The Dodos played Brighton Music Hall – 10/9

Indie-folk duo The Dodos stopped by Brighton Music Hall last week as part of a short east coast tour celebrating the tenth anniversary of their breakthrough LP Visiter.

“I was much younger,” remarked Dodos singer/guitarist Meric Long after breaking into a falsetto on “Undeclared,” the penultimate track on the band’s well-loved sophomore record. It was the moment he’d been dreading all night, he claimed – the culmination of the anxiety that surrounds bringing an old album to the stage front-to-back, perhaps against its will.

Few artists likely approach writing a record with the idea of performing the whole thing on some future anniversary in mind, and some degree of reticence around Visiter‘s rougher edges seemed to surround Wednesday night’s set – the first of just four such scheduled performances. Long admitted to those mixed feelings at the evening’s conclusion, but he and drummer Logan Kroeber were clearly still grateful for the turnout of Dodos diehards – many of whom sang every word of their shaggy 60-minute opus right back to them.

I was nearing the end of high school and knee-deep in my indie rock expansion phase when Visiter hit, and while it’s not so much of a go-to these days, the hooks that sunk in back then – the infectious stomp of “Red and Purple” and “Fools,” the melancholic pull of “Winter” or Long’s aforementioned least-favorite “Undeclared” – still pack a punch now. A certain sense of (probably misplaced) don’t-make-’em-like-they-used-to nostalgia seeped into the night too, which flashed back to an era where a quirky, folksy record like this one was racking up considerable buzz and a Pitchfork BNM.

So in short, yeah, it was a little strange to see Visiter come back to life ten years after it entered ours. But like a catch-up with a once-close friend, the experience was a worthwhile pause to consider how things have changed in the interim – or haven’t – for both artist and listener.

Check out photos from the Dodos set and openers Twen below.