The Doves show last night was both fantastic and fantastically loud. The former was entirely

 due to the band's talents, and the latter was mostly due to the venue's inferior sound 
system and technicians.

The opening band for this and the rest of the US tour was the NYC quintet The Strokes. 
Looking like they were straight out of Quadrophenia, they came onstage with a mix of mod, 
rock, and pop, and played at a healthy tempo. It was pretty entertaining to watch the singer
 scavenge around for any beer within sight, including my friend's empty Rolling Rock bottle 
at one point, which was then thrown aside in disgust... :) The music itself was quite good, 
but unfortunately the singer was drowned out by the rest of the guitairs and it was hard to 
hear the vocals, which I blame on the sound techs, not the band. And they were also nice 
guys to talk to while they were packing up.

Doves didn't come on until 11, and the tiny space surrounding the stage at Upstage was 
*packed*, even where it would've been impossible to see anything anyway (ie: behind the 
keyboards or a tower amp). A screen behind the band showed various Super 8-style movies the
 whole time, but the band only appeared in a mysterious short film that they showed before 
they came onstage. It involved the members of Doves driving in a desert in a milktruck, 
meeting with a guy in a mask, taking a mysterious white sack from him, and driving away. 
Then they went into the desert, dug a hole, and buried it, while randomly changing costumes
 into a donkey and a sailor via several jumpcuts. I was really confused about the film, so 
if anyone gets a chance to ask the band what it's about, please fill me in!

Then they came on, playing at an incredible volume, making me wish they sold earplugs at 
the merch table, à la Mogwai... The movie screen was entertaining, even though it looked 
like they mostly just blinded the band. Jimi was pretty friendly with the audience, greeting
 a few friends, congratulating one audience member who successfully harmonica'ed the 
beginning to 'Melody Calls' (Jimi told him that they couldn't do it justice live!) in 
between songs, and generally warmly welcoming their first American crowd, but not really 
explaining any songs depth like Storytellers or anything... 

The material was all from "Lost Souls", with the exception of 'New York' (to which Jimi 
said that they're going to New York for the first time on Tuesday!), and the SubSub dance 
tune 'Space Face' ("...it's not a song, it's just a tune..."). The highlights for me were 
'Man Who Told Everything' and 'The Cedar Room', with the latter being even more powerful 
live than I ever remembered (coming from a 3rd time Doves live veteran).

The venue was so small that the band had nowhere to go for an encore, so Jimi just said 
that they'd cut out the bullshit of going off and coming back on, and played the encore 
without interruption right after the main set.

I got a setlist (my friend got a drumstick), and we talked to 3/4 of Doves outside 
afterwards. They were incredibly nice, down to earth guys, and signed my cd and told us how 
much they loved Philly after being in Miami (I heard rumors pre-show that they played the 
Hard Rock Cafe down there, but I never quite found out why...), since Miami "lacked 
character". That, and they seemed impressed that we were at the Amsterdam show last spring.

The setlist:
Firesuite
Rise
Sea Song
Break Me Gently
Catch the Sun
The Man Who Told Everything
Lost Souls
A House
New York
The Cedar Room
----
Here It Comes
Space Face