City and Colour @ o2 Institute, 29th October 2023
For me City and Colour has always been about the vocals of Dallas Green, simple as. Tonight was no exception. From the moment the band started those vocals were the focal point of the show. They’re haunting, they’re powerful and the tone is phenomenal. I’m not one of those audience members who watches the show through their phone (and thankfully neither were most of tonight’s crowd), but if you’ve not heard Dallas Green sing before then his performance of Alice In Chains track ‘Rain When I Die’ for MoPOP is the one you need to hear.
Dallas Green’s lyrics are just as potent as his voice. The combination of those lyrics sung by his vocal brought tears to my eyes in song one, verse one (the first of at least three times during the show!). At that point it was the line “The sun kept on rising so I played along” from ‘Meant To Be’, but so many of his lyrics grab the feeling of a moment in time and suddenly punch you in the heart with it.
The show opened with ‘Meant To Be’ – a track from the new City and Colour album The Love Still Held Me Near, released just a few months ago. There weren’t a great deal of songs from that album on the setlist though. There were plenty of classics from the back catalogue including ‘Hello, I’m In Delaware’ and ‘Comin’ Home’ from the first City and Colour album Sometimes, released back in 2005.
The band consists of five members on this tour, including the fantastic Matt Kelly who has been with City and Colour more than 10 years, and co-produced the current album. He played multiple instruments tonight, all of them very impressively. The band worked well together and sung some great harmonies on tracks like ‘Underground’ and ‘Weightless’. Behind them they played a digital screen show that included abstract shapes, stained glass windows and enlarged live video clips of Dallas during the performance.
Green changed guitars multiple times throughout the gig, and also had two mics, one for distortion. He talked about how difficult it is to be a young artist in the music industry these days – support act Ruby Waters is his younger sister – and asked everyone to think about being kinder to each other. It was rumoured to be his birthday, however he said “Wikipedia must have it wrong”. Maybe he just doesn’t like his birthday.
The main part of the show closed out with ‘Bow Down To Love’ from the new album, and it was here that Green’s vocals were at their most impressive. He returned for the first song in the encore by himself, before slowly bringing back the rest of the band for singalong tracks ‘Lover Come Back’ and ‘Sleeping Sickness’.
There are a few more UK dates on the current tour before the band head to Canada for a run of home shows.
Setlist
- Meant to Be
- Northern Blues
- Thirst
- The Love Still Held Me Near
- Two Coins
- We Found Each Other in the Dark
- Weightless
- Underground
- Astronaut
- If I Should Go Before You
- The Water is Coming
- Waiting…
- Hello, I’m in Delaware
- Bow Down to Love
………………………………
- Northern Wind
- Comin’ Home
- Lover Come Back
- Sleeping Sickness
Review: Chrissie Duxson
Photographs: Ian Dunn
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