Live review from Volkswagen x Underground Battle of the Bands Final 2017
1. The Beginning
2. Baby Don’ You Know
3. You Don’t Know Me
Look up “cool” in the dictionary and you’ll find a picture of Dusty Bottle. Music, image, vibe, these are the coolest kids in town. Vocalist Miss Cherry cuts a chic figure in her white dress and shades, and sings with effortless, languid passion. Nice. Musically they are somewhere between jazz and soul, a slick, professional, dance sound that just makes you want to move.
Aptly titled first track, “The Beginning” set the tone with a great groove, and Miss Cherry putting out a very 80’s Sade-esque groove. At times almost soundtrack-like, it was a very atmospheric way to kick things off.
The next two tracks “Baby Don’ You Know” and “You Don’t Know Me” are stronger melodically, with elements of Nora Jones and Renee Olstead, and the vocals slowly building in intensity.
Jeffrey Soul (yes, really) on guitar had a lovely, light, funky touch and nice backing vocals, and bassist Drag Dude (ditto) is a similarly capable player, who also managed to simultaneously coax robotic vocals through a clever flute/blowing pipe gizmo which added a certain musical je ne sais quoi.
Overall this was a cool, slick, entertaining performance. It’s a pretty well mined musical genre, however, and limited to just three songs, Dusty Bottle’s set seemed to end before the band quite got the chance to really demonstrate their own distinctive personality. Was there enough originality for the judges? We’ll see …
– Dan Creffield