Riding high off the recent release of their brilliantly named sophomore album, You Will Never Be Younger Than You Are Now, local lads Dancing Heals played Fitzroy’s The Workers Club on the final stop of an eight-date tour.
After being ably supported by Brave Face, Mu-Gen, and Dan & Amy the crowd were in a buoyant mood by the time the Melbourne natives sauntered onstage.
Being a hometown show, the audience was understandably filled with many friends and family, meaning the cheers, screams and sing-alongs were just that little bit louder.
Having wasted no time since releasing their long-awaited debut record Into The Night to generous reviews in June last year, the band were back in the studio the week it was released working on the follow up according to joint frontman Dan Trakell.
Despite the undeniable quality of their first release, it feels like the band has grown ten years as songwriters in the space of mere months. You Will Never Be Younger Than You Are Now is an accomplished, polished effort that is accessible from the first listen while also being incredibly layered.
The four-piece kicked it off with the new album opener ‘Raise The Dead’, a six minute song that progresses and evolves as it blossoms into one of the best tracks the band have written.
This song showed those who have already listened to the new disc that they have no problems at all in capturing that atmospheric indie-pop sound off the record that is all too often hard to replicate live.
With the set list drawing almost exclusively from the new album, as an album launch should, the crowd had ample opportunity to see the new songs performed live for the first time. Given the new material has been out only a matter of weeks, it was greeted incredibly warmly, more so than the older jams in fact.
‘Laura’, the most riff-heavy track the band has penned was a particular favourite with the crowd and soon garnered the room’s undivided attention. ‘Get Up’ was a set highlight due to the thoroughly effective use of double lead vocals from Dan and fellow singer/guitarist Jon-Lee Farrell, who were both vocally on point for the entire gig.
Softer numbers such as ‘Always On My Mind’ and ‘Until The Next Time’ changed the pace, giving the evening a varied feel and served to showcase the band’s versatility.
Their set consisted of no more than two or three songs off their first album, the highlight of which being the sultry bliss that is ‘Live & Learn’. They finished their regular set with ‘I Don’t Feel It’ before promptly returning to the stage briefly to perform a cover.
Dancing Heals showed off their impeccable musicianship time and time again during the show, and with effortless cool. Thus making it an undeniably enjoyable experience for the Workers Club crowd on a Saturday night.
