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SXSW review: Dawes
Wait, was that the Band playing Saturday at Lustre Pearl? Maybe Levon Helm? No, it was Los Angeles-based rock group Dawes. Ok, it’s not fair to say that they sound just like the grandfathers of electric country rock — they have their own catalog that includes some pretty good songs — but there are a lot of similarities. While lead singer/guitarist Taylor Goldsmith handles most of the singing duties, vocals do get passed around a bit. Goldsmith does kind of sound like Helm sometimes, and his playing, explosive bursts of blues rock, is reminiscent of Robbie Robertson. If you listen and still aren’t convinced, there’s one more piece of evidence: Robertson just hired them as his backing band.
That gig will only help them grow their fan base, which is already kind of crazy for them. During the set, Goldsmith jumped around like the rock star he’s becoming, lifting his pick in the air as he bantered with the audience mid-song. The crowd, which was at capacity, hung on every word. On “Fire Away,” Goldsmith even had them singing along in a scene that seemed more likely at Coachella than in a bar off Red River. The entire set went pretty much that way, without a trace of cynicism, something that probably leads a lot of people to really dislike them. As they closed out the set with a supercharged version of folk-rock anthem “When My Time Comes” (complete with various Middle Brother/Deer Tick/Delta Spirit members joining them on stage), it was pretty clear that they could not care less about those people.
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