Toronto – It’s been a few years since the Doves graced Toronto with their presence. With that in mind, I was surprised that the Kool Haus was only about 70% full upon arrival. I guess once you reach a certain age band wise, you pretty much lose the ‘cool’ stigma and a bunch of hipsters looking for the next best thing don’t attend your show anymore. More room for me, I say. The Doves were in town to promote their 4th full length cd, called “Kingdom of Rust” (aka Detroit in 5 years). This cd has slowly been growing on me but I have yet to listen to it enough to make a final assessment. I would say I am still a sucker for The Last Broadcast and Lost Souls.
The band came on at about 10:15 and to our surprise, there was a 4th member – Roman Rebelski, who was in charge of keyboards and all things electro. Playing against a large project backdrop featuring random videos, the Doves quickly launched into recent single Jetstream, and my oh my, instantly you can see what an addition Rebelski is to the set. With the added keyboard addition, all the Doves song seem to have an extra oomph to them. The material from the recent album had an extra kick, whether it was because of a looped beat or a some added melodies, I found the addition of the fourth dude to be quite nice. It could also be that the Doves are an extremely, extremely polished band and played each song flawlessly and without a hitch. It’s hard to believe that they’ve been around for 9 years already. Aside from a few inbetween song banters, the band mostly kept to themselves and let the music do the talking. Considering the strength of their songs, I am perfectly okay with that.
The Doves played about an hour and half, featuring songs off all four albums. Notable exceptions would be “Break Me Gently”, “Catch the Sun” and my fav “The Man Who Told Everything” which I guess never ever gets played. The crowd was greatly appreciative of the band, and while most of their songs aren’t really of the ‘rock out’ variety, there was definitely lots of fists in the air for favorites such as “Black and White Town”, “Caught by the River”, “The Cedar Room” and set closer “There Goes the Fear”.
I guess the best way to sum up the show was a conversation overhead as we were walking back to the subway station. The person said “Wow, they were really good. Now I know why people like the Doves”.
Check them out if they are in your town.
