Reviewed on Saturday January 16 (photo by Jamie Williams)
“Welcome to Dreamland,” breathes drummer Laurence Pike into the microphone. The time is midnight and the atmosphere inside the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent already has a dose of the ethereal to it as the five band members drift onto stage, one by one. It’s as if this show is taking place in an alternative reality – inhibitions are left by the door, and while the men onstage are usually known as Jack Ladder and The Dreamlanders, they’ve abridged themselves for this special Sydney Festival appearance.
The ordinarily eponymous Ladder remains a commanding frontman, but it’s soon clear that his bandmates are to get equal billing in this rejigged live set. And rightly so: guitarist Kirin J Callinan and bassist Donny Benet are wonderful solo performers in their own right, while Pike and keyboardist Neal Sutherland are accomplished industry pros. The collective Dreamland moniker casts them as less of a backing band to Ladder, and more of a Sydney musical supergroup.
Ladder’s best songs are all on show, from ‘Beautiful Sound’ to ‘Her Hands’ – the latter a mighty nocturnal jam for the late-night fans. The maniacal ‘Reputation Amputation’, meanwhile, is punctuated by Callinan’s six-string schizophrenia. But the magnetic guitarist in particular gets as much mic time as Ladder tonight, starting with his steamy take on physical masculinity, ‘Embracism’. Later, ‘The Toddler’ – a song he performs a capella in his solo shows, with hilarious rhythmic dancing its only accompaniment – arrives with a full band arrangement and a stage dive.
It’s a real gift to witness Ladder, Callinan and Benet trading tunes, but the freedom afforded by the Dreamland alias gives them an excuse to be more experimental as well. Instrumental explorations and elongated introductory vamps are all fair play, and the crowd welcomes the indulgences.
Callinan is the MVP for sheer performance, but the real substance is in Ladder’s songwriting. Benet and Callinan each sing a verse on ‘Hurtsville’, but Ladder remains in charge of his majestic ‘To Keep And To Be Kept’. With their powers combined, these guys are a sensation – and one only hopes Dreamland becomes more than a Sydney Festival one-off.
