It’s been ages since the Dandys last played Nottingham, so I wasn’t about to pass this one by. Good, but lacking a bit of oomph…

Date: July 1, 2014

Venue: Rescue Rooms

This tour serves to promote The Dandy Warhols’ recently-released live version of Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia, an album recorded live in its entirety on its 13th anniversary in their hometown of Portland, Oregon.

With that in mind, it was assumed that they would play that album live, in track order, with perhaps a few favourites lobbed in. But those assumptions are quickly put to bed as they start with the druggy Mohammed (from that album but not the first track) and then when they divebomb into We Used To Be Friends, the main single from Welcome to the Monkey House; an electro Duran Duran-ish dance floor belter stripped of its glossy synths and shiny presence in favour of a more rock pomp. It spoils any pattern we’d been expecting, and leaves the audience wondering exactly what to expect.

From here, they cherry-pick from their vast ouvre, which began in 1994 and which is still going strong now.

Not If You Were The Last Junkie on Earth’s simplistic chords are smothered in a coating of narcotic noise-rock, with the hazy, mind-altering vibe continuing throughout, as the band’s lazy approach provides a sweeping cinematic stoner-rock soundtrack to a yet-to-be-made sepia-tinged road movie.

Whilst their moody shoe-gazing is admirable, it needs a shot in the arm. Horse Pills’s Pixies-like noise-rock provides this, as does Bohemian Like You – yes they play it, much to the delight of the crowd; its slacker-rock the undisputed highlight – although Get Off, the song that follows it, is met by a rabid reception from the crowd still high on that much-needed break in the fuggy listlessness which threatened to render this gig ‘a let down’.

There is no encore, but with the hits played, there’s no need.

Twenty years old now, but still fine and Dandy.