Timothy NelsonThe Fremantle Art Centre, who bring us great big outdoor concerts in summer, have come up with a strategy for keeping the guitars humming through the colder months. The inaugural Gallery Sessions series sees solo musicians playing intimate unplugged gigs inside. It's a concept inspired by current exhibition, Anarchy, Rock And Ink, which consists of two rather unlikely gallery contenders: old New York protest posters and gig posters from Beyond the Pale.
The poster art (robots, skulls, undressed girls glancing coyly over shoulders) created an interesting backdrop for the first set of the evening: WAM Guitarist of the Year and Floors frontman Luke Dux, backed by harmonica player Dave Benck. Hiding behind his black curtain of hair, Dux beat blues songs out of his battered old acoustic while Benck's harp wailed on alongside. The two hit on covers, originals, Floors songs and a movie soundtrack Dux learned one afternoon in Surfers Paradise. Without the safety of a PA and microphone, Dux seemed hesitant to smash it out with his usual fury, but the evening gave the audience a rare insight into the quieter side of this very talented local muso.
“This song is about falling in love with a Nut,” Timothy Nelson said to introduce his half of the evening, before launching into You Don't Know What You're Waiting For, the first track off 2011's LP, I Know This Now. Nelson played the second set with Dux as support, and after the soft modesty of Dux's set, it was Nelson's arrogance that really shone through. Regardless, and to risk inflating his red Afro further, Nelson does match up against his common description as one of Perth's best songwriters. Clean, tight, mature and clever, his songs lit up the Freo gallery and elicited enthusiastic reactions from a wrapt crowd. “That song won a bunch of awards,” he said, not entirely tongue-in-cheek, after Speak The Truth In Love. Caroline and Mary Lou both made an appearance, and he wrapped up with the infinitely relatable Born In The '90s (“when rock'n'roll was recent and ecstasy was decent”). Meanwhile behind him, freed from the limelight and alone with his guitar, Dux stole his section of the show in his own quiet way. Overall, the evening was a very good demonstration of how it's the small gigs that truly test the grace and integrity of an artist.
