If I took just one thing away from seeing The Dodos this week, it was that Logan Kroeber is one of the best drummers I’ve seen in a long time. Several times during the band’s set I found myself transfixed watching him go hammer and tongs at his drum kit, seemingly lost in his own world, yet somehow still very much in synch with singer and guitarist Meric Long. He also appears to play without a traditional bass drum – or it at least appeared that way.
Whatever the case, the percussion really stands out in the the San Francisco natives’ act, and they’re doing something right because the pair are in the midst of a European tour and the first night of their two London dates was a sellout.
Aside from a brief listen to their new LP Carrier, I hadn’t heard much of them before heading along to the gig – but I was clearly the only one, as the room was full of keen fans who knew all the words and were shoutily singing along. And I soon knew why, as it was a really lovely set from some seemingly lovely guys playing some sweet and melodic music.Very catchy and just very pleasing.
After listening to Carrier, I’d had them pegged as something similar to some of The Shins’ earlier stuff, but seeing them live, they reminded me more of a cross between perhaps Cloud Control and Wild Nothing – there are whoops and big drum beats, but then there’s some seriously good guitar too. Long also has a sweet, subtle voice that doesn’t dominate but allows the music to do the talking, so to speak. There’s space in the songs, if that makes sense, they’re a bit sparse in places, but it works.
Substance and Confidence were two standout tracks for me, both songs building gently to big thrashy guitar at the end, backdropped by Kroeber’s frenetic drumming throughout. Relief is another lovely song, lilting and sentimental.
The press release accompanying their tour announcement was a sad one – it told of the unexpected death of their second guitarist, Chris Reimer, formerly of Women. Tragic for a young band, and they were joined onstage instead by an unnamed mystery guitarist who liked to talk about Coco Pops. Aside from that, he was great too, and for two guys on guitars and a drummer, there was a lot of very tuneful music on stage.
From having known next-to-nothing before the gig, I’m certainly interested in finding out more about The Dodos in future.
by Patricia Turk
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