Messed!Up
It’s not an exaggeration to claim that The Dandy Warhols were one of the big bands of the second half of the 90s and the start of the 2000s. With albums like …The Dandy Warhols Come Down, Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia, and Welcome To The Monkey House and hit singles like “We Used To Be Friends”, “Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth”, “Godless”, and, thanks to a global Vodafone commercial, their superhit “Bohemian Like You”, they rightfully claimed their fair share of fame and glory. On top of that, they had the right looks to become rock stars, and frequently visited the MTV studio for interviews and video premieres. And then they became immortalized through the documentary DIG! following the band on a chaotic tour in true rock star style with The Brian Jonestown Massacre.
This year marks the three decades of their psychedelic-influenced alternative rock, and the band have been out on the road for a few months to celebrate 30 years in the scene. It also marks 25 years since I last saw the band live (plus six times in the 90s). 25 years! Jeez! Where did all the time go!? Naturally, it also represents their audience. Most of us are fans who stayed with the band over the years, middle-class people between 45 and 60, and very few young fans. And people were excited – it’s 22 years since the last time The Dandy Warhols popped by Hamburg! If we weren’t having such a goddamn good time dancing, singing along, and jumping up and down, we might even get a little bit emotional thinking about it all.
The lights went out, people buzzed higher and started to whistle, and the band slowly walked onto the stage. Opening the set with “Ride” from the group’s debut 1995 album, Dandys Rule OK, they quickly displayed why they can still draw a crowd, while dousing the audience with a sea of shoegaze. Frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor still has the easy charm that made him the “pin-up” boy in the 90s while brilliant drummer Brent DeBoer, guitarist Peter Holmström, and keyboardist/bass/vocalist Zia McCabe all clicked with effortless precision. Ever the favorite, keyboardist Zia McCabe added her layers of musical depth to the band’s sound while looking cool as f*** smashing her tambourine against her leg. The first one-third of the show is slow and psychedelic, with songs like “Minnesoter”, “The Summer of Hate”, and “Plan A”, and it’s not until Zia suddenly rushes off the stage to hit the loo with Brent and Peter following, forcing Courtney to play an acoustic version of “Every Day Should Be a Holiday” with the audience as his help in the chorus, that the show takes off. With the rest of the band back on stage, the hits line up – “I’d Like to Help You With Your Problem”, my personal favorite “Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth”, and “We Used to Be Friends”, ending up in a long singalong after the song is over.
Courtney doesn’t waste much time on stage banter. Instead, they wrapped the audience in a sonic blanket that had an almost narcotic warmth at times, and the heavy fluorescent haze added to that feeling.
After a break with “Styggo” from their 2016 album Distortland, a record I never really listened to much, they were back with the hits. Zia grabs her bass once more, and the first chords of “Godless” pour out of the speakers, lifting the energy in the room back up. Guitarist Peter Holmström, who largely remained in the shadows, squeezed out a rubbery lead during the solo to “Good Morning”, and judging by the resounding reaction, it was what the show needed. From here, it’s a celebratory run down victory lane. “Get Off”, “Bohemian Like You”, “Pete International Airport”, and “Boys Better” end the night (+ a long electronic outro by Zia).
18 songs later, many fans would have been content to keep going, but it was time to wrap it up as it was the band’s last show in Europe and, I guess, it had taken its toll. A fantastic night showcasing Portland’s finest and a treat to have this legendary psych/alt rock heroes for a show in Hamburg. Absolutely brilliant!
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Photographer: Julia Schwendner
