Sometimes a band comes out strong with an amazing array of instruments – cellos and violins and tambourines and woodblocks and glockenspiels galore! And it’s impressive to see so many instruments being wielded onstage into a composite masterpiece of music. What was on display at Lincoln Hall on Friday night, however, was the exact opposite. Meric Long and Logan Kroeber of The Dodos were playing your most standard of musical instruments – a guitar and a set of drums – but they were playing them with so much talent and enthusiasm and at such breakneck speed that it took me a moment to even realize that there were only two instruments onstage.
I fell in love with The Dodo’s 2008 album Visiter the moment I heard the opening beats of “Fools” – that infectiously addictive, bouncing percussion beat, overlaid with a deceptively simple acoustic guitar riff – that’s all it took. What I learned on Friday is that while listening to them recorded is a treat, it’s nothing compared to seeing them produce their music live. You wouldn’t necessarily expect an acoustic guitar and drums to produce a particularly high energy show, but the way that Meric Long is wailing on that guitar, hunched over with hair and fingers flying, and Kroeber’s signature Ewe drumming, forming complex polyrhythms, produce a downright electric show.
Working their way through their 2015 album Individ, the band played “Competition” “Bubble” and “Retriever” as well as some favorites off their 2008 album including “Red and Purple” and “Jodi”. They also pulled the congenial move of asking for recommendations for their encore – always a nice surprise.