USA tour

Modern Roadie

Abit of a blast from the past, but some of you may recall a Doves keyboard roadie kept a wee blog going during the tours in 2005. Anyhow I came across it again today, good to see its still up. Some interesting reading especially if you saw some of the shows that year. Shame the photos are no longer up. Give it a read..

Better Late Than Never..

Blogger Stefania of Melt Your Face Off has just posted her review of the recent May 29th Chicago Vic Theatre show.

It seems as if she had a great time:

On Friday, May 29th I finally saw one of my favorite bands live…Doves: http://www.doves.net/. I can’t even recall the last time they played in the States. If they did they totally missed Dallas, DC, and NYC (any of the cities I could have seen them in since I discovered them in 2000). I am on their listserv and always get so jealous when I see dates in their native England. So I could hardly contain my excitement that after 4 years of releasing a new album they were doing a US tour, and one of the stops was going to be Chicago. At my favorite venue, The Vic. Could it be more perfect?

The show was not only amazing because the band is, but also because the crowd was so excited to be there. As you can tell in the videos the cheers and singing along were pretty consistent. In fact the band at one point got embarrassed that we were so adoring towards them. Well when you rarely come to see us, what do you expect?

To read the full review, visit Melt Your Face Off here.

To read our own sorta review of the Chicago show, click here

See the Chicago setlist here.

If you have a review of an older show, let us know, we’ll flag it up. Doesn’t have to be from this year.

National Geographic Photo Journal

National Geographic has posted a doves photo journal on their music site. Doves submitted photos from the recent tour of North America. Check out the gallery here.

PS: The “Toronto Skyline” is in fact Chicago. Taken from the Sears tower.

Melophobe.com Boston Review

Photo by Ian Doreian of melophobe.com

Thanks to Beth, for letting us know about this Boston Review. Check it out, for some of the best pictures of the US tour.

In my experience, the most difficult show to review is the one embroiled in mediocrity. Luckily for me, Doves wasted no time creating a dense wall-to-wall melodic soundscape in the House of Blues: a perfect compliment to the massive scrim onto which clever Danny Boyle-like music videos danced for the duration of the concert. The best live acts let you know right from the get-go that you’re going to enjoy yourself.

In the final performance their 2009 North American tour, Doves opening number “Jetstream” from their most recent release Kingdom of Rust functioned as a veritable “look what we can do,” comprised of a three or four minute crescendo that rolled together layers of programmed bass drums and snares, wobbly synthesizers, and surging guitar licks as it tumbled forward. Critics have hailed Kingdom as the group’s most ambitious project, and their performance showed that this ambition translates to the stage.

To read the full review, and see more stunning photos, click here.

Boston Review

Finally, a Boston review has appeared online:

Good things come to those who wait. The Doves, who spent four years flying under the radar after wild success with 2005’s Some Cities, returned to Boston on Sunday night to end a US tour on a pleasantly haunting note.

An excellent setlist set the spellbinding tone at the House of Blues. Touring in support of their latest album, Kingdom of Rust, Doves started the Boston show with three new tunes. The first “Jetstream”, with its slow-building structure, readied the crowd for the rest of the show’s chilling surprises. The band powered through a mix of old and new songs, mostly new, which revealed fans’ approval of the Brit band’s new work.

To read the full review, click here.

Also, thanks to Nate for making us aware of these videos from the Boston show.

Spaceface In DC

Sounds like it was a great night in Washington DC. Setlist below, thanks to friend of the blog, NLF.

You can add Spaceface to the setlist! First time on the US tour. Must have been a good one. Reviews as we get them.

Philadelphia Review

An excellent review of last night’s show at Philadelphia’s Trocadero:

The Doves thankfully hit the stage to musically deodorize the stage after that Hampshire funk was spread out like grandma wrecking the bathroom after fudge and crab cakes on a humid July day.

I came away with two things after seeing The Doves live : #1 Jimi Goodwin’s voice is f***ing amazing, #2 The Doves really write great songs. I was blown away at the endurance of Jimi Goodwin’s pipes. This guy belts out each song with everything he’s got, yet from song one to the final encore, his voice was perfect. And it’s no lilting, Thom Yorke-y type voice, it’s powerful, soulful, and gravely.

To read the full review, click here.

New York City Reviews

Photo by musicsnobbery.com

While this would not rank among my Top 5 Doves gigs, it needs to be pointed out that these guys are the most consistent live performers I’ve seen while I’ve been blogger. You know you’re going to get an aural and visual assault of emotions. Sometimes, in those rare moments, you just forget everything in the outside world and you submit yourself to their music and live show.

When you see a band 11 times in nine years, there is plenty you can count on. First, it’s all the hits we love from their previous three albums. Although “Catch the Sun” has been vanish from their setlist since 2003

To Read the full review, click here.

So count these dudes among those beating U2 at their own game in the last decade or so, i.e. the Soaring, Grandiose, Unapologetically Bombastic Arena Rock game, the sort of anthemic, overdriven guitar rock that’s actually a pretty good fit for an airport terminal. Every song an epic, every chorus a budding soccer-stadium sing-a-long. Except Doves are (relatively) unassuming about it, affable and casual Brits who take their time (their new Kingdom of Rust was nearly a half-decade in the making) and don’t have much in the way of an agenda

To Read the full review, click here.

Fresh from taping a performance for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, UK indie-rock trio Doves packed the house in many ways last night at Terminal 5—first of which was filling the venue to the brim with fans. What the group lacked in physical presence (although they play with a fourth member on tour) they absolutely made up for in aural presence. Not a note was spared from the first few rows of people packed tightly against the metal barrier up to the crowded VIP balcony on the third floor in the back.

To read the full review, click here.

Doves Live On Stage in NYC

Awesome picture of doves on stage at Terminal 5 in New York City. Band are performing 10.03.

Picture by Twitter user twebeck

Click on the image for full size. Brilliant stuff!

Chicago Review & Photos


Photo by Kirstie Shanley at Venus Zine.

Venus Zine have posted a very positive review of the Chicago Vic Theater show:

Certainly, the band works very well together as a whole on stage. The backup vocals and catchy guitar rifts inspire compositions that can be bright and anthemic, even when the pedal effects create a beautiful distorted sense of reality. Friday night’s sold-out show at Chicago’s Vic Theater was no exception, and the layers and sense of texture the band brought out live were incredibly rich.

Further heightening the ethereality, the band used visual projections, which included a variety of scenes of Chicago, strips of endless road, and people dancing in a style somewhat reminiscent of the film director David Lynch. The effect was to create a sense of connection to the music as a whole versus the band members, who, at times, seemed to vanish into the backdrop.

To Read the full review & see more photos, click here.

Our friends at thabombshelter have posted a set of awesome photos of the Vic Theater show. To see the set, click here.