Herman Dune/Julie Doiron - DC9 - Nov 3 2009

Julie Doiron - Ms. Doiron plays folk songs with an electric guitar and no one else until the last couple songs when the headlining duo join in. She commented more than once that a certain song would sound better with a full band, and I did agree with her on some songs. However, the set was still successful on its own as she had a good voice that was cute but not ever too cloying or precocious. She also claimed she talked too much and indeed went on to prove that. The songs were good, probably above average if I were to see 100 acts like this. Nice opener that set the stage well for what was to come.

Herman Dune - Herman Dune was a duo featuring David-Ivar Herman Dune on electric guitar and vocals with a drummer as sole support. Although, to return the favor, Ms. Doiron joined in for a couple songs late in the set. It was pretty clear to me that Mr. Dune writes some high quality songs and plays them with great touch and style. The guitar playing was quite good, sort of between Robyn Hitchcock and Billy Bragg with a few amped up breaks and solos and some nice almost flamenco/gypsy type picking on one song. Good variety and every song was easy to cling on to and listen to the finish. I can't always say that, unfortunately. I am not sure what level of success Herman Dune has here, Canada, or Europe, but I do not see how it cannot fail to grow with the clear accessible quality present. I will certainly return for the next DC gig.

Quote of the Night: Julie Doiron-- "Any requests? Yeah, how does that go... something like that... Well, that's more of a rocker... Well, how about this one, it's from the same record." And right after the song - "Geeze, I asked you guys for requests and you gave me five and I just played my choice."