The Dodos – Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 9/29/13

A few songs into their set at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg last Sunday night, Dodos’ drummer Logan Kroeber said what was on most of the audience’s mind: “Thank you guys for coming out on the same night as the finale of Breaking Bad. We weren’t sure how many people to expect.” As the roar of approval greeted his comments, Kroeber counted off a beat, nodded at his mates -guitarist/lead singer Meric Long, and second guitarist/keyboardist Joe Haege- and launched into another blistering number that reassured the crowd members of their decision to put the fate of Walter White off for another night.

Always a loud and dynamic band, The Dodos seemed as if they’d ratcheted everything up a notch for this particular tour. Long’s guitar histrionics seared in and out of the lead as he howled his way through choice new cuts like “Confidence”, “Substance” and “The Current”, playing off Kroeber’s pounding and deft beats. The addition of Haege made the fresh material from the excellently rendered Carrier remarkably ample and complete, and his bouncy exuberance playing the tunes added an air of joyful levity to the show that The Dodos’ sometimes abject subject matter often obscures. Clocking in at just over an hour and lengthened by a final one-song callback encore, the set was sharply defined and punctuated as a showcase to Carrier.

And while there were few complaints with this focus, Long and Co. did leave a little bit of a void in terms of playing more of their older, more acoustic-folk oriented numbers. They indulged with a glorious rave-up of “Walking”/”Red and Purple” and the arresting “Black Night”, but other than a powering run-through of the set-ending “Good” and two choices in the encore”, it was all new stuff. With a catalog as strong as The Dodos possess, a few more cuts from past albums would have capped off the experience nicely.

These are minor grievances though, really. The new album’s beauty and grit meshes nicely with Haege’s aplomb. And as long as Long and Kroeber are their usual pummeling selves, a Dodos show is always top shelf.