Dandy Warhols @ The Refectory
By Dandy JohnFold your hands you walk like a rock star. The Dandy Warhols represent the triumph of substances over substance and their first two albums are testament to this with a handful of quirky, catchy and perfectly snotty pop gems along with dawdling tunes you might call "Atmospheric" or "Filler" if your in generous mood.
But if you listen to "Thirteen Tales." enough you really can convince yourself it's one of the best albums of the decade so far. Brand spanking new album "Welcome To The Monkey House" nods to 80's influences such as Bowie, Duran Duran (With the album production duties in the hands of Nick Rhodes) and Prince.
Having grown up in the 90's it's difficult for me not to hear an electric drum machine with falsetto vocals and immediately wince or give a knowing smile thinking it's all a joke. But in the case of the Dandy Warhols newfound eighties incarnation it probably isn't a joke, although it really is hard to tell.
In theory this band should polarize people between loathers and fanatics but in practice quite a lot people just kind of like a few of their hits. In fact a quick glance at the crowd reveals something that seems official: with a little help from a mobile phone advert the Dandy Warhols are cool with the water cooler crew (i.e. twenty and thirty something's that work in offices, banks or the admin department and like a good tune on their stereo while their assembling their D.I.Y bookshelf's and coffee tables on the weekend).
Tonight we have no support but the band arrive on stage at 8.30. There's no doubt about it they still look like the best band in the world: all cheekbones, the right clothes they spunk coolness from every pore. This is however a band notoriously erratic live tending to veer from sounding like they look to sounding like four people after a high dose of horse tranquillisers trying to sound like something from your Dad's record collection played at the wrong speed.
We are treated to a marathon two and a half hour set, easily the longest I've seen a band play. They really are a unique live band in playing such a long set and almost every song is reworked differently to how it sounds on record, which is generally a good thing. We are treated to a Courtney solo version of "Everyday Should Be A Holiday", "Shakin'" merges fantastically into "Push It Real Good" and various obscure crowd requests are also granted.
At times tonight they sound very polished and tight, while at other moments they sound like their making it up as they go along and are about to collapse into a fit of laughter and say something like: "Just kidding". With four albums worth of material they now have quite a number of tunes that they can plough through, they play hits "Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth", "Bohemian Like You", "Get Off" and worthy comeback single "We used to be friends". Along with crowd pleasers "Hard-On For Jesus", "As Cool As Kim Deal" and "Godless", amongst many others.
The crowd are also subject to various swirling atmospheric wig-out moments that test the patience, a jamming session between a harmonica and a pair of bag pipes played through a vacoder would probably sound better than these moments and slightly cooler in truth; although the people dancing to my right on pills keep me very entertained. Surprisingly little between song banter is given from the band but the fact that they play such a long set is a refreshingly enthusiastic antidote.
From reading interviews it seems fair to say this band are the least likely band to be quoted as saying: "It's just about the music", although with talk of their own "Studio and arts centre" the ridiculous new album cover and the Vonnegut namedropping of the new album title, the band appear to be caricaturing themselves somewhat.
This band have enough wit, charm and sonic bravado to make the crowd their own and tonight everyone goes home with a smile... especially the people standing to my right.
