The Duke Spirit

Echo - March 5, 2008

Live Review and Photographs by Alexis Roberts

The Duke Spirit is just what the music scene needs right now. They are new to our American ears but have been around the block, having released a full-length and several EPs already in the UK. Now that their sophomore album, Neptune, is hitting shelves in the US and the UK, there’s quite a bit of buzz surrounding them. They managed to sell out their show at the Echo and draw a crowd of curious indie rock aficionados trying to figure out what all of the hype is about, as well as a surfeit of rock n’ roll stars from bands like Oasis, Queens of the Stone Age, Silversun Pickups and BRMC, thusly proving themselves to be truly a “band's band”.

Playing to a sold out crowd seemed to really heighten their energy and give them that extra push to go all out. Liela Moss, their pixie-esque frontwoman, came out sporting a fantastic ensemble complete with black knee high patent leather boots, and a white button down top with a gold lamé collar and feathers. Fashion over function, friends, fashion over function. Although functionality isn’t really an issue as long as you can belt melodies like she can… and dance, and boy did she dance with the grace of a trained ballerina in between wailing on the harmonica and shaking her tambourine. 

Charismatic and animated, Moss led the band through a very lively set featuring mostly songs off of the new album. Seeing as how The Duke Spirit are still rather new to us, there wasn’t a whole lot of audience interaction- but as there are at every show, you had the people up front faking the lyrics to every song. When the band launched into "Cuts Across the Land," the title track of their first full length, it got a great response but not the kind of response from a crowd that knew the song... it was the response a crowd gives to an effective up-tempo song (whether they know the song or not). They closed with "Love is an Unfamiliar Name," which, up until now, had been the song that most people knew them for. Now with the release of Neptune the newcomers seem to be familiar with these new songs and are slightly unaware that The Duke Spirit has been around for a few years now. Trouble with record labels and promotion had left their CDs unreleased in the US so the people who knew about them were mostly friends from other bands and those music fans that tend to dig deeper into the world of small music blogs for their musical recommendations.

Lucky for us The Duke Spirit have found themselves a happy home at a new US label. This means all of their older albums will eventually be released in the US, and that we are going to see a lot more of them touring around the US as well. So if you missed their one night take-over of the Echo you need not fret, odds are you’ll be seeing them again very soon.