THE GOOD, THE BAD BITCHES AND THE UGLY.
DREAM WIFE AT STRANGE BREW, BRISTOL
October 7th 2023

Dream Wife are back with their third album Social Lubrication. Their first Post-Pandemic long form release, they’re back in the flesh brighter and punchier than ever. I caught wind of their show in Bristol’s Strange Brew, satiating my inner 17 year old self who bought their debut album the week of its release back in 2018, I left the cafe I was at and ran down to the venue my rucksack bouncing off my back.

I arrived as one of the support acts were closing out and took in the energy from the people pouring outside for a rest before going back into the action. Chatting to punters I spoke to old housemates of the band, family and friends, this was a hometown show for half of Dream Wife and the atmosphere was all that of an electric reunion with their home turf. Paying for my first drink at the bar, I turn to see the group central to the affair taking stage.

Pic from Leeds byJohn Hayhurst (@snapagig)

Vocalist Rakel fires the sonic starting gun, “This is Social Lubrication off of our new album…Social Lubrication”; the crowd erupts as anticipation bursts into celebration.

I get my first impression of their new album. It’s the same Dream Wife that you know and love, the underlying energy is there; clever lyrics tackling socially significant subjects, the honed and well directed dynamics but it feels like there’s something more Dream Wife about the whole thing.

They’re the same band just better pronounced. The music seems like the natural fit to their uproarious stage energy, the wives have levelled up and swing stronger than before! My personal favourite track from the new album, Hot (Don’t Date a Musician), epitomises everything that’s cool about DW. It’s candy coloured battle music played by three arcade machine fighters that have burst out of the cabinet and onto the stage. Each individual performer does something that propels the other forward. Rakel’s voice adopts a dollish tone in the verse that makes the hard punch of the choruses really feel like it Is cranked all the way to eleven. Bella’s bass lines brood spring wound, blowing off the latch to fly supersonic. Alice Go (Who also produced the new album) has these razor sharp lead riffs that punctuate the lightning cocktail with bladed angular melody. Their style is intensely potent.

 

The energy of the room rides higher and higher with each rhythm played and here’s where it got stratospheric. Bella and Alice each take a podium on top of speaker cabs that sat on the flanks of the stage. The crowd is divided down the middle. Alice is player 1 and the left side of the room are player 1’s team, Bella is player 2, I am a part of Bella’s team. They’re ripping into their instruments at full force with Rakel at the centre of the stage a conductor of riot. She bellows “PLAYER 1” and the left portion go wild. She howls “PLAYER 2” and we howl back. This continues with each yowl howl and holler growing in magnitude before “FIGHT” and the players pounce back onto the stage for the final release of energy.

“This has been so incredibly fun… and hot”

But it’s not over yet. Rakel takes to the mic to address the audience with a statement.

“Tonight everyone’s a bad bitch and that has nothing to do with gender. Gender is just a construct so can we all agree to tear it apart. This song is dedicated to all the bad bitches, this song is called somebody.”

They play the track which catapulted them to success and the fanfare and resonance that was tangible in the room is testament to the impact that song has when people hear it.

Seeing them play it to a room of people all of different demographics, styles and backgrounds and have the rouges gallery be unified in singing “I spy, with my little eye, bad bad bad bad bitches” it felt moving. I saw people who I’d pass on the street with out a second thought singing a song which celebrated the bad bitch in everyone, it was sweet to be a part of that.

Their final tune of the night was F.U.U (FUCK U UP). The song that closed out their first album closes out a show celebrating their third, and with the high emotions of the evening a punchy don’t care violent tune was what we needed. Rakel invited all of the supports on the stage for one final song and dance. The stage is now adorned with people, laughing, dancing, not giving a fuck-ing and the energy is matched by us in the crowd. It closes out and the crowd file in to buy records and t-shirts and file out again with smiles from ear to ear reflecting on their personal highlights. It was a show I smile thinking about. It made me satisfied that I had completed my teenage mission to see them live and not just that I saw them at their best. Their new album is one of riot and jubilation, the energy on record is a direct translation of their energy as people on stage. Since that show I’ve had an epiphany. I’m a bad bitch, you’re a bad bitch, we’re all bad bitches and that’s a fact I won’t forget.

A fact that no one who was at the show is likely to ever forget.

Dom
with thanks to Thom at Sonic PR

https://www.dreamwife.co/

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