doves music blog

Category: metro

  • Metro: What’s On Jimi’s Ipod

    As the promo for the best of starts to crank up, Jimi has given Metro an insight into what’s playing on his ipod at the moment.

    History Of Man by Amanaz

    I heard this on Steve ‘Sex Pistol’ Jones’s short-lived but ace BBC 6Music show late last year. It’s Zambian psych rock from Amanaz’s 1975 Africa album. It sounds like a black Black Sabbath.

    Irene by Caetano Veloso

    I love songs that break down and sort of start again. And what a riff. It sounds like they had a ball recording this. You can actually hear the joy.

    Ancestors by Gonjasufi

    This is super-weird hip hop from Warp Records. I love the blasted vocal on it and the ridiculous beat. Check out the album, A Sufi And A Killer.

    To see the full list, visit the Metro website.

  • Metro: Doves are a delight at BBC Electric Proms

    Whist the Evening Standard wasn’t so impressed, the Metro seemed to love it..

    ****

    Metro: Doves are a delight at BBC Electric Proms

    Last night saw Doves become the latest to give their back catalogue a new lick of sonic paint – with the vocal assistance of the fantastic London Bulgarian Choir.

    Not that Doves need much help to make a venue-filling noise; they’ve quietly become past masters at building anthemic walls of sound.

    This gig was certainly not lacking in moments of arms-in-the-air rapture – in fact, as it reached its climax, it could have been mistaken for either an Evangelist rally or an underarm deodorant commercial, as the Roundhouse (London’s finest venue by a country mile) turned into a sea of hands reaching for the heavens.

    If anything, the London Bulgarian Choir were, perhaps, a little underused – not featuring on many songs, and providing little more than (albeit awesome) backing vocals on some others.

    But when they were given a starring role and fully integrated into the songs, the effect was spectacular – never more so than on profoundly epic version of The Cedar Room, the band’s second ever single, sounding no less majestic almost a decade on.

    To read full review, click here.

    Whilst I wasn’t there, I have watched the BBC footage. I reckon the Metro review is spot on. As always with these one off shows, there will be moments that work, and some that don’t. Never been a big fan of Catch the Sun, but it sounded great last night.

    Highlights for me was the stunning Birds Flew Backwards, Greatest Denier & Kingdom Of Rust. The Cedar Room probably has never sounded so good. Jez’s guitar never sounded good to my ears. The choir singing those high backing vocals was majestic.

    Despite the duff ending, I also thought The Storm sounded great. A great night all round by all accounts. Again I wasn’t there, so I can’t really say. But watching the footage, it certainly looks like one of the best shows they’ve ever played. Would look great on DVD..

  • Sydney #2 Review & Setlist

    For more pictures of doves second night at the Sydney Metro, visit the fastlouder gallery here.

    To show we are not completely biased, here is a not so glowing review of the second Sydney show.

    I was a bit letdown that the band didn’t delve into any of Kingdom Of Rust’s second half. Spellbound and Compulsion in particular would have been welcome, especially considering some of the other new songs didn’t quite hit the highs they do on the record (I’m looking at you, The Outsiders). Having said that, Kingdom of Rust was absolutely fantastic. Delivered with passion by the band, it was greeted by the crowd as if it was an old classic.

    The main set ended with one of my favourite Doves tracks (still after all these years), The Cedar Room. The band then left the stage before returning for a pretty spectacular encore. They started with Lost Souls‘ moody instrumental Firesuite (!!!) before Andy stepped out from behind the drums to deliver Here It Comes. The show then ended with a couple songs from The Last Broadcast culminating in another anthemic, percussive performance of There Goes The Fear. How can you not love that song?

    Was it a spectacular gig? Nope. But it was certainly enjoyable. Which, come to think about it, is pretty much what I think about Doves.

    To read the full review and see the reviewer’s pictures, click here.

    Sydney Metro Second Night setlist

    Jetstream
    Snowden
    Winter Hill
    Pounding
    Almost Forgot Myself
    10:03
    Words
    The Greatest Denier
    Ambition
    Kingdom Of Rust
    Black And White Town
    The Outsiders
    The Cedar Room
    ———
    Firesuite
    Here It Comes
    Last Broadcast
    There Goes The Fear