Live Review: Dappled Cities, Jape

Thursday night at The Metro was a night given over to exploring music with electronic elements – sometimes euphoric, wild and excitable; sometimes dark, foreboding and gothic. It was a night that established the dynamic capacities of electronic music.

Irish electro band Jape opened the show. Already quite a high-profile act, The Metro was virtually packed out during the band's set. Despite high, cloying melodies, synthesised beats and would-be innocent lyrics, Jape's music has a dark, sinister element to it. The looping of tunes and the strange dualism of lyrics – from “We took our first pill when the music was shit” to “The world makes more sense when your hands are in mine” – add to the impression that there are two faces to Jape's music: a simple, electronic pop facade and a dirty, dark, gothic underside.

Dappled Cities made the audience wait for them to take to the stage, but when they appeared, it was to rapturous applause and cheering. The band, humble as ever, seemed completely overjoyed to see so many people in the audience. After over ten years of touring as a band, one might have thought that the band would have taken a smooth, indifferent, seen-it-all attitude. Instead, guitarist and vocalist Dave Rennick stood on the edge of the stage and declared, “It's so fuck… oh, whoops, sorry, this is an all ages show, but it's so good to be here.” The band's on-stage behaviour is charming, from the small smiles they exchange amongst themselves, to Rennick's dancing, which must have reminded the audience collectively of their fathers. The setlist was dominated by tracks from the band's latest album, Lake Air, which is a dynamic, intense piece of work. The sounds that the band was producing were not only incredibly diverse, but every track seemed to carry an air of intensity. That's the really incredible thing about Dappled Cities: their fusion of indie rock with synthesised melodies and beats enables them to transgress a popular format, adding complex, haunting synthesised sounds to grittier guitar and drum pieces. The audience demanded an encore and, with the announcement, “We never prepare encores,” the band played one final track. From the high-pitched harmonies, smooth verse vocals and light, excitable mood of Born At The Right Time to the darker, heavy, irrepressible, clashing drum beat of set-closer Run With The Wind, Dappled Cities gave a performance that was thrilling, reflecting hundreds of different moods and ideas.