I’m not big on writing reviews of concerts or albums. I’m more of a compile information compare/contrast kind of guy, that’s why I like writing Cover Wars every week. But walking out of The Dodos show last night at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston made me want to write up a couple of paragraphs on these guys.
The Dodos are a duo from San Francisco consisting of front man guitar player Meric Long and drummer/percussionist Logan Kroeber. Playing with them last night was (I think) percussionist/marimba player Joe Haener. From what I’ve read in interviews, he’s possibly joining the band full-time.
Their new album Visiter is fantastic, I highly recommend listening to some tracks over on MySpace to hear what they’re all about. What didn’t come through on the album but did about five minutes into the live show is what a fantastic finger-picker Long is. As he started the show with impressive guitar work and stomping his foot as the only accompaniment, I was reminded of a favorite artist of mine – Chris Smither. The Dodos also have amazing volume-control: Overall they are a quieter band but have the ability to take it up a notch to rock levels for brief periods of time.
Long’s voice is also dynamic with the ability to belt it out like a tenor but spends the majority of his singing in the baritone register. It also helped that he had two separate vocal mics to sing into to alter the sound output.
The Dodos tour continues tonight in New Hampshire with a handful more US dates to come before heading overseas. I highly recommend checking them out.
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