abrahams started to double the bass line on his piano and then add some colour to it. A low-end exploration it was to be then, whether they had worked out this progression before the gig I do not know and don’t care. That confounded ceiling fan was still rolling around on comatose too

This piece was to be a Buck showcase, as his left hand threw down a swinging hat rhythm and his right provided a strange ratchet sound across the snare rim with some strange device. On top of this a kick drum boom bap every bar added to the quasi-funk of the movement. He seemed to be reveling in the “human feel” as though he was the great antidrum-machine, every couple of bars pausing for an instant to come back in swinging.

Meanwhile the bass was lifting and providing a warm and fast riff, and the piano was being used more like a harp, with waves of 10-20 notes at a time sustained in a beat-less wash, like a 5 foot choppy swell a kilometre off shore. Tony Buck kept adding extra beats to his already busy patterns, and they were coming on like an orchestra. They sometimes seem so much more than a 3 piece jazz band, in full flight it is so complete you almost get musical indigestion.

This was a swingin piece for a Monday night and there were many in the crowd tapping feet and hands. You get the feeling they could have gone on for hours, each shifting slightly when needed, Abrahams up or down the piano stool for access to his chosen palette, Swanton taking out his bow for some long deep blasts on the double bass, Buck now swinging on two cymbals AND the kick AND the hihat pedal all in manic slightly off-kilter funk. All the way to a softening and a gentle exit to great applause.

I wonder what the last show of their tour was like on Tuesday – if only I could have slept more last night I would go again…