Review: Sir Chloe, Thekla – ‘A multi-textured, magically-dark bouncy rock band’

Before doors open, there’s already a queue wandering down the side of the Thekla.

There are shy 14 year old with their parents, groups of girls with fishnets and matching eyeliner, kids you probably went to school with a few years back but the mismatched line is brought together by one thing, a passionate love of music.

Monday’s lazy summer night is kept alive by a collective longing to see tonight’s headliner, Sir Chloe.

Before they come on stage, the night is opened by Eavies Wilder. Eavie’s band is an exciting reinvention of shoegaze who seem to draw inspiration from the likes of Lush, mostly Miki’s hair in the 90s, and Beabadoobee while putting their own rock spin on it.

They create a space, in Eavie’s own words “to bring teenage girls together and give them a space that isn’t trying to sexualise them, or trivialise / patronise them”: everyone is dancing and booing songs about their ex and having a good time.

By nine, the mood is perfectly set for Sir Chloe’s entrance. The set begins with Should I and the resounding answer from the audience is “yes”, screamed from the balcony, the barrier, the bar.

From there, the set is a whirlwind, songs gliding into each other with little introduction. They don’t need it anyway, even the newest songs or the ones not circulating on TikTok are met with cries of excitement after just a few chords.

Animal is the forth song that they play and by this time, Dana Foote, the frontperson, is fully comfortable with the atmosphere in Thekla.

They lean over the front of the stage, sending waves of scream-able chorus crashing over the audience with a sharp, hypnotising voice.

After this, they take a moment to talk to the audience about the next song, Center. They explain that its customary to have a love song on each album, on Party Favours it was Sedona and on I am the Dog it is Center.

This comparison shows how far the bands music has come, while Sedona, which is played later on, has an enormous chorus accompanied by thrashing guitar and is huge fun, Center is more complex, dynamic, capturing a different, darker sound.

With the release of the new album, Sir Chloe have evolved from a bouncy rock band, to a multi-textured, magically-dark bouncy rock band.

Dana’s favourite, they tell us, on this album is a mid-album track called Obsession which brings out the bleaker, lonelier side of I am the Dog.

Their voice swims in a melancholy, lonely way and the audience does too, swaying instead of bouncing and loosing themselves in washes of reverb. This moment of reflection is, however, short lived as Sir Chloe know how to finish a set in style.

They bang out all the fan favourites, the ones everyone can sing off by heart, the ones that everyone chucks their hands in the air to, the ones that make the shy 14 year old forget that they’re shy.

Michelle is yelled word for word by every member of the audience and Feel Again has a simular effect.

When Sir Chloe leave the stage, they’re inundated with chants of “One more song”, lights flashing on the beat in solidarity as they wait an excruciating amount of time backstage.

They end the night with Too Close and the band revel in every moment, catapulting around the stage, picking it up with heavy chords and clashing drums and transforming the intimate, 400 capacity Thekla into a stadium they clearly belong in.

Main photo: Ez Tromans

Read next:

• Review: The Royston Club, Rough Trade – ‘The audience took to the band like it was a homecoming gig’
• Review: Maddie Morris, St George’s – ‘A socially conscious songwriter’
• Review: Arctic Monkeys, Ashton Gate – ‘As the sun went down, songs got almost hedonistic’

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