Ack Phhht!

[A quick note: No, this blog isn't dead. It's not even technically on hiatus! But the fact that it's taken me three weeks to write this rather brief concert review pretty much explains why there hasn't been a post here in two months: sheer laziness.]

It’s a little embarrassing to admit that this was my first Doves concert.  I’ve counted the band amongst my favorites since I picked up their first album, Lost Souls, back in 2001 (about a year after it came out), and they’ve come through town several times since then.  But I’ve always managed to miss them, thanks to then-girlfriends, overseas travel, and (ahem) not getting around to buying tickets before they sold out.  So it was great to finally see them after all this time.

To be honest, though, I was somewhat dubious of Doves as a live act.  The band’s origin as dance group Sub Sub, along with their meticulously constructed albums, suggested a group that was more comfortable laboring in a secluded studio, rather than a live band that knew how to put on a show.  But my fears were unfounded — not only did the band (supplemented by a keyboard player) do an impressive job of recreating the complexities of their recordings on stage,  but they showed a looseness and sense of fun that was entirely unexpected in a band whose records are usually so dour. How they managed to do both things at once — retain the songs’ epic scope while also investing them with a bit of ragged vitality — I have no idea, but it made for a great show.

Not surprisingly, tracks off the recent Kingdom of Rust dominated the set, starting off with the spectacular “Jetstream”.  About half the main set came off the album, and all the songs came off quite well. The rest of the set pulled off their other three albums, but sadly my personal favorite, Lost Souls, got the short end of the setlist: “Rise” showed up early, but that was it until the encore, when they played “Firesuite” and “Here It Comes” back-to-back.  The absence of “The Cedar Room” and “Catch The Sun” saddened me a fair bit, but obviously you can’t expect a band to play your nine year old favorites just because you couldn’t be bothered to catch them live in a more timely manner — and anyway I love Kingdom and wouldn’t have really minded if they just played the album end-to-end and called it a night.

Honestly, I can’t really think of anything to complain about from the show. They sounded great, I had a blast, and I hope they hit San Francisco again soon.