Dad Rocks!
Acoustic centred Icelandic Dad Rocks! is currently enjoying a spell of UK tour dates with rising stars Tall Ships. The Sheffield date of the tour has already seen the audience treated to an onstage collaboration with 6001 Hulls the young talent responsible for his label, Father Figure Records, latest release, an EP of remixes that mash up the songs from his album Mount Modern. 6001 Hulls played guitar and laptop for one song from this EP entitled AC!D DORKS which reportedly went down a storm.
Dad Rocks! plays an early afternoon show today, in a different venue to that which Tall Ships headline later on, to a attentive crowd in Manchester's lovely Kraak Gallery with a magnificent backing band which excerts great control of volume between themselves. This use of dynamics, impossible to achieve in solo shows as Dad Rocks!, stands well beside Snaevar Njall Albertsson's use of impressive picking. This is made all the more remarkable when you consider how tight they are given that they first played all together in May, and the fact they do not have a drummer, nor anyone playing rhythm, to hold them together. Snaevar attributes this to having played with the (double) bassist for a long time and sharing a good musical understanding.
There are only five onstage tonight but I am reliably informed that Dad Rocks! performances fluctuate between a one man show all the way up to a nine piece backing band according to budget and availability. Even more reason to see this act, today sounding full and rich, multiple times. The English half of tonights band on viola and trumpet add colour to a set comprised entirely of songs off Mount Modern, apart from early single Nothing Keeps On, the one-shot video which served as a charming introduction to Snaevar's thoughtful songs for many.
Free download Battle Hymn of the Fox Father sounds classic and modern at the same time and the sound is so well mixed that you could easily close your eyes and be fooled into believing you are listening to a record. The quiet but receptive atmosphere seems perfect for the beautiful rendition of Pants, less beautifully introduced as a song about "my son's diapers and shit", which is essentially about the worries of being unfit to be a father. It starts with vocals alone and with the rest of the band joining in with the calming "oohs" the music is caressing like a lullabye. The biggest crowd that this venue pulls today at 'A Carefully Planned Festival' is rewarded for their attention by a grateful band who deliver a flawless set.