STATIC DRESS: LONDON, UK - 30.08.22
Static Dress with support from Strange Bones
at The Underworld in London, UK
photos by Jamie A Waters, words by Daniel Tsourekas
Static Dress placed the final puzzle piece in their ongoing Rouge Carpet Disaster narrative, proving that they are masters at meticulously weaving a fictional universe within their music, and they can pull it off live as well.
It’s seven o’clock in Camden Town, and a queue of people are waiting outside The Underworld, an intimate venue known in the underground for hosting some impressive shows throughout the years. Static Dress aren’t strangers to this 500-capacity sweatbox. The first time they played was supporting WARGASM (UK) in September 2021. Tonight, though they find themselves in the headliner position, their final headline show of 2022, the end as the call it. Even though it’s only been a few months since the support act, tonight has sold out, and that speaks volumes to the amount of work the band has put in to reach the level they have. Speculations are flying back and forth as to what “the end” truly means, but in retrospect no one could have possibly imagined what it ended up being.
As fans and listeners head down the stairs towards the stage, they are greeted by a large queue, waiting beside the band’s merch stands. This is unsurprising, as when it comes to their merchandise Static Dress have always been on top of their game, providing their audience with fashionable yet perfectly on brand clothing, posters, and physical copies of their music. Sam, who is quite brilliant at doing multiple jobs for the team is handling the merch stand, greeting everyone with energy, conversation, and kindness. A familiar face that brings an aura of welcomeness, and who quite awesomely refuses to back down selling merch when approached by the security of the venue due to the queues. The teams constant support and appreciation towards their listeners have always been well known, but tonight truly highlights this. It feels like a day they have been working towards for a very long time, one could even say it feels planned months in advance.
Beauty School Dropout are the first support act on stage. Immediately they are greeted with cheers and a warm reception. Soon enough pushpits form, and the LA based group give a performance filled with energy and even crowd karaoke. The mood quite suddenly decides to change towards a darker, moodier tone, with Strange Bones appearing to provide a dark, dubstep filled punk extravaganza, with intense drops, a fascinating synth backdrop with multiple distorted effects, and a plethora of special guests, including London’s own Bob Vylan, who raises the energy bar up a notch, amplifying the crowd for the chaos that is about to unfold.
In order to fully realise the true importance of this show, a general recap is necessary for new followers or the general public. Static Dress have been a band since 2018, releasing their first single ‘clean.’ in August 2019. Since then, the band have quite creatively provided their following and listeners with cryptic CDs, USBs and QR codes apparent as merch at their shows. Alongside this, the recurring theme of binary code portraying hidden messages during Spotify videos, social media pictures and free leaflets at these live shows increased the sense of intrigue and interest. Following the release of the Prologue EP, which was originally supposed to stay in the form of a cryptic, limited CD named TBC, which featured rough demos of the songs that ended up on Prologue alongside the featured comic book. Once again, the fandom was sent to investigate the clues provided, eventually leading to the name of their debut album and multiple Dropbox folders with exclusive images, alternative song versions and most importantly, cryptic, and distorted audio stem files.
The reason these stem files are important is because they contribute to “the end”. After months of speculation, research, sleepless nights and editing, the dedicated fandom considered these stems useless after the release of the bands exceptional debut album Rouge Carpet Disaster. To them they were old clues leading to an album that had already been unmasked to the public. Or so they thought.
Static Dress appear on stage as a familiar sound starts blaring from the Underworld sound system. A sound that was very familiar to those who spent countless hours trying to solve this narrative mystery. It only took a few seconds to realise that the voices that can be heard are the undistorted sounds of the dropbox stems provided to the audience months ago. This is the beginning of the Rouge Carpet Disaster storyline, and the end of the debut chapter. The end of the Rouge Carpet Disaster era. And when things start to click, the beginning of the end is shaping up to be phenomenal.
Starting with the opening track of the album ‘Fleahouse’, it was clear to see that the band are fulfilling the statement made during one of their QnA’s, which would come in the form of playing the album live in full. It was quite clear to everyone in the room that these narratives that consist of the undistorted dropbox stems are piecing together each track coherently, fully allowing the crowd to immerse themselves into understanding the true story and concept of their project.
However once again the audience finds themselves side-tracked, as instead of the follow up track ‘sweet’, the melody for one of the fan favourites ‘safeword’ starts playing, followed up by the extended version of ‘sober exit(s)’, two tracks that were released either as a one off single, or as a single for the Prologue EP. Originally, it is quite perplexing. What are they trying to pull off? Is there a coherency tonight after all? So many questions appear out of thin air, trying to provide a meaning to this end, a meaning to this selection of songs in the order that they are in. And while one can never truly know what the artist felt and intended to portray when creating a work of art, the beauty of it lies within each individual’s personal connection to the project. In tonight’s case, the conclusion was that while Prologue and Rouge Carpet Disaster stand on their own as individual bodies of work, the setlist that the band decides to run with is in fact the true order of this storyline within this universe that they have created, and everything slowly starts to make sense.
The show that we’re attending isn’t just about the music, it isn’t just about playing the album in full. It’s a visual representation of a storyline and a narrative that they have been providing us with fragments of throughout these past 3 years. It’s not a gig, it’s a full-on theatrical show, and once that becomes realised, the genius of Static Dress slowly unfolds in front of the audience.
Each song transforms into a puzzle piece that was considered missing. ‘Lye Solution’ seamlessly followed by fast paced ‘Welcome In’. A narrative stem leads into ‘Attempt 8’, ‘Courtney Just Relax’ and ‘Such.a.Shame’. ‘Push Rope’, ‘Maybe!!??’ and ‘Disposable Care’ follow suit while once again audio files that were hiding in plain sight introduce ‘Di-sinTer’ and one of the storylines most interesting characters, Rain, appears on stage just as they did in multiple music videos that once again were provided to the audience months in advance. ‘Sweet’ gets the crowd going just to be balanced out by the emotionally charged ‘Marisol’ and credits track ‘Cubicle Dialogue’ both of which feature an appearance from original member and bassist Connor Reilly, who had been absent for most of the shows throughout the summer.
While vocalist Olli Appleyard stated in the beginning that he had done damage to his voice over the Reading and Leeds weekend, and even though he utilised the crowd’s help for certain aspects of the song, his presence shines here more than any previous show. He makes it known that it’s a special performance, and he provides an amazing depiction of the fascinating universe he has created. It is a post-hardcore masterclass. The one of a kind setlist ends with the final narrative, signalling the beginning of a new chapter, a new era, just before the band appears back on stage to poetically end with their first song ‘clean.’.
The concept is fragmented in a way that fully envisions a complete universe that could have been directed as a film through music. It feels like a day that has been fully planned out because it has been planned. This tightly knit team that are behind the brilliance and chaos of Static Dress are pushing the envelope for interactive universes and narratives within albums. It’s something rarely seen this intense in the hardcore and post-hardcore scene. The DIY aesthetic, the independence that the team have held on to allow for this creative freedom, while also showing this inspiring identity of family that they have created between them, whether it be through the band’s publicist crowdsurfing during songs, the photographer always placing himself in the action knowing that there’s always a moment worth capturing, or the constant will for interaction with the people that support their music. It’s this atmosphere that makes Static Dress one of the most unique bands to document at the current moment.
Static Dress’ final headline show of 2022 was a success on all fronts, proving that the band has their wits about them conceptually, performance wise, and visually. Rouge Carpet Disaster was hailed as a “product of the beginning”, and indeed it signals an excellent start to what can be considered a band that can easily become this generation’s innovators within the scene, if this show hasn’t already solidified them as that already.
