Live Review: Sorry - Dingwalls, London 28/03/2019
Dingwalls in Camden is an iconic venue for a reason – name some of your favourite iconic bands and I bet they will have graced the stage at some point. It is only fitting then that on their current tour, Sorry had the opportunity to play this venue.
Sorry are a little bit of an unconventional band, in the sense of their music capturing moments rather than set genres. That, paired with their preference for home recordings as opposed to studio recordings makes for an intimate live show. I’ve read in a few interviews that Sorry don’t give too much away or are a band of few words and the same can be said for their set at Dingwalls. They opened their set with their drawling dazzler ‘Starstruck’ which combines Asha Lorenz’s spoken word style vocals with Louis O’Bryen’s creeping, disconcerting minor riffs. There is an ironic melancholy about Sorry. ‘Moment’ and ‘Prickz’ highlight these times, but the experience never lasts too long.
In an attempt to generalise and categorise Sorry’s sound, you could say that it is an amalgamation of grunge, electronic and garage. Their drummer, Lincoln Barrett was half-hidden toward the back of the stage in a hoodie and brought a moody cult vibe to the stage. He seemed to be responsible for all of the synth intros and vocal samples that shot out at the crowd during ‘Jealous Guy’ and ‘Showgirl’. It was during these songs that the crowd seemed to loosen up a bit, by jumping around and moshing. Sorry then took it down for a short time with the disinterested sounding romance of ‘Ode To Boy’ and ‘Wished’. There’s a calculated conflict in their sound, which at times reminds me of Wolf Alice. Their riffs start as a little hint of blues and then get thrown into a chaotic ball of distortion for more tense moments.
‘2 Down 2 Dance’ was a clear crowd favourite, with its rocking back and forth beat and the teasing testament to a generation that suffers from a wealth of depressed episodes and the relatability of ‘Rosie’ which was a pouring out of the heart for an unrequited attraction. Sorry have captured and sound-tracked the lives of those in a similar age group and I think that is why they’ve amassed such a following in a short space of time. Whilst they barely spoke to the crowd and there was a bit of awkward body language; it somehow made you feel more connected to the performance in a way that was like the band letting you into their own private space, where they felt comfortable enough to share a part of themselves.
Words by Tyler Damara Kelly