There are gigs where you know you are seeing an artist in a more intimate setting than you'll ever see them again; next time they pass this way they will have outgrown the venue in fame and scale. Last Thursday at the Kings Arms felt like one of those gigs, with Tune-Yards' first ever show in the Southern Hemisphere.
Tune-Yards is the performing name used by Massachusetts-born, Oakland-based Merrill Garbus, initially for her lo-fi solo recordings; now for the sophisticated four-piece band she leads.
With her lopsided haircut, white stripe of war paint across her cheek and some extraordinary fluffy thing adorning her shoulders, Garbus greeted the crowd warmly and, banging time on a pair of tom-toms, launched into a passionate Do You Wanna Live? which set the life-affirming tone of the evening. And her generosity as a performer was returned by a crowd that - to her apparent surprise - were familiar with the great songs from her two albums, Bird Brain and who kill.
After the solo intro she was joined by her tight combo of electric bass and two saxophonists, and the temperature of the music and the room just kept building through an 80-minute set that defied you to keep still.
Though Tune-Yards comes via indie-rock channels (they are signed to iconic indie label 4AD), they clear draw much inspiration from African music. Horn riffs reminiscent of Fela Kuti match the political and social undertone of Garbus' songwriting. Even her hardest songs escape the tyranny of the traditional rock backbeat with intricate polyrhythms.
