Live Review

Dinosaur Pile Up – The Masque, Liverpool

• 17th Nov 2010

In the darkened surroundings of the Masque, with it’s peeling paint and sparse dirtied floorboards, I waited for Dinosaur Pile-Up to make their grand entrance. Earlier during sound check, between yelling obscenities down the mic, whispering and giggling to each other, and generally goofing off, bassist Harry Johns had proclaimed, “I think this is the best sound we’ve ever had at a gig”. To put it bluntly Dinosaur Pile-Up’s history has been chaotic. Two thirds of their line-up were reshuffled at such a crucial time (at the eve of releasing their debut), which at one point involved an impulsive mad dash from Leeds to Norwich to effectively kidnap present drummer Mike Sheils. The first time I heard them was second single ‘Birds & Planes’, a cheeky chunky little number injected with a lot more testosterone than what’s currently on our airwaves.

Rather than hide in the dressing room, the band chose to hang around their merchandise stall during their support acts’ performances. Due to “unforeseen circumstances” openers Turbowolf were replaced with Bow & Arrow. To be honest they were confused about their image, repeated weak riffs over and over, and came and left in a discordant cloud of white noise. Apple Cannon had a similar approach, and were only slightly less unbearable, because their guitarist made a lukewarm attempt to accent their songs with some lead work. Throughout the night the entire audience were pretty stagnant and disinterested, plus it was far from a full house.

As Dinosaur Pile-Up took to the stage the mood definitely lightened. Their brighter approach, catchier songs and all-round togetherness was such a relief after Bow & Arrow and Apple Cannon’s dross. On-stage their sound wasn’t as good as sound check, but still stood up enough to get across their punchy Grunge-Pop-Rock. Mike Sheils is an excellently powerful drummer, helping to compliment that raw energy you can always get with a three piece, and the whole band tried their best to let go despite the unresponsive crowd. At one moment Matt Bigland rather awkwardly commented on how “intimate” the venue was, in an effort to alleviate the tension so thick you couldn’t cut it with a knife – you’d need a bloody chainsaw. Unfortunately, after a few songs in, the novelty does wear off a little with these guys.

Some highlights included most recent single ‘Mona Lisa’, as well as ‘Traynor’, ‘My Rock ‘n’ Roll’ and even B-side ‘Headspinner’. At times Dinosaur Pile-Up can utilise some gorgeous harmonies, the aforementioned songs being great examples of this. Interestingly there was an okay cover version of The Beatles’ ‘Please Please Me’ thrown in, however the Fab Four’s hometown only weakly sang along. It’s easy to pick out Dinosaur Pile-Up’s influences from their music, and I sometimes worry they are restricting themselves to only a small clutch of bands, instead of using every genre they enjoy to create something unusual. Barre chords are good but there is a limit to their usage…

Disappointingly first album ‘Growing Pains’ (recorded as a more or less one-man band fronted by Matt Bigland) peaked at #108 in the UK, just outside the top 100. Personally I think it deserves better then that, and that Dinosaur Pile Up should have enjoyed a larger audience at the Masque, but it’s still early days – it’s swings and roundabouts as they say. In December the band are set to play NME’s Xmas Party at London’s KOKO and the Nation of Shopkeepers, Leeds, for New Year’s Eve. With support from various Rock magazines, predominant praise and a devastatingly amazing name like ‘Dinosaur Pile-Up’ I would expect the threesome to take advantage while they still can, that is if they ever want to become “the biggest band in the world”.