Review: Darwin Deez @ Solus
Swn presents Darwin Deez
Solus, Cardiff
1st June 2011
After queuing for half an hour outside Solus, feeling the crowd's excitement build and at one point spill over when frontman Darwin 'Deez' Smith passed the line on his way out of the union. We wouldn't see him again for two hours or so.
First we were on the receiving end of two support acts: OK, a fairly standard and serviceable indie group, and Jake Bullit, whose genre I am unsure of - it might have been electro pop disco or something. OK summed themselves up perfectly by signing off at the end of their set: "we've been OK, thanks for coming." They got everybody nicely warmed up with their Pigeon Detectives-style bouncy indie, and the fact that I now can't remember any of their songs tells you all you need to know.
Jake Bullit on the other hand I remember for singing a song about lasagne ("I used to adore you, but now I can't go back to you, lasagne.") Or possibly Tanya, who can say? They were oddly similar to the Oompa Loompas' songs in the recent Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film.
When the four guys from New York who make up Darwin Deez finally walked onto stage, and burst into their first choreographed dance routine, I realised this was a band unlike the normal indie breed. They clearly put a sense of fun above a sense of trying to be cool and, of course, this results in them being very cool indeed, as well as a laugh on stage. Throughout the gig they performed several dance routines to such diverse songs as Wannabe by the Spice Girls, Whip My Hair by Willow Smith (you can see from the picture that the image of him whipping his hair back and front is interesting to say the least) and a great routine which mashed Enya's Sail Away with Rage Against the Machine to brilliantly comic effect.
Of course, they also played songs from their self-titled album, only one of which I knew (Radar Detector). I expected beforehand to spend the set waiting to hear the one song I would recognise, but the quality of their songs is such that I only remembered it when they closed with it and the crowd went (more) wild. Songs like Bad Day, The Bomb Song and Up in the Clouds tempt me to buy their album; though I suspect it couldn't quite live up to what was a terrific live performance. Several times they had those wonderful moments where they can just stop playing/singing and the room can carry the song for them, so enthusiastic was the crowd.
I think that at a gig the band and crowd really feed off of each other. If a crowd sense that the band are in any way going through the motions then they will respond in kind - applause when required. However if you know the band are loving it, then the gig is fantastic: the crowd get hyped up, the band do the same, and it's a memorable show. This gig did just that; Darwin Deez constantly had massive grins on their faces, and their sense of fun utterly carried the crowd. Brilliant.
Big thanks to Swn for giving theSprout guestlist for this show
IMAGE: darwin deez by thejaymo
