Review: Dolores Forever @ Dareshack

By Sophie Scannell, Music Subeditor

Having never visited Dareshack for a gig, knowing it only by day as an unassuming café, I’m unsure of what to expect slipping into the yellow doors marked ‘studio’. But after spotting a hot pink glittery bass guitar propped up to the side of the stage, I knew I was in safe hands.

Kicking things off with ‘Concrete’, a punchy track off their new album It’s Nothing, the band's sound is immediately assertive and impressively polished, and being stood right by the speaker I’m assured, to my delight, that the bass sounds just as glistening as it looks.

Duo Dolores Forever is comprised of pals Julia Fabrin, originally from Copenhagen, and Hannah Wilson, who commends us for coming down tonight on a ‘sh**e rainy Monday in November’.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dolores Forever (@doloresforever)

Hannah rocks a coquettish black dress, bright yellow nails and two silver ribbons intertwined within her braids. Julia wears a huge grin as she sings backing vocals and it looks great on her, as does her layered flowery frock and wavy hair dancing in the gusts from the fan off to the side of her.

Julia beams later in between songs that performing live is her ‘favourite thing in the world’ and it’s clear to see from the get-go, especially when stood next to your best friend.

Their chemistry is palpable, particularly in ‘Split Lip’, where the pair manoeuvre their mic stands to face each other and lock eyes to sing ‘But you can't be everybody's everything alright / You're not a pocketknife’. It’s a reassuring love song to one another, Hannah explains after the song ends, and the heart-warming lyrics pair perfectly with the dreamy indie-pop melodies that embody a comforting feeling of girlhood.

The show isn’t without a few technical blips, though – a malfunction with the backing track means that we don’t get ‘Rotten Peaches’ in this set, and for a stripped back version of ‘Rothko’ Julia struggles to tune her guitar.

These are moments that add to the charm of the live experience, in my opinion, as Hannah jokingly urges us to come back next year when they’ll get things working again.

Dolores Forever @ Dareshack | Maia Miller-Forkin

Someone in the crowd takes this moment of technical difficulties to ask how the band got their name from the side of the stage, and there's a collective giggle at this bold seizing of the wheel that steers the show into an impromptu Q&A session.

Hannah nevertheless answers diligently, regaling the desire to have a strong feminine influence driving the name of the band, hence ‘Dolores’. It’s a name that suits the album perfectly and its lyrical motifs of self-image, friendship, and navigating the female experience as a young person.

It's a brilliantly comprehensive album, and I’m getting even more of a kick out of it when live. ‘Grace’ is a personal highlight, being gorgeously harmonious and bouncy, and ‘Someday Best’ allows for some great crowd participation in triumphant lines like ‘shut up and eat the pasta!’ - the eager participation from the students in the room was all too revealing.

Dolores Forever @ Dareshack | Maia Miller-Forkin

An intermission acoustic piece sees a dynamic contrast, where the band takes one of their older tracks, or as Hannah puts it, ‘getting one out of the graveyard’ and plays a stripped back version of it. Many in the crowd are pleased in recognising it as ‘Rothko’, a two-year old track that settles nicely in and amongst the newer stuff.

Anthemic lyric ‘bang bang its happening!’ is taken literal as Hannah grabs a pair of drumsticks and jumps alongside drummer Will, whilst Julia masterfully wields a tambourine in an electric build up to the chorus of ‘Not Now Kids’.

It's a punchy ‘apocalyptic bop’, about a feeling of powerlessness in being patronised by the state of the government at the moment, as Hannah recently explained to Dork, 'like you’re a pawn in a big game of chess'.

'We're not writing protest songs', she caveats in the interview. The band’s music isn’t promising to solve these apocalyptic problems by any means, but why should it? In an age where artists feel indebted to their audiences to change the world with their lyricism, Dolores Forever refreshingly just rides the wave, their work capturing the anxieties, frustrations and friendships that are found bobbing alongside them.

The pair are beaming by the end of their set, and it’s infectious, being met by a huge round of applause as the two skip off stage to a masterful employment of ‘Womanizer’ as their walk-off music.

Featured Image: Maia Miller-Forkin

Do you think bands have a duty to be political in their music?