Leaving Wembley Wondering
Sauntering onto the stage looking every inch the stereotypical rock band, all tight shirts and even tighter trousers, Dirty Pretty Things certainly look like they mean business but then looks can be deceiving.
Opening with 'Bang Bang You're Dead' Carl Barat and his gang add a certain degree of oomph to proceedings, even managing to get a bit of crowd participation but it's a spark that fizzles out before it really gets started as poor sound overshadows the band making for a muffled performance at best. Ploughing through the majority of debut album Waterloo To Anywhere, DPT deliver jabs of chugging, stuttering rock that anywhere else probably offer up a nice dose of swaggering, snarling rock brimming with scathing riffs but on the vast stage at Wembley Stadium everything seems tinny, vocals are mumbled and completely lost on those up in the gods who merely manage to catch snippets of 'Doctors And The Dealers' and have to strain to hear 'Wondering'. Indeed wondering is exactly what most are left doing, scratching their heads as they try to figure out who Barat and co.are calling "blood thirsty bastards" before the sound clears slightly to reveal that they actually singing the song with the same name.
If sound was the only fault with DPT's set than the band themselves could almost be forgiven, able to pass the buck to the Stadium acoustics or their own sound guy but sadly even DPT themselves have to share some of the blame. For a band that at times has been on fire live, Wembley simply wasn't for them on Saturday. At times showing signs of hope as energy levels rose, DPT gave hints to what they were capable of but these were few and far between with even 'Deadwood' receiving a mere lukewarm reception from the now thinning crowd.
They may have been a mere support band but for DPT Saturday was a chance to play Wembley Stadium, a chance many hoped they would embrace for what it was but addled with technical problems DPT seemed to simply want to get things over and done, a thought that sadly was shared by much of the audience as well.