Divorce brought their sold-out tour in support of their debut album Drive To Goldenhammer to Manchester's Gorilla on Thursday night. Supported by newly-signed Dublin duo Dug, they delighted a packed crowd by performing their album in full alongside tracks from their early EPs.
It's rare for a support band to turn round initial audience indifference into a response that's worthy of a headliner but that's exactly what the duo Dug do, leaving the audience at the end doing a bastardised form of line-dancing in a circle to a song about the Cumberland Gap. Utterly charming from the start and armed with just a guitar and a banjo and with only four released songs to their name, Dug celebrated being signed on the morning before hopping on a flight with only a Mars bar for sustenance by winning over five hundred Mancunians with songs that threaten to lodge themselves in the brain with no means of extraction.
Their two singles Jubilee and Wheel Of Fortune are likely as unknown to most of the audience as the unreleased songs and the sight of two men sat down on chairs often is an invitation for them to spend the first half hour of the night's entertainment talking about work, gardens or cars. However, right from the start Dug have their attention, with their charm and self-deprecating wit between songs disarming the crowd with their blend of American and Irish folk music that feels both fresh and inviting.
The audience are here though for the headliner. Divorce have built a following through touring and significant exposure through 6 Music for both their EPs and the singles leading to the release of the album. There's an expectation in the air as the clock moves to nine o'clock, the crowd shuffle to find space in a room that's probably got fifty too many people in it for comfort and the band make their way on to stage to a huge roar. The audience is a real mix from teenagers to those approaching retirement age, couples, groups of lads to boys and girls out on their own.
The sound's spot on which allows the detail in the songs to be heard, especially in the wonderful interaction between Tiger and Felix's vocals that's so central to Divorce's music. They kick off with Fever Pitch and All My Freaks, delighting both those who know every word to every song and are singing along and those more curious but holding the attention of all with little of the hum of chatter that often blights gigs here. The older material - like standalone single Gears and Sex & The Millennium Bridge from the Heady Metal EP - are welcomed like old friends, the EP's lead track Eat My Words seeing them allow an audience member called Jake up on stage to accompany them. Thankfully he can sing.
The seventy-minute set doesn't have any lulls, because, unlike some debut albums that bands play in full on the tour for it, Drive To Goldenhammer is a consistently strong record, the ability to switch between lead vocalists provides variety and options that other bands don't possess and it fits well with the older material. Singles Lord and Hangman finish the main part of the set with the audience singing the songs back to the band who are humbly visibly taken aback by both the size of the crowd and the reaction they get, but more tender moments like Old Broken String and the stripped down Mercy that opens the encore are equally well-received.
They finish on the oldest song of the night, Checking Out from their debut Get Mean EP, a song that's met with universal love and a singalong that leaves the four of them beaming as they leave the stage taken aback by the strength of the reaction they get. They better get used to it.
Divorce's website can be found here and they are on Facebook.
They tour the UK and Europe through April and May - dates here
Dug's website can be found here
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