Dom's Songs More Appealing Than His Personality at Siren Festival (PHOTOS)

Although Dom has only existed as a band for a matter of months, the psych-pop outfit have made considerable waves in the indie community thanks to rave reviews.
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This Saturday, Coney Island saw the triumphant return of Village Voice's annual Siren Festival, now in its tenth installment this year. Kicking off the festival in the early afternoon was Dom, the much-hyped, Pitchfork-approved Worcester, Mass. natives.

Although Dom has only existed as a band for a matter of months, released only one seven-track EP with Burning Mill Records, and remain to this day unsigned (unless you're gullible enough to believe their MySpace, which has them under Lil Wayne's Young Money Entertainment), the psych-pop outfit have made considerable waves in the indie community thanks to rave reviews for the aforementioned EP (April's Sun Bronzed Greek Gods), and a growing reputation for consistent, energetic live performances.

That being said, it's no easy task playing the first set of the day when the headliners aren't playing for another seven hours, and approximately half of the crowd is represented by New York family units and weekenders who just happened to wander onto Coney Island on this particular afternoon. By the time Dom had finished tuning up, a decent-sized crowd had formed in front of the stage -- but only about a third of them kept their heads moving and their gazes focused on the band as they kicked off their performance with the echoed out garage-rocker "Bochicha"; in their defense though, the crowd's ability to focus was severely hindered by temperatures crossing the century-mark in Brooklyn. The members of Dom seemed all too aware of this fact, and although it didn't seem to affect the band's sound, running through the summery hits of their EP with all the tightness and sonic lushness present on the recordings, it did appear to take some toll on their enthusiasm. As a result, despite the kneejerk catchiness to their bouncy pop numbers, Dom ended up putting on one of the lowest-energy performances of the day.

Lead singer and guitarist of Dom, who is also called Dom (he has yet to disclose his last name to the public), has been characterized by the media as lackadaisical and carefree, largely due to his affinity for lying in interviews about things like his record label, or whether or not his music is used as the fight song for hometown Worcester's AHL hockey team (Ed Note: It isn't.). But sometimes there's a fine line between "carefree" and simply not giving a shit, and at times it was difficult to tell which side Dom was sitting on.

After the band crashed their last cymbal at the end of catchy head bopper "Rude As Jude" -- a strong contender for crowd favorite, if there was one -- Dom (the frontman) cried over the applause and cheers, "Woo, yeah, that was great," in a high pitched, mocking tone, pacing back and forth at the end of the stage and looking bored. It was hard to tell if this was only a lighthearted joke or genuine disdain for his less-than-enthusiastic audience, but Dom made his impatience clear in the lull between songs that followed, shouting into the mic, "C'mon, play the track - let's hear some music!" At his command, someone off stage pressed play and a shimmery wash of reverby synth chords sprang from the speakers, cuing up bouncy summer hit "Burn Bridges", and from there Dom continued to roll through the songs of their EP, closing with blissed-out anthem "Living in America" and walking off the stage with fifteen minutes remaining in their forty-minute set. Admittedly, their total sum releases to this date only amount to about nineteen minutes of music - and they did stretch it out to twenty-five here - but something tells me that this show would have ended at the same time if Dom had twice the material.

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