Because Of Ghosts / Aleks & the Ramps

Andy J Ryan Mar 20, 2023

Because of Ghosts, Aleks & the Ramps, The Kirk October 21, 2006

Breaking the reverend silence that this unique venue inspires, five basketball-singlet and brief shorts clad people aligned themselves in an orderly queue at a 45 degree angle to the stage. It would be a peculiar sight at the best of times, but when the crowd were seated in hushed silence on the floor and pews of a restored church building, it was an un-ignorable sight.

A cheesy programmed theme song saw the five lurch into action and careen into their own random trajectories across the floor like some overly fleshy multi-ball jackpot. As the members bounded to their positions on stage the energy barely subsided, with the instruments just restricting one or more extremities from continuing the cavalcading movement.

The Aleks in question leads the band with just voice and banjo. If that description evokes a vision of Kermit the frog singing his tales plaintively in the swamp, then the Ramps could easily pass muster as the erratically animated Muppet backing band – The Electric Mayhem. The drummer - a vision of ‘Animal’ - but in footy shorts. In what can vaguely be described as an absurd vaudeville romp, the band clapped, wailed, jigged, sang, cheered and shrieked their way through.

The music often gave way to interpretive dance, or the untamed movement of bodies and voices. Harmonies or handclaps were proffered at any time a mouth or hand was close to, or pointed in the general direction of an open microphone. I cannot even get close to doing justice to the live experience that is Aleks & the Ramps, I can only intone with the strongest possible emphasis that you simply must see this band.

Because of Ghosts are an endlessly talented, innovative band, and one of the few that could’ve followed in the footsteps of the opening act. It was again an inspired choice of venue (the Kirk being a restored former church, pews, stained glass and high ceilings intact) having played here on their previous visit and tonight launching their new album The Tomorrow We Were Promised Yesterday.
Within the hushed confines and cavernous ceilings of the Kirk, the band’s music is allowed to expand and fill out the space. The three brothers in the band, on guitar, bass and drums create expansive mood filled pieces.

Tonight the band made the brazen step of playing their new album all the way through. Despite some unfamiliarity, the crowd were willingly and attentively lulled and lurched through the many tones of the album. Both the ingrained awareness of their surroundings and the intensity of the music saw barely a whisper uttered from the crowd. The songs at times seem perilously fragile, just a missed strum away from crashing abruptly. But the playing is almost virtuosic, the band far too intuitive for even a single wasted note.

Looped xylophone melodies mischievously skirted through a number of songs such as the wistful Fall Short of Certainty. Guest singers were ushered from the crowd for a Capella vocal duties on Bright Things Come to Confusion and after playing the album through we were treated to some older numbers.
After finishing with a humbly refreshing “we don’t really do encores, this really is our last song” the congregation left the church, some born again, and seeing the (musical) light but mostly having their faith reassured giving thanks with utterances of ‘gig of the year’.