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Dawes stretch out their sound at the Palace

April 17, 2023

Folk rock band Dawes performed at Palace Theatre on Saturday, April 15, 2023 in Minneapolis. Sofia Haan for MPR

For more than a decade, folk-rock band Dawes recorded music that pairs expansive, narrative lyricism with profuse, technical guitar work. Existing on the fringes of official jam band status, the California-based rockers’ live sets usually dabble in some improvisation while still erring on the side of concision. However, at Saturday night’s “An Evening with Dawes” at the Palace Theatre, the band cut loose: Freed from the limitations of time and bolstered by a bill all to themselves, Dawes took the evening to fully lean into their jam-band capabilities and embrace their musicality.

Dawes’ expansive St. Paul performance came in support of their eighth studio album, Misadventures of Doomscroller. Following the music industry shutdowns of the pandemic, the band abandoned their traditional model of straightforward, practical rock performances to create an album that allowed them to explore music on their own terms. The resulting jam-heavy album feels both like the natural progression of a band who have always had this long-form spirit in their blood, and a product of their time: in a world of shortened attention spans and snappy songs, Dawes are running in the opposite direction to stretch out their sound as much as possible.

And stretch they did. An Evening with Dawes was split into two sets without an opener, airing out the evening for the band to play as they wished. The first set began with Doomscroller’s “Everything is Permanent,” lead singer Taylor Goldsmith’s musings on the state of the present digital age. Supported by plucky, rolling guitar riffs from guitarist Trevor Menear and bright, flashy drumming from brother Griffin Goldsmith, Taylor Goldsmith contemplated the internet’s incessant desire to memorialize and capitalize on all experiences, singing, “The whole life of celebrities / Everything is permanent now / …All the people we used to be / Everything is permanent now.” Twice throughout the opening number, the band broke to jam with one another for minutes at time. Goldsmith theatrically roamed the stage as he played, his guitar singing out as he jutted out his chin in time with the riffs. If the recorded version of the song seemed lengthy at nearly nine minutes, the live version fell closer to 12.

Dawes traversed their entire discography throughout the set, reaching back to play the hits as well as some deeper cuts. The band volleyed between genres and themes as the set wore on, bouncing back and forth from soft, folksy tunes to driving, punchy rock tracks. Each song received an extended version, dedicating space for each member to flex their improvisational skills. However, the sheer volume and length of these jam sessions created somewhat of a dizzying effect, at times leaving the listener feeling as though they didn’t know where or in which song they'd landed once the jamming concluded. When it pushes nearly every song to a runtime of at least ten minutes, does the artistry inherent to jamming lose some of its shine? For some Dawes fans, the answer would be a resounding “no,” while others may have a differing opinion.

While the jamming was certainly the centerpiece of the show, Goldsmith’s lyrics were just as integral to the heart of the performance. His verbose, fluid lyrics felt like a slowly unfolding story, spinning vivid narratives of loneliness, heartbreak, all-consuming love, and hope, sometimes all in a single song. On the particularly poignant “Never Gonna Say Goodbye,” Goldsmith sang as someone celebrating his lover for who they are and who they make him, saying “There’s not a way to someone’s heart that she can’t see / She lives and loves with everything she’s got / My dark days showed me how to ask “why me?” / She showed me to ask “why not?’” Goldsmith’s command of the audience and mastery of his craft was truly undeniable. As the first set came to a close, he reminded the audience to come back for the second set.

The energy of the crowd didn’t falter throughout the 10-minute intermission. Fans sporting previous Dawes tour T-shirts and “Let’s Party” baseball caps (a nod to “All Your Favorite Bands”) gathered in groups, warmly greeting friends and fellow concertgoers to eagerly dissect what they had just seen. The theater felt like it was hosting a reunion as much as it was hosting a concert.

Goldsmith returned to the stage for the second set with only his guitar to begin with an acoustic rendition of the unreleased “House Parties.” Described as a song about the pitfalls of family vacations, Goldsmith earned raucous cheers of appreciation and agreement for lines like “you don’t find the good stuff on a guided tour” and “don’t want to see Disneyland / beer bellies or farmers tans,” as well as a dig at Kanye West fans. The loudest rang out for the chorus, where he proclaimed “House parties and local bands / That’s where I belong.”

Five casually dressed guys standing outdoors near a concrete wall — Dawes
Trish Badger

As with the first set, the second set featured a mixture of sounds and themes, balancing gentle, sincere songs about the heartaches of life with brash, upfront tracks about confronting painful memories. The second set also saw the band continue to lean into their tracks, taking the opportunity to extend older songs and not end the song before they thought it was finished. As they jammed, the trust in one another’s musicianship that had been forged over years on the road was clear and difficult to look away from.

The latter half of the second set came laden with several Dawes fan favorites, including “A Little Bit of Everything” and “All Your Favorite Bands.” Voices lifted from across the crowd, joining Goldsmith as he shared familiar choruses draped in nostalgia, relatability, and compassion. The building emotion of these songs found its cathartic release with the impassioned performance of “When My Time Comes” from Dawes’ 2009 debut North Hills. Fans leapt to their feet as soon as the first steady, rolling chords of the song swept through the theater, raising fists and beer cans joyfully in the air as they sang along. When the band arrived at the chorus, Goldsmith simply stepped away from the microphone as the theater shook with the roar of fans singing back, “When my time comes / Oh, oh, oh, oh.” Judging by the unabashed amazement on Goldsmith’s face, the energy of the audience was feeding the band as much as the band’s was feeding the audience.

In the end, “An Evening with Dawes” couldn’t have been a more apt title for the band’s performance. Concertgoers had a front-row seat as Dawes continued to push their own sonic boundaries and create a live show like none other.

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