Is the line between reservation and cool really this thin? That’s what I think to myself while watching the Mona Lisa-like delivery of Florence Shaw centre stage at Cardiff’s Tramshed. South London-forged Dry Cleaning open their set with Kwency Kups and more importantly, the featured lyric “you can say I don’t give a fuck, dickface.” An avid people watcher, Shaw could build a song from multiple coffee shop window exchanges. Although reservation is something akin to discomfort in social situations for many, Dry Cleaning make it their selling point. Moreover, they make speaking the better option – even the most charismatic option.

Throughout the night, the band showcase standouts from 2022’s Stumpwork but despite having just released their new Swampy EP, no tracks from that record make an appearance tonight. Tom Dowse’s guitar playing is enthusiastic and punchy yet spacious in contrast to Shaw’s surface-level rhythmic drawl, but underneath her delivery are layers upon layers: there’s complexity, humour and heartfeltness at different moments. These are features that have been picked up over Dry Cleaning’s formative years, earning the group multiple festival slots, TV appearances and tours that found them away from home for months at a time.

The bass, provided by Lewis Maynard – long hair whipping and taking a metal icon stance – feels clean, yet the slightly gravelly slides of Anna Calls The Arctic and wah funk of Hot Penny Day show the bass is anything but background noise. Nick Buxton works overtime on the kit meanwhile, interlocking with the pulse; the combined efforts of all four pooling in a sound trance.

“I’m smiling constantly, and people constantly step on me,” Florence Shaw says on track Her Hippo, referencing that niceness can be taken for weakness. Tramshed’s stage is at its largest during this song, before the lights bounce off each audience member like a charging station during the tempo change of Goodnight and again for Magic Of Meghan (from 2019’s Sweet Princess EP) – the bouncy, knotted hook undoubtedly one everyone’s been waiting for. 

Dry Cleaning return to the stage once more for the encore with Scratchcard Lanyard, a steady cut from debut New Long Leg featuring an early 2000s sounding indie riff; Shaw’s spoken frustration refreshing as she promises: “You’ve got it coming. One day, you’re gonna get it.” Without any idea what the reference is, you hope nonetheless that karma’s that bitch.

Dry Cleaning, Tramshed, Cardiff, Tue 28 Feb 

words EMMA WAY photos EMMA LEWIS