Live Review: Kaki King & Derek Gripper

A large Recital Centre audience bears witness to masterful performances from two guitar geniuses, American Kaki King and South African Derek Gripper, this cool Melbourne winter's evening.

An eerie, tension-building intro and a low-key entrance, herald the beginning of Kaki King's set. That's where the understated nature of her live show ends, however, as the next 75 minutes is about as astounding an audiovisual experience as can be imagined. To paint a picture, to attempt to do what modicum of justice words can do for a spectacular such as this, this is a one-woman-and-her-guitar show. Her guitar playing and compositional skills are worth the price of admission alone, let alone with the visuals on top. The guitar creates diverse soundscapes ranging from frantic and frenetic to chill and ambient, jagged and percussive to orchestral. Meanwhile, spectacular imagery of so many different types, sometimes stark and real, sometimes psychedelic and abstract, reflects from the body and neck of the guitar and flashes across the massive rear projection screen behind her. 

It is a sumptuous feast for the senses. At times it is a little overwhelming, however, she throws in subtle moments of humour throughout to relieve the tension. The mid-late set piece about the history of her guitar is hilarious.

The juxtaposition of sound, music and imagery is mesmerising, to understate it, and the sheer creativity and imagination, not to mention technical logistics, that have gone into creating a show such as this are nothing short of astonishing. King and her crew are to be congratulated for coming up with something so very unique.

A full hour into the show and King finally speaks to the audience. Her banter is casual and engagingly self-deprecating, and the crowd only appreciates her even more for it. To top it all off (maybe 'bottom off' may be a more appropriate and accurate way of putting it), she even takes her trousers down at the end of her set to reveal her Reg Grundies in all their glory. Mainly to prove that she was indeed wearing jocks with koalas on them.

Pants-off moments aside, this show was something rather special, and is likely to live on in the memory for a long time to come.

Slightly more relaxed, although no less talented, Derek Gripper takes the stage next. King is a rather difficult act to follow, however Gripper grasps the opportunity and keeps us in the palm of his hands for another 70-odd minutes. His classical and flamenco-influenced playing is prodigiously skilled and each composition is spellbinding, telling a wonderful story on six strings. Gripper feels every note to his core, you can see it in his face, and his banter is relaxed but compelling. 

Gripper and King are guitar playing royalty, and this show was quite wondrous. Things don't get much better on a Monday night.