The Domino State - Live Review

Live review of The Domino State with support from The Recovery at The Rescue Rooms, Nottingham on September 20th 2008.

Local-based four-piece The Recovery have been turning heads for some time now, and this evening's set proved to be no different, even if most punters were still arriving as the band took to the stage. Comparisons with the likes of The Chameleons (musically) and Jeff Buckley (vocally) are evident, but they have a strong sense of poignancy in the likes of 'Forest Fires' matched with an insistent urgency that elevates the likes of 'Sleepwalker' and 'Company Of Kings' into stadium-sized anthems in waiting. Not content with just playing it straight, they spring a surprise by covering Kylie Minogue's 'Confide In Me' that sounds like Brian Molko ripping Mew's back catalogue in half and shredding the remnants accordingly. Having pulled off the unthinkable, The Recovery will no doubt have converted a few more to their cause. Bigger things (and later starts) surely await..

The Domino State's first visit to Nottingham was triumphant in the fact they were playing to a largely partisan crowd there to see the city's Mint Ive, yet by the mid-point of the set they'd managed to create a cauldron of excitement all on their own. Tonight's return then is one of expectation more than bewilderment, and without wanting to pile too much pressure on them, there's a buzz of anticipation emanating around the front of The Rescue Rooms long before their arrival on stage.

Choosing to keep it short rather than outstay their welcome, The Domino State play six songs this evening, each one highlighting what a supremely promising hybrid of talent they are. Already championed by figureheads of the new shoegaze movement such as Club AC30 and Sonic Cathedral, their set this evening proves that The Domino State are more than just an outfit reliant on overworked effects pedals and overcooked reams of delay. Instead, as with the opening band tonight, there's an anthemic quality around many of their songs that recall the likes of Puressence ('Iron Mask') and Echo And The Bunnymen ('Big Six Wheel') while recent single and hit-that-should've-been 'What's The Question' simply oozes a charisma and grace not heard since Mark Burgess last combined words with adept four and six string mastery so dramatically.

When they do take a more pastoral approach to their sound craft - as on 'Pillow Song' and closer 'Safe Now' - it really does feel like being hit by a multitude of stars falling from heaven. What the music industry's marketing men will make of The Domino State when they play this year's In The City A&R festival is anyone's guess, but in these discordant times where the distinctly leftfield likes of Glasvegas and White Lies are being feted as the new saviours of radio-friendly guitar music, the possibilities for countless other bright young things are endless. Watch this space.

4/5

Dom Gourlay