A delightful audible harmony between different musical worlds
Presented by: Adelaide Festival
Reviewed: 4 March, 2024
With a tantalising cohesive cultural blend of Egyptian and Russian musical backgrounds, Band of Brothers provides an incredible night of delightfully detailed music.
The name Band of Brothers summarises the show perfectly, with two pairs of brothers taking to the stage to perform, including Australian-Egyptian siblings Joseph and James Tawadros, and Australian-Russian brothers Slava and Leonard Grigoryan.
Joseph and James Tawadros bring a Middle Eastern pizzazz to the performance, with Jospeh playing the oud (a Middle Eastern short-neck lute-type, pear-shaped, fretless stringed instrument), while brother James cycles between the riq (a small tambourine) and the bendir (a larger frame drum), the last of which provides a unique bounding and bouncy vibe to the songs it’s played within.
Slava and Leonard Grigoryan are the more serious of the two pairs, and play a few different guitars throughout the night that dramatically build tension within the space, while adding an emotional depth to the group performances. A highlight is their recent original song, Love Token, which was commissioned by the Museum of Australia in response to the artefacts of convict love tokens held in the museum collection, and the Grigoryan brothers certainly capture the beating hearts of longing love between separated siblings.
The pairs of brothers play a mixture of both duets and ensemble performances, ranging from original songs by both individual brother bands and solo albums, as well as from a shared album they created, and a collaborative cover of a popular Beatles song. The song Journey from the Tawadros and Grigoryan brothers first and only collaborative album together (created in 2008) is a delightful blend of the two individually distinctive musical genres, and leads excitingly to the question, “when will their next collaborative album be coming out, because that was incredible!”.
Another fun addition is the collaborative performance of up-tempo, banjo-inspired song Bluegrass Nikriz from Joseph’s 2014 album, which has the audience gleefully foot-tapping and knee-slapping in their seats. This is a song that could easily be put on repeat, as it cleverly combines the classic Blues Scale with the Arabic mode Nikriz into a delightfully up-beat tune with a bit of country twang, with Joseph influenced by the banjo.
It’s great to also witness both bands of brothers put their own unique and upbeat spin on the beloved Beatles song, Blackbird. All instruments and musicians cohesively blend in their funky, brisk tempo cover, and they have some fun playing around and expanding on the well known notes to the delight of the audience.
A joyfully surprising element to the performance is Joseph’s confident and un-serious sense of humour. As he performs the MC duties throughout the night as well as performing, he includes delightful moments of honest comedic takes, including jabs at the racist Pauline Hanson, with some self-deprecation thrown in, and his joking fear of immigration saturating the oud musician market. Perhaps in his future a unique show that blends both his incredible musical talents and humorously playful, ocker-like attitude is on the cards (this reviewer would definitely attend).
Band of Brothers provides a delightful audible harmony between different musical worlds, combined with surprising elements of stand-up humour, to create a relaxing and light hearted musical evening as two culturally different artistic backgrounds meld together into one incredibly enjoyable experience.
Reviewed by Georgina Smerd
Photo credit: Tony Lewis
Venue: Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre
Season: ended
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