Ten years ago I went to a gig in Sydney where I found some of the sweetest, tastiest jazzy/dubby/electronic music I’ve ever heard live.  In a moment of excitement about my great musical find I told my friend Sammy “Fat Freddys Drop is the best band in the world”. He has laughed at me about that statement ever since – and would never let me take it back.

I don’t actually think Fat Freddys Drop is the best band in the world.  I was silly for having said that any 1 band is the best band in the world.

But I do think that a live musical journey with Fat Freddys Drop is always a pretty special one to go on.

I went to their gig at The Tivoli in Brisbane on the weekend- part of the Australian tour promoting the release of their new album Blackbird.

Fat Freddys Drop at the Tivoli

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I must have had 10+ live Fat Freddys Drop experiences by now. I can’t say that The Tivoli gig was the the best of them.

I can say the things I loved about The Tivoli gig are the same things that I have always loved about Fat Freddys Drop:

• Their marathon-long live songs – where the music changes through that long journey, they jam out, and there are lots of awesome solos by each of the quality musicians that they are.

• The minimalist vocals of Joe Dukie.

• The subtle horn lines in the right places- and the even better horn solos.

• The fat bass lines DJ Fitchie creates. I love most things he does musically, but I can still never help wishing for that special energy that I think comes from having a live bass and drums.

• At each Fat Freddys Drop gig the the same song will nearly always sound different.

• The smooth way Fat Freddys Drop blend jazz, dub, soul, blues, electronica, funk, groove & hip hop.

With distinctive Pacific Island Aotearoa sounds…like so many other great contemporary artists from Aotearoa/New Zealand making fusion music from those genres.

All copies of Blackbird sold out at the gig so I can’t tell you anything about it yet sorry :(.  I was so relieved though that Fat Freddys Drop actually had good old fashioned CDs for sale at their gig.

You can even buy it on sweet sounding vinyl.

For now I have a video of Blackbird, their opening song at The Tivoli gig + some mp3 version (sorry for you) sample listening tracks off previous Fat Freddys Drop albums.

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Dr Boondigga & The Big BW (2009)

Shiverman – Fat Freddys Drop – Dr Boondigga & The Big BW (2009)

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Based On A True Story (2005)

Ray Ray – Fat Freddys Drop – Based On A True Story (2005)

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Live At The Matterhorn (2001)

Rain– Fat Freddys Drop – Live At The Matterhorn (2001)

and finally this awesome track from Fat Freddys Drop earlier days…

Midnight Marauders – Fat Freddys Drop – Dub Conspiracy Sampler

Ten years of live Fat Freddys Drop experiences and I keep on going back for more. That’s because I wanna hear their sweet, live marathon tracks where they jam out.   I suppose that’s why Live at the Matterhorn is still my favourite Fat Freddys Drop album – a 70 minute CD of only 4 tracks. We’ll see if Blackbird changes that once I get my hands on it.