Can we all collectively decide to hit the rewind button so that it’s Friday night again? Please?
I just want to relive the DNCE gig that happened at Autism Rocks Arena in Dubai a couple more times.
These guys — and girl — blew me away. They were having so much fun doing their thing. And it was darn contagious.
Full disclosure: I’ve been listening to DNCE’s four-song EP, Swaay, on repeat for a couple of months now, so I’m an admittedly easy sell. Keep in mind, their debut album doesn’t come out until November 18, so they’re not even working with a full-length record at this point.
In a way, it’s cool: You wanna get to know a band’s vibe? Listen to how they cover your favourite song. In between Pay My Rent, Toothbrush, their new single Body Moves and their smash hit Cake by the Ocean, they gave us a spirited rendition of TLC’s No Scrubs, a scream-y version of Drake’s Hold On, We’re Going Home, and some dancey covers of The Police’s Roxanne, Prince’s Kiss and James Brown’s Get Up. They also sang an unreleased track, Be Mean, with lyrics that are worthy of a spot on the 50 Shades of Grey sequel. (I haven’t seen the first one, but I’ve heard things.)
I mean, Joe Jonas is obviously the face of DNCE. After the Jonas Brothers broke up, Jonas’s younger brother Nick went the R’n’B route, while his older brother Kevin went the start-a-family-and-have-babies route (his second kid came into the world this week, so congrats, Kev!). Joe stayed truest to Jonas Brothers’ pop roots, while taking DNCE into an organically rockier, more adult place.
DNCE has the anarchic energy, and the visuals, of a punk band from a bygone era — bassist Cole Whittle sported a bejewelled choker, a gaudy, reflective traffic vest, and a furry pink guitar strap — undercut by their tongue-in-cheek harmlessness, encapsulated by drummer Jack Lawless’s t-shirt: four kittens lined up a la the famed Black Flag logo, emblazoned with BLACK CATS instead. Amidst this, JinJoo Lee, their guitarist, was undoubtedly the coolest of the bunch; she was often found sprawled out on the stage giving it 580 per cent on the guitar and putting the rest of us to shame.
When time came to introduce the band, Joe shouted first names only — meaning he’s Joe now, not Joe Jonas. It was probably innocuous, but it felt like a way to distance himself from his past, which is fair enough since DNCE is another beast entirely. In fact, despite an overwhelmingly young crowd, I don’t know how many Jonas Brothers fans actually showed up on Friday night.
DNCE’s set — which, by the way, was introduced dramatically with Game of Thrones music — came after All Saints and before Major Lazer at Fiesta De Los Muertos, a new, annual Halloween-themed festival. They wrapped up in under an hour and skipped the theatrics of leaving and coming back for an encore. Instead, the foursome stuck around on stage after their last song, walking up and down the runway while Queen’s We Are the Champions played triumphantly in the background.
They loitered and did several bows, looking like they wanted to stretch the moment as long as it would go, and we understood exactly what they were trying to say, because we didn’t want it to end, either. So back to what I was saying: rewind, anybody?
