Here’s an opinion you might not like: we think that a band comprised of three Australian lads might just be the best live Britpop band in the world right now.
No, wait: hold on a moment. Before you go, just let us explain ourselves. For a start, they write the kind of arena-sized rock anthems that every nineties indie sensation and his dog would positively kill to be writing nowadays. Oh, and did we mention that they also look Cool As Fuck? Or that they happen to be really, really, really good live? We don’t know about you, dear reader, but that’s effectively all of the boxes crossed on our Britpop Bingo sheet.
There is, however, one minor thing that marks a DMA’S show out as being a little different to your bog-standard neu-Britpop gig.
Now, if we remember correctly, the entire ethos of a Britpop band’s live show was – and, for some, still is – that the choruses should be sky-high, the guitars should be loud enough to raise the roof of Wembley Arena, and that each and every person in the crowd should come away with a lost voice, a beer-soaked t-shirt, and the creeping feeling that they might just have a teensy bit of a hangover when they wake up in the morning.
Sure, our vocal cords may have resented us the next day; our shirts may have been stained by numerous flung pints of Carlsberg by the end of the evening’s festivities; and yes, we might have had a slightly sore head by the time the next morning’s alarm rolled merrily around. Yet, despite that, we’re willing to sit here and argue that there’s so much more to a DMA‘S show than a bog-standard Britpop-by-numbers live recital of their (admittedly excellent) second album.Â
It’s bigger, bolder, and all the better for it
Their live set-up is twice the size of their ‘official’ band, and if you ask us it’s all the better for it. The guitars are backed up with wavy keyboards and gritty basslines aplenty, and the drums manage to sound even fatter than they do on the record; those, if we do say so ourselves, are both Very Good Things. We can’t ignore the sheer versatility of the band’s frontman, Tommy O’Dell, either: one minute he’s flailing wildly around the stage whilst belting out the chorus of a certified indie-rock banger, and the next he’s tenderly crooning over what we can only describe as one of the sweetest love songs we’ve heard this side of the last Adele record.
You’d be an absolute fool to miss them
So, if you’re in the market for some hands-in-the-air Britpop choruses, sharp-as-a-tack retro tracksuits, and/or a seriously spunky indie-rock show, then you could do a lot worse than to go to… Urm, these three Australian lads. We know, it sounds unlikely, but we’re willing to go on the record here and say that Aussie indie-rockers DMA’S are, probably, the best Britpop band in the world right now. They’ve got the look, they’ve got the tunes, and they know how to perform them live – what more can you ask for?
