Doves

Doves - The best thing about going to see Doves play live is that they can somehow manage to take very dark songs and turn them into rousing and uplifiting anthems in a live environment. Even such melancholic tracks as "Cedar Room" inspire dancing and singalongs at a gig. It's a rare talent and even though I've not been hugely moved by their latest album Some Cities, I bought a ticket thinking that in all likelihood the songs would sound better live and if not, they'd play all the old hits, it would sound fantastic and I'd have a great night. 2 out of 3 isn't bad!

The new stuff wasn't hugely impressive - Black and White Town did sound ace - but the other new songs - and they only did about 5 - didn't really strike a chord. It might have been down to the fact that everyone around me was talking through them, making it hard to concentrate, and when they weren't talking, I was getting shoved aside every 5-10 seconds by someone coming or going from the bar - a problem which seems to occur every time I see a band at the Apollo. (How hard can it be to go to the back/bar if you want to talk or to simply NOT TALK during a performance? And how hard is it to go without beer for 90 minutes so you don't disrupt a billion people in your quest to get inebriated? If you are there solely to drink, DON'T stand in the middle of the crowd and then push in and out and in and out constantly, stand within easy access of the bar!) They also didn't do the two standout tracks from the new album, "Some Cities," and "Walk in Fire."

Having said that, I realised about 35 minutes into the gig that it was less crowded near the front and people were listening, singing and dancing so I moved, which was a good idea. Needless to say I enjoyed the last 45 minutes of the show a lot more, even though I couldn't see anything, due to the celebratory dancing, shouting and general giddiness of the crowd.

A great gig, shame about the new album.