Motorco Durham, NC
Contact: kevin@redlightmanagement.com
Players: Jessica Dobson, lead vocals; Peter Mansen, drums; Michael Dondero, bass guitar; Elliot Jackson, guitar, synthesizer; Kristyn Chapman, guitar, vocals
The room was almost sardine-packed when Jessica Dobson, sonic provocateur, kick-ass guitar slinger and lead vocals for Deep Sea Diver, guided her band on stage. By the time they found their places she had already unleashed a sonic tidal wave of reverb-distortion-delay on her audience that was as breathtaking as it was unexpected, a sheet of sonics, staggering in sheer volume and sonic intensity, staking her claim on the Motorco stage with poise, brashness and unmerciful musical honesty.
Let’s face it, if Kick Ass and Hit Girl had a musical love child, it would be Jessica Dobson.
“Billboard Heart,” the first song of the set, was awash in twangy guitar, specifically her Jazzmaster, one of the legendary Fender series, and the ensemble was effortlessly tightening up behind her soaring vocals. With a swift adjustment to her pedal board, Deep Sea Diver careened through “Emergency,” "Lights Out,” “Wide Wake,” and the ballad-y “What Do I Know.” The sonic manipulations became ever more pronounced, and the pedal magic continued as delays, overdrive and feedback turned simple songs into complicated, unrelenting sound cyclones, turning the stage into an electronic racetrack as electrons chased electrons into backwash feedback, and making “Shattering,” “See in the Dark,” and “Tiny Threads” outstanding soundscapes that had this now capacity crowd going bashi-bazooks for this unique ensemble. They stood in rapt attention, mouths agape trying to process this glorious sound show!
The band was as tight as you could imagine, and rock it did, hitting all the right notes and checking all the right rock boxes as it led the now adoring crowd to sonic nirvana with “Be Sweet,” “Always Waving,” and “You Go Running.” For one guitar player with a capacity crowd on the verge of combustible sonic insanity, Dobson was in complete control; she was the band’s ringleader, tune caller and musical magician. She used every dynamic at her disposal to present her songs with grace and supreme confidence.
What’s remarkable about this arsenal of audio manipulators is this: on ”Shovel,” for example, is her innate sense of scale—minimal use accentuates the sonics. Take “Shattering” and “Eyes Are Red” for instance where her pedal work deftly supported the chorus, then filters back to the groove.
Deliciously loud, unapologetically raw, all she needs is a hit song and this show is headed for the stadium circuit.
