What more can I say about this band from Sydney, Australia? Every time I have seen DMA’s live they just get better and better with tonight being no exception to that rule!
I think tonight was the eight time I have seen them play in the last five years and the third or fourth time that I’d seen them play live this year. Earlier in the year DMA’s dropped their fourth album ‘How Many Dreams?’ which peaked at number 3 in the UK charts – the release saw the band play a few record store shows in support and I was lucky enough to catch them at The Brook in Southampton.
DMA’s enter the stage to rapturous applause from the adoring crowd and begin with ‘Olympia’ from the new album before moving into ‘The Glow’ and ‘Timeless’. There is a fan community of Facebook called DMAnia and I had seen a lot a lot of posts calling for ‘Get Ravey’ to be added to the setlist, the lads had clearly listened and the song was duly delivered in tonight’s set.
I was delighted to hear ‘Emily Whyte’ played live again tonight, this is one of my absolute favourites from the band. The version on the MTV Unplugged album is incredible in my opinion and definitely worth a listen if you haven’t already. ‘In The Air’ follows which always exemplifies the strength of lead singer’s Tommy’s vocals, the song is always so well delivered. There is then a further foray into the back catalogue with ‘Silver’, which is a firm crowd pleaser, followed by ‘Tape Deck Sick’, ‘Delete’ and ‘Feels Like 37’.
The encore see’s DMA’s play two of their absolute classics from the first album ‘Hills End’ with ‘Step Up The Morphine’ and ‘Lay Down’ which the crowd lap up every single moment. So many people get onto the shoulders of friends to belt out the lyrics to ‘Lay Down’ it’s impossible for the security to tell everyone to get down! As ‘Lay Down’ begins to fade out the infamous line of ‘Such a funny for me, try to explain’ ring out from Matt Mason and the band descend into what feels like the endless loop of the outro from ‘Hello Girlfriend’ – it has become a tradition at DMA’s gigs that this loop goes into double figures and every time the crowd go mad!
Support tonight came from Liverpool’s STONE – third time out this year for me seeing them play. This was by far the best that I had seen them – there felt something different to their performance almost like they were trying to leave a longing impression on the crowd here tonight in Southampton. I had a friend text me after their set to say how they enjoyed them so it definitely worked!
