We spent our bank holiday Monday in a medieval church in Norwich, watching the Dum Dum Girls put on a superb pop show. Jealous? You should be....
Bank holidays are meant for fun, and what better way to maximise on that than watching the Dum Dum Girls at one of the best venues in East Anglia? Answer: there is no better way. Supporting the girls tonight were Vorhees, New York City based audio engineer and sound designer, and The Crocodiles, bringing us some noise/indie pop all the way from San Diego (please read that bit in Ron Burgundy’s voice). Both acts were interesting support, with Vorhees making ambient soundscapes and interesting layered songs to get you in “the zone”, and Crocodiles serving as more up-beat act to get you a little bit more pumped. Let’s get this out of the way; I unabashedly love the Dum Dum Girls and think they’re an amazing pop band; their songs are catchy and classy at the same time, they’re great musicians and they’re also pretty empowering. There were a few people at the show who uttered some “style over substance” rubbish, but perhaps it’s time people recognise that you can be stylish AND significant/relevant/a good bloody band at the same time. Style and substance do not have to be mutually exclusive – if you don’t like the music, fine, but if you don’t like it because you can’t get past the fact that young women dare to have a bit of panache and accessorise their guitars with a spot of fashion then fuck you. (Also fuck you to the middle-aged guy who rudely sat on the stage during Vorhees, refused to move out of anyone else’s way [what, are you knees GLUED TO THE STAGE?] and had no god damn clue about photography etiquette during a live show. Gah!). Right, rant over. Sorry.
As I was saying, I love the Dum Dum Girls, and I was admittedly a bit apprehensive about seeing them. I never thought they’d travel to Norwich and wasn’t sure how their sound would translate live, so it was a pretty exciting event and I was pleased that they didn’t disappoint at all. Their performance was perhaps a touch on the austere side, with very little crowd interaction; front woman Dee Dee sure is stoic, but at the same time they were slick, professional and charismatic. They treated us to an extensive look into their full catalogue, including tracks from each album and even from their EP’s ‘He Gets Me High’ and ‘End of Daze’ – a surprise as this tour is to support latest album ‘Too True’. It’s hard to pick out a highlight as the whole set was massively enjoyable but If you insist on forcing me then I would say ‘Rimbauld Eyes’, ‘It Only Takes One Night’ and my current jam and part of their encore, ‘Lost Boys and Girls Club’. You know it’s a good show when you can’t stop listening to the band afterwards, looking through your photos makes you want to re-live it and you annoy your husband with incessant Dum Dum Girls-related chatter. So yep, good show, would watch again A++++++++++. For photos of the evening,
go HERE. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOF_oo3EgnQ
www.wearedumdumgirls.com www.facebook.com/DumDumGirls
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