The Dandy Warhols – Gig Review & Photo Gallery 27th October @ Metro City, Perth WA
DANDY WARHOLS
Metro City, Perth WA
October 27th, 2016
Supports – Morning Harvey
With the stage bathed in blue and purple light, the four Oregonians, led by singer/guitarist Courtney Taylor-Taylor, nonchalantly sauntered out in front of the Metro City crowd. No words, just a laid-back start to their Australian tour as the opening strains of ‘Be-In’ floated across the room. From the frequent visits to our shores, The Dandy Warhols seem to have a love affair with the land down under and judging by the delight of the Perth crowd, this city at least was sending the love right back. The best place to be was close to the action, close to the relaxed cool oozing from the stage. Okay, so the lack of a mosh pit was slightly disappointing, but it didn’t take away from the too cool for school tunes The Dandy’s were laying down.
Too cool was the order of the night and there was no chance lead singer Taylor-Taylor was going to ever break a sweat as he and drummer Brent DeBoer, guitarist Peter Holstrom and keyboardist/bass player Zia McCabe ambled through the 90-minute set. It was relaxed, loose and a couple of times almost bordered on sloppy, but this is The Dandy Warhols and that’s just how they roll. The stage was minimal basic black, a couple of small Vox amps supplying the volume, with DeBoer sitting at possibly the world’s smallest drum kit. No huge collection of cymbals or bank of toms for technical fills here. Interestingly, front man Courtney Taylor-Taylor used a pair of microphones set up next to each other, one for his trademark whisper vocals before switching to the other for high notes and sustain. Vocally, Taylor-Taylor saved all his words for the songs, leaving what little audience interaction there was to Zia McCabe as the multi-instrumentalist regaled punters with a tale of cycling through Kings Park and being swooped by one of the local magpies. As McCabe said, she knew what magpies were, she just didn’t know they were assholes. Welcome to Perth.
The first hour of the set was all about the shoe gazing with choice cuts ‘Catcher In The Rye’, ‘Plan-A’ and ’Holding Me Up’ all getting a spin, showed that the punters were digging it. At the 11 o’clock mark ‘We Used To Be Friends’ kicked in and the show shifted up a gear. The up-tempo mood continued on into what is undoubtedly their biggest hit to date (and ultimate driving song) ‘Bohemian Like You’. The euphoria was too much to contain, with love spreading throughout Metro Club culminating in this reviewer with at least one random punter pledging his love, respect and adoration to me. Such is the power of music, and such is the power of The Dandy Warhols.
It was a gig of stripped back minimalism that radiated cool in a way only The Dandy Warhols could do and get away with.
Reviewed by: Gareth Williams
Photo Gallery from the night courtesy: Kim Anderson
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Drove a 800 km round trip from Albany to see the band and to also have the VIP experience. My 3rd gig. Thanks guys.
Great review, exactly as it was. For a mid week gig, a school night, work night it was fine. A healthy crowd of late 30’s and mid to late 40’s and onward fans it was a refreshing to enjoy with no crowd disturbances like drunken aggression or packed in like sardines push and shove mannerisms. Hope they return in the not too distant future, my top 5 gig of all time.