Mia Dyson, Epicure @ Tilleys10/11/2007

Tue 13th Nov, 2007 in Gig Reviews

The intimacy of Tilley’s was slightly off-putting for Epicure and Mia Dyson on Saturday night. Juan Alban kept up a steady stream of nervous banter in between songs as if he were a first time interviewee sweating it out in front of the largest interview panel in the universe. He shouldn’t have worried, the crowds at Tilley’s are notoriously friendly and his shy-guy routine won the audience over in a matter of seconds. Nothing woos a crowd more easily than having a really attractive, talented vocalist standing on stage nervously suggesting you buy one of his bands’ tshirts because it “might make you sexier” whilst he sheepishly glances around to his band to see if he’s doing ok.

Epicure as a band are talented, they play well and there is nothing that you could fault them on as a group. However, the only reason that Epicure works is Alban. His vocals sit somewhere on a unique scale between Michael Stipe and Lior and transform the ordinary into the mesmerizing. His vocal twist on an individual lyric means at times the words themselves are difficult to decipher, but it hardly matters because his vocal tones are a pleasure to the ear. Most of the set was the heartbreaking melancholy that Epicure are well known for, but the new single Cobra Kisses from upcoming album Postcards From A Ghost is a slight departure with it’s jaunty piano riff. Alban was working the crowd by the end of the set and used their affection to his advantage by procuring contrived yet enjoyable cheering and whooping for the band’s signature track Armies Against Me.

By the time Mia Dyson hit the stage the crowd were no longer in the infancy of their drinking and some people had warmed up considerably. Four or five punters from separate locations in the room took the chance in each song break to scream out their adoration for the singer. Dyson only ever really replied with a soft – œthank-you’. What Mia Dyson lacks in easy banter, she more than makes up for in performance. Dyson has incredible power in her voice and her warm soft vocal vibrato is sheer aural decadence. She makes her way around the neck of her guitar with incredible ease and has a gift for getting an amazing array of tones out of the one instrument. She glides easily from country style plucking, to bluesy distorted riffs, to gentle smooth chords, to elegant solos.

Standout tracks were the new single Struck Down By the Side of the Open Road, a heartbreaker performance of Through This Town with Mia jumping on slide guitar solo, I Meant Something To You Once and People Will Turn On You from the new album. Mia also got Matt Walker (of The Necessary Few fame) to join her for a duet of Portland Oregon a la White and Lynn. As with Alban, Mia outshines her band though as a band they are certainly doing nothing wrong. There was some tricky interplay between drummer and keyboardist for a little jazz break to cover up a gap where Dyson had to swap guitars between songs, but that was really the only moment that the band stood out at all. This is good news when you are touring as a solo artist, but perhaps Epicure could come out from behind the shadows of Alban a little more.