Dilly Dally @ The Castle Hotel, 23 Jan

Toronto punk four-piece Dilly Dally are building a reputation for themselves as experts in exploring emotions at their rawest, with vocalist Katie Monks’ rasping animalistic howl suggesting that a wound is most true when it has been allowed to fester. As dank rainwater drips onto us intermittently from The Castle’s wooden ceiling, the band’s set in support of debut album Sore never feels completely at ease and is all the better for it.

Along with their grievances, Dilly Dally wear their 90s alt-rock influences on their sleeves, launching into the quick one-two punch of Snake Head and Ballin Chain. There’s a Pixies undertone to birthday girl Liz Ball’s colourful guitar lines and drummer Benjamin Reinhartz’s cavernous percussion, while Monks’ inflamed yowl and menstrual imagery evoke Brody Dalle at her Coral Fang peak, even during Candy Mountain’s slower burn.

Despite their storied hostility, Dilly Dally are a fresh and friendly bunch on stage, thumping their way through a turbulent rendition of Gender Role before following it up with the swooning Get to You. ‘The callus on my heart won’t heal… But I’m still trying,’ Monks sighs, she and Ball backing into each other in a half-aggressive, half-affectionate tussle as Ball lets rip a searing tremolo riff.

On such dichotomies do Dilly Dally rest, and although funkier older single Alexander winds itself into unravelment, The Touch races and rolls with hefty sexual tension. Finally, Monks screams the count into the soaring Desire, oozing longing that is painful yet beautiful. Uncomfortable as it may be, Dilly Dally know you need one to appreciate the other.