The Dare hurtles through his modest catalogue at Camden’s Electric Ballroom

After the release of his 2022 single “Girls,” a track that writhes with contagious cliché and Smith claims “rejects the last five years of music,” he began to gain respect for his captivating irreverence. Channelling his gluttonous indie-sleaze into live performance, he cultured and cultivated his sound within the echo chamber of his own gigs, which became renowned for their sheer energy from a sprouting yet viscous fanbase. The result is a frenetic and frisky, although undeniably authentic, artistry that favours thumping hooks over wild experimentation.

Ushered into the mainstream as a key collaborator on Charli XCX’s incontestably year-defining Brat (2024), and with a winking name drop on the fan favourite track “Guess,” Smith’s ascendancy began to percolate from the warehouses of New York to the zeitgeist of the chronically online. With “Girls” and “Guess” serving as the two main entry points for casual followers, Smith has now embarked on a mission to expand his cultish Big Apple (double entendre intended) following on an 8-date tour around Europe.

Alongside a DJ set at Hackney’s lovingly threadbare Moth Club on Friday, Smith was slated for his first of two nights in Heaven, a venue latterly swapped in favour of Camden’s Electric Ballroom. It is the perfect fit for the gig in many ways, and not only because of its dusky, low-lit ambience. Nestled deep in the grunge capital of London, the audience is flooded with a sea of shredded and studded denim in equal measure, oversized fur coats atop undersized white tees, and all contortions and textures of headwear. It’s the “Tall Man Olympics” one concertgoer observed looking at the flailing limbs that jostled ahead of her.

From the moment Smith saunters on stage, there is a truly volcanic enthusiasm in the room. It’s a crowd that worship every lyric he drawls and every lick he treats them to, and whenever he raises a cymbal above his head and thrashes it with his drumstick, he is met with a feral chanting. For the uninformed, it may seem that his unassuming frame and spontaneous charging across the stage seems out of sync with this adoration. So how has he enraptured such a frenzied audience? How has Harrison Patrick Smith successfully made people worship the Church of The Dare?

In reality, careful craft has gone into the making of The Dare’s image, or better put; lack thereof. Accessible enough without being overstylised, he has become an 'everyman' figure of the indie-sleaze scene. With such a simple yet obvious visual underpinning his output – a man dressed in suit trousers and a skinny tie – Smith has created one of the best branded male personas popular culture has seen in a long time because of its unanimity. Telling us little about who The Dare actually is, it allows fans to project themselves onto him like canvas. The suit and tie has become a symbol of salaciousness; the embodiment of letting loose, throwing yourself into the mud, and giving in to the everyday tug of disavowing oneself from society’s politeness.

This comes alive in much a similar way in Smith’s performance. Standing in front of a checkerboard of floodlights, great care is taken to make sure that Smith is only backlit, and as a result, is constantly silhouetted as he saunters across the stage. As such, he becomes a mythological figure touting the illustrious hedonism of his alter ego – he’s not a person, but an idea. “Open up and try me,” he wills the audience on the first track of the setlist, and also the album opener to his debut record, What’s Wrong With New York? “Punk rock to disco missiles / Blowin' up the motherfucking club / From Nеw York to San Francisco / It goes with me wherever I wanna,” he sings on “I Destroyed Disco,” underlining his reign as the current leader of the scene with immutable powers.

For a concert in 2024, there are few phones amidst the bouncing arms as fans take every opportunity to lose themselves in the music. Indeed, Smith seemingly has supreme fun with the role he creates for himself as The Dare, which in turn, only makes the crowd more malleable and attentive in his hands. “It feels good to be home,” he says with enough conviction to the London audience that it’s almost as if he can rewrite histories, despite being born in L.A.

After playing a snippet of “Guess” he poses a question to the crowd, “Do you guys like Charli XCX?”. His subsequent answer comes across more as a statement of intent, “Me too, she’s the best... I might be number two,” and they voraciously nod along. Whilst his Brat adjacency may have widened his sphere of influence, as The Dare, Harrison Patrick Smith is certainly king.

Set List

Open Up
Good Time
Sex
Perfume
I Destroyed Disco
You’re Invited
I Can’t Escape Myself (The Sound cover)
Cheeky
Lights, Camera, Action!
Bloodwork (ft. Guess)
Elevation
You Can Never Go Home
Movement
All Night
Girls