Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Wednesday 30th October, 2013 :
Expectations were high at the Enmore Theatre on Wednesday night. Television were playing Sydney for the first time ever – in a history which began in the early 70’s. Ed Kuepper proved to be a perfectly chosen opener for the influential New Yorkers. The crowd (which seemed to be who’s who of the Sydney music scene) paid close attention to Kuepper’s onstage banter and he rewarded them by attacking his acoustic guitar with a passion and intensity that showed us without a doubt that his creative rockets are still firing.
Television took the stage nonchalantly. No fanfare, lights or loud warm up music. They simply wandered out and spent the next few minutes or so tuning up. After what felt like a slightly wobbly start they absolutely kicked things into gear on the third song into the set – ‘1880 Or So’. I was filled with a little trepidation when I heard that guitarist Richard Lloyd was not going to be a part of tonight’s lineup. Fortunately I needn’t have worried at all. Longstanding fill in – Jimmy Rip – was everything that any Television fan could have hoped for.
The guitar work between front man Tom Verlaine and Rip was hypnotizing, in fact, a little like a musical conversation – Rip aggressively barking out lines whilst Verlaine sputters, stop/starts and meanders through endless textures – somehow without ever changing his sound via the use of effects pedals. Guitar lines are so purposefully crafted they seem like mathematical equations – at other times weaving and intersecting like letters in a crossword puzzle whilst occasionally building to avant-garde free form spontaneity.
Verlaine is a man of few words – he really only spoke to compliment Sydney, introduce the band members and explain to the lighting guy that the next song really needed to be blue. He obsessively and carefully tuned his guitar at the end of every song and ignored Rip’s comical efforts to get him to dance. Tonight they played their classic album Marquee Moon in full and from the second they started to play – the finesse of drummer Billy Ficca and the steady thump from bassist Fred Smith melded with the sparring guitars to create a show that went from musical strength to strength – culminating in an incredible version of the album’s title track that brought the crowd to their feet and had Television fans leaving more than satisfied after waiting so long to see these New Yorkers in action.
Reviewer: Roger Thornhill
Photographer: Renae Egan
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