The Dolls are my 2nd favorite band in the world, second only to Tori. (sorry!). Their live shows are without comparison, and should not be missed unless you just hate going to awesome shows that are worth every penny. I promise there’s no way you can leave one without saying “that was fucking awesome”. I’m not joking at all. I think I’ve seen them 20something times, and it’s almost like they just get better every single time. They’re not your typical “we play the exact same show every single place we go and just mail it in” sort of band. The average band will fill their setlist with 9/10 staples and maybe (if you’re lucky!) give you a song or two that you weren’t expecting. The Dresden Dolls however follow what I can only call the Tori Amos style of setlists, where their entire catalog and plenty of stuff that most people in the audience have never even heard is completely fair game. Most bands are also not brave enough to play new, untested material at a show. The Dolls however have no fear and that’s a great testament to how much of a great band, and an especially great live band they are. Despite having seen a crap ton of Dolls shows, a lot of this setlist was new to me. Not “new” in the sense that I’d never heard the songs, but new in the sense that I’d just never heard them play it live. (technically I’ve seen Amanda by herself playing some of them, but it’s almost totally different when there’s a band too).
As for the show itself, it was a typical Dolls show. (keep in mind this makes it instantly twice as good as any other show you’ve seen this year). As they’re touring behind their new album (comes out Today) No, Virginia which is a b-sides/old material compilation that just basically rounds up all of the stuff they’ve done live and/or just didn’t record for the last 5 years, I mostly expected a show full of those songs. Zoe Keating (previously of Rasputina, now doing stuff on her own) joined in for a few songs, East Bay Ray (whaaaat?) from Dead Kennedys shows up for a couple of songs. Meredith Yayanos (who I think just needs to join the band full time because some of these songs SCREAM for a creepy violin part, so can we make that happen somehow?) was there too and that packs in an extra dimension of awesome.

Many people may try to dismiss a band like this as a gimmick since oh it’s just a drummer and a piano… but for those of you at home who didn’t go to the show, keep in mind… Brian plays the drums and the guitar on The Gardener at the same time for the entire song. Can you do that? Can the drummer (or guitarist) in your favorite band do that? No, I don’t think they can.

Anyway, go see The Dresden Dolls if you can. It might change your life. (and hey, if it doesn’t you still saw a really great show right?)

setlist:

1. In the Flesh
2. Girl Anachronism
3. Night Reconnaissance
4. Mrs. O
5. Missed Me
6. Ultima Esperanza
7. The Lonesome Organist Rapes Page Turner
8. компютриCoin-Operated Boy
9. Moon Over Marin
10. Guitar Hero
11. The Gardener
12. The Astronaut
13. (post-war trade banter)
14. (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)
15. Pierre
16. Boston
17. Half Jack
18. War Pigs
19. One of Us Cannot Be Wrong

download the whole show as a .zip file
download the show in lossless 24-bit FLAC (registration required)
download the show in lossless 16-bit FLAC (registration required)

Links:

• Official Site
• MySpace: Dresden Dolls

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 10:55 pm and is filed under concert.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.