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Lemonheads Live

Lemonheads made a welcome return to London as they played a headlining show at Indigo2.

The band had a less than dramatic entrance as they came on stage whilst the background music was still playing, catching the sound tech off guard, Dando instructed “Turn the music off.” Before adding, “Turn the music back on.” A quick tune up, and The Lemonheads were ready for action and launched into Hospital which was followed by the ever popular Down About It.

The band were loud and on point, Dando’s vocals were as strong as they were in his early years; and he had no issues showing off his impressive vocal range, which was a pleasure to see after hearing him lose his voice to the likes of crack and heroin. Dando’s voice was so strong that you would never would had thought it had been a struggle for him to belt out a tune.

The Lemonheads’ audience was adoring, and the songs, as ever, had the perfect blend of grunge and pop sensibilities. Bassist Jen Turner looked out of place on stage, not because she is a woman, but because she was like an excitable puppy, jumping around all over the place and flailing her hair around as though she was performing with a heavy metal band. To give credit where credit is due; Turner played well and her backing vocals were great but she could do with toning down the OTT theatrics.

Highlights of the night included It’s A Shame About Ray, Great Big No and Rudderless , and the aforementioned Down About It although it was a shame that the sound in the venue wasn’t that great.

All that was missing from this nostalgic trip at Indigo2, was a live rendition of Mrs Robinson which it seemed like a lot of people were expecting to hear in the bands encore.