The Dismemberment Plan at the Electric Ballroom, London

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Live review: The Dismemberment Plan, Electric Ballroom

Published on November 27th, 2013 | Jonny Abrams

“It was just like being in an English football crowd,” says Travis Morrison, front man of The Dismemberment Plan, on attending the weekend’s fixture between Fulham and Swansea City.

On a day in which this writer had already spoken to Stephen Malkmus about Hull City, the image of Morrison and his remarkable band being witness to a Jonjo Shelvey screamer was almost too much to compute.

More cross-pollination between American indie greats and unglamourous Premier League sides, please!

The hearteningly sizeable crowd at Camden’s Electric Ballroom last night was decidedly un-football-fan-like in appearance, but the fervour with which they greeted the onslaught of D-Plan classics was one of sheer, elated union.

Generally it was numbers from seminal 1999 album Emergency & I that were received most rapturously, the anthemic stomp of “What Do You Want Me to Say?”, frenetic whirlwind of “Gyroscope”, synth-propelled liftoff of “The City” and utter, utter perfection of “You Are Invited” all eliciting mass singalongs.

Plenty of material from long-awaited new album Uncanney Valley was aired; “White Collar, White Trash” and “Daddy Was a Real Good Dancer” went over a treat, while “Waiting” is quite possibly the song of the year by anyone anywhere.

Tracks from !!!, The Dismemberment Plan is Terrified and Change were thin on the ground, but then there’s only so much time a band can be onstage for. In any case, an encore rendition of “The Ice of Boston” provoked scenes of euphoria verging on cup final winner.

We could bang on and on about why The Dismemberment Plan are so great, but we’ve already kind of done that on these pages. So let’s just comment on how gosh darn fantastic they were last night and get round to the quailing…

Rocksucker says: Four and a Half Quails out of Five!

a quail a quail a quail a quail half a quail

NOW: check out our interview with Travis Morrison

The Dismemberment Plan also play the following UK dates in November:

27th MANCHESTER – Academy 3
28th GLASGOW – Stereo
29th BRISTOL – Thekla
30th ATP – END OF AN ERA PART 2 – PONTINS, CAMBER SANDS

Artists: the dismemberment plan

About the Author

Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.