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Rating: Those who know and love the Dirty Three can imagine how unlikely it is to suddenly discover that they will be playing a few days from now not far from where you live. I couldn't believe it at first. In Faenza, less than an hour by train. A ticket for the modest price of 10 euros, considering they are not coming from around the corner, but from Australia. The theater was full, the heat of late May was palpable. They were perhaps fifteen minutes late, a trivial matter. And then, there they were on stage, after a brief introduction: Warren with his magical violin, Jim on the drums, and Mick with the guitar. All three wore blue jeans with light-colored shirts that allowed them freedom of movement. Warren had shoes, or perhaps long-toed boots, Mick wore regular boots like an Australian farmer, and Jim was barefoot. Ellis was stunning, he looked like Jesus: long black hair, tousled, and a similar beard. White had come with a bottle of red wine, the label was not visible, perhaps it was a wine from the Faenza hills or a Cabernet Sauvignon from Australian vineyards.
They kicked off with a series of pieces from Ocean Songs: “Sirena”, “The Restless Waves”, “Sea Above, Sky Below”. I was breathless the whole time, my eyes glued to the stage, my heart seized by a powerful emotion, generated by Warren Ellis's diabolical violin. He played lying down, sitting, kicking where there were strong accents, in the air, with a straight leg, but mostly he turned his back to the audience, in tune with White’s drumming. Together, the three artists formed an acoustic triangle of unprecedented perfection.
During the performance of their pieces, they were distant from anything earthly, from everything around them, carried away by their music. During the breaks between songs, however, Warren got very close to the audience, talking a lot, describing the pieces he was about to play, joking. I remember some things, of course, the essence is there, but the exact words have slipped my mind. He was very pleased with the venue, the Teatro Comunale Masini, built at the end of the eighteenth century, truly beautiful. Then he tried to find a translator among the audience, offering as a salary the three euros he had in his pocket. He found one, perhaps in the second or third-tier boxes, who accepted the offer without taking the money. The translation was not bad. He made a comment about '96: he hated both the music and the clothes of that time. Before starting “Sea Above, Sky Below” he said that right now the world is upside down and he finds it quite fascinating. He said other things, but I don't want to bore you. Basically, Warren is not exactly a prophet, he is when he plays his violin, that's for sure.
They played, from the pieces I knew, “Hope”, “Deep Waters”, and “Authentic Celestial Music”. The last two were the most successful. The audience couldn't stop howling and applauding. It was an evening dedicated to Ocean Songs.
Unfortunately, I missed the last 20 minutes because I had to catch the last train, so I don't know how it ended. As I hurried out of the theater, I noticed that the entire surrounding area was engulfed by the echoes of the Dirty Three's music, and people were casually looking at shop windows and drinking at the bars, damn, how can you?
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