Last time I saw a drum machine used at a gig was by Karaoke Ken in the Bali Brasserie, so I was a bit dubious when Her’s started the warm up set for Dutch Uncles at The Haunt with something that approximated the beat that you get out of those old plastic Yamaha keyboards. Any fears were quickly allayed as it soon became apparent that the two-piece were a sweet mix of talent and taste, bearing favourable comparisons to New Order and The Strokes. They rattled through an eight or nine song set in next to no time, finishing by sitting either end of the stage to indulge in a bit of freeform improvisation, totally at odds with what preceded, but nevertheless really quite impressive and enjoyable.

Ever since reviewing ‘Big Balloon’, I’ve been looking forward to seeing Dutch Uncles perform it at a no frills venue with a good, loud PA. The Haunt “does” guitar bands very well and this gig certainly didn’t disappoint.

20 seconds after launching into ‘Baskin’ virtually everything I’d hoped for had been delivered. Dutch Uncles were precise and full of punch, ripping through the krautrock stomp of ‘Baskin’ and after playing together for the last ten years, there’s a powerful unity to their performance. What’s more, in frontman, Duncan Wallis, they have a genuinely funny and engaging focal point who’s equally at home playing insanely complex piano as he is dancing like a loon or regaling the audience with his opinions on hollandaise sauce or whatever else pops into his head. He was keen to point out that the band had made more mistakes on this tour than any other, but that they’d also had more fun. That comment resonated, as the fun they were having was both palpable and infectious.

Five albums down the line, Dutch Uncles have a huge amount of quality material to choose from with songs from all five making an appearance. ‘I Owe Someone For Everything’ was introduced as the first track they ever recorded and made a lasting impression. Forged in the Uncles’ unique template of prog and funk, it’s amazing to think this was the first thing they committed to tape. Another oldie, ‘Dressage’, a cut from second album, Cadenza was employed as a stirring final encore; whipping out over the crowd like a gigantic tornado of energy. Both proved that Dutch Uncles have clearly always been a great band.

Songs taken from last album, Big Balloon all came across really well. ‘Oh Yeah’ and ‘Streetlight’ are super compositions plain and simple, but injected with the extra energy of a live performance and pumped out loud, they were divine. A special mention must be reserved for ‘Same Plane Dream’, a Cardiacs-influenced piece of relentless riffage that builds and builds getting funkier and funkier, madder and madder – totally off the chain. Fan favourites, ‘Babymaking’ and ‘Upsilon’, both from fourth album, O Shudder were also high points with the former sounding like a tripped out Hounds of Love and ‘Upsilon’ being lifted step by step to a sonic level that very few bands are capable of achieving.

However, I have a soft spot for third album, Out Of Touch In The Wild and clearly the band do, too. ‘Bellio’, ‘Fester’ and ‘Flexin’ all combined intricacies with primal basslines and beats – something for the head and to quicken the pulse. Perhaps the most impressive was ‘Threads’, a number that XTC would have been proud of, involving a two man attack on a xylophone. As Wallis played the bottom half of the instrument the wrong way round or upside down (he was face to face with guitarist Pete Broadhead playing it the right way round), he wryly raised an eyebrow in the manner of Roger Moore as if to say “this is all in a day’s work”.
Adam Atkins

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