“I like to do this thing where I scream… I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” grins Chloe Slater halfway through a rowdy headline gig at London’s Omeara. Last year’s debut EP ‘The Price Of Fun’ was a snarling attack on shitty landlords, inequality and corrupt systems, while recently released follow-up ‘Love Me Please’ was more intimate but no less scathing. Tonight, she plays every one of those glorious guitar anthems. Spitting venom but using that same rage to create a sense of shared euphoria, the whole thing feels like a much-needed purge.
“I like to do this thing where I scream… I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” grins Chloe Slater halfway through a rowdy headline gig at London’s Omeara. Last year’s debut EP ‘The Price Of Fun’ was a snarling attack on shitty landlords, inequality and corrupt systems, while recently released follow-up ‘
Love Me Please’ was more intimate but no less scathing. Tonight, she plays every one of those glorious guitar anthems. Spitting venom but using that same rage to create a sense of shared euphoria, the whole thing feels like a much-needed purge.
“My music is a good mix of wanting to spread awareness about certain issues and make people feel seen that are struggling with these things,” Chloe told Dork earlier this year. “I want them to come to my show and let it all out. I want them to know that everything is going to be okay.”
Tonight’s gig is the last date of Chloe’s first-ever UK headline run and is already far more ambitious than a simple dash through her entire back catalogue. The carefully crafted show starts with the barbed spoken word attack from ‘Sucker’ (“How does it feel to know your millions could feed a ton?”) and ends with the entire room singing along to the ‘Fig Tree’, a posi-punk song that matches the feisty determination of Iggy Pop’s ‘Lust For Life’. Chloe makes sure the entire room repeats the line “I’ll choose the life that is mine”, sending them out into an uncertain world with a defiant message of hope.
In between, there’s the fizzing indie sleaze disco of ‘Death Trap’, the twinkling emo of ‘Thomas Street’, and the viciously playful ‘Nothing Shines On This Island’, offering the crowd joy and space for shared frustration. Debut single ‘Sinking Feeling!’ makes room for fear and anxiety-riddled burnout while chirpy new song ‘Harriet’ is far surer of itself, dealing with jealousy and hurt over arena-baiting guitar licks.
A lush cover of The Cure’s ‘Friday I’m In Love’ (“I didn’t write this song, but I wish I had”) opens the door for the giddy chaos that comes with ‘Price On Fun’, a track written for jubilant festival sets. It’s the perfect warm-up for the mass singalong that sarcastic breakout track ’24 Hours’ inspires. Not for the first time tonight, Chloe can only grin at how ridiculously fun it all is. The pointed ‘Fig Tree’ offers one last burst of snotty catharsis to go alongside the empathy, community, rage and fierce optimism. It’s powerful stuff.
