Gomez

Avalon - May 23, 2006

Live Review by Daniel Brody

You may half-remember Gomez as one of a bazillion Britpop bands in the late nineties.  But their concert at the Avalon turned out to be packed, with the sort of unabashed fandom and sincere energy that more popular and hip bands do not seem to incite.  All sorts of fans showed up; there were the Hollywood Barbie Dolls that seem to be at every show at the Avalon, the jam band girls with long flowing skirts dancing as if Phish was onstage, and the skinny, Anglophile-looking hipsters.  There were also a fair amount of attractive couples dancing and making out.  What was in the air?  I barely noticed this band still existed until I heard their new Radiohead-ish single on Indie 103.

Gomez’s sound was crisp and tight, and, accordingly, their best songs were the most concise.  It was when the band expanded into long, noodly instrumental passages that they sounded boring.  The band members were all over the stage, switching instruments, playing strange things like accordions, and grooving in place.  Three vocalists split the duties, but the best by far is Ben Ottewell, a husky bloke with a raspy and full-bodied voice to match.  You can hear the regret and the wonder of nostalgia in his voice; he sounds like he really lived through the songs he’s singing.  The material off their latest album, How We Operate, fit seamlessly with the rest of the set, and Gomez seems like a band still peaking and making music as good as the rest of their career.  New songs like “Girlshapedlovedrug” and “Hamoa Beach” are bouncy and happy-go-lucky, not really coloring outside the lines but not annoyingly derivative either.  If Gomez was a friend of yours, he would be a little stiff, maybe it would be difficult to break him out of his shy shell, but he’s dependable and his car gets good gas mileage.

The crowd loved every second, and kept drinking, shouting, singing, and dancing, having a much better time than I did, or could even imagine having.  It was a fun-loving yet well-behaved cult of fans, and they appeal to such a diverse crowd that you may want to check them out next time around just to see if you’re on their wavelength.