The Dykeenies
Live at Cockpit on Thursday, 20th March 2008
This was the last night of The Dykeenies' latest tour, and by the time Figure 5 took the stage the big room in the Cockpit was already filling up in anticipation. Figure 5 have toured with the likes of We Are Scientists and The Enemy and are quite an accomplished live act. With a drummer, lead vocals, bass and two guitars they make a lot of noise and have a very old school rock 'n' roll sound. They rattled through their set with little crowd interaction, with the frontman looking uncomfortable at times. The highlight of their set was single 'Nitty Gritty' but the songs all got a bit samey after that leading to a bizarre almost psychedelic song about going into space which was a bit too 'out there' and detached from the rest of their set. Set closer and next single 'Rock Of Gibraltar' was a good strong ending and their set was generally well received. On the upper side of 25 and with no real image to speak of it is hard to see where Figure 5 will fit in the current music climate which could limit how far they go. On the whole though their set was generally well received.
There was no doubt as to who everyone was there to see however and once the Pulp Fiction music greeted The Dykeenies' entrance the room was full and jumping. Having played the small room in The Cockpit last time it was interesting to see how they adjusted but any doubts were blown away after the first few songs. Also this time lead singer Brian was no longer confined behind a synth machine, which was another move that worked out well as he had boundless energy and was energetically jumping about to every song with energy that spread into the crowd. The whole room was jumping as they ran through their hits from the first album, Brian pointing and interacting with the audience throughout. Highlights were singles 'Stitches' and 'Clean Up Your Eyes' but every song was played with amazing energy and they looked like a band intent on putting on a show.
The real purpose of this tour was to showcase new material and again they impressed on this front. 'Boys Will Be Boys When It Comes To Girls' was a bouncy sing a long number, but my personal favourite new track was 'Jane.' It had a very cool vibe to it and if released in the summer has the laid back feel of a big summertime hit. 'New Ideas' was a brilliant choice for before the encore which left the crowd wanting more, and a three song encore gave them what they wanted. Still with bundles of energy left for the final song 'Waiting For Go' they zapped through that and left the stage to an adoring crowd.
Singalongs, handclaps and rapturous applause throughout showed that there was a lot of love for The Dykeenies in The Cockpit but it waits to be seen whether or not the love will spread through the country for them. Their first album was not a massive success but with the obvious loyal fanbase there and the new songs sounding excellent they should be getting a lot more exposure over the next year or so...
