Dry Cleaning at The Crystal Ballroom, 5/15/22
In recent years, there has been a surge of bands coming out of the UK that could loosely be described as playing post-punk music. It should be noted, however, that their styles differ wildly – to name (and attempt to summarize) a few, Black Midi and Squid play frenetic and technically excellent music reminiscent of prog rock and no-wave, Black Country New Road produce orchestral heart wrenching opuses, and bands like shame and Wet Leg lean closer to post-punk’s rock-and-roll sensibilities.
But it is particularly hard to describe where Dry Cleaning stands amongst this affectionately titled “post-Brexit” wave. My best attempt at doing so is to liken them to your friend’s effortlessly cool older sibling – always a little out of reach from your own reality but unflinchingly observant, witty, and wise at the same time. Vocalist Florence Shaw is seemingly allergic to singing, opting instead to communicate with the listener via deadpan spoken word. It’s almost as if she’s reading directly out of her journal (which she’s filled with people-watching notes, keen observations on modern existence, and stray abstract thoughts born from the mundanity of daily life). Her flat affect is the perfect foil to the heavy instrumental weight provided by her bandmates, guitarist Tom Dowse, bassist Lewis Maynard, and drummer Nick Buxton, resulting in a strikingly bizzare contrast that is deceivingly addicting to listen to.
Having released their debut LP New Long Leg last year, Dry Cleaning embarked on a first tour across the U.S, making a sold-out stop at Somerville’s very own Crystal Ballroom. Enthused that a.) a band I adored was in town, b.) playing in what is virtually Tufts’ backyard, and c.) doing so just after my finals had finished, I strolled over to Somerville Theater on a gorgeous spring night to see Dry Cleaning play.
Following a stellar set from Fake Fruit, the band took to the stage. The first thing that struck me was Shaw’s on-stage presence – wearing an oversized but-not-comically-so suit jacket, her demeanor was evidently deliberate and well-rehearsed. Her gaze alone was impossibly expressive, piercing the crowd as the band launched into “Leafy.”
Throughout the night Shaw’s face would morph between different states of subtle emotion – she’d slowly tilt her head and look off into the distance as if her curiosity had been piqued, furrow her eyebrows and look at the ground like she was trying her best to remember something; emoting as if she wasn’t playing to a crowd of several hundred people. If Shaw was subverting our typical expectations of a frontperson, opting instead to play the part of a seemingly distant performer, then her bandmates were the opposite, leaning fully into rock star behavior: Dowse – wearing four-leaf clover stickers under his eyes to celebrate the ongoing NBA playoffs – playfully egged the crowd on to hype them up, Maynard ferociously whipped his long hair around, and the laser-focused Buxton gave it his all on the drums.
Dry Cleaning followed with New Long Leg highlights “Unsmart Lady” and “Strong Feelings,” the latter of which saw Shaw pick up and play a singular maraca. The song also features one of the album’s most quotable lyrics, an admittedly funny snippet that also perfectly illustrates Shaw’s fragmented, slightly sardonic, almost collage-like writing style: “I’ve been thinking about eating that hot dog for hours.” Although the majority of the night’s setlist was composed of songs from New Long Leg, Dry Cleaning made sure to dip into material from their 2019 EPs Sweet Princess and Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks. The diehard Dry Cleaning fans in the crowd were surely satisfied by tracks from the band’s back catalog such as “Viking Hair,” “Magic of Meghan,” and “Sit Down Meal,” which very nearly almost features Shaw singing. The instrumental on “Viking Hair” gradually built up atop a repeated punchy 5-note guitar riff that had the crowd bobbing their heads, before a rather quick yet concentrated breakdown finishes the song off. It’s particularly emblematic of the band’s sound – not particularly vigorous or exhilarating, but tight, well-controlled, and just noisy enough to make things stick.
The band soon began to bring the show to a close, playing single “Tony Speaks!” and their hit track “Scratchcard Lanyard.” They wrapped things up with “Conversation” from Sweet Princess, a song loosely about dating and self-identity in our modern internet-riddled age. Shaw sang of being torn between the supposed binary of wanting to be yourself or seeking the approval of others – “I come across strange / He's saying 'be yourself, be yourself' / But if I'm myself, people think I'm strange.” But if Dry Cleaning’s show at the Crystal Ballroom was any proof, the crowd was enraptured by that very same strangeness. Truly, nobody is doing it like Dry Cleaning right now.
