UK post punk band, Dry Cleaning have been touring North America for most of the new year and finished this leg of their 2023 World tour last week when they passed through Red Hook, Brooklyn at event space Pioneer Works. Along for the ride were openers Spirit Of The Beehive and Nourished By Time.
2022 was quite a busy year for Dry Cleaning, with the release of their critically-acclaimed sophomore LP, Stumpwork not to mention almost non-stop touring, all of which has proven to be a huge boon to the band’s popularity. Last year at this time they played the relatively tiny Market Hotel here in Brooklyn, while this show at Pioneer Works was sold out with well over 1000+ in attendance. It certainly is my guess that next go-around will see them knocking on the doors of even larger venues once again.
Dry Cleaning offers up a sound which is different and quite unique. Lead singer Florence Shaw doesn’t sing as much as she speaks in cadence. It’s not a rap kind of speaking but more of a flowing stream of sentences washing over a background of exquisite music provided by Tom Dowse on guitar, Lewis Maynard on bass and Nick Buxton on drums. Opening up their set with “Kwenchy Kups” and “Alan Ashby” off of their Stumpwork album it was immediately clear that the band has grown into a well-oiled machine with the virtual nonstop touring with which they’ve been doing. Shaw opening up the show with the opening lines “Things are shit, but they’re gonna be okay” seemed perfect. Her whispered voice over the cascading guitar fills echoing out of Tom Dowse’s amplifier mixed with the bouncing rhythm provided by Maynard and Buxton on bass and drums respectively set the tone for the entire evening. Whereas “Kups” was slow and almost dirge-like, the follow-up of “Alan Ashby” with its rolling, almost danceable rhythm was a near-perfect segue. And so the evening went. Shaw was absolutely mesmerizing front-of-stage clutching her microphone stand for much of the evening or pantomiming with her hands when she was not while she murmured the lines to each of her songs.
As captivating as Florence Shaw’s stage presence and vocal presentations were, the work which Tom Dowse was pulling off to her right on stage was almost otherworldly. With a unique style which I don’t think I’ve ever seen from anyone else, his playing lead guitar riffs on an electric 12-string was jaw-dropping to say the least. Never overstated or showy, the sounds and progressions which he was created throughout the evening has me scratching my head for most of the night wondering how he did it. Despite his understated style of neck play, he still managed to create enough of a whirlwind of sound to float just behind the words that Shaw was hushly reciting.
Which brings me to the rhythm section, specifically Lewis Maynard on bass. Watching him play, you would have thought you were seeing a bass player in a funk band grooving on the beats. His crazy long hair flowing each and every way as he rocked forward and back to what seemed like every note plucked from his bass. Yet what you were actually hearing was a backbeat which perfectly accentuated the fluid tide which Shaw and Dowse were sharing. Bouncing to the subtle beat it took me some time to put 2 and 2 together but what I was hearing from Maynard was a bass style right out of the Robbie Shakespeare book of rub a dub-style riddem…and it was a perfect compliment to the entire ensemble.
Dry Cleaning is by no means a dance band but certainly, they are quite adept at creating dance music. Not jump up and down kind of music, but perfect ambient, sway back and forth in a cosmic buoyant haze kind of dance music. A band whereby the whole is way greater than the sum of the parts. I for one can’t wait to see them again even if it means having to experience it in a significantly larger space due to their ever-growing popularity.
A quick word regarding the two opening bands. Nourished By Time, the nom de plume of Baltimore native Marcus Brown started the evening off with a spirited and interestingly enjoyable mix of R&B, Hip Hop, and electronic music which managed to grab ahold of much of the early-arriving crowd. Next up was Philadelphia’s SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE who despite being plagued by technical issues throughout their truncated set still managed to present a forward-thinking hypnotic brand of rock. With all three primary bandmates (Zack Schwartz on guitar and vocals, bassist/vocalist Rivka Ravede and multi-instrumentalist Corey Wichlin) all sharing various duties on synths, the band created quite a captivating sound. I hope to see them again in the near future.
Dry Cleaning
SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE
Nourished By Time
