TRIPOD’s YON talks to TOM HERSEY about what he likes most about Queensland and the curse that became the band’s song in an hour challenge.

“Clearly the weather is good. But every time we head up to Queensland, the thing I notice is the fat grass. The blades of grass in Queensland are about three times as fat as those in Melbourne. I do like that grass.”

With a wry demeanour and a staggeringly quick wit, Yon, one third of Australia’s premier musical comedy team Tripod, responds to a question about what he likes about Queensland with such sincerity and swiftness, it’s hard to know whether to call bullshit or if Yon genuinely has a passion for the subtle interstate differences that make Australia interesting. Speaking from the skinny-grassed Melbourne, Yon explains what Tripod have been up to in recent months.

“We’re doing a lot of writing. We’ve got this project and the title is Dungeons & Dragons: The Opera, at this stage all we’ve really got is the title, at this stage we haven’t really decided what it is, but we just thought calling something an opera will make people excited because it sounds like a big deal.”

Not committing Dungeons & Dragons: The Opera to a timeline, Yon explains in an apologetic tone that, at least for now, Tripod will only be doing one off shows in Queensland. Explaining that the free show in South Bank came around because, “we got a call to come and do a show up in Brisbane. I imagine someone had some money that they needed to spend and here we are.”

The South Bank show will be even more special considering that Tripod will be performing their song in an hour challenge, perhaps something they’re most recognised for. Yon explains why this is going to be special.

“It’s very unusual that we do song in an hour at a live gig. It’ll kind of be very special in that way. They asked for it so we’re going to do it. I think it’s going to work quite well because there’s other acts on, but the reason we don’t usually do it is because what do you do with the audience for the hour you’re writing the song. In the old days we did it occasionally at the odd pub gig and people would just sit there and drink for an hour, which generally wasn’t a bad thing, because they were more receptive by the end of the hour. But doing this again is sort of a one off occasion.”

Feeling that the band was in danger of being pigeonholed by the songs in an hour challenge, Yon tells how audiences that requested the songs they created on Triple J’s morning show were often sorely disappointed.

“There was a bit of a pigeonhole factor with doing the songs in an hour. When we’d perform them again, there was one or two that worked, but generally it was just a bit of a dud moment. People would request them, and then we’d do them and then everyone would be like, ‘maybe we should just let Tripod do a song they spent more than an hour writing’.”

TRIPOD play the free Comedy Fix event at the Suncorp Piazza on Sunday Jun 7 with The Kransky Sisters, Claire Hooper and Charlie Pickering – all as part of Queensland Week’s Comedy Fix. www.queenslandweek.qld.gov.au

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