Dappled Cities
Mercury Lounge, New York

The idea of fronting a sold out New York show might seem daunting but Dappled Cities are unperturbed, bumbling stagewards like wide-eyed schoolkids and reassuring the hipsters they’re “not here to work”, whatever that might mean. The lads may have unwittingly joined the ranks of monumentalist, Arcade Fire-aping prog (they’re supporting Besnard Lakes tonight), but there’s only a slight whiff of pomposity as Tim Derricourt sprays joyful faux-regal whimsy over the huddled Lower East Side masses. The appeal of Dappled Cities (Fly) has always been their brand of measured melancholy but there are times, like on ‘Vision Bell’, when they’re totally off-the-leash, a deranged sideshow revelling and revving up the audience at even the slightest hint of a muted reaction.

Amidst the bombast it’s on slow burners like, er, ‘Fire Fire Fire’ where the band really ascend into the ether. Joint vocalist Dave Rennick’s falsetto recalls Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle and it’s probably no coincidence that they’ve dubbed their first US release Granddance in a not-very-well-concealed homage. They’re gone in a flash (an unwieldy four bands are on the bill) but not before closer ‘Colour Coding’, an unhinged exercise in spiralling raucousness that will remain seared on local brains until they return next month to do it all again.

by Andrew Crook