Dream Wife review, The Deaf Institute, Manchester: Sticking two fingers up at the patriarchy

Band prove they can walk the walk during an energetic show where they shatter gender norms and create a safe space for their fans

Dreamwife perform on the VEVO stage at The Great Escape (Phoebe Fox)

Dream Wife began life as a performance art project, and you can tell.

Plenty’s changed for the three-piece since they formed at the University of Brighton; they’ve toured the UK tirelessly supporting other bands, enjoyed no end of press coverage across magazines, blogs and websites and, back in January, they released a self-titled debut record that doesn’t for a second sound like a DIY endeavour; it’s a polished, assured slice of melodic punk.

And yet, as much as everything about Dream Wife’s recent development suggests they’ve made the leap from creative outlet to working band, a genuinely anarchic spirit still pervades at their live shows. That’s certainly the case in Manchester tonight; their gig at a packed-out Deaf Institute is the last one on a headline UK run that’s taken them back to a lot of the same venues that they’ve spent the last couple of years cutting their teeth at as openers.

Dream Wife’s songs are strongly inflected with a feminist message and clearly, the band are well capable of walking the walk as well as talking the talk; they’re introduced to the stage by local feminist writer Gina Tonic, they’ve plastered the venue with posters in support of anti-harassment movement Girls Against, and before they launch into an especially raucous rendition of recent single "Somebody", they insist that the crowd parts to allow a girls-to-the-front policy.

The group’s Icelandic frontwoman, Rakel Mjöll, clearly has little interest in replicating the gloss and sheen of the recorded versions of these songs on stage. She’s intensely energetic, bouncing across the stage in a state of perpetual motion with a champagne flute permanently in hand, and vocally alternating between singing and snarling - although she’s leaning much more towards the latter as the set wears on, with the band work impromptu covers of Blondie’s "One Way or Another" and Spice Girls’ "Wannabe" into the outros of tight takes on "Act My Age" and "FUU".

By the time they wrap up in time to meet an early curfew with a thrillingly boisterous "Let’s Make Out", the greatest gauge of Dream Wife’s success is in the response from the crowd; it’s not just that that there’s a sea of flailing bodies down the front, or that desperate shouts for an encore go unheeded (they have, after all, only got so many songs at this point).

Instead, it’s that a band who’ve made sticking two fingers up at the patriarchy such a part of their musical identity actually follow through on that on stage, taking what could have just been another indie rock show and turning it into an irresistibly upbeat feminist dance party, breaking gender norms and creating a genuine safe space for their fans in the process.