Photo: Splash
Dum Dum Girls have the most attractive fans in the world. Everyone here tonight is unspeakably beautiful, which is rather unsettling. The band themselves are not averse to using their considerable sex appeal to their advantage.
Frontwoman Dee Dee delivers many of her vocals breathily, while covering her top half with little more than lace and nipple pasties. Thankfully, this is all underpinned by some pretty decent tunes. They open tonight with 'Mine Tonight', a seductive fantasy about death. It's cheerier than it sounds; and is driven along, as so many of the songs, by Sandy's powerhouse drums.
Musically, the band drift from dreamy powerpop to Jesus and Mary Chain style dirge. I don't mean dirge in a derogatory fashion, far from it. The band is at their most enthralling when flirting with the post-punk influences that constantly simmer under the surface.
The highlight of the set is 'Are You Okay?'. The song soars to a wonderful crescendo, showcasing the impressive musical chops of the whole band. Bassist Malia remains almost impossibly cool throughout the whole thing, proving that it's not only four-string experts named Kim who hold the monopoly in this area.
Closer 'Coming Down' has the audience doing anything but, with rapturous applause seeing the band off into the night. It's certainly true that Dum Dum Girls use their looks to help their cause, but that's OK. They look like the living embodiment of the girls from Robert Palmer's 'Addicted to Love' video, if they learned to play their instruments.
As Warpaint's quickly retracted comments about Rihanna and Beyonce show, it is still a prickly area among female musicians. However, when the music is this good, it's better just to lose yourself in the songs, not the issues.
