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Lee Fisher enjoys a night of mournful melancholy from the Portland, Oregan band
Image: The Delines by Lee Fisher
It was only near the end of Seamus Fogarty’s set that I realised I’d seen him before, supporting Lisa O’Neill at the Glasshouse a few years back. I enjoyed him more this time – his playing had a lovely flow, his Moog-generated rhythm tracks were pleasingly shonky, his voice was full of feeling and he has a way with pub chat wisdom, observant character studies and gentle dry wit. I guess I wouldn’t rush to buy an album but he was fine company for half an hour.
If I had a favourite mood – in music as in life – it would be a sweet, soothing melancholy. A warm brown sigh, if you will, and The Delines embody that more than anybody. Willy Vlautin’s songs radiate humanity and understanding, and his lyrics are full of people struggling, surviving, getting out (of hospitals, or prisons) or getting off (of Vicodin or Greyhounds from Reno). The band express this feeling perfectly – the warm, rich bass of Freddy Trujillo and the mournful trumpet of Cory Gray in particular – and in singer Amy Boone, Vlautin has the perfect vessel for his stories. Her voice aches and yearns so much it hurts and you get the feeling she knows these people (there’s also a visible camaraderie between this band, and a clear love for Amy).
Tonight’s set draws heavily on last year’s Mr Luck & Ms Doom and this year’s more experimental companion piece The Set-Up, although we got the ageless Oil Rigs At Night from debut Colfax and a trio from The Imperial (including a devastating version of He Don’t Burn For Me). The new songs sound incredibly good, and a pair of unreleased songs make you feel confident they’re still firing on all cylinders – A Girl Floating On The River has some of Amy’s most defiant, forceful vocals yet. Surfers In Twilight is pained and fragile, Maureen’s Gone Missing is soulful AF, and an encore trio of Walking with His Sleeves Down, Drowning in Plain Sight and Dilaudid Diane is just perfect, the latter performed by all but Cory singing around one mic while he plays a gospel-inflected piano figure. The Delines have blessed Tyneside with several shows over the last decade or so and most people here have seen them before but there was obviously a sense that this was the best they’ve been yet, and I’d have to agree.
