Dante High, Molly Sarlé (Back Room)

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Photo courtesy of the artists

Dante High

Dante High’s full-throttle romantic synthpop compels metaphor, not because it’s esoteric, but because it fits within a universe of suburb-meets-country-noir doldrums: papercut (or is it fistfight?) blood on fresh-cut grass, makeouts amid dead cicadas, class anxiety in the dull summer sun. Some ways I’ve described their eminently danceable and screamable music: like S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders meets Joy Division; what Riverdale’s score would sound like if its showrunners had sonic sense; the “goth” in Southern Gothic; stadium pop-rock for overgrown Piedmont high school arenas. Led by Lost in the Trees’ Ari Picker (and buoyed by a couple of former LITT members), Dante High plays this weekend in celebration of the vinyl release of last year’s tight eight-song self-titled album. Molly Sarlé, who costars in the band’s Orange County Social Club-set video for the plaintive “Melt Down,” opens. Her clear-eyed, full-hearted, deity-deconstructing “Human” is one of the most captivating singles out so far this year.