Glamming Up
Dahl does her own makeup every night. “I use the same lipstick on my lips, my cheeks and my eyes,” she says, “So all of my makeup is the same.”
Dahl does her own makeup every night. “I use the same lipstick on my lips, my cheeks and my eyes,” she says, “So all of my makeup is the same.”
Violinist Lily Desmond and guitarist Nathan Lopez backstage before the show. “We have a really wholesome bunch,” Dahl says of the nine-piece band. “Our tours really feel like summer camp.”
“This is me drinking tea and doing vocal warm ups,” Dahl says, noting it’s usually only for 10 minutes. “I usually am on vocal rest 100 percent of the time until a few hours before the show, and then I start talking a little bit to get my voice warmed.”
Niis’ Mimi SanDoe opened for Sloppy Jane. “I always say that Niis is the best band ever,” says Dahl.
With nine members, Dahl has the band frequently taking Covid tests — and doesn’t allow drinking. “I have a rule that tours are 100 percent sober,” she says. “Everyone in the band has different levels of that in their own life, but because we have so many people, if people are drinking on a tour within a nine-person band, it would be a nightmare. It creates a music-fueled environment, and I feel like you see that through everything.”
Dahl watches Philly psych band Empath’s opening set from the wings. “My onstage outfit — the leotard and stuff — graduated from a blue bikini that I would wear when I worked for a strip club when I was 19,” Dahl says. “I would dance to ‘Blue Velvet’ by Bobby Vinton and wear blue velvet.”
Empath, who released an excellent album called Visitor earlier this year, played their last scheduled show of 2022 before Sloppy Jane took the stage. “We had our friend Shaun Sutkus mix for us, which is our favorite way to perform,” says singer-guitarist Catherine Elicson (center). “It felt very special to have him at the helm at Elsewhere.”
She adds that Dahl’s headlining set had an “impressive level of instrumentation and ambitious arrangement. I don’t think there’s a lot of people doing what she’s doing on this level.”
Amber Doyle — who also designed Phoebe Bridgers’ signature skeleton costume — created Dahl’s dream suit. “It’s a suit that I’ve been drawing pictures of in my notebook since I was 14,” she says. But wearing it at every show has its downside: “It smells absolutely disgusting.”
Isabella Bustanoby (bass, viola), Bailey Wollowitz (drums), Dahl, and Khalil Long (trumpet) grounding before the show. “Especially on tour, you’ve been in the car all day and then sitting around in a green room for four hours before playing,” Dahl explains. “So it’s just to get everyone present in the same place, take some deep breaths and be aware of different parts of your body.”
Dahl onstage. “I’m a very anxious and diligent person,” she says. “I wear little safety pins on my socks… When I take them off, I safety-pin them together before I put them in the wash so that I don’t lose my socks.”
Dahl works out every day, doing hot yoga and pilates. “I have issues with my hips, so I try to be really vigilant about stretching and exercise,” she says.
At one point in the show, Dahl makes her way to the crowd — and usually fans are looking sharp. “I try to enforce a black tie required dress code,” she says. “Growing up, I wasn’t somebody with money or a social family, and I just love an excuse to dress up. I think it heightens the experience of going to a show for everyone.”
She also has the crowd count down to New Years, her favorite holiday: “Creating this weird, quasi-formal event in a punk venue feels cool to me.”
During the crowd favorite “Where’s My Wife,” Dahl bends backwards. “I’m still working on my ‘Exorcist’ crawl,” she laughs. “I want to do it faster. I’ll just go on record saying that I’ve been trying to do [it] for a very long time.”
When Dahl wrote “The Constable,” she immediately knew she wanted to perform a kickline to it onstage. After she told the band, she “got a lot of eye rolls about it,” but they changed their minds after debuting it at SXSW 2022. “Everyone clapped,” Dahl says. “I eye-contacted back at my band and was like, ‘See?'”
After the Sloppy Jane tour wraps on Nov. 12, Dahl plans to spend the winter in the ghost town of Cerro Gordo, California, living internet-free for four months. She’ll also record in an 1800s cabin: “I’m not promising an album,” she says. “I don’t like promising an album timeline, in case I don’t do it.”