live music

Editor's rating

Venue: HMV Forum, Kentish Town, London
Gig played: 19 March 2009

After a false start involving drum problems and the band being lead offstage for 10 minutes, all initial concerns are immediately laid to rest when Doves start playing.

Stunning, euphoric new track 'Jetstream' opens the show in dynamic, New Order-influenced fashion and it's easy to see why bassist Jimi Goodwin has compared it to the band's pre-Doves house hit 'Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use)', recorded when the Lancashire chaps went by the name of Sub Sub.

From there on, many of the greatest British songs of the last decade are played with effortless strength and panache. The timely 'Catch The Sun' from 1999 debut Lost Souls is like good news on a drab day, piano anthem 'Black And White Town' sounds as great as it did on 2005's Some Cities, and the relentless 'Pounding' from The Last Broadcast creates an atmosphere of feverish excitement.

Many will forgive Doves for not playing debut single 'The Cedar Room' as instead they allow the track's tender, acoustic b-side 'Northenden' to get an airing, along with the decaying spaghetti western majesty of current single 'Kingdom Of Rust' and the set-closing supremacy of 'There Goes The Fear'.

Perhaps it's glib to call Doves the Elbow of '09, but they will almost certainly cross over to massive success as Guy Garvey and co did last year. The similarities are clear. Unassuming looks? Check. Astonishing, epically melancholic tunes with a powerful uplifting undercurrent? Check. A fourth album that'll win heaps of new fans? Check, mate.

Lou Thomas