Dungen – The Roadhouse, Manchester 15/11/10

“I bought the second Skid Row album in Dublin yesterday for 30p,” guitarist Reine Fiske mentions in reference to a rare recording by Gary Moore’s early outfit (as opposed to the ‘Youth Gone Wild’-hit making early 90’s LA hair metal dudes).

That Fiske’s obviously chuffed about his blues-wailing discovery says a lot about Dungen. To the casual observer, the Swedish quartet has gone quiet since their second album Tar Det Lungt (2004) won plentiful acclaim. But whilst other notable mid-00’s psych-rock revivalists – Comets on Fire, Dead Meadow, Black Mountain – have either disintegrated or drifted towards conventional hard rock, Dungen have evolved into a musical Midas, always reliable when it comes to turning musty, potentially embarrassing points of reference – perma-stoned jam bands, hippiefied jazz, mellow folk-rock, strutting riff merchants – into solid gold, an enticing mix of classic pop-savvy songwriting, richly textured arrangements and a taste for skull-battering freak-outs that sounds less and less with anyone else – then or now – with each album.

Impressive as it is (and most recent album Skit I Allt could well be their best yet), Dungen’s recorded output only hints at the mighty racket the four road-dishevelled musicians unleash tonight. In most cases, dedicating 10-odd minutes of a gig to a freeform jam with flute – songwriter/producer Gustav Ejstes’s current instrument of choice, alongside electric piano – in a prominent position would result in a tar and feather coating before the patience-testing band’s catapulted to the edge of the city. Dungen turn such terrifying self-indulgence into an ecstatically received set highpoint, a pulverising groove that threatens to cause permanent ear damage to anyone situated too near to the Roadhouse’s miniscule stage.

Between songs, there’s plenty of good-humoured banter and the odd comic mishap starring a bass drum on the run. But when it comes to music, the intensity never lets up. Punchier moments – the explosive Hendrix/The Who riff feast of ‘Panda’, the spiky power-pop of ‘Tar Det Lungt’ – build an unstoppable momentum. Dungen are equally potent when they ease up on the decibels, with Fiske’s astounding, never needlessly flashy prowess on the guitar and the band’s intuitive chemistry allowing them to sail smoothly from pumped-up hard rock to flashes of goosebump-inducing lyrical beauty.

The fact that this mind-blowing treat’s served to a small – but extremely appreciative – audience seems borderline criminal. Maybe it’s the language barrier (Dungen stick to Swedish in their lyrics), or perhaps those by-now unfashionable inspirations. Whatever the reason the band’s been relegated to the margins, it’s time to wake up: on tonight’s evidence, Dungen’s one of the intoxicating rock ‘n’ roll bands around.