While we are all missing live music desperately, Tim Finn, Liam O’Maonlai and Andy White are coming to the aid with the gift of the release of their legendary 1995 concert at Tramps in New York City. The trio will also reissue their Altitude album in 2021.
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Formed in 1994, ALT, an international collective featuring two leaders from two iconic 1980s ensembles: Tim Finn of Split Enz and Liam O’ Maonlai of Hothouse Flowers, along with revered Irish singer-songwriter/recording artist Andy White, began writing and performing together. They recorded their sole album in 1995 and began touring with shows in Australia, New Zealand and Europe.
They arrived in New York City in November to begin their US run of shows. On a snowy November night at the infamous Tramps club on 21st Street, ALT performed a sold-out show that became a gig which has attained legendary status—where all the group and audience members were transported together to a high-level of existence. Luckily Tramps’ booker, Steve Weitzman, kept the board recording of the incendiary performance, which he regards as among the top three shows ever at the hallowed locale. With the 25th Anniversary of the performance, Weitzman suggested to the trio to release it digitally “to put a smile on people’s faces.”
“ALT grew out of friendship. Liam and I lived in a shared house in Dublin. We’d known each other since our first albums came out. Liam met Tim in London and asked him if he’d like to stay with us for a while…The three of us soon became inseparable,” White describes the founding of the group.
Their songwriting immediately clicked. “Andy writes out of the box and loves the acoustic guitar and the possibilities therein. Tim plays drums and embodies something of a storyteller. An exile with the horizon so far away… I had a hunger, a lust to create an untamed genre between voice and instrument,” adds Liam.
“The synergy was just there from the start. The feeling was strong and inspiring between us and the idea of making an album together seemed an inevitability,” agrees Finn. The trio recorded their only album at Finn’s studio in Melbourne. Given the rekindled buzz of their unique partnership, Andy, Tim, and Liam are primed to re-issue ALT’s lost gem of an album, Altitude, in May of 2021.
White remembers the making of the album fondly, “There was a celebratory edge to proceedings, and everyone brought something to the writing and playing. It was three friends, three singers, writers and players, free and having fun. We weren’t writing for a record company (which is what you did at that time) we were writing it for ourselves, our friends and our families.” Finn adds, “We’re natural front men, but ALT allowed us to step back and forth as the songs demanded. I’ve always wanted to be a drummer and the other two were very good about it.”
“Between us we played everything in the studio and on tour. Tim’s alter ego is on drums. I’m on bass most of the time, Liam plays didgeridoo, and we’re all on guitars. Liam and Tim play piano,’ White describes. “Liam is an astonishing singer. He can take your breath away. Same with Tim.”
Live, the trio traded out leads and instruments for a tour in which “no two shows were alike,” muses Finn. “The tour was a joy. We followed the chronology of the album, but within each song there were great allowances for the unexpected to happen. There never felt like any need to be ‘serious.’ And yet, of course we were seriously invested in the songs and our need to share them with the crowd.”
“I shall never forget the crowd singing, unasked, the refrain from ‘I Decided to Fly,'” recalls Finn of the performance at Tramps. “They’d never heard the song before, and it was a joyous and celebratory way to end the show. They’d been singing with us all night, and I think all performers feel a special excitement playing in New York. But you also know they’ve seen a lot of shows, so it’s a bit of that old ‘if i can make it here’ feeling. And the best way of reckoning with that is to leave it in the hands of the audience. It was very much about being in the moment and trusting that we had some magic going on,” describes Finn.
The trio shares that magic with the 9 track release of ALT Live at Tramps now available now on all digital platforms.
