Dappled Cities – 22 Aug 2009 – The Metro

Dappled Cities finished their Wall of Zounds tour with a sell-out show at the Metro in front of a hometown crowd. The enthusiastic reception they received from the crowd was matched in turn by the band’s obvious joy and appreciation, all of them grinning and happy.

Not that the night went smoothly – they were plagued with technical difficulties at the start, with Dave Rennick shuffling on and off stage trying to fix things while Tim Derricourt led the rest of the band in a meandering jam session and apologised to the restless crowd. And though Derricourt, bouncing all over the stage in excitement, is of the opinion that new album Zounds, only released in the week prior to this gig, is the band’s best to date, there’s a palpable sense of ‘I like your old songs better than your new songs’ from the audience through the rest of the night.

Still, Dappled bravely play half their set from an album that hardly anyone has had time to get to know. The new songs are more sombre in tone, but sound great anyway. The biggest response of the night though is saved for Holy Chord from previous album Granddance. Derricourt says the song is about universal love, and encourages each person to hug the one next to them.

About an hour in, the band leave the stage surprisingly early. But the crowd is mollified by two amusing segments on the backing screen from Alphabreaks, the band’s side project of children’s edutainment (Y for Yodel, and H for Harmonica). Then to top it all off, the band return to the stage in homemade suits adorned with lit up fairy lights to continue playing, including new single The Price which goes down well with the crowd. They get an even better response of cheers and catcalls when, upon leaving the stage, Rennick has to do an impromptu strip out of his suit as his lights have gotten tangled up.

With the crowd still chanting and cheering away, the band return to stage one final time. Rennicourt tells the audience that they hate encores and don’t normally do them, but they make an exception for their adoring audience to play one final song, “a farewell song” that closes Zounds. Here’s hope they it’s not another long goodbye, and that they’ll be back touring the country soon.

Colour Coding
Peach
Vision Bell
The Night is Young At Heart
Wooden Ships
Fire Fire Fire
Miniature Alas
Beach
Answer is Zero
Holy Chord
Cream

(Alphabreaks)

The Price
Apart

Stepshadows