Yes this was for me the most anticipated gig of the year: the return of one of my favourite bands of all time to Dingwalls for the second half of last week's East coast/ West coast reunion showdown at Dingwalls. After the previous night were Come had blown the roof off of the place they had a lot to live up to, but then having seen them several times first time around they had a lot to live up to anyway!
First on was PETER BRUNTNELL, whose current run of shows ahead of the release of his career anthology "Retrospective" ( out on Loose Music online on the 17th June) continues apace.
He played a similar set to the one I saw him play opening for John Murry at the Bush Hall earlier in the month; starting with a slow, slightly miserable song, followed up with the plangent tones of, I think, Bent out of Shape that showed some really nice flourishes on his guitar. That was followed by a song someone requested that Peter couldn't quite remember. He was at his most captivating on Bruise On The Sky that I think sounded more emotional than last time.
The title track to his album Black Mountain UFO was pretty good but it was Here Comes The Swells that was the undoubted high spot of the set with some very fine picking going on too. That was followed by the mellow, laid back tones of Sea Of Japan that just left him with time to close with his recent single Played Out, chalking up another decent supporting set.
Soon, at the absurdly early time of 8.45, it was time for the return of the legendary DREAM SYNDICATE for their third show at Dingwalls in 29 years. For this reunion tour the line-up features two original members Steve Wynn and Dennis Duck (Mehaffey) and long-time member Mark Walton who was in the band by the time of their first UK shows in 1984. Lead guitar came from new boy Jason Victor who is also in Steve Wynn's Miracle 3.
They opened up with Blind Lemon Jefferson's See That My Grave Is Kept Clean: a song they first covered on Ghost Stories and it looked like Jason Victor played a great solo, his fingers were going like crazy but it was barely audible out front!
I was shocked as they sounded really quiet which was something you could never say about them previously. They went pretty much straight into Daddy's Girl from The Medicine Show LP and it sounded damn good. They are as tight as you could wish for, just not loud enough. Dennis Duck looked like he was having a blast on the drums and then Mark Walton's bass came to the fore on a Forest From the Trees that also saw some nifty guitar work from Steve Wynn.
It was at about this point in the set that the first cries of "turn it up!" could be heard from the crowd and they did indeed turn it up so you could actually now hear what Jason was doing as well as seeing it as they ripped into Bullet With My Name On It. Wow, that sounded good, as did The Side I'll Never Show. Burn was always a classic live and tonight is no exception. Boston then concluded the first half of this show nicely.
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Then it's time for them to play all of the debut album The Days Of Wine And Roses: a record that I've had in my Top 5 albums of all time pretty much since I bought it in 1984 a couple of years after it came out. Tell Me When It's Over Is good but not quite as frenetic as they used to play it. Definitely Clean is full of dirty guitars with Jason Victor indulging in some cool, mangling sounds. That's what You Always Say is almost spat at us in places.
Then She Remembers has Mark Walton grinning from ear to ear as he pounds out the bass lines and Steve gets pretty much as manic as he gets at any point tonight. Halloween sounds majestic and pretty straight. Things then get a bit softer for the Velvets-quoting When You Smile: a song I love and it's always great to hear live. We then get properly frenetic for Until Lately, a song that could only have been improved by sticking a couple of screwdrivers between the strings on Jason Victor's guitar like Paul B. Cutler used to do.
Steve introduced Too Little, Too Late as being like a cover version which is fair enough as it was originally sung by the bands most reclusive ex-member, Kendra Smith. Steve does a good job none the less. We then get the frenzied mania of the Days Of Wine And Roses, as we are all out on the ledge again, threatening everything once more and then as the song gets close to finishing we get a few lines of Who Do You Love and they wish us goodnight.
The crowd cheer like mad to get them back for an encore and they play a good version of The John Coltrane Stereo Blues that I went and stood in-front of the speaker stack to help make sure it was loud enough. This was decent length version of about 7 or 8 minutes, but nothing like the monster 15 minute plus versions I've heard in the past. It was good but not devastating but still to be singing along to the chorus is always fun.
So at the end of this two day east coast west coast reunion showdown I'd have to conclude that for me it was a shock result as I had never imagined that I would be thinking that Come had played the better set. But all things considered they did! Damn how did that happen? That said if The Dream Syndicate get to play anywhere within reach of you go and see them - you know damn well it's mandatory!
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