Jim White drums

I first saw this man playing drums nearly thirty years ago. It was at the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh, and I'd gone along to see a Nick Cave solo show. 

The support band were called Dirty Three, and, as was my practice at that time, I intended to watch them play a couple of songs before retiring to the bar. 

But this was one of those rare occasions when I stayed for the whole of the support band's set: they were absolutely electrifying.

The violinist, Warren Ellis, played with with Nick Cave for the solo show (as did the Bad Seeds' bassist, Martyn P Casey), and as I was walking out afterwards, I bumped into the Dirty Three's drummer, also in the audience. 

His playing had been like nothing I'd ever seen - almost using the drum kit as a percussion rig - and I stopped to shake his hand and tell him how much I'd enjoyed it. He was very gracious :-)

Many years later, the Dirty Three playing at Manchester Cathedral was the first gig that I ever went to with the Minx. 

Jim White still plays with Dirty Three, who are touring at the end of this year - and the Minx and I have plans for that - but at the moment he's touring with an outfit called The Hard Quartet, which is led by Stephen Malkmus of Pavement. 

Tonight, after dinner at an excellent new* Thai restaurant called Zaap, the Minx and I went to see The Hard Quartet playing at Gorilla. It was absolutely fantastic. 

Jim was playing a little more conventionally than he does with Dirty Three but it was still very interesting and sounded awesome. 

*It actually opened today