Pitchfork

Montreal drama kings and queens the Dears rolled into Chicago's Schubas last Thursday, bringing along a lavish light show and a set polished to a shine, heavy on tunes from 2004's breakthrough No Cities Left, but surprisingly shorter on selections from their latest, this year's Gang of Losers. What the sextet lacked in spontaneity and warmth, it made up for in craft and spectacle-- playing tight, extended and enriching dramatic interludes, and punctuating cathartic moments with guitar histrionics and dazzling flashes.

Apart from singing, frontman Murray Lightburn kept mum throughout the first half of the set, not once acknowledging his audience. On the one hand, it preserved the mystique and austerity of these tunes that take themselves so seriously; on the other, it seemed frustratingly at odds with a band whose lyrics are so full of we-feel-your-pain-isms.

Graciously, some onstage joke broke Lightburn's gruff visage midway through the performance, and we got a sly smile out of the man. He later used the breakdown in "Postcard From Purgatory" to offer thanks at last to the audience (who seemed largely enrapt regardless), claiming that was all he had to say. Fair enough. Gentleman's voice sounded superb, rich in tone and dexterously painting words and navigating registers. Now if only we could get those lyrics up to snuff...

The Dears play three more U.S. dates in the coming weeks, then jet off for an extensive tour of Europe. Dates and more photos ahead.

Sincerely:

09-15 Austin, TX – Austin City Limits Festival
10-04 Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour
10-05 San Francisco, CA – Pop Scene
10-14 Dublin, Ireland – Village
10-15 Belfast, Northern Ireland – Limelight
10-20 Glasgow, Scotland – Oran Mor
10-21 Newcastle, England – Northumbria University
10-23 Manchester, England – Academy 2
10-24 Leeds, England – Cockpit
10-25 Bristol, England - Bierkeller
10-26 London, England – Koko
10-28 Groningen, The Netherlands – Vera
10-29 Brussels, Belgium - Botanique
10-30 Paris, France – La Maroquinerie
10-31 Amsterdam, The Netherlands – Milky Way
11-02 Hamburg, Germany - Molotow
11-03 Berlin, Germany - Mudd Club
11-04 Münster, Germany - Gleis 22
11-05 Cologne - Gebäude 9
11-06 Munich, Germany - Ampere
11-08 Rome, Italy - Circolo degli Artisti
11-09 Milan, Italy - Transilvania
11-10 Treviso, Italy - New Age
11-11 Rimini, Italy - 10 Street Club