The Dodos
This time out The Dodos were stripped back down to the original duo but that didn't limit the amount of notes they played. The songs blister as the drummer raps the edge of his drums or overhand crashes his cymbals while the guitarist plucks and strums his guitar, acoustic or electric alike, utilizing both approaches in such short succession that it's hard to keep up. With minimal looping and backing tracks it's amazing how dynamic they can be but it all seems to stem from the quick and snappy play. By the second tune they were already winning over the strong Tuesday night 'Shoe crowd and that was before they dropped Red and Purple next. Actually despite being on tour for yet another solid album, Individ, they reached back to a good number of deeper cuts and seemed to still be having fun doing it. During a few of the songs the drummer could be seen gleefully singing along out of the mic even to the parts reserved for his partner who was swapping between straight and reverb mic. It was warm in there and they worked up a lather entertaining us before a short break. All the "bros" in the joint cheered them back and then drowned each other out when the duo asked for a request and stood for a laughingly long time attempting to choose what to play. They finally decided on an older track before the preordained closer that saw the return of the opening band lead singer who strummed her electric and sang backup on Don't Try and Hide It. Good show!
Springtime Cannibal were poppy enough of a four-piece with a BBC-Office Dwight on drums, groovy bassist, smiling female key player and perky lead blonde singer. She would have been impressive at a jam session with her voice but altogether it was relatively bland pop, not super hooky. It could have been that her first banter came across as a little stuck up such that I spent the rest of the set trying to get over what seemed saccharine and almost smarmy.
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