Live Review: DD Dumbo, Jesse Davidson

The last time DD Dumbo - aka Oliver Hugh Perry - graced a stage in Adelaide was at the illustrious global music festival WOMADelaide. Tonight saw Perry and his recruits return to a much smaller venue in the City of Churches for the final night of the Australian leg of his current tour.

Local boy Jesse Davidson - also a performer at WOMADelaide this year - was a fitting support act. His short set seemed to hold an increasing share of the crowd's attention with each song.

But it was DD Dumbo who the mostly young crowd had come to see. His debut album Utopia Defeated is much deserving of the accolades it has received so far, which include the J Award for Album Of The Year last year. The instrumentation on the album was performed almost entirely by Perry himself, so we were curious to see how well this would translate to the stage.

As the room quickly filled to near-capacity, Perry took to the stage, joined by Aviva Endean on bass clarinet, Justin 'the human octopus' on keyboards and Laurence Pike on drums. Opening the show with one of the album's best songs, Walrus, was a masterstroke - the audience was immediately engaged. Up next is Tropical Oceans and it becomes clear that we are in for a great show.

Perry displays an intense, at times wide-eyed, stage presence - perfectly complementing the soundscape that he and his ensemble conjure. The singer switches effortlessly between guitar, flute, oboe and chimes to perfectly bring the intricacies of the album to life. Cortisol is amazing and it's great to see Perry and Endean riffing together on their wind instruments on King Franco Picasso.

Perry's APRA-award winning song, Satan, is itself worth the price of admission alone and had the audience grooving as one.

While no encore is forthcoming (the band dash from the stage as soon as the final song ends), the audience remained satisfied nonetheless. Utopia Defeated was easily one of the most impressive albums of 2016 and the live experience was equally rewarding. Definitely worth catching next time around.