DMA’S return to Southampton before supporting Liam Gallagher in London

The trio from Newtown, Sydney ignited The Engine Rooms on the first of three dates in the south before they join the former Oasis frontman, Wolf Alice, The Sherlocks and Trampolene in Finsbury Park on Friday.

Supporting their second album For Now, frontman Tommy O'Dell, lead guitarist Matt Mason and acoustic guitarist Johnny Took brought another spiritual, almost religious experience, to the south coast, less than a year since their previous sold out show here.

Last time it was a sweltering July evening at The 1865. Tonight it was even hotter, with promoters The Joiners posting messages on social media telling everyone to wear shorts and T-Shirt to the show.

New album title track For Now and recent single Dawning were met with the same enthusiasm as hits such as Lay Down and In the Moment from 2016 debut album Hills End.

This band has their own sound, but few others capture the spirit and fervour of early Stones Roses and Oasis.

Before the show, Tommy had wondered how playing a Monday evening in Southampton would work out. “You can tell when people have to go to work the next day,” he told the Echo.

There was no need to worry; The Engine Rooms was bouncing like a Friday night.

In between songs, fans chanted “DMA’S” and, in this World Cup month, “football’s coming home”.

Not bad for a band who had just spent 24 hours travelling by coach from a festival in South Germany and had only announced this show a month earlier.

It’s no secret that Liam Gallagher is a big fan of DMA’s, recently praising their second album, which means a lot to front man Tommy.

“Liam and Noel are two of the biggest rock and roll stars. They were in the most important band in Britain for years then took some time out and both came back stronger,” he said.

“Success in this industry is mostly about writing great songs, but you need something else to be at the top for so long. You can tell when bands stop liking what they are doing and they are clearly still enjoying it.”

DMA’S are no strangers to the other bands playing at Finsbury. The Sherlocks are big fans of their music and supported them in Brixton last year.

“We like coming to England and meeting other musicians. We don’t really have a posse here, so it’s good to socialise with other bands,” said Tommy.

A top 10 hit in Australia and reaching number 13 in the UK, the band’s second record has seen them introduce more electronic sounds.

“We’ve always written songs to a drum loop because it’s easier to demo,” explained Tommy.

“We wanted to bring those effects out more on our second album, not saturate it with guitar. Time & Money was the first time we’ve used keys on a song and we now have synth in our live set on Do I Need You Now?

“Hills Ends was a guitar heavy garage record, but this time we’ve pulled the guitars back a bit to let the other parts of our music bleed through.”

It’s early days to be thinking about a third album, but Tommy says the band are always writing, although which direction they will go is still to be determined.

“Where are we going next? I don’t know man!” he laughs.

“Some of the songs we’ve recently written have been similar to our second album, but we still need to sit down, decide on what sort of production we want and who to use as a producer.

“At the moment it seems more natural to stay with our current sound, but it’ll have to suit the bunch of songs that we end up with.”

The lads are football fans and say they made sure none of their shows clash with World Cup games involving Australia and England, who they are also supporting.

“We watched England v Panama on our tour bus on the way back from a festival in Germany, so at least one of our teams is already through to the knock out stages,” said Tommy.

Earlier, Sheffield band RedFaces drew a big early crowd with their infectious upbeat guitar sounds.

Frontman Harry Lyon, guitarist Ryan Laycock, drummer Charlie Yapp and bassist Isaac White are no strangers to Southampton having played Talking Heads with Bolton stars Jordan Allen and local lads The Manatees in 2016.

Harry told The Echo the lads hope to return to the south coast in the autumn. Expect to hear more from them soon.

DMA’S and The RedFaces play The Phoenix, Exeter tonight (Tuesday 26 June) and Sub 89, Reading on Wednesday 27 June. DMA’S support Liam Gallagher at Finsbury Park, London on Friday.

More at dmasdmas.com.

By Richard Derbyshire