Dave Hause is one of those artists that I’m always keen to see live whenever he comes over to the UK. I absolutely loved his 2017 album Bury Me in Philly and saw Dave Hause & The Mermaid at The Garage just after it was released. It was a great show and so when tour dates got announced for this spring I snapped us up a pair of tickets. Last month, Dave Hause’s fourth album Kick was released… unfortunately I didn’t manage to find a whole lot of time to listen to it before hearing the songs played live. Of course, it didn’t matter though.
The first date of the UK leg of the Dave Hause & The Mermaid was at the Scala in London. It being a Friday night meant that this was an early show – most likely because the Scala had one of those rubbish club nights afterwards. While it meant we’d be home and in bed before midnight (which, as the second of four gig nights in a row, was much appreciated), the opening artist was on at the rather early time of 6.45pm. Long story short, we only saw the last 30 seconds of Drew Thomson’s last song. I didn’t know his music but that doesn’t mean I didn’t want to try and see a new artist play live. If at all possible, I always try to catch all bands on a bill – support bands are the headlining bands of next year, after all.
Next up were a band I had heard of prior to the show but had never seen live before, Cold Years a four-piece from Aberdeen. I’d been aware of them since Colin saw them at Dundee’s Book Yer Ane Fest a few years ago and told me they were like a Scottish Gaslight Anthem. Well, seeing the band live for myself, I can tell you that they are much more than that. Cold Years expressed how happy they were to be playing with Dave Hause and that this was the biggest tour that they have been a part of – they really stepped up to the challenge with their soulful rock ’n’ roll. It was great to hear a few of the songs from last year’s Northern Blue EP, which I had the pleasure of reviewing for this here blog, as well as some songs I didn’t recognise. They also threw in a cover of the Ramones’ Bonzo Goes To Bitburg which was, well, interesting. It was slower than you’d ever expect a Ramones cover to be – Cold Years certainly gave it their own spin.
I have to be honest, I wasn’t sure how much I’d enjoy this gig due to its larger size and less of a DIY nature than the shows I generally go to these days – this week especially. Thankfully all my doubts were laid to rest when Dave Hause & The Mermaid took to the stage and kicked things off with The Ditch, the lead single from the latest album. I may not have listened to the whole new album very much before this show but I did know this song so was able to sing along to the chorus at least with everyone around me. From then on we were treated to a mixture of tracks all four Dave Hause albums but focussing heavily on the last two releases. The last time I saw Dave Hause & The Mermaid, I remarked how great a frontman Dave is – rather than just being a solo performer. I still think this but, this time around, I really appreciated how great they all were as a band. There were some killer harmonies from the rest of the band, particularly Tim Hause (guitar), who also happens to be Dave’s brother, and Kayleigh Goldsworthy (keys). In fact, one of my highlights was hearing Civil Lies from Kick live which sees Tim sing the verses and Dave only joining in for the chorus. What a talented family those two come from! This opinion was further solidified when The Mermaid were joined by Dave and Tim’s dad, on acoustic guitar, for a couple of songs. Apparently he’d been on tour with the band but this was his last date before flying home – what a treat! Other treats included an interlude with the Hause brothers playing a few stripped back songs and the whole band being joined by Drew Thomson to cover one of his songs – which was nice, having missed his own set at the start of the evening. There were singalongs a’plenty as the band drew towards the end of their set, with C’mon Kid and, one of my favourites from Bury Me In Philly, With You before a triumphant encore featuring Time Will Tell, Dirty Fucker (boo Trump!) and We Could Be Kings.
Dave Hause & The Mermaid sure know how to put on a good show!
This gig review was written by Emma Prew. (Photos also by Emma Prew.)
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