"Nothing I tell you is untrue," frontman Warren Ellis tells us at one point during this epic three-and-a-half-hour performance (24 June), and this is basically as good an introduction as any to the world of Dirty Three.
It has been 12 years since they have graced a stage in Adelaide, and a whole lifetime ago for me personally since I have been witness to one of their dynamic performances. Early arrivals are treated to something special in the haunting, atmospheric vocal performance of Eleanor Jawurlngali with accompaniment by cellist Stephanie Arnold akin to Nick Cave's spare soundtrack work. There is a respectful near silence during her half-hour performance ending with a cover of Nina Simone's 'Sinnerman'.
The intro tape of Boz Scaggs' 'Lido Shuffle' and accompanying light show announce this is a 'show' as the Dirty Three arrive onstage.
In a display of ADHD you are unlikely to witness from many other near sexagenarians, the charismatic Warren Ellis enters the photo pit and leaning against the guard barrier gets up close with the front row.
In the moment, he praises the song before cutting it short and announces: "We're gonna get our freak on." He settles at a keyboard and along with Mick Turner on guitar and Jim White on drums, the sum greater than the parts, they dive into a free jazz explosion, not quite improvisation but definitely in the moment.
During this opening salvo of a performance of the first half of the suite of songs from new album 'Love Changes Everything' (I to III), in one of Warren's many manic moments, he grabs a camera from a photographer and takes a photo of him in a reversal of roles.
He picks up his violin and alternates brief musical cues with mime-like screams unheard among the din, an equipment case off to the side of the drums is his go-to perch where he stands his back to the audience.
In the second song he returns to the keys, his occasional wordless exclamations bringing to mind the random utterances of Glenn Gould before he takes up the violin again and sits on the edge of the stage to play.
At times throughout the show, the crowd become another of Warren's instruments, whether encouraging a chant from the crowd or latterly conducting a choir.
Stage hand Christian is kept busy, occasionally running onstage to exchange or uncoil leads. "Don't stand on my violin," Warren comments and then requests, "a towel, around my shoulder, a sparkling water. . . and my spit bucket".
This should just be all about the music but the spit bucket certainly warrants acknowledgement, a essential 'prop' (for want of a better description) given Warren's habit that just a few short years ago would have been problematic (and perhaps still is) with regard to occupational health and safety.
Among humorous anecdotes, Warren declares his admiration for our city at every opportunity and regales us with stories of coming to Adelaide including their first visits playing with a puppet show.
At the start of 'Indian Love Song', he hands his violin (playing a sustained note) to a girl in the front row to hold aloft momentarily before taking it back and cradling the violin like a newborn and plucking the strings.
Adding a wordless vocal to the song he encourages the audience, "help me out”, and they comply like a choir, while he holds a mic up to two girls, their voices heard above all else.
Warren takes up the violin again and the song explodes before he briefly lies on stage, his legs crossed, one foot shaking in time like a rattlesnake tail. This one song alone at 20-minutes long is a microcosm of the show itself.
Not only are there these greater shared moments but there are the little things too. Warren tells us "I broke a nail," and asks for a nail file from the audience before cutting the nail. He asks for a belt and is given one from audience member Ben and right at the end he requests Strepsils, which arrive from up on the balcony before he skilfully returns them to the owner.
During 'Sea Above, Sky Below' (dedicated to the recently departed engineer Steve Albini who recorded the album 'Ocean Songs'), Jim's brush technique is a slow dance with the drum kit and Mick's playing subtle and measured.
While not a direct incitement to violence against a certain stadium-filling piano player, I'm sure a portion of the audience could sympathise with the protagonist of Warren's first-person narrative of inflight, easy-listening, instrumental-version music driving him to insanity in his meandering spoken intro monologue to 'Everything's F...ed', with Mick and Jim providing a simmering musical backing before the actual song comes to fruition and boils over to a close.
The gypsy folk of 'I Remember A Time When You Used To Love Me' precedes the slow building 'Some Summers They Drop Like Flys', the gradual ascension before a slow fade reprise sees Warren lying down latterly to let Mick and Jim play out the song.
'Authentic Celestial Music' is a fitting title for a performance that eventually leads into a maelstrom of howling violin and propulsive drums.
Having opened with the first three songs from the latest album 'Love Changes Everything', it is appropriate that the set is bookended with the last two ('V', 'VI'), Warren announcing "you are never alone with Dirty Three," before simulating a repeated train horn refrain on his violin alongside the workman-like driving minimalism contributed by Mick and Jim before the machine goes into overload.
The first song segues into the next, Jim's bridging tribal jazz percussion allowing Warren to exchange violin for keys. Rocky Horror's Riff Raff comes to mind as he sits hunched over, hammering away like some avant-garde pianist and it is like the Three are all performing a different song simultaneously to bring the set to a close.
Given the mammoth three and a half hours that the band are onstage before they leave, it is unsurprising not everyone has made it to the end for the encore.
Following 'Hope', 'Deep Waters' starts slowly, Warren lying sideways in front of Jim's kit, plucking violin strings and the thought comes to mind that something transcendent has occurred during the previous hours.
The suitably titled 'Sue's Last Ride' is almost a second encore, Warren subtlety coaxing Mick and Jim back from nearly leaving and it is worth the wait. Towards the end, in a moment of respite, the band pause and remain motionless, Warren atop his go-to perch, arms outstretched, his back to the audience before a satisfying drawn out explosive finale.
