Dry Cleaning chose to return to Howard Theatre three years after their first ever stop in our nation’s capital. An eclectic queue formed around the theatre, with businessmen, grunge folk, and families all lining up for a rather unconventional headliner.
The scheduling of the show itself faced its own storyline, with delays and a change of venue from Black Cat in favor of a larger hall, creating discourse on whether the show would sell out… and yet it did! Though Dry Cleaning has an underground essence to them, they are far from an unknown indie collective. Adopting D.C. in D.C. as their slogan, the band was geared up for an enthralling experience.
Photos by Roman Meerzaman
Opener Hotline TNT came with a massive amount of contrast to Dry Cleaning’s sound. The louder, more explosive Hotline TNT’s shoegaze rock set was chock-full of earwormy moments that won over a lot of the crowd. There were two sarcastic comments made by the lead singer and guitarist, Will Anderson, that had a good number of patrons talking after their set was over.
The first comment came halfway through their set when Will told the crowd that they should consider sticking around for Dry Cleaning’s set. The second comment came as the band was walking off stage and Will said something on the lines of “You know where Dry Cleaning’s merch is? Yea, you’re gonna wanna go past that to get the good stuff”.
The two blurbs created a lot of commotion, with a lot of fans expressing their distaste in what Will said. One fan was adamant Will is just another music industry weirdo, based on his time working in the industry himself. Another couple were in agreement, saying he is being ungrateful to Dry Cleaning, feeling ashamed that he was acting this way. I was a bit shocked at the reaction, as I understood it as playful jabs at the headliner but many felt otherwise.
Despite the apparent controversy, a healthy amount of fans made their way to the Hotline TNT merch stand to get some of the good stuff. Likely a lot of record purchases as the band recently pulled all their music from Spotify in protest of the streaming service.
Photos by Roman Meerzaman
Dry Cleaning’s set came with its own little comment that stuck out. For those of you new to Dry Cleaning, The four band members are long time friends from south London with deep roots to the UK underground music scene. The band’s sound consists of extremely tight, addictive instrumentation to surround the group’s spoken word singer, Florence Shaw.
Shaw’s spoken-singing delivery is like if your emotionally detached aunt began to unload her stream of conscience to you at a local pub. Her exceedingly calm tone mixed with lyrical explorations into the mundane make each song feel like paintings of our lives stuffed into the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and she is our tour guide.
That dreary delivery in conjunction with body movements that appear as if Shaw is actively being possessed make for a haunting spectacle on stage. Combine that with the flashing lighting that perfectly synced to their songs and you start hoping there is a priest on hand in case things get serious.
However each time a song would end and Shaw interacted with the crowd, her mellow and joking personality really emphasized how much of persona she puts on while performing. During one of these pauses, she pointed out how only a small pocket of fans to her left were dancing and implored everyone to consider moving around to spread the fun around the venue.
During their hit song from their previous record, “Scratchcard Lanyard“, this became ever apparent as that little pocket of people were dancing as if they too were being possessed while much of the rest of the theatre stood motionless and scared. Despite the inconsistent fanfare, Dry Cleaning was able to replicate their recorded sound to a T, practically sounding identical.
All in all, the DC stop felt like an exceptional showing for both groups, with fans continuously flooding to each group’s merch stand throughout in show of support. The darker lighting of the venue mixed with the exceptional sound engineering mixed with Hotline TNT’s oomph and Dry Cleanings hyper focused delivery made for a noteworthy show that sometimes felt like the audience was not entirely sure how to digest.
Photos and words by Roman Meerzaman
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