It had been longer than I realised since I had been to The Gov to see a band. The minute I walked through the door, I was really surprised by the change. This is one nice looking venue! I arrived just before support band The Exploders hit the stage. Unfortunately for The Exploders, although they had a reasonably tight retro sound, not too dissimilar to Dallas Crane, their stage performance just couldn’t hold my interest as much as my surroundings could. I spend the majority of their set checking out the fantastic beer garden and getting very comfortable in the booth seating area. Towards the end of The Exploder’s set, it occurred to me how clearly I could see the band from almost every vantage point in the place. This was partly because of the design of the room, but it occurred to me that this was also because of the lack of smoke hanging around in it. Hooray! Finally, a smoke free venue.

By the time the support act left the stage, you could already feel the anticipation in the air as the crowd were pumped up and ready for the headliners, Dallas Crane.

This gig seemed to be a perfect example of how an audience can influence the level of energy from the performers. While The Exploders received a mildly enthusiastic response, they seemed to deliver a mildly enthusiastic performance. Dallas Crane, on the other hand, received a very enthusiastic crowd response right from the start, and returned the energy to the crowd with a dynamic performance. Front-man Dave Larkin certainly has a stonesy swagger about him that really complements the vibe from the rest of the band. It would surely be almost impossible to ignore this band, which is probably why they have seemingly leapt from support band status to headliners so smoothly. Consisting of tracks from their new album Factory Girls plus plenty of songs from their first two albums, it was an energetic set that showed off the full range of Dallas Crane’s refreshingly retro sound. The new songs had an instant appeal that made me want to get my hands on a copy of the new album as soon as possible but my personal highlights from their set were mostly songs from their self titled album, particularly the closing song of the night Dirty Hearts, which left the crowd on a high when it was all over. I believe if Jet can achieve such worldwide success with their contrived brand of retro rock, it should come naturally to Dallas Crane, if only they get the right exposure and meet the right people.

Dallas Crane Photo Gallery