The air inside The Bomb Factory on Thursday night was thick with a unique kind of electricity. It was the halfway point of Haim’s I Quit Tour, and the Dallas stop felt less like a concert and more like a collective exhale. As the tour prepares to sweep through Austin and Houston over the weekend, Dallas was treated to a performance that was part family reunion, part dance party and pure rock and roll catharsis.
The evening’s proceedings were kicked off by Dora Jar, an artist who defies easy categorization. For 40 minutes, she filled the stage with a captivating blend of spunk, welcomed weirdness and impressive physicality. Born Dora Jarkowski, she moves like a glitch in the matrix of comforting indie pop, her body contorting with the music.
One moment she’s bending over backward, arms dangling in a move reminiscent of the infamous spider-walk from The Exorcist, and the next, she’s nearly sinking into the floor in a full split. These aren’t just antics; they are physical manifestations of the anarchy simmering beneath her cool, surf-reverb guitar tones.
Her set began with a moment of disarming honesty. “I was looking for my little shorts and I was running outside just two minutes ago, and then I didn’t do my vocal warm-ups,” she confessed, her voice ringing with a mix of urgency and humor. Instead of rushing, she invited the packed room to participate. “If you want to join me, just jump in when you feel like it. It’s like double Dutch.” What followed was a minute of bendy “hmms” and “huhs,” a shared moment of vulnerability that immediately endeared her to the Dallas crowd. She abruptly stopped, asking with confident charm, “Dallas, you’re doing much better than most other cities, but it’s not to the level yet that we should be, you know.” It was a perfect introduction to her witty and self-aware stage persona…