Saturday 10/11/07 The Duke Spirit @ Korova, Liverpool

The Duke Spirit are one of those bands you see who have so much potential and then somehow managed to lose it and disappear for so long you forget all about them. Two years may see like a short period of time but in a fast moving business with a relentless and unsympathetic turnover rate those two years become colossal and this is why The Duke Spirit are finding themselves back at square one.

This return tour to promote the new EP ‘Ex Voto’ and showcase tracks from next years ‘Neptune’ album sees Laila Moss et al playing in small box venues. Whether this is to treat a special few or more to do with possibly struggling to sell out the larger venues remains to be seen however Korova is busier tonight than it has been for a long time which shows promise for the roads new friends Duke Spirit.

The set tonight was always going to be a slight struggle as listening to new song after new song can be. You have to be patient and repress your child like desire to just hear the songs you know. Having said that though tonight’s set feels very heavy on the new material with only a few old ones thrown in at the end, almost as an after thought. The ‘Ex Voto’ EP picks up pretty much where ‘Cuts Across The Land’ left off with grungey guitars and stomping rhythms a plenty. ‘Lassoo’ is the stand out track from taking on a more ferocious tone in the live arena. Singer Moss stands affront the stage with her band mates looking like a black painting from which she is emerging. Her stage presence is impressive and her voice more so. ‘Dog Roses’ is a slow paced burner that highlights the fact that much of the Dukes new material was recorded in the West of America with famed producer Chris Goss, the harmonica is a particularly nice touch.

Sadly these are two of the few stand out points of tonight’s gig. Far too much of it descends into the same old stuff track after track, The Duke Spirit certainly have a winning formula but they seem almost scared to deviate from it. ‘Neptune’ could well turn out to surprise but from tonight’s peek into its development all we will be getting is ‘Cuts Across The Land’ part 2, and in a Bullseye esque cruel twist we are treated to a late flurry of 2005 brilliance in the shape of ‘Lion Rip’. ‘Cuts Across The Land’ and the peerless ‘Love Is An Unfamiliar Name’ as if to remind of how good tonight could have been.

Sadly it seems that in the last two years the only people who have not developed and moved on are The Duke Spirit themselves.