“Elusive. Viral. And every ounce of cool.” That is the best way to describe The Dare. His rise to fame in 2024 has been so interesting to watch with this cult-like audience emerging around the release of his debut album “What’s Wrong With New York?”, and in-turn he has been coined to be bringing back indie-sleaze. His sold out debut run of Australian shows kicked off in Sydney at The Metro Theatre with fans bracing the heat in suits just like their favourite newcomer. 

As I was standing in the sweaty crowd waiting for him to come on-stage, I found myself really intrigued by the performance he was about to deliver. I felt like I went in quite blind to the whole experience. I had given the album a few spins since it came out, but ultimately I had no idea where it was going to go in the live space. With a wall of amps and LED strobe lights at the back of the stage, and just a crash cymbal and synth pad as his musical set up, he spent the 50 minute show captivating the audience completely by himself. 

“Open Up”, “Good Time”, “Sex”, “Perfume” and “I Destroyed Disco” opened the first part of the show with this euphoric energy where the crowd was screaming along to every word and just jumping and dancing to every beat. He’s a man of few words, but made sure he let the crowd know “I will never do a shoey”. Keeping the energy high, he kept the BPM’s going hard, and a remix of “Guess” by Charli XCX and Billie Eilish (which he produced) was definitely a highlight. Creeping towards the end of the set he exclaimed “I guess that’s it, see you later” and walking off stage, before eventually returning for “Movement”, “All Night” and the breakout hit “Girls”. 

Looking around at the crowd during the show, it was so cool to see every single person in the venue losing their mind and loving every second of the show. It’s not every day that a show feels that exclusive and cool, but The Dare turned The Metro Theatre into the sweatiest and hottest club in Sydney on a Tuesday night.