The Dunes
I am a lover of live music and I try to get out to see as many shows as I can. The problem that I find most often is that you go to see a show that has maybe five bands playing – three will most likely be bad, one will be mediocre and if you are lucky one may be quite good. On occasion you will luck out and all the bands will be good. I was fortunate to attend one of those on November 8 at the El Mocambo. The bands on the roster were: The N I G H T S, the Dunes, and Framework.
I have seen the Dunes a few times in the past and have been impressed by their professionalism and how hard they work. Their sound was more in line with Blink 182, Keane and the Stars back then, a little too sweet for me, not enough edge. (And I know I will get pilloried for that) However, with the addition of a new keyboardist and a new bass player, they now sound muscular and full. It suits the material much better, favourites such as “Let It Go” and “Do It All The Time” benefit from this harder, aggressive reworking. They could easily fill a much larger venue with no trouble.
The Dunes are a great live band, the crowd was engaged and attentive through their whole set. That’s a hard thing for a band to do, get everyone in a crowd focussed on them. Indeed the opening band, The N I G H T S, had a few problems in that area. Part of the reason is that they were the opening band and part of it was that the lead singer, Daniel, spent a good part of the set with his back to the crowd. The bassist, Holly, looked uncomfortable as well. It’s hard to connect to a crowd, no matter how good your music is, when you feel uncomfortable on stage. And they are a good band. Their music is well crafted and well-played. To my ear they sounded a bit like City and Colour with Matthew Good mixed in for good measure. My favourite song was called “Love Through A Looking Glass” (I think, I didn’t have a set list and they didn’t introduce it). It had a nice bluesy sound to it.
Framework, the last band of the night, were not my cuppa. They were a good band, no doubt, but to me they sounded like a cross between Arcade Fire and The Killers. They did manage to sound better as their set progressed but I noticed that the crowd wasn’t as attentive as they were for the Dunes.
All in all, it was a good show, well worth the six bucks to get in. I would definitely recommend going to see the N I G H T S and the Dunes anytime they are in town. The Framework, well, I would say go see them as my tastes are different from yours.
The Dunes will be playing a Christmas show December 13th at the El Mocambo and are releasing a new CD in January. In the meantime you can check them out on their myspace page:
The Dunes Rock
The N I G H T S offer three free songs on their website so I recommend checking them out:
N I G H T S
The N I G H T S-Ballad Of A Jester
The N I G H T S-A Violet Dawn
The N I G H T S-The Love Song
