Xavier Rudd, an Australian alt-rocker, didgeridoo guru and environmental activist, played an absolutely wild set at the 9:30 club Sunday night in support of his new album, "Dark Shades of Blue."
Rudd, who is a platinum artist in Australia and has increased in popularity in the United States since his debut here five years ago, has played to sold-out crowds across Australia, Asia, Europe and North America. He played to a packed house at the 9:30 club Sunday night.
Rudd's trademark is his all-encompassing, groundbreaking sound. Founded in jam-based rock 'n' roll, Rudd is able to apply his sound in multiple genres, from world, reggae, funk and even to hard rock and gospel. "Dark Shades of Blue" is a marvelous testament to that diversity, displaying Rudd's most complex and mature songs to date.
Live, Rudd creates rich soundscapes that envelop his audiences. Dancing is inevitable as the didgeridoo's deep, curling notes make their way into your muscles, and, if you can dissect his thick, slack-jawed Australian accent, the bright melodies that rise over the top are sure to force all your pent up energy out of your singing throat and through the ends of your pulsing fingertips.
If you're having trouble feeling it, take a cue from Rudd himself. Dressed in the black, red and yellow of the Aborigines, Australia's native people, he sits among a 360-degree set-up of didgeridoos, drums, gongs and chimes. A Weissenborn slide guitar sits in his lap, and a stomp box and various pedals rest beneath his feet. As his limbs appear to operate each of their instruments automatically, he leans his head back, smiling like a dog getting scratched in just the right spot, and exhales at the audience "How ya feeeeelinnn'!"
Rudd's new album also features the improvisational accents and driving beats of Dave Tolley on percussion. The addition fills in the silences of previous albums, creating beats so textured that it takes more than one pass through the ears to satisfactorily digest it.
One particularly contagious moment came Sunday night when Rudd turned the stage over to Tolley for a drum solo and proceeded to exit his mass of instruments and prance about the stage with motions that can only be described as some amalgamation of a Native American rain dance and an Irish river dance. With a railroad cap containing his shaggy head and rolled up pant legs exposing the tattoos on his perpetually bare feet, Xavier Rudd indisputably evoked the essence of an inebriated Hobbit.
But following the emotional journey of his new album, Rudd's wild side would soon turn to the controlled softness of his more poignant numbers as he lulled the audience into a reflective calm. The night came to a close with "Home" (which also ends the album), a song about appreciating what you've been given in a world where many have gotten nothing. Rudd's lyrics have always been rather bare in the vein of artists like Bob Marley, taking on issues that are too important to be buried in muddled artistry. "Dark Shades of Blue" owns more of the same. Clearly, the world has yet to absorb Rudd's message of peace and respect for the earth and the soul.
You can reach this staff writer at tbudde@theeagleonline.com.
