DMA's
It’s been yet another anthemic night, with one classic DMA song after another
I have to confess that the DMA’s have become a bit of an obsession of mine since 2020 (I was a late comer to their party)! I have now seen them live seven times in the past six years, such is their rich appeal to me and it’s an absolute thrill to once again have them back in Norfolk. It’s a county where they are always welcomed back with open arms by their growing army of followers and they have readily acknowledged that they always enjoy revisiting the area, and four gigs in those six years on our home turf confirm that.
Tonight, is in the main a celebration of their debut album Hills End, which was first released some ten years ago now, and a decade on it still sounds as fresh as it did back then. It gave them a fantastic base from which to work from and with the following three albums that have preceded it they have maintained those same remarkable lofty standards, as each album possesses such a rich depth of undoubted quality.
But it’s on the live circuit that the band really excel as they consistently bring out the absolute best from their growing catalogue of songs.
It’s an almost full house tonight and support act, fellow countrymen (and women), Salarymen from Sydney, have caught my eyes and ears this evening and I have to say that it’s been a while since I have said that about a support band. Made up of Renee de la Motte and Thomas Eagleton they are very pleasing on the ears and visually they are a good watch too (such is the chemistry), ably supported by an excellent lead guitarist and drummer too, they are currently promoting their own debut album, Take It Or Leave It, following on from previous tour slots working with Royal Otis and several gigs in Japan. They most certainly have the looks, image, vocals and the tunes to boot and I suspect that we will be seeing and hearing more from them in the future.
Back to the main act, and what an amazing set list we are in for tonight as Hills End gets played out as per the albums track listing in sequential order. The Norwich show follows hot on the heels of two sold out performances on consecutive nights at Nottingham’s iconic Rock City venue and reading the reviews from those shows, just confirm what we already know, we are in for a real treat tonight.
It’s banger after banger with Timeless, Lay Down and Play It Out ensuring that the mosh pit gets rather frenzied on occasion, even resulting in some brief fisticuffs that are soon brought to an abrupt end by the ever vigilant security staff, who with no messing around deploy tactics that everyone was more than pleased to see put to good effect as they rather deservedly frog march the said culprit out of the building and everyone immediately picks up where they left off thirty seconds ago .
Delete and Step Up The Morphine see’s the crowds’ arms joyfully waving in the air, pointing to the sky, and singing at the top of their voices in a dream like state, it’s an electrifyingly brilliant moment. Even the more mellow tracks such as In The Moment, Melbourne and Blown Away, has the masses still in fine voice.
It’s been yet another anthemic night, with one classic DMA song after another and this fully extends into the six song encore as we get treated to new songs Heatin Park and My Baby’s Place, both go down extremely well with the audience as they seamlessly fit right in with the rest of the set. Tape Deck Sick, Silver, Olympia and Feel Like 37 more than help to round off a perfect evening at the UEA.
The atmosphere this evening throughout the entire gig has been off the scale, right down to the masses screaming for that said encore, it’s how gigs used to be down here back in the day, but rather sadly not a sight that you get to witness so much these days, with audiences knowing that the act will probably come back on stage after the main show has been completed whatever the reaction to the show, so why bother to shout out for said finale? But at a DMA’s gig, such is the atmosphere in the building, that they, the fans demand that their musical heroes once again grace the stage. The legend that is Nick Rayns would have been so thrilled to have witnessed this great occasion, which must surely go down as one of the greatest gigs ever to be held here at this fine venue.
Album number four is recorded and ready to go, with a scheduled release date of August of this year and judging by the two tracks that have been released so far, we are in for another album treat.
The DMA’s are one extremely special band, always on such great form, their audience appeal ranges from late teens to admirers in their sixty plus years and there aren’t many bands that can claim to have such a diverse age of fan, with each and every single one of us (including the band, by the look of it) having an absolute ball, singing at the top of our voices throughout the eighteen song set.
My oh my, what a formidable band. Hopefully, we may get lucky and see them around here once again before the end of the year when they may well be touring their new album? We can but hope that we should be so lucky.
D, D, DMA’s, D, D, DMA’s……
