I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 5, 2017] Tash Sultana

WXPN starting playing Tash Sultana’s “Jungle” gosh… over a year ago.  I liked the song fine, but it was as I learned more about her–that she plays the entire song–every single sound–herself and she does it live using looping pedals that I became really interested in her.

I was totally blown away when I saw her Tiny Desk Concert and realized that she was an amazing guitarist and so much more.

I decided then that it would be very cool to see her live.  So when I ordered my ticket for her show back in June, I had no idea that anyone else had ever heard of her.  Much less that she would sell out the venue within a week.  Realize at this point she has only released one official EP (and has released dozens of YouTube videos–which is where her fanbase is).

Tash came out and started playing guitar.  She played two songs that she built step by step.  First playing some chords that she looped and then adding some solos which may or may not get looped in.  Then a riff or drums or various other percussive sounds (including beatboxing) and within a couple of minutes she had a complete backing track (usually very danceable) to sing over.

And of course she sang.  I was amazed at how many women (it was primarily women I heard singing along) knew the words to her songs.  I knew that her musical skills were top notch, but her voice is spectacular–a surprising range and a ton of power.  She uses two microphones.  One is pretty much her voice strait.  The other has an echo and a processor to give her a really full, broad, sometime crazy sounds.

To her right she had a slew of instruments and to her left was a bank of keyboards.  At her feet (and sadly hidden by the monitors) was a boatload of pedals.  And she danced around (constantly) stepping on this and that, clicking clacking and making all kinds of sounds happen.

Tash had two primary electric guitars–the white one and the darker one.  I didn’t notice much difference in a sound, but she may have played more of the ripping solos on the darker guitar.

It was also funny that often time she looped so many different sounds that she had nothing to do with her hands during the verses.

After the first two songs she talked to us briefly.  She told us that her only door policy is that no one can be a jerk at her shows (she said this in her Australian accent with more grown up words).  She tolerates no homophobia, racism transphobia or anything else.  She will kick you put herself.  Right on.

She also asked how many people were there (at World Cafe) when she came through Philly earlier in the year (second Philly show in seven months).   A number of people cheered and she said, “you must have told your friends.”

She played a few songs that were primarily on the keys.  She had a number of different keyboard sounds available to her.  And while she was just as good on the keys as on the guitars, I didn’t enjoy the keyboard-dominating songs as much.  They may have been a bit too dancey for me?  The thing about her songs is that since she builds them from nothing, they tend to be rather long.  “Jungle” takes almost 2 minutes to get fully going before she sings.  When the songs are good and the beats are fine and the melodies kick ass, this length just enhances how much fun we’re having.

But the middle of the show kind of bogged down a bit for me.  To be honest, with just having an EP out, I expected her set to be fairly short.  So I was surprised that she played for nearly 2 hours.

But if we thought she had shown off all of her tricks, we were all soon to be amazed.  Because not only does she play guitar and keyboards (and use the kick drum as well, of course), she also plays trumpet.  On a couple of songs, she laid down some pretty trumpet melodies.

I recognized about four of the nine or ten songs.  “Murder to the Mind” was great although obviously these people who sang along perfectly. knew it much better than I did.

I really love the opening of “Notion“–gentle echoes and a great guitar “riff.”

After about three-quarters of the show, someone shouted “Jungle,” and she heard it and said.  “Sir, have you never been to a show before.  You know how this works, save the best for last.”

And then just to blow our minds completely, she played a pan flute (and like Ian Anderson, she made percussive sounds while doing it).  By the end of a few minutes she had built an incredible middle section of a song.  And as with many of her other songs, I loved when she brought the song down to just one or two instruments and then brought everything back on with one big crash of music.

As the show was nearing its 90 minute mark I noticed that she hadn’t played the mandolin yet. And sure enough midsong, she grabbed it and played some great melodies and then a really intense solo.  She climbed over the monitors and stood out front wailing for a few measures before heading back.

And then she started playing “Jungle.”  She tinkered with the formula of the song a bit which was cool–it didn’t sound exactly like the recorded version.  All the parts were there to be sure, but she made it really exciting and interesting by mixing up loud and quiet parts (and having us sing along).

Through some of the set I was thinking that she reminded me of Prince in some ways.  Really talented, with an ability to do so many thing without assistance.  Plus, she plays a mean guitar as evidenced by the times she picked up her axe and wailed.  She ended the song by coming out front and doing some wild soloing on her knees in the front of the stage.

Before “Jungle” she said that it was going to be the “last song.”  But if we did what we were supposed to do and cheered loud enough she’d come back and play one more. Interestingly she didn’t even leave the stage.  She just kind of stood in there for a second and then picked up the acoustic guitar which she hadn’t touched all night.

I really couldn’t imagine what she would do for an encore after her big hit.  I had forgotten that she plays an amazing song on the 12 string called “Blackbird.”  The song begins with some really interesting soloing up and down the fretboard.

After singing some lovely verses, the middle of the song has some amazingly fast soloing which included her hitting both the bass drum pedal and the foot pedal tambourine.  It grew faster and faster practically double bass speed as she wailed and wailed and we tried to clap along.   And then finally the song came to its end and she played that opening riff once more and then the show was over.

I couldn’t believe she played for nearly 2 hours–all by herself, bouncing around the stage nonstop–and kept the crowd watching her every move the whole time.

She was really a great performer.