Although I didn't realise it at the time, the Hello Pirates? gig marked exactly two months since the laast gig I reviewed - not much to some, but an eternity for me. But that's what happens when you get gig fatigue!!
The band's lead singer, Smantha, was there when I showed up, so after buying her a beer, we chatted and, on being asked what I'd done since giving up gig promotions at Hustlers, my reply was "seeing friends and finding I actually had a normal life" - which pretty well sums things up. A year and a half of doing the door for my own gigs at Hustlers had, indeed, driven me insane - and I needed a break - a long break.
I had actually attended the last few nights of the Doghouse when it was at Broiwn Street - the gig with The Daze, Peg & The Bouffants and Colour Coded nearly got reviewed, but lethargy got the better of me - was a good night tho' - The Daze really buzzed, while Peg & The Bouffants had the place jumping, and Colour Coded fair raced and raged through a set where I don't think I've ever heard them sound so aggressive - what the songs lost in dynamics, they made up for in intensity.
Then there was the final gig - Luva Anna, The Law and The View - all three played blinders, but The Law stole it for me - just fantastic song after fantastic song - then it was gone - the Doghouse that is (but, oddly enough, it's just come back - in Ward Road - more next gig review).
So came the holiday season - eventually I felt the itch to eck to gigs - so my first one was on Sept 23rd at Dexters - I missed Goom (I always do somehow),caught Non Zero who played a very strong and competent set where the only drawback was that, an hour or so after, I couldn't remember a single thing about the set, while some touring band or other were just blindingly dull. This left Make Sparks headlining and they were good - but by then I'd lost the will to live so a fine set failed to make its mark on my reviewing head.
All of which meant that the most unlikely venue - Drouthy Neebors - and a most likely band - Hello Pirates? - were what drew me to start enjoying (hopefully) gigs once more - and they didn't disappoint!!
Drouthy Neebors is a weird place for a venue - you get inside, go down this winding staircase on your left and immediately to your right is a bar, inhabited by a very friendly guy who thinks my taste in music is rubbish - lol. There's now also a very pleasant lady who used to be around at the old Doghouse. You go a bit further in and there's the rest of the place - more a kind of room than anything you'd call a dancefloor, but compact and bijou enough for a gig. The great part is that, with it being a vocal PA, noone has to play too loud - well, they can't - for reasons that will appear in a minute.
So, up first - there were two bands playing - were Dundee's Hello Pirates?, a quartet - occasionally a quintet - with a diminutive but sterling female drummer, two guys on bass and guitar, plus singer Samantha. I bumped into Sam at the bar and nearly didn't recognise her - "your hair's grown" - "extensions" she whispered. Looked great though!! Anyway, they didn't so much saunter on stage - mainly coz there wasn't one - as gather together at the back of the room. Then the strains of a lone electric guitar rippling out of the PA as Samantha's delicately pure vocal whispered from the speakers and slowly soared through the room. Then the guitar riffs, the bass surges in and the drums hammer away as the vocals take off on a track that simply carries you along in its wake, a slice of solid indie pop that's as good as it comes, with a chorus that you're singing along to even before you know it, the whole thing having feel and emotion from the whole band, a serious song wrapped in absolute enjoyment. From there we moved through "Delicate Procedure" with the guitar crunching away as the rhythm section pounds and Samantha's really trying to be heard above the instruments, clearly having that trouble that a singer can run into without any monitors, but doing a great job under the circumstances, as the song rushes along with a greater sense of urgency and dynamics than the first, as the high-flying vocal lifts off and another solid, strident composition endears itself to you seemingly effortlessly, the band cohesive as a searing guitar solo lets rip. For the third track, Samantha's vocals were turned up in th mix and that's the point at which things really came alive as the band entered a whole new dimension. The sound was excellent for such an intimate electric gig and, without the benefit of a mixer and a giant PA system, this was sort of the sound of Hello Pirates? in the raw, as it were. The building intensity of the power ballad that is "I Just Thought" lent a new dynamic to the set as the rollercoaster of soft and strong went up and down to glorious effect, once again the band playing strongly and Sam's vocal the epitome of purity and strength. we got a couple of new tracks which sounded superb, one more "studied" and another carrying the "highly addictive" warning that so much of the band's songs hold dear. Through the fun and highly infectious series of "whoo hooooo" choruses that characterise the jaunty strength of "Solar Powered Human" and the lyrically amusing and observational qualities that mark "Il Pleut" as an obvious single - if it weren't for the "f" word throughout - with Sam's vocal conveying the real feeling that embodies the whole theme of the song - while "AOK" is yet another headrush of indie-pop which lifts the place and refuses to let go once it's in your head.
Overall, for all its intimacy, a neat gig from one of the best up and coming Dundee bands around right now - and for ages, I've described Zara from Isis as having the strongest vocal in Dundee for a woman, but I can announce that in Samantha from the Hello Pirates?, she finally has a rival.
Just make sure you're there at the Doghouse next Fridy for the full effect!