"Hey, Barry," a voice called from the darkness of Brisbane's The Old Museum audience. "Can you play some Barry White?"
It's a heckle that would make a serious artist break into a furious rage. Fortunately, British musician Barry Adamson is a professional with a sense of humour. "I'm tempted to go there, but I'm not," his chuckle batting away the request.The paths the two Barrys blazed significantly differ. The maestro of Moss Side, Manchester, began his journey as the bassist of post-punks Magazine, contributing his stylings to synth-poppers Visage, and the first four albums by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds. Barry moved to the front on his debut solo album, the noir instrumentals of 1989's 'Moss Side Story'.
These days, Barry's voice is at the centre of his music, as heard on his tenth album, 2024's 'Cut To Black'. While Barry's voice doesn't drop down to the lows of the Prince of Pillow Talk, what the two Barrys share is an undeniable cool.
On the last stop of Barry's tour, he told the crowd that a Sydney friend warned him to avoid Brisbane: "It's hot as a f...!" Thankfully, he dismissed that friend's advice with what could be the philosophy he lives by: "The ABCs: Always Be Cool." It's a philosophy Barry brought to Brisbane's Old Museum (23 March), and the crowd revelled in.
Keyboard notes hummed and chimed from the fingers of Brisbane singer-songwriter Helen Franzmann, whose music as McKisko whispered through The Old Museum's concert hall.
It's a spare opening, warming the crowd with gorgeous lullabies before the main set. Franzmann filled the silences between notes via her looping pedal, turning her hushed coo into a multi-part choir of repeating phrases and soaring sighs.
As the loop continued, she fitted herself with her guitar, cutting the loop and immediately picking notes for the next song. It's a seamless transition, one that avoids dead air killing the attention of the mesmerised audience.
Clicking fingers echoed through the hall at the beginning of Adamson's set. Prerecorded muted horns wafted in like cigarette smoke, joining the cool jazz of Barry and his backing band.
As he growled about his crazy dream in 'The Beaten Side Of Town', Barry was the definition of cool; his trilby's brim cast a shadow over his dark sunglasses, and a gold chain glinting on his chest, framed by his unbuttoned black shirt. The storm of dark jazz broke, making way for a fresh keyboard solo from bandmember John Ellis.
While Barry made his name as a bassist, tonight he pairs his deep voice with a black Airline Res-O-Glass guitar. Loading it with distortion and tremolo, his guitar snarled through songs like 'Cut To Black', and the swaggering groove were reined by drummer Luke Hesketh and bassist Ulf Ivarsson, the latter "imported all the way from Sweden".
Together, their grooves made remaining seated an impossible task, stirring dancing feet to move fans from their seats to the floor. After traversing multiple genres throughout his set, from the soul-infused 'The Last Words Of Sam Cooke' to the solo blues of 'Sundown County', Barry opted to skip the superficiality of returning for an encore.
Instead, he and his band stuck around for what he called a "non-core". Downing his guitar, Barry gripped his mic and roared rhymes over the deafening breakbeats of 'Still I Rise', followed by the Tom Waits-ian 'Jazz Devil'.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I've been Barry White," Adamson joked as the crowd gave him a standing ovation, blown away by his masterclass in cool.
