The Dandy Warhols preview

The Dandy Warhols
Vic Theatre, Chicago
Friday, September 12, 2008

It’s a truism that when a band think it perfectly normal to lyrically celebrate their drug of choice, self-indulgence is right around the corner.

Welcome to Earth To The Dandy Warhols (Worlds Fair). Seventy-minutes long, with songs drowning in reverb, psychedelia, and general musical backwash and vocals that are double-triple-quintillion-tracked, the Dandys’ sixth album is a veritable definition of self-indulgence. That doesn’t necessarily make for a hopeless album. The Dandys don’t know how not to write catchy, and there’s something to be admired in fearless experimentation, even when that experimentation results in the nasty, something’s-died-in-the-fridge “Musee D’Nougat.” “Wasp In the Lotus” and “Mis Amigos” are old-style Dandy fun, helped immeasurably by the presence of actual melodies. But when each overblown song bleeds into the next, with nary a shake-up in tone to differentiate the switch, after awhile this album becomes one long, exhausting slog through sonic muck. The Dandys have released five other, better albums (yes, even Odditorium). Stick with those.

Darker My Love and The Upsidedown open.

— M.S. Dodds

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly