GIG REPORT: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah + Dr Dog, Belfast Mandela Hall, 3rd February 2006

GIG REPORT: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah + Dr Dog, Belfast Mandela Hall, 3rd February 2006
Another success story built on the internet and word of mouth, CYHSY's story is kind of the US version of what the Arctic Monkeys and the JCB song have done in the UK. Now they have properly released their album in the UK and are touring to promote it. It's no surprise then that tonight has sold out, although there was another strong rumour around locally that the Arcade Fire were going to be the surprise support band!
Obviously that was untrue, but it may have played a part in getting a good crowd in on time to see Dr Dog. I had never heard of them before tonight but I was pretty impressed. They're clearly not afraid to plunder classic rock for their ideas - there's a lot of Neil Young, the Byrds in there, and one of the guitarists looks a bit like Tom Petty! They win the crowd over too, and I suggest that fans of Wilco and Pavement check them out on the rest of this tour.
I should admit that I have a problem with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. The first couple of times I heard the album I had to either stop it or fast forward it because the singer's voice grated so much. If you haven't heard them I would say that he falls somewhere in David Byrne/ Daniel Johnson territory and he is occassionally very flat. I can see how this could work if the band were going for an experimental sound, but the music is conventional indie-pop. Having said that, the album has grown on me a little, and there are a couple of tunes on there that I love.
The crowd are really into them from the start, there's a huge reaction to some of the songs and the band respond to this. All of them seem to be grinning simultaneously. 'The Skin of my Yellow Country Teeth' is the point where I am totally won over. Half way through a technical fault disrupts the show (no power on the stage monitors I think) and while this gives me time to chat to some people I hadn't seen earlier, it also unsettles the audience and the gig loses momentum. They play a few more then they encore with 'Upon this Tidal Wave of Young Blood', which is better than the recorded version as the vocals don't grate as much in the live setting. That goes for the whole gig actually, the singer wasn't as hard a listen for me and he gelled better within the overall sound.
I was surprised that a lot of people who like the album more than me didn't rate the show too highly. One of my favourite sleeve notes is by Robert Forster on a Go-Betweens compilation, when he states that "in rock n roll terms, the Go-Betweens always take the chequered flag." For some reason this came in to my head during the first few CYHSY songs tonight. The trouble was that they took the flag too early then spent the rest of the night doing laps of honour.