The Dentists and The Claim at Dingwalls London - or what I did on my vacation

Rock never takes a holiday, or is it that even holidays in my mind must rock? So how convenient was it that while in London last week one of my very favorite bands of all time, The Dentists elected to reform for a pair of shows? Flying in from the US I felt I'd made quite the effort (only other Yank in attendance appeared to be fellow Dental fanatic the delightful Mr. Bob Wall), but probably not as much as Dentist vocalist Mick Murphy who'd come all the way from Kenya to reunite with his ex-bandmates for just a few frantic days of rehearsal before the big show.

Here's a compliment I never get to pay - Dingwalls is AN EXCELLENT CLUB. First off the sound system is great so you can actually hear the bands, rather than a lot of garble, second the floor of the venue is comprised of a bunch of terraces, so it's 15 feet - a step up - 15 feet - a step up - etc. so even a short gal like me can see from nearly everywhere. As for drink prices, if someone else is buying they are excellent as well. Dingwalls, will you please open a venue at the end of my block?

The Claim were on first, a band who I had never heard before but who I'd been assured by fellow aging indie-poppers was decidedly worth checking out. And since it had been about 20 yrs since they split up, well, what better time than now? The set felt a bit same-y, but to the (almost entirely male and 40 yrs +) fans in the venue (including Harvey from The Field Mice who is apparently the neighbor of the friend I attended the show with) the geezer pop enthusiasm was obscenely high and at regular intervals that excitement was entirely warranted, as below, with the sparkling version of "Do You Still Feel"



As for The Dentists, it would be hard to maintain much journalistic integrity due to my longtime devotion to the band. Safe to say the set covered all the bases. A good hour of songs covering many years of Dentistry, easily displaying why the band were leaders rather than followers when it came to heartfelt turn of the 90's neo-psychedelic jangle pop. A few things about the set did make me sad though: one was drummer Ian Smith missing the drum fill in "She Dazzled Me With Basil" (picky, picky, picky, aren't I?), the other was upon hearing tunes like "Weirdo", and "Space Man" realizing how much they totally rocked live, but hadn't been captured quite as strongly on CD. At least the video below can serve to stand witness to some of that.

















An excellent night out with these two reunited bands. Shame one has to buy a pricey airplane ticket to make the scene. How sad am I that I missed seeing The Undertones in London just a week later? It seems I'm going to have to take a lot more holidays....