The Basics Ingredients

With The Basics on hiatus while Wally does his Gotye thing across the globe, and Kris is finishing off some work in Kenya for the Red Cross, the announcement of a show at the Northcote Social Club in October caught our eye - billed as a solo for Kris Schroeder.

Soon Tim Heath was added to the list for the show, and some review of Wally's schedule proposed a slim possibility of a full reunion.

Nevertheless, the show was soon billed as a gig to promote the release of previously unreleased tracks, on a disc called Ingredients.

I met up with Mary and Nicole, and we had dinner out in the bar before the show, and could hear the first band of the night deliver their set.  We chatted briefly with Kris out here, as he was preparing for the show.

The next band was Mustard Courage, and we made it into the bandroom for this four piece bluegrass act.  And they were great! Totally had the crowd engaged, despite being of a genre nobody had expected from this night, and their chatty stage presence.

Their sound was impressive and catchy, and who doesn't love a band with a bango!  They gave us an awesome cover of Kiss From A Rose.

With the curtain closed between the acts, there were whispers around the room about the presence of Wally, but of course when all was revealed it was Kris and Tim who filled the stage.

They joked about how they talked about staying sober for the show, given that they did not have Wally to pick up the slack, and also confessed that they had had to re-learn some of the songs for tonight to cover his parts.

The set included some long time favourites, mostly off Keep Your Friends Close, like Home Again, Keep The Door Open, and Fear Of Failure.  They played some tracks from the to-be-released Ingredients, of which a couple we had heard live before, but some not. Tim donned the 'wedding cake' accordion, as he described it, for a couple of songs, because he said they needed to mix it up a bit without the drums, and then gave is his Rain cover.

With Kris checking his phone a couple of times during the set, he then pulled down the screen at the front of the stage, and projected a skype call with Wally, from New York City.  As with most skype calls though, there was the usual hellos back and forth, and then the sound dropped in and out....luckily Wally had recorded his section of Just Hold On.  With the delay, the degree of difficult was increased, but the boys here in Northcote managed to pull it off, and it felt like the band was all back together.

Taking requests for the final songs, Tim gave us a rousing Have Love, Will Travel.  It was so great to hear these songs live again, after such a break.  Kris talked about how the funds from this night will help the establishment of a music class within the project he is working on in Kenya, once he returns from this R & R break.

The Basics are also releasing a "best of" in response to Gotye's massive success this year, to introduce his worldwide fans to the expanse of tracks from his rock band.  So, hopefully we will get more of the three Basics together again, soon!