Dry Cleaning
August Hall, San Francisco
May 20, 2026
Photos by Geoffrey Smith II
Screaming “Dry Cleaning!” with a death metal growl doesn’t hit quite as hard as “Slayer!” but it is far more memorable to those around you. This outburst by a fan preceded a surprisingly heavy performance by South London post-punkers Dry Cleaning at August Hall in San Francisco this past Wednesday. Appropriately, a group of earnest fans attempted to maintain a mosh pit for at least one song during the band’s set, with vocalist Florence Shaw commenting it was the first time she witnessed one at their shows. With the angst around recent political events and the erosion of art by A.I., I suppose plenty of art-minded folks had some steam to blow off, even if this wasn’t the most musically appropriate context to do so. Or was it?
Though work obligations prevented me from catching the opening performance by Hotline TNT, the atmosphere inside August Hall was already palpable. While Dry Cleaning formed all the way back in 2017, I have to say I was pretty unfamiliar with their work until recently. For some reason they kept appearing on lists by friends and professional connections when it came to shows or albums they intended to cover. Clearly I was missing out. Picking up their latest album, Secret Love, I was surprised by what I heard and knew I had to catch them live at least once. Their mix of mellow, spoken word-style vocals, jangly guitars, and grooving drums and bass aren’t something I would have expected to incite fans to slam into each other. In fact, I was thinking I might fall asleep at the show and wasn’t sure how they’d keep an audience engaged.
Live, their sound was something else. Wailing trails of guitar feedback and distortion decorated lots of tracks in the set, giving it something akin to a shoegaze vibe. Drummer Nick Buxton slammed his instruments with a level of aggression, head-bobbing constantly as his long hair swung into his face, shimmering under the stage lights. The toms had a real depth to their sound, booming with an immense, physical weight. Bassist Lewis Maynard swung his legs and bass constantly. Guitarist Tom Dowse was more stationary, but made all variety of intense facial expressions. Meanwhile, touring multi-instrumentalist Josh Eggerton kept the momentum fluid, trading off between keyboards and adding extra punch to the percussion with a single drumstick on tracks like “Hit My Head All Day.”
Standing in stark contrast to the kinetic energy of her bandmates was Florence Shaw. Tied to one spot on the stage for most of the set, she rarely moved more than a couple of feet from her microphone stand. Her attire matched her artful, detached delivery: a loose, flowing, oversized white button-up dress shirt adorned with a minimally drawn clock on the front, showing only the numbers. Her expression remained staunchly deadpan for much of the night, save for a few brief smiles, moments where she held her head in her hands, or smoothly brushed back her red hair when it fell across her face as she tilted her head forward.
What truly anchored the performance was how her vocals were mixed. Clear, prominent, and distinctly loud compared to the usual concert standard, the mix elevated her lyricism, making sections of the evening feel more like an intimate spoken-word performance than a rock show. Her vocal precision was impeccable. She even effortlessly recreated the landline phone trilling sounds with her mouth during “Conversation,” while occasionally picking up a tambourine to accent the groove.
The atmosphere inside August Hall mirrored the artsy nature of the music. The venue remained dimly lit for the duration of the set, rarely illuminating the crowd. Looking up, the balcony featured a constant, dense lineup of onlookers peering over the edge from every viewpoint, framed by the venue’s ornate plastic reliefs and portraits, each separately lit by a small light from below.
Down on the floor, the crowd dynamic was unusual. The audience wasn’t heavily compressed or aggressively pushing toward the front barricade as you see at most shows of this scale. Instead, folks stayed spaced out, suggesting they were there to absorb the vibe and the texture of the experience rather than jockey for proximity. It was a remarkably middle-aged, largely male demographic dressed in conservative attire, creating a sea of standard t-shirts and jeans that featured perhaps the least amount of black clothing I’ve ever seen at an alternative show.
The 20-song setlist was beefy, with the quartet grinding through one song after another, covering the entirety of Secret Love alongside selections from New Long Leg, Stumpwork, and the Sweet Princess EP.
The true peak of the performance came during the main set closer, “Conversation.” While the album version features a brief 20-second outro, the band expanded it into a massive, two-minute noise experiment. They drew out and embellished the finale with waves of heavy distortion and aggressive strumming. One by one, the musicians set down their instruments and walked off the stage. Tom Dowse left partway through, leaving their guitar and bass pedals looping and cycling endlessly. The wailing feedback kept a haunting continuity in their physical absence, leaving the audience in suspense.
When they emerged a minute later, they were completely re-energized for the encore, launching into a live interpretation of “Hit My Head All Day.” As the opening track to the new album and arguably its most infectious, catchy offering, it was absolute perfection. My night felt complete.
Remaining Dates on Tour:
- 28 May 2026 Woolloongabba, Australia The Princess Theatre
- 29 May 2026 Sydney, Australia Sydney Opera House
- 30 May 2026 Melbourne, Australia Forum Melbourne
- 2 June 2026 Wellington, New Zealand meow NUI
- 3 June 2026 Auckland, New Zealand The Hollywood Avondale
- 6 June 2026 Fremantle, AustraliaThe Naval Store
- 7 June 2026 Ballarat Central, Australia Ballarat Civic Hall
- 11 June 2026 George Town, Australia Dark Mofo Festival 2026
- 22 June 2026 – 24 June 2026 Zagreb, Croatia INmusic Festival 2026
- 3 July 2026 Kraggenburg, Netherlands Wilde Weide 2026
- 8 July 2026 Grimaud, France Plage de Rocks
- 10 July 2026 – 12 July 2026 Brugge, Belgium Cactus Festival 2026
- 23 July 2026 – 26 July 2026 Southwold, United Kingdom Latitude Festival 2026
- 31 July 2026 Portlaw, Ireland All Together Now 2026
- 6 August 2026 – 9 August 2026 Castelbuono, Italy Ypsigrock Festival 2026
- 7 August 2026 Castelbuono, Italy Piazza Castello
- 13 August 2026 Saint-père-marc-en-poulet, France Fort de Saint Père
- 14 August 2026 – 16 August 2026 Saint-père-marc-en-poulet, France La Route du Rock 2026
- 20 August 2026 – 23 August 2026 Crickhowell, United Kingdom Green Man Festival 2026
- 30 August 2026 Saint-cloud, France Rock en Seine 2026
