Rockin' out to the Dodos In Botanique

First off the support act at Botanique tonight, Wye Oak, were excellent. Hailing from Baltimore they're a two piece with Andy Stack on drums, keyboards and backing vocals, while the delightful Jenn Wasner provides lead vocals and guitars. A mix of rock and folk they were most impressive, so much so that I picked up a couple of signed albums, If Children, and The Knot, after the gig. How the hell Andy plays drums with one hand and keyboards with the other is beyond me. Jenn's vocal range was impressive, as was her guitar playing. All in all a good start to the night.

As an aside, of their two albums to date, Jenn recommended The Knot as it is her favorite of the two.

On to the main event, The Dodos. Before the concert I'd listened to a couple of Dodos albums, Visiter and the newly released Time to Die, playing on my Mac Book Pro as I type. Both are fairly solid albums, with the Visiter being more readily accessible, while the latter is more of a grower. Having heard them in concert, I've concluded that they are a far better band live than in the studio. The concert was, to put it mildly, awesome. San Francisco's finest put in a great set with Logan Krieber's drumming forming a core of sound around which Meric Long spun a sequence of first rate guitar work and vocals. Sounding at times like improv Jazz crossed with bluesy rock, this was music of the first order.

Live the Dodos punch above their weight, delivering a soundstage that feels much larger than the augmented two piece that they are. This is down to Meric's playing like a man possesed and inspirational drum work from Krieber, that holds it all together.



Logan has an interesting drumming style, frequently hitting the rim while playing. Talking to him after the show he told me this has a habit of de-tuning the drums which then required frequent re-tensioning. He also plays with a tambourine gaffer taped to his foot to provide that extra jingle when required.

Extra percussion was provided by Keaton Snyder on the fabulous beast shown in the background above. All in all a rocking gig left me sweating like a race horse and happy as a kid in a sweet shop at the end of the night.

Two great bands, great music, great night. Result.

A few of pieces of Trivia. The Dodos last album was produced by Phil Ek who previously worked with the Fleet Foxes. Meric Long released a solo EP called Dodo Bird, with Krieber providing percussion on some tracks. Their 2006 album, Beware of the Maniacs, was released with this as the band name, Fans however started just calling them The Dodos, and their former moniker became extinct in favour of their current band name. Wye Oak were originally called Monarch but changed to Wye Oak to avoid confusion with a host of other bands using that name. The Wye Oak is Maryland's state tree.