Concert review – The Doves w/ Wild Light @ The Trocadero, Philadelphia, PA 6/5/2009…
Concert review – The Doves w/ Wild Light @ The Trocadero, Philadelphia, PA 6/5/2009…
This was my first time seeing The Doves live and I am admittedly not as familiar with their catalog (albeit very impressed with what I’ve heard), so I had no idea what to expect. The opening act, Wild Light from New Hampshire (and they reminded us of their New Hampshireness about every other song) looked like they had just stepped off of the Concorde, NH High School Talent Show stage. Very 80s, very bombastic cliche riddled lyrics, very bad dancing (a mic stand was inadvertently knocked into the crowd by some sort of weird hoppy thing done by the singer). Wait a fucking second… they have two guys in the band named Seth? That’s a violation of some sort. Seth’s make Family Guy, Seth’s do your taxes, Seth’s don’t rock. On the positive, I think Jan and Robyn liked their asses in tight pants.
The Doves thankfully hit the stage to musically deodorize the stage after that Hampshire funk was spread out like grandma wrecking the bathroom after fudge and crab cakes on a humid July day.
I came away with two things after seeing The Doves live : #1 Jimi Goodwin’s voice is fucking amazing, #2 The Doves really write great songs. I was blown away at the endurance of Jimi Goodwin’s pipes. This guy belts out each song with everything he’s got, yet from song one to the final encore, his voice was perfect. And it’s no lilting, Thom Yorke-y type voice, it’s powerful, soulful, and gravely.
The Doves writing is really interesting, there’s a lot of really interesting musical influences from song to song, but with that etheral Doves feedback washes and jagged areas that never let any groove sound too sweet. The contrast really hits with me. I really like Jez Williams tasteful guitar parts (and the fact that he plays beautiful Gibson 335s too), he really works with tap delays well using very cool dotted eigth note patterns with which he will suddenly fill a wall of sound and then let it heartbeat away.
I was followed last night by the Doves Music Blog on Twitter and you should check out some of the posted video performances when you have a chance.
On a side note, Robyn has started embroidering things and I’m pretty sure I convinced her to embroider a beach towel for me depicting the Virgin Mary smoking a cigar and wielding a blow torch against a pack of ninjas (decided against the pack of Gary Colemans). Which will kick ass.
Also, I explained the importance of following CobraCommander on Twitter too.
And below are some shots from the night…
- Three Frames – thanks Marty
- Desperately Wanting Cover by The Chipmunks – thanks Bill T.
- Ukulele With Mustaches On It
- Hammer Pants Mob Strikes
- Ray’s Video Resume – yo, these are my cats
- Cat Workout
- WhoPooped.org?
Links for my geeky homies…
June 6th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Great review!
Is there anybody out there whom has enjoyed Wild Light? I feel really sorry for them. All I ever seem to hear about them is the tightness of their pants!
Justin last blog post..Archive: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (AVI)
June 6th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Justin – they were certainly some tight pants. i think they’re just a young band, amazed they got the opening slot with The Doves
June 6th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Nice review. Just put this on the blog.
I’ve seen hundreds of support bands over the years. Wild Light are up there in the top 5 worst ever. They were truly awful. Even the band don’t like them, but I didn’t say that.
NickyMc last blog post..Philadelphia Review
June 6th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Awesome review!
June 6th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Wow, if she can embroider that, she has mad skillz.
June 6th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
I found Goodwin’s vocals to be simply amazing as well… what a great show! I was there too…
http://musicunderfire.com/2009/06/concert-review-wild-light-and-the-doves-the-trocadero.html
musicunderfire last blog post..Concert Review: Wild Light and The Doves @ The Trocadero
June 6th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
NickyMc – hey thanks!
Chris – danke
Chris – i’ll have a mad beach towel
musicunderfire – nice review, thanks for stopping by
June 8th, 2009 at 10:14 am
i was at the show as well… my friends and i are big doves fan and have been anticipating the show since it was announced.
i was wondering what your take was on the crowd itself.
i found the crowd to be woefully disappointing. seriously lacking in energy.
and while i may be wrong because it wasnt easily understood i believe goodwin said at the end of the first set, just as they walked off stage “you’re not worth it, you’re not f*&ing worth it”