Today was an opportunity to see another band that had been recommended to me, but which I had been unable to see for various reasons. So I went to see Tinpan Orange, a Melbourne guitar*-trio with heavy flamenco influences, at the Wheatsheaf with * As long as you consider guitar to include things like ukelele, soprano electric, violin, etc etc. The comment was that Al could play anything with strings was evidentially quite true. And one important part of the flamenco-style is to maintain beats by also using the body of the instrument to provide percussion. Definitely makes me want to get up and dance flamenco again. After that it was down to the Folk Fed to catch the tail end of the Bushfire Wildlife Support gig, featuring Spiral Dance. I really do like their new song Land of Albion, although it is not apparently their song. Makes you want to march flamenco-style (although I shouldn't have done so as the last time I did flamenco in street shoes I absolutely trashed them (it was at a WomAdelaide flamenco workshop, back when Dance was still an important part of World Of Music And Dance, and I had to spend the rest of the day walking around in a floppy shoe). As for the rest, I had fun dancing by myself, and was even able to match Paul and Nick at speed in Gardens of Light. [I have to admit that for a bike journey I used to do daily a couple of years ago it was definitely heavy going these days (at least the journey back).] |