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Tripod –
Live at Woodford
Scott Edgar, Simon Hall
and Steven Gates – together better known as Tripod – have been stalwarts
of the Aussie comedy scene for well over a decade now. It’s been three
years since the band’s last DVD and this latest release does indeed, as
the marketing material would have it, find the lads in fine fettle.
Their 75-minute concert from last year’s Woodford Folk Festival is
included in its entirety, and incorporates such fan favourites as ‘Hot
Girl in the Comic Shop’ as well as several newer compositions that
certainly hold their own against the more established material.
Thankfully Scod, Yon and
Gatesy haven’t mellowed with the onset of marriage and fatherhood.
These rather adult endeavours are largely eschewed as subject matter in
favour of typically acerbic and self-deprecating odes to Dungeons and
Dragons, air guitar and the perils of getting stuck behind tall people
in a mosh pit. The Tripod sense of the absurd also features
prominently, even when matters threaten to take a serious turn.
‘Trees’, introduced as a song about the environment, is quickly
revealed to instead be a riff on the injustice of trees occasionally
being forced to become chained to hippies, and the first-person ‘Suicide
Bomber’ contains whistling, a jaunty falsetto and brilliantly flip
references to the unsightliness of blind aherance to right-wing
political ideologies.
There are no
pyrotechnics, fancy lighting effects or other audiovisual bombast a
la Tim Minchin, and truth be told the trio probably don’t have the
inclination (or the ability in their unrepentant average-bloke nerdiness)
to pull off such spectacle. Instead Live at Woodford captures
Tripod doing what they do best; performing their catchy and cleverly
composed satirical musings in front of a rapt audience, with a minimum
of fuss and some damn fine fretwork.
Having undoubtedly
earned their self-proclaimed title of ‘Australia’s premiere stadium
vaudeville manband’, this latest DVD release finds Tripod at the top of
their game. Recent shows have been garnering rave reviews both at home
and abroad, with even the usually hard to impress Scotsman
declaring the guys ‘one of the funniest things happening in the world
right now’. Live at Woodford features enough new material to
satisfy long time fans of the three-piece, while the strength of the
material should impress newcomers and those whose familiarity mainly
extends to the band’s numerous radio and TV appearances in Australia.
Also included as a generously substantial bonus feature is their entire
set from the 2007 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, entitled ‘How
to Train an Attack Dog from Scratch (A Made-Up History of the Funny
Song)’. Superb stuff. |
