Live Review: The Dandy Warhols, The Upsidedown

The Upsidedown ply their trade with a sense of the moody, scuzzy underbelly that gave bands like The Jesus & Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine their hook.

They mixed some interesting licks, slinky elements, a few textures into an interesting set that probably would have gone over a whole lot better if they’d also added some grunt to it as well.

Staying at the same tempo, working with the same bits and pieces and referencing the stuff Lloyd Cole was doing 30 years ago – but better – is one way to get a few hollers from the crowd. Picking up the pace, putting some grit in the mix and snarling like you mean it might actually win you some converts in a diehard audience there for the headliners.

The Dandy Warhols have long been known for liking a good time and sharing the fun with the punters that turn up for the show. It was as minimalist set-up on Friday night, with a set that managed to please the casual fan and the ardent devotee without sounding like an irrelevant, ‘filthy lucre’ greatest hits tour.

Frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor marvelled at the presence of the drug squad: “Big round of applause for the cops and dogs out the front. Somehow they missed the Ziggy Marley show. This one’s for you,” he said before launching into the opening refrain of I Love You: “Oh wait, we’ve played that one already.”

Amid the big hits We Used To Be Friends, Bohemian Like You and You Were The Last High, highlights included Godless, a cover of AC/DC’s Hells Bells and Well They’re Gone.