Gatesy from Tripod talks about the finer points of nerdom and the group’s most ambitious show to date.
Scod, Yon and Gatesy – collectively known as Tripod – have entertained Australian and international audiences for almost 20 years. Known for their comedic and energetic musical performances, Tripod has also appeared in radio and television programs such ‘Rove Live’ and ‘Skithouse’.
Gatesy (real name: Steven Gates), the self-proclaimed ‘dickhead’ of the trio, points out that the on-stage characters they play are not so different from their real ones. “Scott is really a clever guy but out of the three, he is the smartest one. Yon is the outward, different kind of guy, but we exaggerate that. I’m a show pony or a bit of a show-off, but I’ll exaggerate that to make me an over-the-top dickhead. If people can walk away from a show saying ‘that guy’s a dickhead’, I’m happy.”
One thing they do have in common is a love for everything nerdy. It’s no secret either; Tripod has made constant references to 'Star Wars' and video games throughout their career. In 2010, they performed ‘Tripod Vs The Dragon’, a comedic show based on the role-playing game ‘Dungeons And Dragons’.But according to Gatesy, their next show will take their ‘nerdom’ to the next level. “We’re working on a show called ‘This Gaming Life’ with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, which as a band, is something we’ve always wanted to do. It’ll be a show about our love of video games. The line for it is ‘our love for video games is so big that we need an orchestra’.”
Austin Wintory, the BAFTA-award winning and Grammy Award-nominee composer who did the score for the 2012 video game ‘Journey’, will compose ‘This Gaming Life’. According to Gatesy, the performance will reflect the group’s current relationship with video games as middle-aged men. “We have lots of stories about video games; it’s not just referencing or name checking games like 'Super Mario'. Yon and Scott have young families and, in a way, they get in the way of committing their lives to video games and playing them. They are jealous of me, as I don’t have a partner or children. So I can play them whenever I want to. But that comes with hassles as well.”
With many of their previous performances only featuring an acoustic guitar, the self-confessed geek says having an orchestra takes the group back to their early years. “When we started, we were extraordinarily musical and ambitious and we didn’t want to play just three chords; we wanted to be ridiculous with the music. [But we have to] be more restrained when it comes to musical composition to get the joke across. But now that we have an orchestra to play with, it’s back to the over-the-top ambitions and throwing everything at it. It’s some much fun.”
When speaking about geek culture, the middle-aged nerd thinks it’s no longer niche. “I was actually sitting on a panel for PAX, a big Penny Arcade expo here in Melbourne and the panel was on ‘do fake geeks exist?’ and I was like ‘Jesus, who cares!’ They are everywhere; geeks are everywhere now. They used to be the outsider or of the minority. I think sportos are the minority now. But geek culture is mainstream. How many superhero movies now do you go and see? Back in the day, it would be a 'Rambo' movie. I feel what we talk about isn’t unique anymore because people embraced it into their mainstream life.”
It now seems to be a pastime to current touring comedians. “There has been times where we’ve been touring with other comedians on the road show and we’ve been moving TVs from one room to another and connected two Xboxes up so we could have eight players at once. It’s really rock and roll being in comedy on the road. It’s totally rock and roll."
Tripod won’t stop after ‘This Gaming Life’ as they have another project on the horizon. “We’ve just started talking about a podcast which has been has been on the cards for years. There has been a song of mine at the moment called “I Get Into Stuff…’ and the second part of the title is ‘Just As It's Finished Being Cool’. We always get on the bandwagon a little too late. It’s possibly my favourite song at the moment as it really speaks to that. I think we should kick off our podcast with that. There are podcasts everywhere. Everyone is doing a podcast right now. We will be adding to the noise. But it’ll be fun; it’ll be a fun podcast”.
Tripod Tour Dates
Flix In The StixFri 20 Feb – Lazy River Estate (Dubbo)
Sat 21 Feb – Orange Botanic Gardens (Orange)
Sat 28 Feb – Bong Bong Racecourse (Bowral)
Laugh Your Pants Off
Fri 20 Mar – Jupiter’s Casino (Gold Coast)
This Gaming Life
Fri 17 & Sat 18 Apr – Hamer Hall (Melbourne)
