A tragedy occurred in Little Rock last night. De Novo Dahl played Juanita’s and nobody came. Well, almost nobody. What started out as an audience of six (seven if you count the bartender) grew to maybe 10 a few minutes into the set (maybe because it was Mother’s Day?). That in itself would not have been a tragedy had this been any other band. But this was De Novo Dahl, a slightly retro, very electronic, and fascinatingly inventive five-piece pop band out of Nashville on tour with their recently released sophomore album Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound.
But if the cavernous emptiness of Juanita’s dampened their spirits, the band didn’t show it. No sir, they did not. And that’s where the silver lining of this tragedy appeared for those faithful audience members who made the effort. Performing like they were playing to a packed house on a Friday night, from the first note the band played, jumped, swayed and spun their way through a melodic and catchy repertoire. Their enthusiasm was infectious, and had the set lasted longer (and had there been more members of the opposite sex), there’s no doubt it would have turned into a mini- dance party.
De Novo Dahl debuted in 2005 with Cats & Kittens, a double album on which every song appeared twice in altered form. The new album is being touted favorably as a more focused and slightly more constrained offering, but one that keeps the best elements of Cats & Kittens. Lead vocalist and guitarist Joel J. Dahl croons his way up and over each melodic crest and trough as Matthew Hungate deftly trips his way up and down the keyboard, all the while ducking, dodging, spinning and sliding like a male Fly Girl on steroids. Serai Zaffiro on omnichord adds another layer of atmospheric sound and movement. She’s easy on the eyes as well, with a cool nonchalance interrupted occasionally by bursts of energy when the music calls for it. Each band member contributes to vocals at one point or another.
This is a band who are comfortable playing together. Their music is very detailed, with lots of rhythm changes and interesting flourishes, and their performance, both visually and musically, is very tight and impressive. They clearly enjoy themselves and don’t take things too seriously. At one point during last night’s show, Dahl broke a guitar string during a song. When the song was over, Hungate entertained us with the Broken String Song while Dahl tied another one on. It was great stuff.
The silver lining was only slightly diminished by the brevity of the performance. The band had played only about 45 minutes when they finished up. After some prompting from the “crowd”, they did two more, including one from the first album that apparently is rarely performed these days. Then it was all over as quickly and abruptly as it had begun. We were left wanting more.
Let’s hope another senseless tragedy is averted by booking De Novo Dahl on a better night of the week when they come back through town. Or maybe I should say if they come back through town.
In the meantime, you can check them out here.
-G
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