The first of the two opening acts was 1776. While their sound may have been better suited for someone’s garage, it gave the club a relaxed feeling—as if we were watching just another band practice. 1776 is a band that would have been prominently featured on early 90’s MTV programming, but their grungy sound and looks made them the perfect opener for the Dandies. Based out of Portland, 1776 has only recently started touring with the Dandy Warhols. Bass player Zach Whiton told me, “playing with the Dandies is great, every night it’s a different city and a different party.” They’ve been using the tour to promote their new album, which should be coming out around June 5th.
After 1776 came the psychedelic rock band Psychic Ills, making their guitars whine and wail like sirens and their visuals up on the big screen would have made Pink Floyd proud. The crowd swayed with the music’s hypnotic quality, and when they finished the spell was broken. Everyone hustled to the bar to grab one more drink before the Dandies took the stage.
A drunken cheer erupted when the Dandies took the stage, opening the show with the song, "Bohemian Like You". The band looked confident and cool as they played all their most famous songs like "Get Off", "We Used to be Friends" and "Not If you were the last Junkie on Earth". But what set the show apart from other northeast concerts was that it maintained the small venue vibe of laid back cities like Portland and Seattle. It almost made you forget that this was a major club. Instead, it felt like a venue where someone is holding a money-can at the door. At one point the show turned into an informal jam session for Dandies front man, Courtney Taylor-Taylor. The rest of his band left the stage for him to do an impromptu solo set, telling the crowd, “I want to do a shortened version of "Everyday Should be a Holiday" and they all need to take a piss.”
The Dandy Warhols brought a little taste of Portland to Beantown ending on the metaphysical sentiment, “Thanks for spanning time.” And as they finished their set with their country song, "Country Leaver", the crowd seemed to reach a moment of eager relaxation before being pushed back into the fast Boston night.
-Sandor Mark
Photo Credit: Christine Varriale
