Review: The Dream Syndicate, The Fleece – ‘Every song a stone-cold classic’

1980s Los Angeles seemed like a very long way from 1980s England. Sunshine. Glamour. Colours. All sorts of things that we seemed to lack really.

1980s Los Angeles also had this really cool bunch of bands. The Three O’Clock, The Bangles, Rain Parade and The Dream Syndicate.

These four bands made up the core of the Paisley Underground and three of those bands were represented as part of the Bristol Beacon Presents programme.

You have to pinch yourself.

Matt Piucci and Stephen Roback make up an acoustic version of Rain Parade tonight and, as support bands go, they are damn near perfect.

Old favourites are glorious; What She’s Done to Your Mind taken from the ’83 classic, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip, is a masterclass in jangle-y indie pop. It is delightfully tuneful and slightly ragged round the edges, just like the best pop music should be.

There are new ones too, taken from their forthcoming album, that also have a Revolver-era Beatles flavour to them. Even on first listen, they don’t pale in comparison with the classics.

For a band that has just celebrated the 40th anniversary of their debut, the irredeemable cult cool of Days of Wine and Roses, it seems astonishing that this is the first time The Dream Syndicate have actually, properly toured the UK.

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It takes about 30 seconds for the band to warm up and then you’re pitched into the heart of something ecstatic, something so simple, something deeply joyful.

Whilst their debut might be the album that’s revered, The Dream Syndicate have been insanely consistent and tracks are taken from right across their catalogue tonight.

Where I’ll Stand is taken from the latest album, Ultraviolet Battle Hymns and True Confessions, and is a delicious slice of Velvets-y garage rock.

The glacial guitar lines are picked out by a member of the third Paisley Underground band represented this evening; Vicki Peterson is from The Bangles but there’s no way in which she seeks to pull attention from the main event.

Instead, she just adds an effortless cool and plays the perfect foil to Steve Wynn’s occasional dash of guitar flash. Slide Away, from Out of the Grey, is a proper ba-ba-ba pop tune whilst That’s What You Always Say is, simply, the sound of a great rock band having huge amounts of fun.

Obviously, it helps that there’s a killer tune lurking in amongst it all but still, if this is what happens when you wait for 40 years to see these songs, it’s definitely worth it.

Tell Me When It’s Over, Medicine Show and Halloween get enormous ovations. Every one a stone-cold classic, every one greeted with the biggest smiles.

Peterson drops scruffy, beautiful guitar lines all over the place, Dennis hammers away on drums with Mark Walton’s groovily thrashed bass working in counterpoint to Steve Wynn, front and centre, and his intense, vital vocal. It’s the most beautiful noise.

Before you’ve had a moment to think, it’s encore time. Four songs. Four moments of magic.

Hero Takes a Fall is an old Bangles song but this version is taken from the brilliant 3×4 album of a few years ago (all four Paisley bands covering three of each other’s tracks).

Peterson adds harmonies to her own song and it’s a celebration of friendship. She then sings Too Little, Too Late, from Days of Wine and Roses. It’s slower than almost everything else tonight but her vocals are perfect.

By this stage the band had expanded to take in both members of Rain Parade too – it’s a Paisley Rolling Revue. The six of them attack a wonderfully chiming You’re My Friend (originally a Rain Parade song but taken from 3×4) and then end with a brilliant version of Television’s Glory.

In some ways this was a history lesson – a reminder of 80s America that we never saw – but it was the best history lesson ever, full of fun and pointing to the future.

Main photo: Gavin McNamara

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