Thomas Truax – live, The Macbeth, London – Tuesday 5th May
What do you get when you get a big bin, a man with great taste in shoes, and a penchant for musical lightbulbs? Of course, you guessed right! Thomas Truax! Well done you!
Thomas Truax, part-mad scientist, part-one-man band virtuoso, launched his new album Songs From The Films Of David Lynch at Goodbye, Fair Kingdom! at The Macbeth, London last week. 
Prior to Truax’s slightly late stage entrance, post-rock instrumentalists The Monroe Transfer took to the Shoreditch stage with a plethora of string instruments. Looking like an older (and much cooler) version of your high-school band, The Monroe Transfer create a complex and driving sound that took the eager audience by surprise.
So onto tonight’s headliner, Thomas Truax. New Yorker now residing in South London, Truax is keenly anticipated by the audience. There’s some curious-looking mechanics on stage, which one can only assume to be his famed self-made instruments Mother Superior and The Hornicator. His first song is the instrumental Audrey’s Dance, originally from the score of Twin Peaks.
Truax has taken classic – iconic – tracks from David Lynch’s soundtrack repertoire and made them into modern classics. Not bad for an idea that came about in a pub, but then again, isn’t that where the best ideas are born?
I’m Deranged – perhaps performed with a little irony – is on Truax’s setlist tonight. His downbeat and electronic interpretation of the David Bowie original relies on a strong guitar solo, Truax is clearly talented and takes pleasure in the sounds of his many scatty instruments dotted about the stage.
A little makeshift at times, Thomas scurries about the stage, tending to his instruments like children, and moving as if he’s consumed a little too much caffeine. Black Tambourine (accompanied by a black tambourine with false teeth) is up next, also featuring The Hornicator.
The set seems a bit haphazard but to put on such a show must be difficult to do gracefully, and Truax is half-man, half-instrument as he ports The Backbeater (a rucksack-drum kit mechanism). “You’re gonna work for me tonight, remember?”, he instructs it, explaining the delicate nature of his musical zoo, before continuing with his show. 
Great to watch, although a little slow when setting-up beats and the rest, Thomax Truax is not to missed. He’s got Preston and Manchester dates lined up on 23 and 24th May respectively, before checking out Ireland, and is back in London on 1st July.