In stark contrast to openers Gauntlet Hair, the Dodos were all business from the second they took the stage at the ‘Dise last night. The San Francisco indie rock duo – touring as a trio behind its latest album, the excellent No Color – brandished coffee mugs instead of beer bottles, gently setting their beverages down and launching into a frantic set-opening run through “Good,” the dark, propulsive “Black Night” and the airy, summer-appropriate jam “When Will You Go.”
Meric Long and Logan Kroeber were joined by Chris Reimer for a dual-guitar attack that was a great fit for the new material that dominated the show. It was almost as if 2009’s Time To Die had never happened, with an uninspired take on “Longform” serving as the only reminder early in the set, sandwiched amidst the bulk of No Color.
Long stuck to electric guitar throughout the night, even as the Dodos moved from the eerie slow burn of “Companions” into a series of tracks from their 2008 breakthrough Visiter to close the main set. “Winter” got a huge ovation, though electric guitar muddied down the song’s more propulsive moments. It worked to greater effect in “The Season,” which ebbed and flowed over six-plus minutes from intimate and swirling to a brief audience clap-along and finally into a wall of thunderous noise. Reimer was reduced to a bystander as Long and Kroeber got back to basics with “Fools” to close the main set. They picked up right where they left off in the encore with “Jodi” before closing with the No Color bonus track “All Night.”
The Dodos’ Setlist:
Good / Black Night / When Will You Go / Longform / Don’t Try and Hide It / Don’t Stop -> Sleep / Companions / Winter / The Season / Fools // Jodi / All Night
The Dodos:
Gauntlet Hair:
