Doves

2002 was quite a year for Doves, marking their transformation from lauded cult figures to genuine, if slightly unlikely, pop stars. Not surprising, then, that they ooze a confidence seldom seen before, certainly not on their rather haphazard visits to these shores over the years.

The chart-troubling ‘Pounding’ and ‘There Goes The Fear’ are dispensed with straight away, giving the gig a mighty kick start and eliciting such waves of noise from an excited Olympia that quite often the band are often reduced to merely standing there, trying to take it all in. Given that this is the very last broadcast of a ten month live campaign, the trio are looking more than a little ragged, but a desire on the part of these self-proclaimed ‘plastic paddies’ to go out with a bang sees them dig deep into their last reserves of energy.

Truly part of the great Mancunian lineage, Jim Goodwin is at times uncannily reminiscent of Peter Hook, while their more upbeat moments bear the undoubted rhythmic hallmark of the Roses and the Mondays. But just when the whole thing is moving inexorably towards a momentous conclusion, the gremlins strike during ‘Catch The Sun’, leaving both band and audience to kick their heels for ten minutes while the situation is rectified, the momentum of the moment ebbing away. And perhaps it’s just one hurdle too many, but the gig never really recovers after that, and the shimmering beauty of ‘the Cedar Room’ is lost to tired limbs and a muddy sound mix.

The Sub Sub instrumental encore restores the balance somewhat and the evening certainly will obliterate memories of a woeful Slane experience, yet you can’t help but feel that we haven’t quite seen the best of the Doves. Maybe next time.