Doves performed at the O2 at Shepherds Bush Empire in London yesterday evening for the first time in 25 years since November 2002 when they nearly got kicked out. Jez and Andy Williams chuckled about this to themselves early in the set and didn’t elaborate further. The band, hailing from Cheshire and originating in 1998, was on tour in celebration of their newest album release Constellations for the Lonely.

Preceded by White Flowers, whose magical and haunting melodies and synth rhythms recall essences of the Cocteau Twins, the entire night felt like traveling in time. Doves played their early ambient-electronic and instrumental hits from the 2000s (’10:03′, ‘Winter Hill’, ‘Firesuite’, ‘Friday’s Dust’) to their more modern rock rhythms (‘Renegade’, ‘Last Year’s Man’, ‘Cycle of Hurt’), every single song they played was a hit; there wasn’t a single one that made your thoughts drag into any other place. You were brought only into the present, in a celebration, with a band that so clearly loves what they’re doing, and does it all with a contagious passion and enthusiasm. You can tell the joy comes from a heavy, and deeper place, however, with so much density and substance. They were able to bounce from nostalgic and melancholy (‘The Cedar Room’) to upbeat dance beats (‘Carousels’) and then switch to something heavy and mosh-friendly, with the crowd unquestionably along for the ride in each and every moment. They initially ended their set with ‘B&W Town’ before coming back to the stage to perform 4 more songs after the insistent cheers of an eager audience. Finally they ended the night with a burst of energy performing ‘Spaceface’ which they don’t often play, and which was possibly the most engaging and addictive melody and performance; a great track to end the night with.

No matter where you were seated or standing, it was an undeniably intimate event, with the tangible rawness and vulnerability of their lyrics and themes, and shared joy and expression with each other while they performed. Both Jez and Andy had a talent for engaging the audience in words, expressions, or gestures, diminishing the space between audience and performer, and reminding everyone that the moment was a shared creation between the two. The joy, passion, and fun was so tangible in the room; the energy swept you up and dragged you along with it in all of its movements, in something everlasting and surreal.

Not only does their dynamism as a band shine in their capacity for genre-shifting but also in the individual contributions they were making to the sound; at one point, they all quite literally got up and swapped instruments- suddenly the guitarist was on drums, the drummer was singing, etc. Some tasteful cowbell and moody harmonica were brought out along with a tambourine which Andy would enthusiastically clap with to bring the audience into it all. Jez absolutely shredded it on guitar in every. single. song.

There was not a phone in site for the entirety of this performance, just a whole lot of people entirely engaged. What started out as a demure but anticipatory silhouette of bobbing heads, eventually turned into excited waving, jumping up and down, and most everyone seated in the balconies standing up. You could tell most of these people had been waiting a long time to see these guys again.

I don’t think I’ve ever been to such an engaging show, it felt like a true pleasure to watch, not just from someone who is an admirer of their music, but as a member of a live audience. The joy from these guys was so tangible and so contagious, it just ricocheted off their instruments and poured out of Jimi’s guitar every time he’d shake it out in the air after absolutely shredding it, everything he just poured into it dripping back out over the audience.

The harmonies were strong and hypnotizing, between all of the members on the stage. The chemistry between them all was tangible and funneled so beautifully into the balance between improvisation, and structure, and shared buildups off each other’s energies culminated into intense climaxes that bubbled up and exploded, and then poured right over. The entire evening was a potent reminder why the term for engaging with instruments is called ‘playing’, because what they were doing up there looked like good fun.

order tickets for Doves HERE