DOVES
MY MORNING JACKET
Friday, October 4
Commodore Ballroom

An enormous crowd of 20-somethings packed the Commodore for the Manchester band Doves who have been gaining a powerful Vancouver following, widened further this year with their latest, The Last Broadcast.

The opening band, My Morning Jacket, won the crowd over with a high energy set of songs that started out sounding like Sigur Rós, but ended in a fiery retro-rock jam session. The five-piece band from Kentucky amused the audience with their face-obstructing curls, making them look like lost Fraggle Rock characters. Lead vocalist Jim James displayed some impressive stage presence, really getting the crowd going and the beer flowing, and drummer Patrick Hallahan wins the award for best musical performer of the evening.

The audience was pumped for Doves when they hit the stage, starting things off beautifully with “Pounding.” “There Goes the Fear,” the weakest song off The Last Broadcast, became a mesmerizing number that ended with Doves’ signature guitar-swirl melting into a wicked percussion samba. Songs like the crowd favourite “Words” and the soaring “Satellites” were performed with tripped-out perfection. Unfortunately, lead Jimi Goodwin’s voice began to tire near the end of the set resulting in so-so vocals on “The Man Who Told Everything,” my favourite Doves tune. Guitarist Jez Williams proved to be a great sport though as he entertained the crowd during “technical difficulties” with some psychedelic guitar licks. A three song encore ended with an incredible surprise as the band brought out an old favourite from their years as mid-‘90s house act Sub Sub and invited the crowd onstage. That’s right… the crowd. It was chaos as I found myself squished right up against Jez, and we, the drunken onstage mass, rocked like Weebles to their bass-heavy electronic musings.

Doves cranked the volume to 11 and made the evening with that final, unsafe invitation. (That’s gotta be a fire hazard!) They proved that they can deliver a wild show and, as they say, they’re “not at all like U-fucking-2.” Keep an eye out for My Morning Jacket, who had not been forgotten at the end of the night. Expect big things from them.

Jeff Sanders