lördag 4 Feb 2006, 10:35
Well hey, I might as well use this journal for something!
Dr. Dog/Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - 3rd February 2006 - Mandella Hall (Queens Student Union, Belfast).
What a night! Ok, let me first say that I was there basically to see Dr. Dog. I think the debut Clap Your Hands record is good, but not excellent, and it doesn't live up to the hype. But what could? It's got some great songs on there, but I can't say it's an excellent record, because it's not, it's just good, and great in places. I reckon the follow-up will likely see them really hitting their stride, and making a more consistent record, and I look forward to that.
Dr. Dog, on the other hand…well, look, Easy Beat is a fucking great record, it really is. I can't praise it highly enough, it's very Beatles-y , yet they look past the Beatles influence and do their own thing. For example, Wake Up culminates in a sing-along section which brings to mind Hey Jude, yet it's their own tune…they didn't just steal the "nah, nah nah, nah nah nah nah's" and melody the way Liam Gallagher from Oasis did for the excreable Little James. Dr. Dog were the main reason I went to this gig last night. Girlfriend, they rock!
By rights, we should have got to see these two bands in a very intimate setting (the Queens Speakeasy bar). But because Clap Your Hands are so hyped at the minute, they sold out in no time, and got bumped up to the Mandella Hall. So I got in there early and took my place at the barrier, ready for Dr. Dog to come on. They looked pretty stoned, and someone told me they had been sitting up in the Speakeasy playing tunes (aaaargh!). So anyway, they were bloody great live, played loads of stuff off Easy Beat and made some new converts. I was shouting out for The ABC's, but was told with a chuckle that they weren't really playing stuff from that record. Damn!
Muically, they were tight as a gnatts chuff, and they really had fun with it too, sliding across the stage on their knees and all sorts. They finished up with Wake Up, and when they went off I had some of the other guys in the front row asking me about them, and were they as good on record, and what were the songs I'd been shouting out for etc. They won over a few hearts in Belfast last night, fo' sho'
After a while Clap Your Hands came on, and to be honest, they were a bit of an anticlimax. They were very tight musically (although the vocals were a bit low in the mix for most of the set), and the general atmosphere in the place really added to the gig. I kind of thought that most of the people there would go nuts for "The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth", and be pretty ambivalent for the rest of the set. Wrong. When they finished Gimme Some Salt (one of the really good tracks on their record) the crowd went fucking MENTAL! I'd not heard anything like it in the Mandella Hall for quite a while, it really took me by surprise. And this was a few numbers in, by the way, this absolutely huge roar just came out of nowhere. I was still right at the front at this point, my elbows absolutely ache from leaning on the barrier, and at that point my bladder really ached from the double vodkas and cokes…but no WAY was I moving!
So anyway, they did another number, and when they were getting towards the end I noticed that Alec Ounsworth was thrashing away at his guitar with no sound coming out of it. To be honest, this was about as animated as he got for the whole gig. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah just seemed to be going throgh the motions a lot of the time, and Ounsworth didn't smile or show any emotion until this point, it was one of the things that really sort of irritated me about them. It was like seeing Smashing Pumpkins, I loved that group, but they barely bloody moved when I finally got to see them at Glastonbury. Well anyway, after that number they sort of laughed, and Ounsworth asked the audience if anyone had a spare amp, or some spare electricity. This was just about the only time they really talked to the audience! Dr. Dog, on the other hand, were chatting away between songs, bigging up CYHSY, and I seem to recall them saying that they had great instruments to play for a change because of who they were supporting.
The audience started to get restless, and started singing "Ole, ole ole ole". One of the guys from CYHSY said "It was the British, they stole our electric!" and then they all marched off stage. The roadies came on and fannied about for a while, and eventually the band came back on. They started straight up with "Clap Your Hands!", which really got the crowd jumping again, all us guys in the front row were going nuts! Then they played another couple of songs before doing Heavy Metal (Which I'd been screaming for all night, sounds very like a Beulah song to me, and another stand-out track on their record). Then they mooched off, came back on for a one-song encore, and then mooched off again.
Before they came on stage, the roadies came on and put loads of white helium balloons on stage. These were given out at the end of the gig, and I manged to grab a bunch of them as I'm such a lanky twat, and I duly handed them out to the other folks who had spent the evening resting on the barrier. I almost got in a fight with some dickheads over the balloons when we were leaving town, but no way were they getting mine! Must admit, I thought it was a damn shame that Dr. Dog (or even CYHSY) didn't throw out their plectrums or drum sticks…one of the roadies did give out the CYHSY set list, but nowhere near me, dammit,
Anyway, absolutely thrilled to have seen Dr. Dog, I bought myself a Dr. Dog t-shirt, poster, and took one of the postcards. Have to say again (is anyone still reading?) that they really are fucking great, and I can't recommend Easy Beat highly enough. If you think Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are good, then seriously, get hold of Easy Beat and listen to their awesome Beatles-y brilliance. And do try and get to see these two groups when they're in your area, it was a thoroughly excellent night, perhaps the best £8.80 I've ever spent…I just wish Clap Your Hands Say Yeah had been more into it, and didn't have such an air of going through the motions.
Oh yeah, I just missed getting interviewed for Radio 1, I was going to say I was really there for Dr. Dog anyway, so doubt they would have used me.
Incidentally, feel free to join my Dr. Dog group, and please give me a shout if you know of any Dr. Dog boots, as I couldn't record last nights gig. I also run a Dressy Bessy, so sign up there if you're a fan of Dressy Bessy.