THE DODO’S///
ULU, LONDON ///
WORDS: JOSH JONES ///
PHOTOS: DAN WILTON///

When the band that were the toast of this year’s SXSW actually started their set in London’s ULU venue, it was so soft and quiet, no one in the bar (which was pretty much everyone) actually noticed. Gradually, as the sound built, people dragged each other away from the booze and scampered to the stage. The San Fransicans, started out playing the show in the band’s original line-up: Meric Long and Logan Kroeber. Long on guitar on the left and Kroeber bashing a bunch of percussion on the right and they kept the crowd rapt with their music.
The duo soon became a trio onstage, joined by third and recent recruit Joe Haener and the ominous sound gradually built from a disco whisper to a thunderous tribal rumble. If you could imagine a rhino running towards you on a very long metal roof, then you’re getting the idea.

Watching them is like watching some kind of primeval jam session with Haener walloping metal and shit while the other two rinsed out their instruments and suddenly it was like Fuck! This is just like a fun-size Arcade Fire right in front of me! But.. but… Then they stopped and introduced themselves. It delighted the crowd, and everyone whooped and hollered that ‘it was great for them to be playing in London’, but the momentum they’d created instantly dissipated into the airy roof of this student haunt. From that pause the gig never really recovered its initial power, although Haener was constantly moving around his metal-shop built xylophone, "with a touch of Animal from the Muppets," photographer Dan Wilton noted. Maybe they were a bit tired from it being the last day of their tour, but it wasn’t until the first song of the encore, when they burst back into the powerful thumping that had happened early on, that The Dodo’s were back to life fully.You really should go catch this band.