Photo: WENN
Last night dEUS played to an eager crowd, distinctly made up of Belgian fans – or they were French speaking at least; the Belgian is an assumption drawn from knowledge of dEUS’ cult like significance in their home country. That’s the thing about dEUS: they’re a seminal band (inspiring Muse, Elbow, Radiohead and REM), but you might never have heard of them, depending on where you’re from.
The crowd last night was definitely in on the secret, and were treated to an impressive performance. They made full use of the spectrum of their discography – both chronologically and stylistically. They opened with ‘Via’ and followed by ‘The Architect’ and ‘Constant Now’. The lack of cohesion is disarming and the crowd was suitably seduced. The music morphs from nostalgic 90s strumming, to sentimentality not dissimilar to The National, to eccentric blues, topped off with a Tom Waits-esque lyricism.
They moved unrelentingly from track to track, keen to maintain momentum. Frontman Tom Barman can pull off a range of emotions and energies on stage akin to the range of the set list, but is at his best when they were indulging in their obvious fondness for raucous instrumentals. For a band which has had such a changing line-up – dEUS has had more than a dozen members – they displayed a solid togetherness; Barman seeming to compliment his bandmates throughout.
Perhaps the fluidity of the line-up hasn’t allowed the members to grow weary of one another, egos have remained grounded and uninflated; they are all about the music.
If you didn’t know what to expect with dEUS, this mismatched array could seem a bit offbeat or unrefined, but the devoted nature of the fans last night was clear, demonstrative of the following dEUS cultivated in the 90s and whose loyalty they have maintained by consistently producing inquisitive and multi-faceted albums. Barman knows it: “dEUS has been here 20 years, and so have you”.
.jpg)
