To see the Dodos perform live is exciting and exhausting. The video for their song “Fools” from their 2008 album, Visiter [sic], presents the band in a black room with a single sunrise glow from beneath. From the gate, the video shows the two band members in the heat of full performance while they rip apart an acoustic guitar and drum kit. Meric Long sings outward and upward, as in fits of exhalation. The drummer, Logan Kroeber, straps tambourines to his feet to make certain that the energy from every extremity results in sound. The camera often zooms in uncomfortably close on Kroeber’s sweat-filled mustache, just in case you had any doubt about how hard they work. To watch them is cathartic, even if you are merely standing nearby.
The Dodos are two dudes from San Francisco who have recorded a no-brakes interpretation of American folk since 2006. In ten years, they’ve recorded six albums, each of a style of music that is all their own. They had a third member, Chris Reimer, who joined the band in 2011, but who prematurely passed away a year later at the age of 26. Reimer’s fusion with the band, and sudden departure, changed the band permanently.
The Dodos’ music is quixotically intense. Once, I saw them perform on a doggedly hot summer night at a slum bar in Columbus with no air conditioning. The show ended with Long smashing a metal garbage can against a brick wall with as much pent-up frustration as performance. After another show, in Detroit, Long gave me the “one second” finger while he collected his thoughts and packed away his equipment. His “one second” never ended, as he failed to even look up again as he loaded into his van and drove off. The Dodos, for better or worse, leave everything on the stage.
The band will perform this Thursday at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, a storied venue that has inexplicably frozen their drink costs at recession-era prices. Five well-spent dollars could get you a buzz.
The Dodos will presumably play a chunk of songs from their new album, Individ, that came out a few weeks ago. It is their best yet. Individ showcases the band’s intensity, but with a controlled grasp, like a spring being tightly wound and expelled. It is viscerally engaging, from the first to last track.
This Thursday, more than one person will try to air-drum to the album’s frantic first single, “Competition.” Someone will cry at the spiraling final crescendo of “Retriever.”* And the Dodos will play with every ounce they’ve got, ten years into a career that has built up enough kinetic energy to keep them from slowing down at any step along the way.
*(It will be me)
The Dodos with Springtime Carnivore. $13, 9pm, Thursday, March 5. The Blind Pig, 208 S. 1st St., Ann Arbor, MI.
