|
The Dresden Dolls...
review
Roses being thrown into the crowd, painted faces, accordions... It almost sounds like a day at an extravagant circus. Perhaps it's this combination of heavy metal and theatrical roots that give The Dresden Dolls that edge to capture and entertain an audience so captivatingly.
The Dresden Dolls consist of two of the most talented and beautiful people you would ever have the privilege of seeing perform. Amanda Palmer’s voice is crisp yet husky, powerful yet enchanting. Brian Viglione’s drumming is incredibly unique; when he plays it is more like he is hitting a passionate melody, not a rhythm. He abruptly stands to bash violently and thunderously at a great crashing noise, then in a moment swiftly recoils to a gently brushed roll on the snare.
Their melodramatic sound travels through waves of intense crescendo and beautiful soft melodies with lyrics much more sophisticated than most of the mediocre music debris around at the moment. Mimetic and clownish facial expressions accompany the performance to bring out the dramatic dynamics of the songs as well as giving a humorous touch to parts of their performance. Even their oldest songs such as Missed Me and Girl Anachronism are still delivered with the bravado played on recording.
Perhaps one of the most brilliant moments of their live set is the part of Operator Boy where they stop and start like a skipping record. They pull it off so brilliantly, even live.
They also played a few covers - of course including their incredible tribute to George Bush, War Pigs by Black Sabbath. With bared teeth, dark eyes and long hair, it almost looked like Ozzy was on drums for this song too. And if you were lucky enough to catch them in Resident earlier in the day then you would have seen them play a whole series of live acoustic covers too.
A surprisingly large portion of the audience sang along to almost every word of every song and The Dresden Dolls were applauded at eardrum-perforating volumes, especially when they returned for an encore.
The mini-cabaret, Bang On, and musical quartet, Devotchka, were the perfect warm-up for the evening. Especially when Amanda crept out to sing Oh What a World with the band, throwing roses into the crowd. They used a mixture of tuba, double bass, accordion, guitar and one of those whiney radio things (a theremin?) to create Mexicano/Latino-cum-Eastern European sounding music. Ironically they left to the song You Only Love Me Cause I’m Leaving. No, we only love you because you’re brilliant!
The Dresden Dolls’ new album 'Yes, Virginia...'  is already available and judging by tonight’s performance it would be a very good buy.
about Concorde 2
|
Okay, so you may have to walk a bit to reach it... but that just makes it that little bit more exclusive doesn't it! Located along Madeira Drive, the Concorde 2 is a sizeable venue with a huge variety of clubnights and bands on each month. Some top names, some great festivals, World Music... you name it. If you can't find something to pique your interest then you might as well pack your bags and head for Eastbourne... Click for more info and complete listings for Concorde 2 
|
|
Cardome
