Row J, Seat 109 (general admission) – center section, middle seat
I saw Dawes do two truly great shows in 2015, first at the Warner and
several weeks later at XPNFest. This one didn’t reach that level, although it
had some great moments, especially in the second set. With no opening act, the
amount of music was certainly generous, with a couple dozen songs spanning about
105 minutes across the two sets and two encore numbers.
The biggest issue for me was the volume. Most of the band’s repertoire
sounds about right at a relative sound level of about 8, but they had things
cranked up to 11 through most of the show, pounding their more subtle and
melodic material (including one of my favorites, “A Little Bit Of Everything”)
into complete and utter submission. Basically, THEY SOUNDED LIKE THEY WERE
YELLING MOST OF THE TIME.
The first set really didn’t do much for me, until they got to “When My
Time Comes” and “Less Than Five Miles Away” at the end, both of which worked
well with things cranked up. However, their performance of “Somewhere Along The
Way” lacked the stunning two-guitar interplay of the 2015 shows, and they chose to short-change
“Time Spent In Los Angeles” by segueing into “Most People” after the first
verse. And I’ve already mentioned their treatment of “A Little Bit Of
Everything”.
Nevertheless, I decided to stick around for the second set, and was
rewarded when they went acoustic for the first 2½ songs. “From A Windowseat”
was a highlight shortly thereafter, and the crowd rose to its feet during “If I
Needed Someone” and remained standing for the rest of the show. After ending
the set with the title cut from We’re All
Gonna Die, they encored with a rave-up version of the normally placid “Peace
In The Valley” from their debut album, and concluded with a heartfelt rendition
of “All Your Favorite Bands”, at the end of which the crowd added an extra a cappella
version of the chorus.
