The Necks at Teatar 78 in Belgrade on September 20 - the Australian trio that has played for 39 years with no songs and no plan

Australian trio The Necks play Teatar 78 in Belgrade on September 20 at 20:00. Tickets are around 2,110 denars.

The group formed in 1987 and has held the same line-up ever since: Chris Abrahams on piano and Hammond organ, Tony Buck on drums, percussion and electric guitar, and Lloyd Swanton on bass and double bass. Thirty-nine years with an unchanged line-up is rare in any genre, and rarer still in improvised music.

What makes them recognisable is the form. The Necks do not play songs. Each performance is a single improvised whole that can last up to an hour, built on a repeating musical figure that slowly grows, shifts and eventually falls apart. Critics regularly reach for the connection to Steve Reich's minimalism, but the band works with no score and no agreed plan before walking on stage.

The debut album "Sex" came out in 1989 and passed unnoticed outside Australia at the time. The trio's international standing grew gradually, even as their music became harder to listen to. In 2020 Rolling Stone Australia ranked them 49th on its list of the 50 greatest Australian acts of all time. In 2025 came "Disquiet", their twentieth album.

Teatar 78 is a small stage, which for this music is not a drawback but a requirement. An audience moving around and talking would destroy the entire point. Tickets through tickets.rs.