It was only six months ago that Dora Jar played her first ever live show, at The Waiting Room in Stoke Newington. The hype around the 24-year-old Californian was so strong that even Billie Eilish donned a disguise to be one of 150 people in attendance that night.
Blown away by her performance, Eilish then asked the singer to open for her on a string of Happier Than Ever arena dates in the US. After taking her up on the offer, just weeks before Thursday’s gig in King’s Cross she was playing to thousands at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
From the off at the London show, she brought the tricks picked up at the huge Eilish support shows with her, spraying the crowd at Lafayette with a fistful of glitter as she ran onto the stage at pace, treating those in attendance like they were tens of thousands, not just a few hundred.
Across her three EPs to date – 2021’s Three Songs and Digital Meadow and this month’s Comfortably In Pain – Jar has presented a kaleidoscopic musical vision, tied together far more closely by her relentless energy and inventiveness than any consistent musical style. Across the set, she played ‘90s-indebted hard rock riffs (Tiger Face), confessional and impressionistic alt-folk (Scab Song) and shimmering alt-rock (It’s Random) with equal competence. At the end of It’s Random, she let out a primal scream before taking a swig from a pint glass belonging to a member of the front row. “Is this laaager?” she said in her best English accent. “Cheers mate!”
This eccentricity is key to the singer’s appeal, though she occasionally toed the line between endearing and grating. When she told the crowd that she believes she is a “fairy” who is “made of elves” that swim around inside her body before playing Scab Song, the schtick stayed just about on the charming side.
The elves certainly got a workout, too. At various points during the 45-minute set, she did the splits multiple times, danced while wearing a tambourine as a tiara, handed the mic to fans and more. At the apex of penultimate song Multiply, she launched into its hard rocking finale by taking a run and jump across the stage like an Olympian, unplugging her guitar in the process while shredding on oblivious. She was clearly swept up in the storm of her own intoxicating energy, just like the rest of us were.
With many young artists as raw and clearly talented as Dora Jar, you find yourself willing them to find their groove and settle into a signature sound. With this one-of-a-kind performer though, every avenue she’s taken thus far is so fascinating that you can’t help but hope she continues blazing her idiosyncratic path, wherever it may take her.
