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Concert Sat Oct 15 2011
Review: Dum Dum Girls @ Empty Bottle, 10/14
Slowly but surely, I think Dee Dee is finally figuring out that nobody really cares about the Dum Dum Girls all that much. The black-haired songwriter whose real name is Kristen Gundred has gently eased her band's way into our collective consciousness with a slew of 7"s and EPs over the last three years, acting as a reluctant pioneer for the surge in lady-fronted bands that create glimmering '60s ballads with a hefty dose of elbow grease over the same time span. But while bands like Vivian Girls, Best Coast, and Puro Instinct are all losing favor for their own reasons, everything for the Dum Dum Girls has come to a head now. The quartet sold out the Empty Bottle Friday night, and their new LP, Only In Dreams, has cast away most of the complaints anyone might have had about the complexity of their performance.
Dum Dum Girls' back catalog is an impressive collection of quick, loose hooks and shy, charming vocals; but Only In Dreams is a mostly slow-burning affair between Dee Dee's powerful vocals and instrumentation that seems to shy away from its intimidating presence. Like, where the hell did that come from?
But it all makes for a far superior live show. Not many bands can make timid lo-fi pop songs compelling, and fewer yet can even stand next to those supplied by opener Colleen Green. Dee Dee has the ultimate trump in all this, though, and it honestly doesn't matter what else is going on behind her. Her bandmates strum power chords and coo backing vocals, but the Dum Dum Girls show starts and ends with the singer.
Not to say their old stand-by's don't still carry some weight. The cuts off I Will Be (specifically "Jail La La") were fun-filled forays into the fast and fun delinquent-grrrl aesthetic, but there isn't much meat there for the taking.
Dee Dee & Co. filled in the rest with generous amounts of vocal flexing. They closed the night with "Coming Down," a track off Only In Dreams in which Dee Dee throws her voice over a punishing cliff and spreads itself out to cover the gulf below. It was a grand display of towering force. And forget everything else about the Dum Dum Girls — that was nothing but Dee Dee.
