The irreverent 4-piece band from Portland, OR proudly performed a sold out gig at the Vic Theater last Friday evening. After having played “more than 12 times at the Metro” they delivered a memorable first at the Vic, as the band seems to have been finally “promoted” to playing at larger venues.
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The Dandy Warhols
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 Entertainment
Art
The Vic
Chicago, Ill.
September 12, 2008
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And it was about time.
Formed by the somewhat eccentric lead singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor, drummer Eric Hedford, keyboard player Zia McCabe and guitarist Peter Holmstrom, The Dandys date back to1994. Currently on tour to promote their 6th full album, Earth to the Dandy Warhols, just released this past August under their own Beat the World Records label. The Dandys will be remembered for time to come and not only for their awesome rock documentary, “DiG!”, which depicts the love/hate relationship between them and band Brian Jonestown Massacre.
Curiously, the stage set up was each member side by side (even the drummer!), as if to ensure all the band members received equal share of visibility and praise from the audience. The band started a bit later than their 10pm set time but didn’t seem to affect the mood. Supported by a stage bathed in colorful Radiohead-like lighting, they opened with a beyond lengthy tune from the new album, “The World Come On” and eventually transitioned to the hit “We Used to be Friends” much to the enjoyment of an enthusiastic and very eclectic crowd.
The fans on the main floor danced, jumped and sweated as Courtney’s sultry, deep voice led them through the anthem gems “The Last High”, “Get Off” and “Bohemian Like You”. The Dandys played a solid set list that lasted longer than 2 hours (including Zia’s famous bathroom breaks) and rocked the house with their spacey signature sound. It seems that the only songs missing in action were one of their first hits “Not if You Were the Last Junkie on Earth” and my personal favorite, “Scientist”.
Even though there wasn’t much interaction between the band members, each individual Dandy exuded stage presence. As Zia announced “you will not get us out of this fucking stage” it was obvious that The Dandys crave the attention, which the audience willingly provided. They ended the night with a Rolling Stones cover “The Last Time” and their own “Horse Pills”, a tune carefully selected by the crowd.
Equally psychedelic indie bands Darker My Love from California and Upsidedown, also from Portland, opened the show. For the fan of the psychedelic, trippy rock and roll, it was full bliss from 7 to midnight.
And Zia didn’t even need to go topless this time.
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