Review of Dum Dum Girls at Whelans on Friday April 1st 2011
Review by Ian Maleney
Photos by Kieran Frost
If you’re into that kind of thing, there’s an awful lot of fuzzy, lo-fi pop punk music vying for your attention these days. While it’s not exactly breached the mainstream consciousness or anything, Bethany Cosentino’s cat does have a twitter account and strong set of followers so these are undoubtedly interesting times to be playing two chord pop songs drenched in nostalgia and spring reverb. Of all the various groups inhabiting this sound, Dum Dum Girls are amongst the cream of the crop. Judging by the jam-packed Whelan’s, there’s a good few people with that same opinion and the foursome do not disappoint.
After an incredibly nonchalant appearance on stage, there’s a count of four and they launch into ‘He Gets Me High’, the title track from their new EP. It’s a perfect way to start, showing off all the arch-pop sensibility that songwriter and front-woman Dee Dee brings to the table. The guitars are washed out, the drums are pounding and the bass couldn’t give a shit. Harmonies are stacked on top of one another, barely breaking though the haze until that brilliant, simple, sing-along chorus where everything is clear, if only for a few seconds. It’s a perfect, beautiful mess and it sets the tone for a set filled with pop gems.
Highlights appear thick and fast, from the epic chorus of ‘Jail, La La’ to the insistent rhythms of album curtain-raiser ‘It Only Takes One Night’. With the majority of the set being played at a suitably frenetic tempo, the few slow songs that are played can’t help but stand out, showing the depth of the Dum Dum Girls’ sound. Dee Dee’s voice is haunting on new song ‘Teardrops On My Pillow’ while album highlight ‘Rest Of Our Lives ‘ is painfully beautiful. The band bow out with their stunning take on The Smiths’ classic ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ as an encore. It’s always difficult to cover a song that is as embedded in the popular music psyche as ‘There Is A Light’ but in many ways it’s the perfect choice for a group that are becoming ever more accomplished at building classic pop songs out of simple chords and subtly intricate details. With her lessons learned from the likes of Phil Spector and Burt Bacharach, few people in modern indie have a better grasp of the mechanics of traditional pop songwriting than Dee and none have married it so well to the lo-fi punk aesthetic. The songs are great, the band are tight as hell, the crowd love it; success all round. We could be seeing them in a much bigger venue next time around.
