The Dandy Warhols, DownhillsHome @ The Tivoli, Brisbane(05/11/08)

Sun 9th Nov, 2008 in Gig Reviews

Melbourne alt-country five-piece, Downhills Home made an early appearance and played a short set of fairly staid country tunes that would have fitted in nicely at a James Blundell or Garth Brookes affair. The early punters were left feeling slightly perplexed after the experience, checking ticket stubbs to make sure that they were, indeed, at The Dandy Warhols show and not at some outback B&S ball. Luckily, neither Shannon Noll nor Craig McLaughlin followed, so everyone breathed a sigh of relief and waited with bated breath, in part due to the smell from everyone’s damp hair (it was pouring outside), for The Dandy’s to appear.

And appear they did. Strolling unassumingly onto the stage, Courtney Taylor-Taylor immediately declared, “I’d like to dedicate every second of this show to Barack Obama!” to thunderous cheering from the now-full Tivoli. Opening fairly calmly, they quickly followed on with the astringent barbs of We Used To Be Friends, then some earlier Dandy’s, including Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth from 1996’s The Dandy Warhols Come Down.

The relief and elation being experienced onstage due to the U.S. presidential election outcome could be felt all the way to the back of the theatre, it was so obviously palpable. So it was no surprise that four songs in, the band stopped for a quick celebration, with Courtney shouting, “Fuck yeah! If everyone in the world could vote, they would vote for Obama. Let’s have some champagne.” Cue crowd cheering as the band toasted to their new leader. Courtney was moved enough to confide in us, “I’m no longer embarrassed to be an American.”

Holding Me Up from Odditorium Or Warlords Of Mars was a fitting choice for a celebration of the power of people in democracy. It felt like the closest that you could get to an Obama rally while still being in the comfort of our own Brisbane. What a perfect night to see a fantastic American band. The Dandy Warhols are like fine wine, they just get better and better with age. Considering that they’ve been going for fifteen years, it’s great to see Courtney and bandmates, Brent DeBoer (drums and backing vocals), * Peter Holmström* (guitar), and Zia McCabe (keys), still making music and travelling the world together. Hopefully they’re doing it a bit easier than the days of DIG!

The set continued with selections from latest LP, Earth To The Dandy Warhols, including Love Song, Talk Radio, as well as classic Dandy’s tunes, You Were The Last High and Solid. Given half a chance, the Dandy Warhols have the power to put the whole world into a psycho-pop-adelic trance. New single Now You Love Me was a tasty number that had its video shot at their Sydney last week.

The euphoria of the evening continued, with Courtney affirming, “You know, this is such a great day. I can’t fucking believe it!”, while launching into the dulcet tones of All The Money Or Simple Life Honey. Cheekily declaring, “Hit after hit after hit. What the hell is going on here?”, Courtney and Co. leapt straight into their Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia smash hit, Bohemian Like You, whipping the punters into a frenzied, jumping, slobbering mass of “Woo-hoo-hoos!”

The energy didn’t relax at all, with high-powered Get Off and hypno-therapeutic The World The People Together (Come On) keeping everyone on their toes, while You Come In Burned turned the trance dial to maximum. Sweet acapella with harmonica treatment was given to The New Country, while perennial favourites Godless and Horse Pills brought everyone back to fever pitch, leaving the Harmonica sing-a-long Country Leaver for last.

Coming back onstage for an encore, the boys then departed, leaving Zia alone with us. She declared, “Seriously, we’re never going to forget this night!” before serenading us with The Daisy Song, a sweet, unaccompanied number. Walking out into the rain, it was hard not to feel like we’d been a part of something special and unprecedented tonight – thank you The Dandy Warhols!