I Don't Know How But They Found Me at the Forum

I went to this gig rather on a whim when I saw it wasn't sold out. Knowing very little about the band or its following I just turned up at 7pm at the Forum when doors opened expecting to waltz in. Only to be confronted by the most enormous queue. I just followed and followed it as it wound round one street corner and then another. A very young crowd. And very crowded inside - no chance of me getting my favoured spot on the front barrier!

Two supports and by the time I had entered the first was already on. No idea who they were. American girls playing very dated rock. I thought Chick Rock had gone out of fashion decades ago. But I think bills are supposed to have token female artists on the bill these days and since both main act and support are all male I guess they had to stick in someone. (I tried to find who they were online but they aren't even named as support....)

The main support was a bloke called Will Joseph, with his band. Decent enough, but nothing too distinctive (apart from his headband!)

And then what we had come to see. I Don't Know How But They Found Me is hardly a name that trips off the tongue, even when shortened to IDKHow. They are a surprisingly mature American duo from Salt Lake City. I say surprisingly mature because they have very young following, are a pretty new band and only have one album behind them, but lead vocalist and guitarist Dallon Weekes is 40. Of course this doesn't mean he and the drummer Ryan Seaman only turned to music in their thirties. They both had been in other bands. They just hadn't registered with me!

Their one album, Razzmatazz, is simply very good. They have a distinctive sound with real theatricality to them, and Dallon has a truly terrific voice able to reach and hold high notes immaculately. And to add to that they are great live. Dallon is clearly an intelligent bloke and padded out the set with a lot of patter (including noting that they were the world's first duo to feature three people - they had a further guitarist filling out their sound). And I do mean they padded the set out. Frankly, they are short on material, with just one album and an earlier EP. They also did a cover of the Cure's Boys Don't Cry in the set, which made me feel old as I would have seen the Cure themselves perform that 35 years ago, well before almost the entire audience were born.

But the shortage of songs did not detract from the evening in my book. They were excellent, and have  some outstanding tracks like Leave Me Alone (introduced by a shaggy dog story, as a few songs were). A talented outfit who will hopefully produce more. Will see again if they drift back to these shores.

Dallon doesn't look 40 does he?