DANDY Warhols fans are a responsive lot, it would seem.
When Zia McCabe, the group's hip-shaking keyboardist asked for a cold cider, it only took a couple of numbers before a beverage was safely passed to the front, whereupon she shimmied over to gratefully collect it. These are the fans who've stuck with the foursome from the highs of hitting the mainstream with 2001's Bohemian Like You (here dispatched energetically near the end) to the current level they've settled into, filling smallish clubs and collecting steady plaudits for their albums, the latest of which, This Machine, has just been released.
Yet despite that level of devotion, there was a lot of chatter heard throughout this whole performance. That was frustrating, but then the Warhols remain an enigmatic band, and patience was required. At times, there was an insolent swagger about their material, with The Lash High possessing a spring in its poppy step, and Enjoy Yourself, a garage-rock song about getting old, thrusting along with youthful vitality.
But the band's actual songs are so varied in style that the set was lacking in cohesiveness, with every highlight, like the murder-balled growl of The Legend of the Last Outlaw Truckers, striving for attention with psychedelic tracks which took a long time to not actually go anywhere at all.
It meant the set's momentum proved stop-start, while certain numbers during the set's middle were surprisingly toothless. That could not be said of their finale, Godless, which was delightfully epic and carried a rousing conviction not always present.
HHH
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