Alex Turner caused quite a bit of controversy earlier this year with his cocky comments at the Brits about ‘that rock’n’roll, eh?’ ‘It just won’t go away’, he said.
And much maligned he was too at the time, but his point, I think, was that the appeal of the proper guitar band never really dies. It just simmers away, perhaps a bit apart from what’s popular or what’s trending, to sneak up on you when you’re at the point of despair for the state of mainstream music and remind you, again, that sometimes that it’s nice to deviate from the synthy, bleepy and achingly quirky electronica, or sincere, worthy and heartfelt folkishness, to instead to just properly give over to a band that is unashamedly rock’n’roll.
This is how I feel about The War on Drugs. And Tuesday night’s gig at Koko in Camden was a joy because it did just that – six guys on stage playing without pretence or preening, led by long-haired leading man Adam Granduciel, who looks and sounds just how a rock’n’roll man should.
TWOD have been steadily gaining traction since the release of their 2011 album, Slave Ambient, which caught the critics’ collective eye. It was also the band’s last collaboration with Kurt Vile, who has since departed to pursue his new band Kurt Vile and the Violators, leaving Granduciel at the helm. His steady hands have steered the Philadelphia-based band towards a magnificent third album in Lost in the Dream, which I’ve read took two years to make, owing to Granduciel’s painstaking efforts to get it right.
It was worth the wait – Lost in the Dream is a lush, rollicking album, fast becoming one of my favourites of the year, and nothing was lost live. They straddle something somewhere between Dylan and Springsteen (the inevitable and enduring comparisons), but with a psychedelic twist. They invoke Kerouac-like visions of freewheeling US of A, all blue jeans and denim jackets, car window rolled down, hair streaming.
Last night they played stellar tracks from Slave Ambient – ‘I was there’, ‘Your love is calling my name’ and the awesome ‘Baby Missiles’ (which never fails to fill me with something close to elation) among others, all punctuated with their trademark ‘Woo!’ – always repeated by an enthusiastic audience that was always just a touch too late.
There was loads from Lost in the Dream as well, including ‘Under the Pressure’, the awesome ‘Red Eyes’ (Woo!) and the title track, too. There was some proper emotion in ‘Eyes to the Wind’, and quieter moments too, such as ‘Suffering’ which sounds deeply personal and was a chance for Granduciel to spend some quality time with his guitar. The yearning, nostalgic feels permeates throughout.
My only criticism – the gig was a bit long. They played for a solid two hours, stretching out intervals between songs with long-lingering feedback interludes, which are part of what makes Lost in the Dream great, but perhaps dragged a bit last night, most notably because I found myself starting to look about the room. So it could’ve been tighter, pacier.
But that’s the worst I can say. A three-song encore included a cover of John Lennon’s Mind Games, which was totally brilliant. I’ll be seeing them again at Green Man festival in August, and I already can’t wait. And it’s safe to say that Lost in the Dream will remain on repeat in my headphones for a while longer yet.
by Patricia Turk
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