Review: Dean Wareham @ The Ruby Lounge

When: Monday 14th February 2011

Reviewed by: Tania K

As far as band life spans go, four years is a relatively short one. And it's a shame when such a short lifespan applies to a band that managed, in that time, to produce three excellent albums and become a reference point of a genre. 

Galaxie 500 achieved all that between 1987 and 1991 in the genre of post-punk shoegaze. And unless you were lucky enough to see them perform during that time, seeing the guitarist and vocalist of the band, Dean Wareham, perform their songs with a bass player and a drummer is as close as you could get to doing any such thing nowadays.

This is what took place last Monday, 14th February, in Manchester at a busy Ruby Lounge. Walking on stage with no greetings or smiling expressions of any kind, Dean Wareham quite aptly opened the show with the first song from their first album ('Flowers' from Today). Straight away it was obvious that his voice was just as haunting as ever, his guitar playing just as skilful and the overall sound created by the bass and drums was everything one could hope for.

Feelings of apprehension, as to whether this was more like a tribute act than the real thing that would have been Galaxie 500, were quite probably felt by a few people amongst the audience. But with each song they faded more and more, as the playlist was practically a best of their best executed brilliantly. 

A pleasant surprise came from the female vocals of the bass player Britta Phillips, that were as close as they could be, both in terms of pitch and expression, to that of Naomi Yang’s; adding to an atmosphere that got progressively dense and mesmerising. In-between songs banter involved short and funny anecdotes of Dean and his friends hanging out, tripping on acid, told with a good dose of swearing. 

If his friends in those short stories were the absent Galaxie 500 members, then this approach made it feel like they were actually there in the room with us, like a strange kind of exorcism and befriending of their ghosts. 

Considering this was a Valentine’s day gig, it may have not been the most romantic - but it certainly was extremely emotional.

Tickets are no longer available for this event