Review | Dawes (Duo) Hits the Sweet Spot

The intimacy of the Lobero Theatre is an exquisite setting for the band of brothers known as Dawes. Following a nice warm-up by Canadian singer-songwriter Sam Weber, Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith casually walk out and begin to jam on “Enough Already,” from their 2024 album Oh Brother. With lyrics like, “Never got angry enough to be funny / Never stopped caring enough to be cool,” and, “But I’ve always failed enough to keep trying / I’ve always worked enough to get by,” I immediately wish I had a songbook to revel in their poetry. 

They’ve also got a big sound from just two voices, a drum kit, and an electric (and sometimes acoustic) guitar. The current touring version of the band is Dawes (Duo) with just the two brothers, minus the full backing band we saw them with at the Santa Barbara Bowl back in 2022 (see review here), and the sound was full enough, and the songs were good enough, that they weren’t missing a thing — even though Taylor, the frontman and guitarist, admitted at one point that, in driving himself there from L.A., he forgot his foot pedal. 

And then there’s that musical poetry. For a lifelong Santa Barbaran, the words from their 2022 song “Comes in Waves,” speak volumes, and make my heart sing with understanding: “The boy that grows up in a beach town / And never learns to surf / Sounds like the perfect distillation / Of my time spent here on Earth / But I have stared at the horizon / With both feet in the sand / The thing I love about the ocean / It comes in waves.” 

But some silliness and cynicism is embedded in the family too. There’s something beautifully subversive about a band that can sing about “House Parties” (and local bands) in the same set as “A Joke in There Somewhere,” which talks about corporate coffeehouses and Christmas decorations and ball games on the radio, and then flip to the subtle youthful wisdom of  2015’s “Things Happen.” The chorus —  “Let’s make a list of all the things the world has put you through / Let’s raise a glass to all the people you’re not speaking to / I don’t know what else you wanted me to say to you / Things happen, that’s all they ever do” — could be a mantra, and the bridge — ”I can’t help how I feel, I don’t think anyone can” — should really be a needlepoint pillow in my house. 

From 2011’s “A Little Bit of Everything,” to 2018’s “Never Gonna Say Goodbye,” all of the music holds up beautifully and adjusts well to this stripped-down format. I enjoyed every moment of the show from these two sweet, but somehow still a little bit edgy brothers, whose Laurel Canyon–influenced sound reminded me a bit of Simon & Garfunkel and whose songs reminded me a bit of Joni Mitchell.   

And then there’s that 2015 hit that everyone knows to sing along with — “All Your Favorite Bands” — with the lyrics, “I hope the world sees the same person that you always were to me / And may all your favorite bands stay together.” Luckily, this particular band of brothers is moving seamlessly between folk tunes and sprawling jams, still going strong as a duo, and giving us a night to remember.