A sea of bearded men and checked shirts swamped to the Brighton Dome Tuesday evening for something rather beautiful; City and Colour. Nobody was expecting mosh pits and jumping around, so we weren’t disappointed; all that was needed was a gentle sway, Dallas Green’s voice did the rest. Canadian singer-songwriter Dallas Green performs under the alias ‘City and Colour’ (because of his name, see what he did?) but he is also well known for being one of the vocalists and guitarists in the post-hardcore band Alexisonfire (who sadly are no longer as of 2012). I will put it simply, the man has a next to perfect voice, he could serenade you, send you to sleep, play all kind of celebrations and parties, this man has the voice that we all dream of having.
Although Dallas did share the stage with four other band members who, to be fair, did add to the atmosphere, the crowds clear favourite performances were those that involved Dallas (with his acoustic guitar, under some low level lighting). Of course he played some of his oldies from the album Sometimes (2005), which had the crowd stunned with silence (apart from the irritating few that take those quiet opportunistic moments to shout out ‘I love you Dallas’ and ‘Have my babies’) and the other had them singing in beautiful harmonies. The only thing that ruined my night was the guy that stood not but 5 foot in front of me who was dancing with profound pace and a rather lack or rhythm that was totally off-putting.
Amongst the tracks played included Death’s Song, Ladies and Gentleman and Sam Malone and I did some research into other set lists from the same tour around the UK and was gutted to see that Boiled Frogs (an Alexisonfire cover) and Comin’ Home were not on the Brighton set list. Quite frankly if you like songs written about love and death, City and Colour will be right up your alley.
Written by Sophie Cohen
