To Hell with Good Intentions

The Dodos, Live@Bush Hall, London, 3/09/09

It often smacks of a lack of confidence or ability when a writer reverts to trite comparisons with a band’s larger peers in ‘the great scheme of things’ but when you’re talking about a band like The Dodos it just happens to be the sensible course of action. Sensibility does not always seem to come to the fore tonight, songs seem to stretch out and on forever when they might just be over a terse six or seven minutes (and they aren’t all Red and Purple, either). It all ends up as an over-complicated mess of simplified-folk mugging. The rolling plains atmosphere of opener Paint the Rust recalls Okkervil River or The Shins at their peak but those heights aren’t scaled again until the evening draws to a close with a peachy transition from Fools through to Walking and a furious Red and Purple.

Chances are you’ll see where I’m going with this. The critics haven’t been very loud in vociferous praise for new LP Time to Die and as an onlooker versed in the ways of their lopsided precursor, Visiter, it probably won’t get a look in at the next spotify session (just checked and the first album isn’t on there). There are times where the songs just seem to draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag and the chatter at the back of the hall becomes a little more pronounced with each passing track. Everyone quiets down when God? busts out, all picked out on Meric Long’s gross finger nail (rather long) and explodes, as they do all night, at its conclusion but all the dancing is reserved for the encore. The intimacy of the surrounds and the skills of the duo (plus friend on vibraphone!) married to their collegiate looks evokes a similarity to Vampire Weekend in every sense; the misjudged pacing of the set is forgivable but there are simply too many songs that exit the memory stage left as soon as the final strains disappear.

A conscious build-up of energy between artist and audience is rare to see these days and it does seem to take place this evening but the captivation seems, at times, wasted or, worse, ignored. Support band Coastguards had remarked earlier in the evening that this was their third night on the tour, “on the first night, they were jetlagged and they put on an awesome show, last night they were tired and tore the shit out of the place… so tonight ought to be pretty special”; the environment portended this modest soothsaying to be true but in reality it sinks into more of a dispirited ebb and flow between the magnificent and the must-try-harder. There are moments when the roof really does come close to blowing off and then it seems like lullaby time, let’s all get ready for bed. Nothing else momentous, just a tad more finger-picking and a slump into mediocrity, until an ornate construction leads into a billowing Fools and everyone involved shakes the lead out, a little late, but the crowd go ballistic anyway.

The Dodos have chosen a perfect moniker, as they come close to signing their own execution notices at the midway stage after a promising opening fifteen or so minutes, which no band can afford to do in a saturated market where the punters are starting to count their pennies. It might be a(nother) lazy cliché but… The Dodos seem to want to have their cake and eat it but that just seems like a one-eyed approach when everybody can tell you the icing is what you ought to savour. Who’s the fool now?

Almost Ready

Hello folks.

The new Pearl Jam album is out soon. Click on the link to see the video to new single, The Fixer.

Listen to the song I pinched the blog title to this time here.

Check the side bar for the Cynical-C blog, saw it in The Guardian a few weeks ago and only just looked it up again. Priceless.