The spotlights at the back of the stage at Alexandra Palace Theatre flash on and off, and the storm that Dove Ellis and his band are conjuring comes to a sudden halt. For a moment, the 1,000-strong crowd stand in complete silence, both enraptured and confused. This is part of the thrill of the Irish musician’s gigs right now – even if you know his debut album ‘Blizzard’ front to back, his setlists are still peppered with unexpected moments and unreleased songs that can catch you off guard.
There are plenty of people in London tonight (April 28) who do know Ellis’ released songs off by heart, too. As quickly becomes apparent after he takes the stage, he’s not an artist whom people like casually. Instead they hang on his every note, taking in the show in stillness and silence, the usual chatter of London crowds muted within the theatre’s resplendent walls.
This fervour around the indie-folk artist is nothing new. It’s been building since he broke through last year with the single ‘To The Sandals’, ‘Pale Song’, and especially ‘Love Is’ – his biggest song to date. Support slots with Geese brought further exposure before ‘Blizzard’ arrived in December, cementing him as a bona fide one to watch. Still, thanks to his habit of swerving most interviews so far, Dove Ellis remains enigmatic.
While for some emerging artists, this zealous response might feel a little overegged, that’s not the case for Ellis. Joined by four musicians on stage who all play multiple instruments, his show is a little ramshackle but entirely intentional and inventive. When the band step on stage at the start of the night, the lights dim completely so that they play most of the first song – ‘Brown Hole’, another unreleased track driven by sweeping viola and the singer’s tremulous voice – through pitch black. Halfway through, Ellis commands, “Lights on”, but rather than a spotlight focusing on him, a window of white light rotates across the stage and the room in front of it, before it switches to overlapping panels of pink, green and blue. It’s an impactful start for an artist so fresh – and an approach that doesn’t let up for the rest of the set.
Tonight’s gig is the second in as many days that Ellis has performed in London, following a show at buzzy venue of the moment The George Tavern the night before. While that show was likely just as special to be at, tonight’s venue feels like a much more ideal setting – one that allows his voice, which has been frequently compared to Jeff Buckley, to truly shine. It makes the beauty in songs like the simple but utterly effective ‘When You Tie Your Hair Up’ even stronger and grander, Ellis’ voice effortlessly reaching swelling, emotional highs. His band, too, make the likes of ‘To The Sandals’ and ‘Love Is’ punchier and spikier, taking the set into bouncier territory.
“They’re all going to leave the stage now,” Ellis says in a rare moment of chat, pointing to his departing bandmates and introducing them one by one. As they head off, he moves to the piano to his right and brings things to a rousing, enthralling finale with ‘Nest Among Stars’. We’d say it’s one of his most beautiful songs yet to be released – a stark but emotional track in which he describes “love jumping around like fleas” – but it’s hard to tell what or how many other gems he’s keeping up his sleeve. As the song comes to a close, he makes a heavy thud on the wood of the piano and walks off stage – a finish (before the encore, at least) that feels fittingly in keeping with the rest of the night: unpredictable and imbued with a little drama.
Dove Ellis played:
‘Brown Hole’
‘Pale Song’
‘2 Brothers Smoking’
‘When You Tie Your Hair Up’
‘Mozart’
‘Heaven Has No Wings Itself’
Marooning’
‘I’ll Be Gone By Christmas’
‘Feathers, Cash’
‘Little Left Hope’
‘Love Is’
‘To The Sandals’
‘Nest Among Stars’
‘April 14th’
‘Away You Stride’