Live Review: DMA's, Conics, LCMT

At first LCMT seemed underwhelming; the duo's combination of dark, heavy drum machine beats and Mac DeMarco guitars (heaped with chorus and phasers) pushing for a garage-rock sound but veering dangerously close to 'two mates mucking around with guitars' territory. Fortunately their third song broke the mould with a nice soft-psych breakdown and luscious bass. It seemed at this point that the sound guy had figured out what was going on, and before long their minimalistic yet lively psych-pop had won the attention of most of the crowd.

Conics' high energy synth and booming, powerful drums framed songs that were high glycemic index – undoubtedly enjoyable but didn't prove all too memorable upon first listen. However, the tight, high energy disco-punk grooves admirably did their job in warming up the crowd. The band's closing song (and the title track of their debut EP), Faces, was hard not to enjoy, featuring a touch of Thomas Mars in the lead vocal part, and some great Sega Mega Drive-sounding electric roto-toms.

DMA's walked on stage in darkness, bathed in hype, as the sold out Goodgod Small Club anticipated their entrance with bated breath. A cheerful “How ya goin'?” led into the rip-roaring Feels Like 37, which might be the band's strongest song. The touring version of DMA's appear to be a six-piece, allowing for doubled lead vocals and a rich, dense sound, made up of perfectly balanced effected guitars. All this just adds to the energy: a new song called Lay Down seems like it's already festival-ready, with a huge chorus and rock-solid double-guitar solo to close it out. Delete led to a huge crowd singalong, akin to seeing Oasis play Wonderwall.

The set was painfully short, or at least it felt that way – although the young band can't really be blamed for not having too many songs yet.