Drookit Dogs
Live
Saturday 8th of March 2008
By Jonathan M
As I swigged my luke-warm and outrageously-priced beer whilst watching singer Matt, bassist Whitey and drummer Tom saunter onto the stage at Concorde 2 with seemingly no interest in their surroundings, I had a horrible feeling that this would be a rather uninspiring gig. My fears were allayed and then brutally put to death, however, in a matter of seconds as the band launched into their first song 'Lucia' with a combination of pounding drums, filthy sounding guitars and throat rakingly-raw vocals.
The dogs tore through an exciting set of intelligently composed songs such as 'Hold Me Down' and 'That's What I Am' with an incredible energy, only stopping to take a breather with the slower and darkly haunting 'Comedown'.
The majority of the material was strong enough to ensure that a small dip in quality around the middle of the performance was soon forgotten; left tied up and gagged in the dimmest recesses of my mind. In fact this is what happened to all of the band's weaknesses. For example, the fact that the lyrics were often contorted out of all recognition by Matt's growling vocal style was more than made up for by the coolness of said style and Tom's slightly annoying overuse of a pre-song "1-2-3-4!" was almost immediately drowned out by his excellent drumming.
But what exactly were they playing? Punk? Folk? Indie? Perhaps the greatest credit to the band is that this question can't really by answered. Their sound had a rough and sweaty charm that was refreshingly unique. Almost as unique as the actual performance of the music, which was sort of subdued, with Matt hugging himself and twitching away in his own little world, but incredibly engrossing and intense in it's own peculiar way.
So, the music was great, the show had a great presence and, if my brief chat with Whitey is anything to go by, the guys themselves are pretty alright as well. These swampy sweaty Dogs are definitely one to look out for; not so much a breath of fresh air as an all pervading rocking stench that is guaranteed to leave you mesmerised.
Still, what the fuck is a Drookit?
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