It's a cold, wintry night outside the Concorde 2. Only
the hardiest of hipsters have been brave enough to schlep down here on a
Monday to see if Darwin Deez have retained that off-beat charm that
made the eponymous debut album a sleeper hit. It is testament to Darwin
Smith's pulling power that the show is still a sell-out.
I saw Darwin back in 2010, when his first album was making waves and was curious to see how
much quirkiness and joie de vivre he had been retained after three years
in the cynical spin cycle of the music industry.
Darwin bounds on stage in good spirits, resplendent in
powder blue cashmere every inch the cross between a low budget
Hassidic porn star and Wierd Al Yankovic's long lost son. Backed by a new
three piece band (only the original bassist remains), they are keen to air
their new material.
It's always a risk playing new songs to punters who
haven't had the chance to absorb your new music. Darwin's new album Songs
For Imaginative People was only released the day of the show
and you could tell by the volume of crowd chatter that the new songs
were struggling to make an impact. Sadly, the attention span for your
average indie kid is only marginally higher than that of a goldfish on
Rohypnol.
Nice to see the ironic synchronised dancing is still on
the menu (think Spike Jonze video for Fatboy Slim's Praise You). Its a
diverting but inconsequential bonus to the music. On reflection,
despite all the signs indicating its business as usual, Darwin may be suffering
from "second album syndrome" as little of the new material has
the immediacy of Bad Day or Radar Detector. These two along with DNA
-"It's 3 years old but it's still got it."- get the biggest cheers of
the evening.
Perhaps the new tracks will benefit from multiple
listens. 'Moonlit' has more than a hint of Prince circa Controversy with its
funky licks and 80's synth-soul flourishes. Midway through the song
Darwin blasts out an impressive guitar solo that would do the purple funker
proud. In fact Darwin's axe skills have come on leaps and bounds as a
number of the new tracks feature clever guitar work complete with
Santanaesque facial grimaces.
'Alice' shows promise with a big chorus that stays in the
memory and first single Free (The Editorial Me) sounds like a Graham Coxon
album track with its unconventional song structure and jagged guitar.
'Redshift' is positively anthemic and in danger of straying into Bon
Jovi territory.
However just as you expect certain songs to go a certain
direction they dive away from convention and leave you wrong footed. You
have to applaud his musical ambition but it ensures his
performance struggles to gain momentum.
Final track '(800) HUMAN', a meandering ode to the work
of Dinosaur Jr, is probably misjudged as a curtain closer. You can feel the
crowd want to get involved but Darwin's left turns keep them at arms
length. The general public can do kooky but weird is a more of an
acquired taste.
Review by Dara Yazdani
