Doves Make Their Return To Canada

Last night Doves ventured back to Toronto for the first time in four years, touring in support of newest release Kingdom Of Rust.

You'd expect some rust given their lengthy hiatus, but the band were in perfect form. They even apologized for bringing the cool, damp U.K. weather with them. But they really should have apologized for openers Wild Light.

Wild Light are a handsome, albeit boring New Hampshire indie pop band, who are best known for employing one ex-member of Arcade Fire (Tim Kyle) and one ex-roommate of Win Butler (Jordan Alexander). The band suffered from some pretty unfortunate mixing that rendered Alexander's guitar almost entirely inaudible.

After playing opening stints for Arcade Fire, The Stills, The Killers and now Doves, it's evident Wild Light don't have the songwriting chops to play anything but second fiddle. And as they sang the final notes of their set, "...I've got a long way to go, I'm a long way from home," all I could think was that truer words have rarely been spoken.

A grainy Super-8 video of an airplane taking off played on a massive screen that backdropped the stage as Doves entered, gave a humble wave hello, then dove into "Jetstream," Kingdom Of Rust's first single.

I was glad to hear the shotgun blast kick drum and dark, rumbling bass that were mostly absent from Kingdom Of Rust are still very much present in their live sound. There was a vomit-inducing THUMP THUMP THUMP that threw back to the band's Madchester days (they met in Factory Records founder Tony Wilson's legendary Hacienda Club) in The Last Broadcast's "Pounding," which was met with cheers and rhythmic handclapping. Some joker near me decided to clap on the 2-4 instead of the 1-3 and was mocked mercilessly.

The band reached into their back catalogue quite a bit and did an oh-so-brief disco cover of "9 To 5," but thankfully steered mostly clear of 2005's Some Cities, and only played "Snowden" and crowd favourite "Black And White Town" as Jimi Goodwin — complete with his lazy esses and reverb-laden baritone — commanded a sing along "You should follow me down/There's no colour and no sound/In the black and white town" to which the crowd responded emphatically.

Four years without a show and two underwhelming albums is no way to gain an audience, but Doves played a show tailored to a room full of their diehard fans and it was an absolute success.

Here is Doves' setlist:

"Jetstream"
"Snowden"
"Winter Hill"
"Rise"
"Pounding"
"Almost Forgot Myself"
"10:03"
"Words"
"The Greatest Denier"
"Kingdom Of Rust"
"Ambition"
"Black & White Town"
"The Outsiders"
"Caught By The River"

Encore:
"The Cedar Room"
"Here It Comes"
"The Last Broadcast"
"There Goes The Fear"

Check out our photos of the show here.