Dresden Dolls: Hopeless Fanboy-ism
Last night I went off to see the Dresden Dolls again (for the 3rd - or technically 4th - time.) The quick summary is that they were fantastic. Again. They always put on such a incredibly extravagant show; for two people who spend most of their show behind entirely immobile instruments - drums and piano - they’re so much more interesting to watch than almost every other band I’ve ever seen. They played a strong mix of the best stuff from their new album, the old stuff and even a T-Rex cover!
Thanks to the traffic on the way home from work I arrived to hear the last feedback squeals of the support band (no idea who they were, I’ll try to google for them when I’m less drunk) but I did get to see the fantasitc arialist who performed right before their set.
But - and there always has to be a but, doesn’t there? - there was one problem that I’d managed to overlook entirely before going to the show. How to put this? Ian, Carwyn and possibly Fabio will confirm that:
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The Dolls’ fans tend toward the obnoxious end of the spectrum.
The crowds at London shows are - on average - also complete berks.
Combine these facts and you end up with a crowd of absolute dicks that sets me off on the classic “forehead vein and eyeball twitching” road to an early aneurism. I spent 1/3rd of the show forcibly pushing a swaying drunk guy’s head out out of my field of view, another 1/3rd blocking out people talking loudly during the quiet songs, and the final 1/3rd lifting up a 5′ tall girl so she could get a view of the band (actually, that bit wasn’t so bad - but never mind that…)
I still want to know where I can get my own atomic mutant drummer and scribbled-in-eyebrows goddess singer. Gentlemen, make it so!
Addendum:
So: I know they played in Edinburgh recently. Come on kids, I demand reports now, damnit!
May 20th, 2006 at 10:46 am
Ah yes, Dave and I did indeed go an watch the Dolls play at the exchange when they were up here and it’s funny that you should mention the obnoxious crowd as we suffered the exact same thing.
Their show was great, as always, but they seemed to be gearing up to play ‘Sing’ at one point and decided against it, presumably because the room had by this stage erupted into what sounded like a Commons debate. What I really can’t understand about the crowd’s attitude was the fact that the support group had near total silence while they were playing, despite the fact they were the sort of band who believed any song could be improved by covering it in a Spanish/eurovision manner.
Damn them.
Anyway, the show (at least what we were able to make out over the noise) was highly enjoyable and the moment where Brian appeared from behind his drum kit in a Nosferatu-esque manner was comedy gold.