Molly – Deary – Coventry live review

Molly – Deary – Just Dropped In Records – Coventry – 4th February 2023

Last Saturday Fighting Boredom headed to our favourite record shop to see a double bill of shoegaze dreamy indie pop. Molly from Austria and Deary from the UK, read what we thought below.

The record shop is always a good place for a gig, it’s small enough so that everyone can see and the short people even have boxes to stand on. The sound man is feet away from the bands so that when they ask for things turning up or down he just replies yes and does it. The promoter and record shop owner are in the middle of things and seem to know everyone there. Plus there’s records all over the place and when isn’t that a good thing?

Anyway, Deary are a trio, and they tune up as the shop fills up in front of them. For the most part they have two guitars and a drummer, but there are sampled sounds playing as well. They start playing and it’s a high guitar sound, the drums keeping a steady, cool beat and a dreamy vocal, it’s indie and it’s powerful. It’s a great big noise for the tiny space, crafted sonics.

It’s shoegaze, dreamy and euphoric balancing the loud with stillness and quiet. Bright, open music and the vocal is beautiful. There’s a proper groove going on underneath the guitars, the drummer shuffling the beat to make the crowd move.

The singer introduces the band as Dotty and the two Bens, goes on to say how it’s amazing to be playing surrounded by such iconic records, suggesting that she would love anyone forever who bought her the Mazzy Star album at the back of the shop for a huge amount of money. They start again and it’s a slow drum pattern and synth notes quickly joined and overloaded by the guitars and drums. It brings to mind bright sunshine playing over swift flowing water, it’s a summer song, slower and even more dreamy. The vocal is wonderful, slow bright and totally indie pop. It fits perfectly to the sounds of the instruments as they craft together indie dreampop shoegaze songs.

Faster riffs come in over the sound of strings and it’s a song to sway along to, for lazy tired days, to faze out and let it repeat over and over until it fades into applause. Dotty sings to an almost acoustic guitar. A sad and isolated delicate song. Then comes a night time dive into cold water as the stars circle above and your skin creases and goosebumps against the temperature.

They play their debut single with a huge mesmerising shimmer of guitar and steady drums, the groove that just gets better as Dotty sings. It’s wonderful. They played a great set and I think they are going to be very big indeed.

Molly come on to bursts of dry ice. The singer has blond hair and the best hat of the night. Think new romantic, sister of mercy and kiss me quick and you will know the type of hat I mean. A gentle strummed guitar starts and the singer has a high voice with an Austrian accent, the vocal sounds broken and lost and the guitar gets louder. Kerry next to me says that there’s a hint of David Sylvian in there and I agree. The drums kick in and for the second time tonight it’s a big shoegaze sound, an ace feel to it too. It’s slow, dreamy but cold and aloof music. The drums slow down and the fire alarm goes off because of the dry ice. The song continues, every so often it goes into a bit of a bigger sound but it never speeds up. They go back to a small sound, it’s still not warm and welcoming. It remains hard, cold and frozen over. The drums speed up and the guitar is high and pure.

Sampled birdsong plays as the singer laughs at setting off the alarm, saying they said it would be alright.. They start again with small sounds and a tiny vocal. Then the drums make out a dynamic beat and the sound is drawn out again. Small sounds hover over the beats and then the guitar and vocal break through to something bright, blinding and real. Skittery drums and clear tones make the rhythm really good. A military march drums over the sound and a high guitar drone fades out back into the birdsong.

The next song has the drummer on a keyboard and playing piano notes and an isolated vocal singing, the audience is still and quiet until they launch back into the gigantic sound the drum leading the way and the guitar pure and clear, no fuzz this time. It’s still aloof and alone but the sound is huge.

The vocals are emotional and occasionally lost in the overall sound, and it’s turned into an epic noise now. Then it slows again, crawling over the rubble, it’s slow and clear, ebbing and flowing and becomes a little warmer as the set goes on. It’s like standing in the snow staring at the sky and slowly going blind from the sheer brilliance of the sight. There’s a drum machine, he plays the guitar with a bow, it gets small then overwhelmingly big. There’s a thunderous end to the night as the music goes on over and over, battering you down. Then slower and slower until it finally stops. What a set. Highly recommended by us.

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Deary