London, England, U.K. - March 24, 2001

Playlouder.com
at The Astoria
by Leslie Gilotti

ZIA MCCABE DOES NOT TAKE HER TOP OFF.

Now that we've weeded out the chancers from the true believers, we can concentrate on the real issues at hand:

The Dandy Warhols are the saviours of US indie. FACT. They also might possibly be the coolest band in the world. Tonight's gig only serves to further illustrate the truth in these statements. It's hard to narrow their aceness down to one single aspect. It's not because they're fabulous musicians (your correspondent can play just about every single Warhols song on guitar and that's really saying something), nor is it because of Courtney Taylor's camera-ready looks, or their pixie-cute keyboardist's over-celebrated attitude towards public nudity.

Wonderful pop moments aside (and tonight there are many), there's something about the Warhols that makes you feel like you're bunking off school to smoke spliffs with the coolest kid in your class in their parents' rec room. At least that's what the Warhols were doing before taking the stage tonight, thus setting the giddy tone for the evening.

Taylor and McCabe are having a blast. They keep up a constant stream of banter between each other and the audience, heckling the hecklers, and debating which songs they should do next. "'Get Off'?" suggests Taylor, to cheers of approval. "Nah, not yet." McCabe adds, "We've been working on this one recently, I think you'll like it." Be-afro'd drummer Brent DeBoer launches into the whiplash opening beats of 'Not If You Were the Last Junkie On Earth' and sends the Astoria crowd into a floor-shaking simultaneous pogo. It's easily their most famous song, but just about every tune sounds like a perfect pop hit: the stroppy twang of 'Minnesoter', the cosmic haze of 'Green' and the unabashed naughtiness of 'Horse Pills'...it's like a fuggy psychedelic singalong, and it is an absolute blast.

After Zia's increasingly famous a capella daisy-on-my-toe performance, the band shuffle (presumably due to over-enthusiastic toking) offstage. Despite the perfection up to this point, we're greedy bastards and it would be cruel to leave out an encore. But having been treated to most of the last two albums, including all of the 'hits', we're left to wonder what could possibly be left. On the Dandys' inevitable return, it's clear that they've read our minds, and they launch into an extended version of the glorious 'Cool As Kim Deal' followed a by a spliffadelic cover of the Stones' 'The Last Time'.

Perfect. Ah, if only all bands could be as cool as the Dandy Warhols...