Since their earliest shows, Tripod have made a consistent habit of juggling comedy, music and narrative in endless, exhilarating combinations.
2016 sees the trio celebrate 20 years together. They share five of their favourite memories from the journey.
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1. Natalie Imbruglia
We were employed in '99 to be the warm-up during the ad breaks for the ARIAs. It was going very badly. The MCs that year and our so-called mates, Merrick and Rosso, delivered 'The Last Post' as we climbed the lonely stairs to the stage for the tenth and last time.As we struggled through a gentle love song with Frenzal Rhomb sound-checking drums, Yon is pretty sure Natalie Imbruglia was staring right into his eyes with pity. He has always cherished that look.
2. Pint Glass
During a notoriously tough late-night gig in Edinburgh, a drunk and over-confident Tripod were singing 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and got stuck in a loop during the 'galileo' bit. We couldn't remember how the next bit went. Someone threw a pint glass and hit Scod in the hand. Like when you hit a jukebox, it magically jolted us into the next bit of the song. All Scod could think was: "And right you are sir."{youtube}fJ9rUzIMcZQ{/youtube}
3. Costumes
When we started we had no idea. Being young and having no idea helps because you don't really know if you're good or crap. You don't know when you're being original or blatantly tattooing your influences on your wrists.Tripod got thrown into the comedy world at a really lucky moment and laughs became necessary to the material because we unknowingly set-up that expectation. We wore ridiculous costumes that looked 'funny' and we had an 'us vs them' mentality: WE'RE the show! LOOK at us kind of attitude. Although those costumes worked to get us on the telly etc. it turned a lot of people off.
We only discovered this after we forgot our costumes one day and we felt a freedom we'd never felt before as an act. We discovered the more we looked like everybody else, the more we could be ourselves. THEN the good comedy about being geeky dickheads you wanna punch came naturally.
4. Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Last year we performed our show, 'This Gaming Life', with the MSO; it was easily our favourite moment. We've been trying to sound like an orchestra for years, certainly in our minds anyway. But singing our new songs in front of one of the best in the world? Magic.Yon went into a six-month depression after that. Luckily some of the songs made it into our 101 Tripod Hits Book, so we may get to relive them during our acoustic shows (Yay!) and try to imagine the orchestras in our head again (Boo!).
5. Paul Kelly
During Casey Benetto's annual Christmas Show last year, we got to share the bill with Eddie Perfect, the delightful man we toured a show with off and on for a few years. 'Perfect Tripod' was the fun side-project born in 2006 after singing a Paul Kelly song together at the Famous Spiegeltent in a night celebrating P.K's work.Now last year, unbeknown to us, Paul Kelly was also on the bill to do a song or two at Casey's Christmas show. So, at halftime Eddie convinced Paul to sing it with us off stage with the punters as an encore and it felt, well, kind of... transcendental.
I kept saying what a beautiful way for the whole Perfect Tripod thing to go full circle, indicating we may never sing together again after this. Scod told me to stop saying that.
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Tripod Tour Dates
8-13 Mar - Brisbane Comedy Festival @ Brisbane Powerhouse24 Mar to 17 Apr - The Famous Spiegeltent @ Melbourne International Comedy Festival
3-4 May - The Factory Theatre @ Sydney Comedy Festival
12-15 May - State Theatre Centre @ Perth Comedy Festival
