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Whilst they start their short UK tour this week, although you’ll be luck to find a ticket for any of the 4 gigs (see below) as most venues put up the ‘Sold Out’ notices weeks ago, thoughts of their New Zealand homeland will be of a huge sigh of relief as nobody was seriously injured in the Christchurch earthquake at the weekend. And with that done, let’s party as if Fat Freddy’s Drop were in the house as they hot footed from Lyall Bay to Europe a couple of years ago..

If you’ve seen Fat Freddy’s Drop live, or even if you’ve seen the Wellington’s other greatest band The Black Seeds at Big Chill on the Friday (see review HERE), you’ll know that you don’t have to have been at London’s legendary Roundhouse in to get the FFD vibe.

Starting of with ‘The Camel’ (this time without Alice Russell), there are four other tracks from the latest album Dr Boondigga And The Big BW that came out a little over a year ago. ‘The Camel’ was a strange choice for a single, but with the Fez horns of the desert, it really does suit the live setting for an opening track as it gets the mood and groove going. In fact, the band had been on the six week tour in 2008 preceded the recording of the album so they are really tight and perform as one.

‘The Raft’ was the most recent single and as this live version is twice as long as the studio version it’s far better with the strength of Jah. In fact, all these tracks are longer than the studio equivalent. And if Dr Boondigga And The Big BW was the “difficult” follow-up to the masterpiece debut Based On A True Story, Live At The Roundhouse is the very satisfactory follow-up to their 2001 debut, Live at The Matterhorn (that, by comparison, sounds like it was recorded in a front room).

The Roundhouse crowd add to the experience and as it was formerly a massive steam engine shed adds to the dubby vibe? As an aside, the venue was a bit of white elephant shortly after it was built and only got it’s legendary status as a rock venue in the 60/70s with gigs by Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Man and the like before becoming a wreck in the 80/90s only to be reborn in the new millennium.

The only nod to Based On A True Story is ‘Flashblack’ which is stand out anyway with Tony Laing solo but this one goes into the avantguard leftbank of dub.

Needless to say, Dallas Tamaira (aka Joe Dukie) is magnificent as ever and you can just listen to these guys all day and never fail to be impressed with their laid back swing, reggae, dub, jazz brilliance that means that there’s hope for a generation.

Forthcoming Dates:
September
Tuesday 7, ABC, Glasgow
Thursday 9, Troxy, London
Friday 10, Concorde 2, Brighton
Saturday 11, Bristol Academy

Reviewed: Fat Freddy’s Drop - Live At The Roundhouse (The Drop) Cat. No.DRP017CD Release date: 13th September 2010
Tracklisting:
1. The Camel (13:29)
2. The Raft (16:11)
3. Flashack (12:16)
4. Pull The Catch (10:54)
5. The Nod (10:17)
6. Shiverman (15:58)

Links:
www.fatfreddysdrop.tv
www.fatfreddysdrop.com
www.myspace.com/fatfreddysdropnz
“Fat Freddy’s Drop is a baffling letdown” by Arwa Haider - Monday, September 6, 2010
Links:
Festival Republic presents The Big Chill, 5th to 8th August 2010 Eastnor Castle Deer Park, Malvern Hills, Ledbury, Herefordshire. www.bigchill.net
The Guardian, 10th August 2010 Big Chill Festival 4/5 James Smart www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/aug/09/big-chill-review
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Freddys_Drop
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyall_Bay