Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
There has always been a mutual respect and understanding between the two great areas of the North that straddle famous rivers and who look out far beyond the shores of the counties they reside in. Liverpool and Gateshead, and the Scottish equivalent in Glasgow, have much in common, much to celebrate, not just in politics, in its sporting prowess and its resilient people, but in the way they both have been left to rot by successive governments since the turn of the 20th Century but who are both shining examples of sticking two fingers up to the Westminster Empire and being their own unique city.
That mutual respect extends to the music that comes out from the city by the Tyne and on a day when the temperatures started to hit the April highs much needed after such a cold and havoc filled Winter, Dalaro sent sparks flying and lifted the temperature gauge up and decided it wasn’t hot enough.
Connor Templeton, Adam Terry, Aiden Soulsby and Patrick Soulsby embody that working spirit that lives in the North East, the strength of character that sees the likes of Nadine Shah and Prefab Sprout rub shoulders with anyone who lives and breathes in between Whitley Bay and Gateshead.
It is that spirit of endeavour that comes to the forefront of Dalaro’s set. Mean, moody, exhilarating and entertaining, the music full of pathos and inspiration, the white heat of fortitude displacing negativity and like a welder working on the great ships of old further down the Tyne, the sound is riveting, this is band to watch out for should they make their way across the Pennines and back to Liverpool once more.
The seven tracks on offer as part of the evening’s three band line up were fulsome in their delivery and the songs All I Need, the latest single Sometime, the wonderfully played Synthetic and Empty Apartments stood out and were warmly received by those with an ear for such music.
Dalaro are a band that would surely be welcome back in Liverpool anytime, they are certainly a great representation of North East music and their earthy resilience. A great find.
Ian D. Hall