Dawes at the Beacon Theatre

Taylor Goldsmith

Based in Malibu, California, vocalist/guitarist Taylor Dawes Goldsmith and his younger brother, drummer Griffin Goldsmith, are sons of Lenny Goldsmith, a singer in Tower of Power in the 1980s and more recently in the New Olds. Taylor started playing guitar at age three and piano at four, while Griffin started playing drums at age 15. Taylor and Griffin formed Dawes in 2009 from the former band Simon Dawes, moving from a post-punk sound to a typically Laurel Canyon yacht rock format. Dawes was consistent with that sound until 2016, when the band alienated longtime fans by turning toward a poppier, more synthetic sound. Dawes patchworked its two sounds on its sixth and most recent studio album, Passwords, released on June 22, 2018. In addition to the Goldsmith brothers, Dawes presently includes bassist Wylie Gelber and a new keyboardist, Lee Pardini.

Billed tonight as An Evening with Dawes at the Beacon Theatre, Dawes performed two sets with no support act or encore. The band performed songs from each of its albums, plus Taylor Goldsmith started the second set playing an as-yet-unrecorded "Between the Zero and the One" as a solo acoustic song. Some songs rocked with searing guitar licks, some were mellower, but the unifying factor was Taylor Goldsmith, as the songs pivoted on his vocal melodies and his lyrics. As the band's chief composer, Goldsmith proved to be a singer/songwriter backed by a rock band, and together the musicians performed pop songs, often through a country-rock filter. Dawes' performance was buoyant and squeaky clean, refined with dynamic flourishes that recalled 1980s pop rock radio artists like Bruce Hornsby and Toto. Dawes performed with such immaculate burnish that the extended instrumental breaks were most refreshing when they introduced a little aggression to stain the polish that permeated the set. For pop radio fans, the set was perfect, but the rest of us perhaps would have preferred a bit more rock and roll grit and soot in the execution of the songs.

Setlist

Set 1:

1. Living in the Future
2. Time Spent in Los Angeles
3. Most People
4. We're All Gonna Die
5. Never Gonna Say Goodbye
6. Right on Time
7. Fire Away
8. That Western Skyline
9. Things Happen
10. Feed the Fire
11. A Little Bit of Everything

Set 2:

1. Between the Zero and the One (Taylor Goldsmith solo acoustic)
2. Time Flies Either Way
3. How Far We've Come (acoustic)
4. Somewhere Along the Way
5. From a Window Seat
6. Stay Down
7. When the Tequila Runs Out
8. From the Right Angle
9. Crack the Case
10. Roll With the Punches
11. When My Time Comes
12. All Your Favorite Bands