Dry Cleaning

Ferrara always has something reassuring about it, even more so when admired bathed in the light of a late afternoon in early June, with a heat that's not yet overly oppressive. Anyone passing near the wonderful Castello Estense after 5:30pm is drawn in by the music coming from the inner courtyard: Ferrara Sotto Le Stelle, one of the small jewels in the crown of the Italian live music calendar, has entered the heart of its twenty-eighth edition, and the ones doing a soundcheck with an unexpectedly loud tone are Dry Cleaning. The post-punk band led by Florence Shaw is back in Italy a year after their visit to Sexto 'Nplugged, where they'd played their sophomore album “Stumpwork”, released in October 2022, live. Tonight's setlist will once again center on that record and on one of their early releases, “Sweet Princess Ep” (2019), which, having just reached its fifth anniversary, was reissued for the occasion alongside its “twin” “Boundary Road Snacks And Drinks”.

Warming up the atmosphere is the solid blend of alt-rock and psychedelia served up through two handfuls of songs from New Candys. The Veneto band focuses on their latest effort “Vyvyd” (2021), progressively gaining momentum with the catchy guitar riffs of opener “Twin Mime” and “Factice”, continuing with the dreamier “Begin Again”, enriched by an instrumental coda nodding to shoegaze, and a “Helluva Zoo” far more reverb-drenched than its studio version, up to the hard rock mood of the devastating drumming pushed to the front on “Zyko” and “Vyvyan Rising”, which winks at the work of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. A performance that builds in intensity, with highlights also including the brief “Tempera”, one of the standout tracks from “Bleeding Magenta” (2017), and a closing entrusted to the psychedelic trip of “Overall”.

The South London outfit takes the stage right on time and opens the show with the brooding wave of “Leafy”, pulled from “New Long Leg”, and the guitar phrasing of “Jam After School”, the only track drawn from “Boundary Road Snacks And Drinks”. “New Job” picks up the pace, marked by a jangle-leaning drift and a rhythm section pushed to the forefront, before slowing back down, holding a similar course on “Kwenchy Kups”, where all the attention falls on the spoken word delivered by the frontwoman. Besides Shaw's mesmerizing presence, a dark-clad deity, the stage is also commanded by guitarist Tom Dowse and bassist Lewis Maynard, whose metal roots peek through both in their stage postures and in their outfits.

Among the best highlights of the evening is “Her Hippo”, memorable for its extended instrumental coda reminiscent of psych, as is the following “Hot Penny Day”, less funky than its recorded version. “Stumpwork” and “Driver's Story” take on sharper contours thanks to incisive bass lines, with the latter in particular carrying jazzy airs, while “Strong Feelings” leans more on its driving drumbeat.

Things get livelier on the engaging choruses of the much-anticipated “Gary Ashby” and “Don't Press Me”, followed by the quiet “Traditional Fish” and “Conversation”, both once again built around long instrumental closings. The main set wraps up with the fast, driving guitar riffs of “Magic Of Meghan” and the saxophone played by drummer Nick Buxton, the star of the mysterious “Anna Calls From The Arctic”.

The return to the stage after a very brief break is devoted to the better-known, more irresistible “Scratchcard Lanyard”, before fading out on the harmonic cycles of the longer “No Decent Shoes For Rain”.

Dry Cleaning fit perfectly into the setting chosen by Ferrara Sotto Le Stelle and surprise the audience: if anyone who'd only heard them on record might have initially worried about the risk of a somewhat flat performance, that doubt is firmly put to rest after the energy shown in particular by Dowse and Maynard, supporting Shaw's magnetic presence, and the fine balance struck between dynamic tracks and more lysergic-leaning ones.

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