News: Indie royalty Ed Kuepper (Saints, Laughing Clowns) and Jim White (Dirty Three and Xylouris White) announce live shows together

Coinciding with the release by the legendary Ed Kuepper of his forty year career highlights on vinyl (see more here), Kueper has just announced a series of Australia-wide gigs with the equally legendary Jim White, whose drumming in trio Dirty Three is an entire orchestra in itself (see my review of their live performance at the Dark Mofo Festival). With Kuepper’s much underrated and underappreciated phenomenal guitar skills, this is truly a match made in indie heaven.

The pair will be playing material from Kuepper’s forty-plus years of extraordinary song-writing, and this promises to be something rather spectacular. Kuepper says:

Jim is one of the finest drummers I’ve seen and heard anywhere, totally gets inside of whatever he’s playing in an unpredictable and exciting way, been wanting to work with him for a long while.

In return, White, a long time admirer of Kuepper’s oeuvre, says:

I learnt drums playing with Aretha Franklin and the Saints on my childhood home’s furniture. The Saints’ first three records Laughing Clowns and Ed Kuepper’s solo work have been a huge inspiration for me in my drumming life and beyond, a well of inspiration I carry with me and can dip into at will.

If there’s one thing that’s certain, this will not be some sort of greatest hits pastiche reproducing to the note sounds recorded decades ago. White says:

I like how Ed Kuepper – like Lou Reed or Bob Dylan – doesn’t want to replay the hits as was and at the same time doesn’t pretend to not have a  past nor a future. In working with the musicians they play with, they revisit their material in new and old ways as well as creating new material and its not a binary problem, an ethic that seems relevant to all things to me.

You can catch them on the following dates across Australia (excepting Tasmania), with tickets available now here:

May-June-July 2021
Tue May 25th: Castlemaine, Bridge Hotel
Wed May 26th: Melbourne Rising, Comedy Theatre
Fri May 28th: Meeniyan Town Hall
Sat May 29th: Macedon Hotel
Fri June 4th: Cairns, Tanks Arts Centre
Sat June 5th: Sunshine Coast, Imperial Hotel
Sun June 6th: Gold Coast, Miami Marketta
Thu June 10th: Newcastle, Lizottes
Fri June 11th: Wyong The Arthouse
Sat June 12th: Blue Mountains Cultural Centre
Sun June 13th: Sydney, SOH Studio (matinee and evening shows)
Wed June 16th: Eltham Hotel
Thu June 17th: Brisbane, Triffid
Thu June 24th: Canberra, The Street
Sun June 27th: Adelaide, The Gov
Sat July 3rd: Fremantle Social Club

Very sad to see Hobart miss out!

Feature Photograph: Anna White