Gig Review: Dame Area At EartH Hall

Emerging from the Catalan Underground; accomplished techno outfit Dame Area showcases their hypnotic intensity as they turn EartH’s Hall into a melting pot for the evening as part of a stacked triple bill with C.A.R. and Decius. 

To witness a Dame Area show in full effect is to witness a movement. They’re hyper kinetic, lively, ramped up and engage the crowd from the first song right from through to the end, the packed-out EartH Hall is practically bouncing and that energy that has seen them catapult to successes at Primavera Sound and End of the Road festival is unrivalled. They’ve enhanced their live show to be as prolific as they come, often doing two sets in one day, and it’s incredible that they’ve kept the energy as intense as they have been and rarely let a show go by without one.

It is a mix tonight, of DJs and live acts – the headliner, Decius, goes on too late for me with my last train back at 0:09 (shocking for a Saturday but that’s Euston for you), but EartH gets turned into a bouncing venue long before thanks to the efforts of C.A.R, a talented electronic pop act that sends shockwaves through the audience. The Pageant comes for the beauty standards of society as Franco Canadian Chloé Raunet really fuses the synth-pop vibes with the raw fury of post-punk to create this unique, club-ready sound. 

They’ve been playing regularly at Club Cheek and it’s easy to see the confidence building in their sets – this unique fusion of punk and techno sees both genres operating on the same wavelength and allows C.A.R.to tackle lively, important and relevant themes that capture the intensity of a club beat. Gentle Sunsets ends up feeling minimalist and almost shoegaze-y at times, showing their wide range of influences scattered across the record. Already their influences from opening for Cat Power and working under queer Parisian label Kill the DJ pays off – using experience to get a crowd that is rapidly filling up energised and then some. 

The vocals are Grace Jones-esque with hints of Ladytron and Goldfrapp at times with the sharp vocal hits that could go either way – punk or techno, able to drift between two fields and find an audience at both. There are elements of punk infused in Dame Area’s hyper techno beats too for a stylistic overlap (this is not one of the cases where the support is so out of whack with the main artist it’s like a different show – here, it’s well curated across the evening), and in terms of support acts I’ve seen lately there’s few more self-assured and ready for the big time. Raunet’s background as a Radio DJ comes in handy here, already confident at knowing what her listeners want long before she comes on stage. It’s outsider music, as defined by C.A.R. herself as outside the box music for outside the box people, exploring the way art and music can be approached in different ways – in fact, even the label itself, outsider music, feels too constraining for C.A.R. 

The choral is hypnotic and intoxicating and the mood is befitting of a club venue. It’s sonically inducing and benefits from a maze-like overload of pedals that Victor Hurtado does his best to navigate with the skill of a master craftsman, tightly compact with the keys of Silva Costan. It’s a meticulously organised set-up – befitting of its ice-cold industrial darkwave that feels like a raw display of the finest Catalan spirit infused with Italian DNA. Barcelona is famed for its late-night sets beyond just the all-nighter revelry of Primavera Sound; and the influence is evident here from what they have picked up, Dame Area coming out pulsating and that’s reflective in the audience. Their lyrics are entirely in Spanish, and they don’t hold back from changing up songs that grow too popular on the setlist as a matter of pride, I love it when we get the roll out of say, Devoción and Opero la mente midway through. It’s rich, ripe and raw – a lot obviously gets pulled from 2024 album Toda le Verdad Sobre Dame, but their influences are a real melting pot of talent. 

They’re not afraid to cut tracks from records on tour because they see some records as something designed to be listened to at home and not in a club; and their maverick approach to set-lists shows – the influence of the chaotic music scene in Barcelona shines through here, with Crux growing up in the city’s metropolitan area pre-internet, immersive in the local scene and touring Europe and the US with guitar and synth in several bands. That influence, that wide range of connections is all pulled together to allow Dame Area to function as a band the way they are today – since releasing Ondas Tribales in 2021 in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic. Having met post pandemic their start feels like that of an incubation period – before exploding onto a scene that feels very Suicide-heavy influenced, capturing the essence of contemparies Moin and Mandy, Indiana.

KEXP alumni, Tu Mu Hicistie Creer was something of an explosive energy then and it’s an explosive high-tempo set starter now, the drumbeats deployed by Crux luring you into a trance as Kostance’s vocals build and build to a searing crescendo. As first tracks go: it’s pretty special, showing why they’re a real revelation from the Catalan Underground. La Nueva Era is next, synthpop into noise that almost feels orchestral in its swirling tone. The album, Toda la Verdad, kind of bears Dame Area’s whole truth on its name that they carry to their live shows – it’s the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. That is Dame Area – this is what they stand for, and this is their setlist. The crowd are already raptured long before this point and the band just build and built towards what isn’t even the end of the evening – any other show and this would be the headliner, but for those brave enough to stay late on – Decius are next, and the evening has plenty of DJs sprinkled throughout too, a real eclectic mix of talent – DJ Suburau partnered with babyschön; whilst we also got a pairing of Rosie Ama and Harry James. It was a real outpouring of talent – and if you weren’t invested, what were you doing?

There are few bands that are able to compel you and hook you form the start as much as Dame Area – easily the highlight of the night for me, and few supports as promising as C.A.R. What a real triumph of an evening.