The very late review

LIVE REVIEW
The Language Of Prairie Dogs @ Boogaloo, Highgate
5th Feb 2007

We’re at the Boogaloo bar (or “Juke Joint”) for their monthly 4x4 night - a novel concept whereby four acts each get to play four songs, for a fee of about four pounds.

Disappointingly, most acts opt to ruin the concept by playing five or six songs instead of the regulation four. Either they can’t count (which in the case of one performer we’re well happy to believe) or are so arrogant that they think their no-mark warblings are somehow bigger than the format.

Whatever; one man resolutely sticking to his allowance - for better or worse - is Dean Sobers, aka The Language Of Prairie Dogs, aka the reason we’re here tonight. TLOPD offers something a bit different to the usual, “I’m drunk and Australian - can I now be big in North London, please?” thing that pervades the scene - he’s ebullient, slightly scruffy and refreshingly self-effacing. “I’mdeansoberslanguageofprairiedogshere’ssomesongs”, he mumbles as he comes on, a rare change from the usual parade of brash fuckers who treat unsigned/open mic evenings like they’re headlining the Astoria for the fifteenth night.

The first thing that hits you is the voice. If Curtis Mayfield and Jeff Buckley had taught James Dean Bradfield how to sing, he’d struggle to sound this good. Sobers’ voice dominates his music; soaring, booming and generally doing a bit of everything over the top of intricate guitar lines that hypnotise and draw the audience into his unique narrative.

For it isn’t pretty lyrics about flowers and cows that TLOPD voices so well; he crafts dark stories that flit between being bleak and comical as readily as his voice moves from fragile falsetto to blistering baritone. One such highlight is ‘The Bluetit Is Suffocating’, which enthrals the watching wine drinkers for its entirety, as do the other songs he plays tonight.

All Sobers needs now is a solid live band behind him and he’ll be well on his way to the stardom he so richly deserves. And if he can muster the confidence and stage presence to match his songs, you’d be something of a fool to bet against him going all the way.