Concert a hard and fast ride
Thundercat
Festival Club, March 1 Reviewed by Colin Morris
On the cover of his latest album Drunk, Thundercat (aka Stephen Brunner) looks like an angry Miles Davis. In his video clips, he resembles the missing link from George Clinton’s weird mob of P-Funk warriors.
On stage, he’s rather humble, softly spoken and sings in a high register that carry echoes of soul brothers Andre 3000, D’Angelo or even Smokey Robinson.
A few notes in and the place is heaving and sweating as much as his band, pianist Dennis Hamm, channels George Duke and brother Justin Brown on percussion. I hesitate to call him a drummer as he has more arms than an octopus and lays down a beat that could grace any metal band. It’s Brown that nails the drive.
But it’s still hard to pin the tail on the donkey. One minute we are into cosmic soul, then elements of jazz turn up right in the middle of the song; Frank Zappa’s spirit is a constant. Thundercat plays hard and fast (and I mean fast) with your mind and expectations.
The full-house audience on this first of two Wellington shows would be familiar with the songs from his Drunk album – 23 tracks, all less than three minutes’ long and on many magazines’ Best Album Of The Year list for 2017.
Then there is the Leviathan of a bass guitar, a custom-made Ibanez six-stringer with a fretboard the width of a barn door.
It’s a monster tamed before our eyes with the usual bevy of foot controls, offering sustained notes that often sounded like a keyboard.
You can hear Thundercat’s favourite bass players come through: Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller but that would be disingenuous to the man who, by playing lead guitar via the bass, contributes to a singular sound.
It’s a 70-minute show that left a great impression. Thankfully, Thundercat saved the best till last; his cover of Buddy Miles’ Them Changes leaving us sated.