[2013050] Zephyr Quartet CD Launch – A Rain From The Shadows
Zephyr Quartet @ The Wheatsheaf Hotel
8:00pm, Sat 23 Feb 2013
One of two performances at The Wheatsheaf to celebrate the launch of their just-released CD, A Rain From The Shadows, I’d based the day’s scheduling around this show very early on; after encountering Zephyr Quartet at a Festival Angel Christmas party last year (oooh, fancy!), I was committed to seeing them more often.
After this show, however, I’m seriously contemplating becoming a full-on professional groupie.
But first, the journey: I’d only given myself a scant twenty-five minutes to walk from Holden Street to The Wheaty, on the basis that there was that neato footbridge shortcut behind the brewery; I’d queried Google Maps prior to booking the tickets, but it had suggested that the bridge wasn’t accessible to pedestrians anymore. Pffft, I had scoffed at Google, I know better than you.
It turns out that Google was right (who’d have thunk it?): the bridge has apparently been closed for years now; no real biggie, I thought, it’s only a couple of hundred metres down to Port Road. But that made the twenty-five minute changeover a little – well, a lot – tight, and as a result I’d scurried in the hot and muggy evening, arriving at the Wheaty at 7:59pm (minute-perfect!) and ready to unleash a flood of sweat. I stopped off at the bar for a (cunningly cross-promoted) Zephyr beer, then head in: I bump into the Quartet’s lovely manager, Jennifer, at the door – we’d been tweeting a little bit leading up to this evening, and when I told her that this was my fiftieth show she insisted that I receive a copy of the new CD gratis. That’s not my style, of course, and I still wound up feeling a bit guilty when I received A Rain From The Shadows and Cult Classics at a five-dollar discount – I owe someone a drink or two, I think.
In a split set (with a much needed drinks break in the middle), Zephyr played every track on the new CD, occasionally joined by the poets whose work either inspired (or was inspired by) the music; the CD also contains the text from the poetic siblings to the music. And despite the hot and sticky conditions out the back of The Wheaty, the capacity crowd was deeply appreciative (not even grumbling when the fans were shut off for the performance of the unnerving and delicate Air). Sure, there was the odd airplane flying overhead, but hey – that’s part of The Wheaty’s charm.
Extraneous noises aside, Zephyr (who also introduced new violist Jason Thomas) sounded amazing; the heavy air was alive with wonderful textures and gorgeous, brooding melodies. And, best of all, I somehow found myself in a perfect position to watch Hilary Kleinig play her cello… and that, given my undying adoration for the instrument, just made a milestone fiftieth show just so much sweeter.
I loved this performance so much: stunning music, a beautiful and attentive and friendly crowd (jovial seat guarding and shoe chats!), some great beers, on a balmy evening. Sometimes everything comes together, and it just feels perfect.