Dawes Brings Energetic Performance to Little Rock's Rev Room

by Julian Spivey
California folk rock group Dawes brought their fantastic sound and songwriting to Little Rock’s Rev Room on Tuesday, Jan. 31 as part of their “An Evening with Dawes” tour. And, when the group says ‘evening’ they truly mean the entirety of it with an on fire three hour set that featured more than 20 songs from their five studio albums.
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I was first introduced to Dawes in the fall of 2013 when they came to the Rev Room with one of my favorite singer-songwriters Jason Isbell as the opening act. I went to the Rev Room that night to see Isbell’s opening set, but left an immediate Dawes fan. I was captured by the group’s lyrics, stage presence and the way the audience lived and loved every performance. Since that night, they’ve become one of my favorite modern bands.

The group, led by front-man Taylor Goldsmith, seemed particularly amped during the entire show feeding off the crowd of loyal fans. Goldsmith told the packed club that Little Rock had been an important part of the band’s tour ever since the beginning in 2009.

Dawes kicked off the evening with the brilliant “One Of Us,” off their most recent release last year We’re All Gonna Die. I believe the song is the best track on the new album featuring Goldsmith’s knack for detailed lyricism. It was a great way to begin the show.

The group split the night into two sets, with a short break in between, and each set was killer – both featuring tracks from all their albums.

The first set happened to feature my three favorite Dawes songs – “A Little Bit of Everything,” “Fire Away” and “When My Time Comes.” The latter two songs featured the crowd taking over vocals at Goldsmith’s behest, which he seemed to enjoy thoroughly.

The first set also featured many solid tracks from We’re All Gonna Die including “Picture of a Man,” “Quitter” and “Less Than Five Miles Away,” which finished the opening set. The set also included fan-favorites like “That Western Skyline” and “Somewhere Along the Way.”

The entire group’s performances were flawless and the way Goldsmith commands the stage, bouncing around and seeming to love every single minute of it is infectious. Since I last saw Dawes the group has added guitarist Duane Betts, the son of legendary Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts, to share guitar duties with Goldsmith and it’s a fantastic addition.

The second set began with a couple of acoustic performances, including “Hey Lover” and “Roll Tide,” off the new release, which featured drummer Griff Goldsmith (Taylor’s brother) on lead vocals. Griff, who provides stellar backing vocals on many of the group’s best songs, showed that Taylor wasn’t the only great vocalist in the family.

The second set featured more great tracks from We’re All Gonna Die including “Roll with the Punches” and the pop-flavored, catchy “When the Tequila Runs Out,” which the audience really enjoyed. The set also featured a few more personal favorites of mine in “Things Happen,” from their 2015 release All Your Favorite Bands, and “From a Window Seat,” off 2013’s Stories Don’t End.

Dawes finished up their energetic show with the great 1-2-3 punch of “If I Wanted Someone,” “Most People” with an intro from “Time in Los Angeles” (though I wish the group had made time for the entire song) and the newest album’s title track.

There wasn’t any way that the packed Rev Room crowd was going to let their beloved band get out of the building without an encore and after a couple of minutes Dawes returned to the stage for a fantastic two-song encore of “From the Right Angle” and the most fitting way to end their show “All Your Favorite Bands,” which culminated in the audience performing the final chorus.

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