The Dandy Warhols – Bar Academy Islington

Slow-building opener “Godless” was quickly followed by a rough “We Used to Be Friends” and either by design (it was a stripped back 4-piece line-up sans bass and any horns on this tour) or through inspiration – the band seemed to move away from the psychedelic noodling of their last couple of albums, and were more touch with their retro-pop heritage. As a result, more recent songs like “All The Money Or The Simple Life Honey” were stripped back to their pop-roots, so it nestled in comfortably with a set laden with slacker pop anthems like “Bohemian Like You”, “Cool as Kim Deal” , “Get Off” and “Not If You Were the Last Junkie On Earth”.
For a small show – the band certainly spared no expense on the production with impressive sound, and great lighting that included projections behind the band from old cartoons, psychedelic patterns, and movie clips – some even loosely related to the song being played suggesting some thought had gone into the production.
“The Last High” worked well stripped of the synth-pop over production that I felt marred the recorded version (particularly the vocal effects) and a busking-style run-through “Everyday Should Be a Holiday” was played as a crowd request. Also interesting was a version of the barely over a minute long “Welcome to The Monkey House” which Courtney described as one of his favourite songs.

The spanking new “Have A Kick Ass Summer (Me and My Friends)” – i-tunes only single and preview of the new album the group are currently recording - is a pop gem. Figers crossed this means The Dandy’s are embracing their pop heritage on record as well as on stage.
Courtney still insists on not leaving the stage for a break between the main set and encore – which I think is admirable, however the crowd still gets confused. So when he announced “Country Leaver” as their closer, I suspect most people didn’t believe him, so would have been surprised when the band didn’t return. Although I'm guessing they still left happy cause it was a great show.