philadelphia

Better late than never! Here’s a few reviews from Doves’ recent performance at Philadelphia’s Trocadero.

Photo by Chris Zakorchemny for Phrequency.com

Overall, I couldn’t hear Jimi Goodwin’s bass, but his distinctive vocals were consistently spot-on all night. Also, the band’s sequencing (controlled by the mysterious man crouching behind the drums?) was a little off, leaving some parts to come in at the incorrect time or not at all. (Or again, maybe I just couldn’t hear them?) Still, Doves soldiered through and seemed in good and gracious spirits.

Click here, to read the full review at kevchino.com.

Not until the third song into the show did Goodwin’s vocals warm up and the way he belted his voice throughout the venue was simply astounding. Every nuance while he was singing was similar, if not better, than any of his work done in a recording studio; seeing the Doves live was turning out to be quite an unexpected treat.

With songs such as “Pounding” and “Black and White Town“, the crowd was soon singing along, swept off their feet with each song that was played. Their title-track “Kingdom of Rust” was another favorite from the new album and the addition of keyboardist Martin Rebelski made his impact known. Rebelski certainly fit right in as well, practically hidden behind the mounds of keyboards and sound equipment in the far back right corner of the stage.

Click here, to read MusicUnderFire.com’s full review.

Oddly enough, most of their upbeat rockers, aside from “Black and White Town,” never really reached any point of combustion. This may have been a problem to do with improper sound leveling, but “Pounding,” didn’t emphasize much change in drum dynamics. “The Outsiders,” almost completely hid the bassline in the first verse that takes as much of the lead melody as the guitar. This song sounded superb on their performance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, so one has to wonder what went wrong if it sounded good on a cheap tinny TV. In this respect, their studio production wins outright.

To make up for these blips that, for the most part, didn’t seem to be judgment errors on the side of the musicians, Doves outperformed any notion of high expectation on almost every other song. They played 17 songs, and I would say that 10 of them could have been the high points of the show.

To read the full review at Phrequency Blog (and view a great gallery of pictures), click here.