Nighttown, Rotterdam
08/05/04
Just like Scotland has its own melodic institution in Teenage Fanclub, Daryll-Ann were the first Dutch band I truly cared about, and are definitely one of the few bands in the Netherlands who deserve a similar loyal national following. From MP3s to CDs and back to silence again, they rocked my world, but never once in three years did I have a real opportunity to see them live - until now, anyway.
Fortunately, my feelings for Daryll-Ann have sparked back to life recently. New album Don’t Stop shows the band as strong as they ever were, if not stronger, and not only do they mean something to me again, but I probably like them more than I ever have. Still Daryll-Ann had it in them to surprise me live, and unlike Fanclub who stutter through a set with rough pauses while they remember how to tune a guitar, they’ve become a slick rock machine with little breathing space between songs to barely even allow applause.
Of course the majority of tunes picked out for the evening were newer, and maybe it’s for the best. Still, who really expected them to kick things off with a fantastic 12-minute drone-rock version of ‘A Piece of Work’? With no previous experience, I can only speculate that the recent material has breathed new life into their musical lives. I can’t really imagine the band always sparkling this brightly, but in Nighttown the atmosphere was bubbling with energy, the band were in constant motion, lost to the music, leaving the audience fully connected to the sound. And when they go for those three-part-harmonies, there is still a definite wow factor. The voices just click so perfectly into place, making songs like ‘Movin’ Men’, ‘We Love Danger’, ‘Raga the Messenger’, and ‘Freeway’ reign supreme.
Of course there was plenty of older material on display to keep the long-term fans ecstatic. An almost mandatory inclusion of ‘Serenades for the Lonely’, ‘Pines and Grenadine’, and well, it’s not cool to admit it, but just too many titles I don’t even know (I’m really just a track number person, and number eight is always a highlight). Not that there is any fashion in being a Daryll-Ann fan anyway, but the band are currently thriving on stage and out to rock the audiences. If you’ve faded away from the band, the present time is the perfect reintroduction. If the band isn’t a part of your life at all, well it’s never too late to discover a national institution, surely.
Steven McCarron
Photo: Daryll-Ann.com
:: back to top ::