THE DEARS
Electric Ballroom

I DIDN’T know what to expect from the night’s events apart from a friend’s disparaging description “that I was in for a night of suicide music”.
Up first and opening to a largely empty room, Pure Reason Revolution are all razorlight hair and fans of the oft-used loud/quiet guitar dynamic. Only the spacey sounding keyboards saved them from being a typically average indie rock band.
Ambulance Ltd faired better in terms of attendance but churned out some of the most middle of the road, pedestrian indie meets alt-country you’ll ever hear.
Their sub-Travis sound is so devoid of excitement that they just became musical wallpaper after a while.
Nearly 10 years after their inception, people are starting to take notice of The Dears and the cheer that greeted their arrival showed that they are starting to outgrow their cult status.
Murray Lightburn makes for an engaging frontman, in charge of both the stage and the audience as he introduced songs from both their debut End Of A Hollywood Bedtime Story and No Cities Left plus a handful of new songs.
He is clearly a man thrilled to be playing his music to people that care and at one point described that night as being the highlight of his entire life.
Although the songs played on the night were executed with an enormous amount of passion and soul, and clearly came straight from the heart, their set failed to really shift out of first gear and soon the momentum started to wane.
While there is nothing inherently wrong with their music there just is not any real energy to feed off.
The Dears were clearly a success with the crowd and although at no point did I consider suicide, I was left feeling like I wanted a little more.