NewDad live in London: glorious gloom with a Cure cover for good measure
“This is fucking crazy, looking at you all here,” NewDad vocalist and guitarist Julie Dawson offers as a sold-out KOKO crowd wave back from the dizzying heights of the rafters. We’re here on the launch tour fresh from the Galway upstarts’ recent debut album, ‘Madra’. This hallowed room has seen much more established names pull much smaller and less fervent crowds, but there’s something in the intensity and intimacy of their shoegaze-meets-grunge sound that pulls people close.
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Resplendent all in white and with a ghostly forest backdrop – complete with creepy shadow-puppet goings on – NewDad are inviting you into their own wee universe. Opener ‘Angel’ has that ghostly yet warm knack borrowed from Robert Smith and co. Later in the night, they’ll deliver a cover of The Cure’s ‘Just Like Heaven’, delivered with a new lightness and noted as “one for all you 6 Music dads” – but we must also note the many teens opening moshpits for anything louder than a whisper.
Anyone who says there’s no interest from the new generation in actual bands can get to fuck. There’s a cult fanbase building here from the young hungry for something fresh, and latter generations who recognise a certain class passed down through their influences.
From the haze-y dream-pop of ‘Dream Of Me’ to the goth-y menace of ‘Sickly Sweet’, NewDad’s sound matches their arresting presence. “How you doing London?” asks drummer Fiachra Parslow with all the credence of a frontman as he beams from behind his wall of sound screens. “Just because I’m trapped in the fucking fish tank doesn’t mean you won’t listen to me!”
He’d later emerge from his prison to take centre stage and play bodhrán for ‘White Ribbons’, a track described by Dawson as capturing that feeling “after a ropey night out and you ask, ‘Oh no’, what have I done to myself?’”. Well, we’ve had a heady shot of something strong tonight. If this is what they can do with just over an hour, just wait to see what comes after their next record.
“‘Madra’ is Irish for ‘dog’,” says Dawson introducing the closing title track. “After three, I want to hear everyone’s best bark”. We give a noble effort, but KOKO’s bark is not as loud as its howl. This band have something special. Hold them as close as they hold you.
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Andrew Trendell
NME
