Dutch Uncles w/ Yaaks – XOYO, London 31/05/2011

There’s been a fair amount of attention surrounding Dutch Uncles recently, and rightly so, really. The band are certainly doing something interesting with bouncy pop choruses, complex multi-rhythms and intricate, meticulous melodies. There’s hope they’ll become one of those rare bands who are instantly accessible enough for us to all get up and dance embarrassingly to – are but intelligent and interesting enough for us to feel clever while we’re doing it.

Before the band emerge tonight, Yaaks provide some warm-up entertainment, throwing themselves into their math-rocky set with endearing vigour, but, aside from the drumming, which largely holds the songs together with consistent tightness and compelling power, there seems to be a little too much going on here. This aural confusion isn’t particularly helped by the distraction of the slightly out of place tight-jeaned, shirt-less amp-clambering performed by one of the band members. His debauchery culminating in the clamorous finale of their set, in which he dramatically sends the cymbal and floor tom he’s sporadically been smashing at crashing to the floor. So very Rock N Roll. There’s no way around it though: it would have been much cooler if he hadn’t had to reemerge a few minutes later to sheepishly pick it all up again.

Quickly following, Dutch Uncles present themselves with a very different approach to their stage presence. Charmingly, they don’t really look like a band at all – it’s more like your geeky older-brother and a few of his friends have got hold of a copy of Rock Band for Xbox after a few too many Kopparbergs. This, however, is somewhat refreshing: There’s very little pretension here, and although it may sometimes seem like one or two of the band members are outsiders to the circle, the band generally give off the impression that they are just a group of friends having a bit of a laugh.

Playing through the entirety of the disordered Cadenza, their sort-of-but-not-really-debut album, the band sound very much as they do on the record, if a little heavier, but this is certainly no bad thing. Networks of rhythm from the seven band members come together in impressive crescendos for ‘Dressage’ and ‘Fragrant’ and cool into more sparse melodic spaces for parts of ‘The Rub’ and ‘Dolli’ – their opening track, before building up again.

Each song begins with an intense pounding of keys, strings or the striking of cymbals which, for a few seconds, is almost intoxicating. The intro of ‘The Ink’, especially, underlines the seemingly dramatic disparity between the band’s (presumably purposeful) nerdy persona and the pungent urgency of the pop music. Singer Duncan Wallis’s nervous rambling into the mic, eyes avoiding the crowd, is suddenly replaced by the powerful, intricate rhythm of the song, and instantly, he’s an entirely different man that we’re listening to.

Unfortunately and, rather bizarrely though, the band don’t seem to be able to keep up this aural allure for an entire song, and, having been captivated in the first few seconds, the mind is found straying into a strange half listening, half wondering if he’s purposefully trying to emulate Ian Curtis territory, after about the half-way mark. This strange fluctuation between the enthralling and distraction, creates a slightly unsettled atmosphere in the room, and leaves the majority of the crowd never moving much more than an obligatory nod of the head.

And it’s here, really, where the band fall down tonight: it just doesn’t feel engaging enough. There’s nothing wrong with the performance, as such. They play their songs well, and it’s really pretty hard to pin-point exactly what they’re doing, or not doing, to create the lacklustre atmosphere. They’ve got that intelligence and the accessibility, and there’s no lack of personality here, but somehow, they just don’t seem to be able to bring much excitement into the room: they’re just not pulling it off.

But perhaps I’m being harsh, here. Perhaps this is more of a personal feeling: the lack of atmosphere could be to some extent in my own head. Perhaps not. Either way, they are certainly a band with potential, and in general the crowd are left satisfied, but, really, it feels as if the band could have done a lot better than ‘satisfied’.