Live Review: DMA’s w/ Bad//Dreems @ The Triffid

Capping off a massive year of festival appearances, sold-out tours, and international shows over in the UK and Europe, Sydney’s DMA’s showed some love back home with their final national tour for the year. The 90s inspired rockers treated a sold-out crowd at The Triffid to a show filled with old and new hits, along with a sneaky cover thrown into the mix. Despite the disappointing lack of banter, the show could easily be one of their best performances to date as they transition into bigger and better venues around the country.

Adelaide Bros Bad//Dreems provided a healthy support slot for the night, bringing the calm crowd up to a perfect standard of rowdiness with their legit working class man vibes (sorry, Bruce Springsteen). The punk quartet treated everyone to tracks of their debut album ‘Dogs At Bay’, as well as their breakthrough single My Only Friend, bringing out DMA’s own Johnny on acoustic guitar. These guys are ones you should really go out and catch at their upcoming ‘Mob Rule’ tour.

The crowd settled down as the lights began to dim, followed by the crowd chanting “DMA’s” to usher on their headlining set.

DMA’s began their set with Play It Out, introducing loyal and new fans alike to their iconic blend of 90’s grunge and alternative sounds that bring to mind the like of Oasis. After playing older numbers such as Feels Like 37, the Sydney lads threw the audience into new tracks of ‘Hills End’, including Straight Dimensions and Timeless.

With the stage filled to the brim,  DMA’s thrashed themselves about while hyping up the increasingly eager audience.  The crowd was rowdy, but not rude, despite the small amount of people who continually pissed off the security guards by crowdsurfing. The lighting work must be applauded; mirroring the mood of each song. It brought in a cool blue for Your Low and a lush pink for Melbourne. Each song became an extended jam, showing how DMA’s are willing to break out of their structure to keep the energy alive.

Throwing into the mix a sneaky cover of Pop-Queen Madonna’s Beautiful Strangers, DMA’s transformed the synthesiser driven jam to their own sound of pub-rock drenched in lad culture. The room began to quiet down a bit as the band slowed down their set to play Step Up The Morphine, before doing their usual walk-off routine to play So We Know and their mega hit Delete. While So We Know saw the crowd throw their arms around each other and sing out like a pub after a football match, Delete began to hype up the mood a bit more as the band came back on stage.

The band dropped their guitars and let the feedback growl as the last notes of Delete were hung onto by the crowd. After a minute of complete darkness in The Triffid, the crowd began to chat “DMA’s” over and over again until the six-piece came back on to encore. The lads went absolutely crazy as they rung out the night with their massive hit Lay Down, closing their sold-out tour perfectly.

DMA’s continually prove time and time again that they are slowly cementing themselves as Generation Y’s answer to Oasis. These rockers are definitely a band you’ll want to catch at least once in your life.