Deer Tick LIVE @ The Borderline 1.10.13

Walking into the basement of the Soho venue for the first time it instantly reminded me of a slightly smarter version of the 100 Club with a similar dated looking mahogany bar but thankfully minus those annoying pillars. As I started sipping my first bottle of lager it wasn’t long before the band hit the stage to greet their hardcore following of Londoners in what was a packed out Tuesday night gig.

The band from Rhode Island started strongly and looked eager to entertain an attentive crowd who were clearly familiar with their music and it wasn’t long before I gave a little nod of appreciation in the direction of my mate Dave standing next to me. A few tracks in and they were looking good with some promising tunes. However this didn’t last throughout the set and the boredom started to creep in as they played some dreary, repetitive and dare I say it irritating numbers mid set.  Although there is a place for the slower, intense numbers in the set there is also a limit and I would say Deer Tick needed a bit more variation.

This is not to down cast the gig however and there was plenty of good musicianship on show with my highlights including the catchy and energetic “The Bump” the melodic “Art Isn’t Real (City of Sin)” and the powerful vocals on “Main Street” .

Overall it was a mixed gig for me of easy listening folk, some upbeat fun tunes (that were hard not to enjoy) and the odd dreary shouting mess. The main highlight for me was the crowd’s enthusiasm for their music, clearly enjoying the moment; surely what going to see your favourite band is all about?