By Jase Walker
This is it folks, the final show for myself this year to wrap up 2024 before I sign off from work until the new year and get stuck into far too much booze and stodgy food on my return trip to Blighty. What a year it’s been and what a way to end it in true Dutch style with absolutely fucking awful weather and one of the Netherlands’ most interesting up and coming bands, DOOL.
After an extremely unpleasant 15 minute wait outside for the doors to finally open, I’ve got my usual perch on the balcony of Melkweg’s OZ room for a nice cozy spot with a great view. Support for the show tonight is Lifeless Past who the agenda for tonight’s show describes as ’80s inspired post-punk/darkwave, so definitely will be a bit of an odd show to end the year on – but I’m all about that!
Admittedly going off the description I was expecting something a little bit more towards the likes of Zetra but these lean much harder towards the more punky elements of Joy Division. Sporting that characteristic chorus drenched guitar tone with a bit of reverb and overdrive thrown in and singing in a style reminiscent of Ian Curtis as well.
What stands out to me is the setup that the drummer is rolling with which is a standalone cymbal and what seems to be multiple sample single electronic drumhead which looks weird as hell to me as I’ve never seen that before. This does seem to be pushing the limits a bit on what sort of show you can play live with as little actual kit as possible.
Admittedly it’s not really my sort of thing as I find post-punk can be very hit or miss as it’s such a massively broad genre in its own right. I can appreciate how they’re putting this sort of show across in the setup they’re rolling with though but I would prefer it if they had a bit more grunt to the show as often I find that bands with such emphasis on clever methods to pad things out a bit have their live sound restricted heavily by what the backing equipment can do. Interesting start but probably more of a miss for me just as personal preference, decent performance though!
It’s time for the main act and final show of the year now, the room goes completely dark except for one idiot with their flash on recording a video (until they were told to stop). DOOL walk on and it’s time to get stuck into the show! There’s a really interesting mix of styles that reminds me of the likes of Brutus mixed in with Placebo, a really airy and atmospheric sound that carries weight with it but isn’t totally overpowering. Some of the more hypnotic guitar melodies are strongly reminiscent of the likes of The Ocean and other Pelagic bands such as Oh Hiroshima. While definitely not leaning into the heaviness as much as I would have expected, the intensity of the show is fantastic as there’s so much layering going on on so many different elements and it’s hard not to end up completely fixated on the band’s performance.
The variety of sounds and styles they put out with every song really shows why they have been able to pop up on such a wide range of eclectic lineups over the past year. These would fit on Arctangent Festival every bit as much as say Roadburn or Soulcrusher. They’ve got this overarching bleak sort of sound that is fairly pervasive throughout the set that keeps things feeling dark and broody.
DOOL have a decidedly proggy slant to them as well with their use of odd time signatures and rhythms that feels strongly influenced by the likes of Tool or Porcupine Tree so this is a bit of a buffet show for me because DOOL are scratching so many different itches and I am totally invested by the halfway point. I feel like DOOL’s more interesting side really shows when they slow things down a bit and really lean into matching the bass and guitar melodies in multiple octaves, it really lets their darker side shine through.
We’re now in the home stretch for the end of the set and I can feel that same old feeling of sadness drawing in while still experiencing a pretty damn good show. DOOL have been a fantastic new experience for me and I’m glad to have finally caught them as 2024 is about to draw to a close. Finding bands like this is always why I pay very close attention to what friends of mine mention in conversations about music, it’s never always going to be a hit but when it does, you find a band like DOOL that are real gems.
2024 has been an incredible year for music, both live and recorded, here’s hoping 2025 matches or beats it because it’s a damn high bar that’s been set.
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