Dogs Run Free: Jess Lord Lets the Dogs Off the Leash at Metro Theatre’s AiR Program

“We’re just having fun, you know? Like a dog off a leash!” Jess Lord grins – amused by this definition of her growing DIY event collective Dogs Run Free – which, for the past month has brought new life to the Metro Theatre’s free, community oriented ‘Artist in Residency’ (AiR) program.

Lord and I are sitting on the grass in a darkening Centennial Park. The paths around us are full of suited office workers making their way home after a hard Monday in the office, and Lord – despite having just clocked off from her own office job – is glowing at the chance to talk about Dogs Run Free and the Sydney music scene.

She has a refreshing perspective on the latter – which, since the effects of lockout laws and COVID-19 – has had nothing but a sour reputation.

“I think that there are cool things happening in Sydney and people just need to reframe the way they talk about it,” she tells me. “People say, ‘Sydney’s so boring,’ ‘there’s no nightlife,’ it’s not creative,’ it’s not experimental,’ it’s not blah, blah, blah… And when you say that, then you see that. Instead, if you go: look at all these cool things happening in Sydney, and reframe it that way, then people start talking about it differently. People start doing things differently.”

So that is exactly what Lord has done.

First founding Sydney arts magazine ‘PUSH’ as part of a university project, Jess rapidly realised the hunger the youth in Sydney had for a DIY music scene. Responding to this hunger, ‘Dogs Run Free’ was born. Under this name, Lord has gone from strength to strength, evolving from DIY live music events in backyards and apartments, to being chosen by Century Venues to host a one-month live music residency at the intimate ‘Metro Social’ (a theatre tucked into a side alley behind the famously inner-city rowdy Metro Theatre).

This residency, which wrapped just last Wednesday, is what I’d come to talk to Lord about today.

When I bring it up, she beams. “I think every night was lit.”

It’s a sentiment I would have to agree with.

Every Wednesday from September 3rd through to the 24th, Lord had orchestrated a melting pot of artists to paint the Metro Social stage. Each week featured a new series of three mostly underground local bands who expertly worked within the broad brushstrokes of punk, hip-hop, pop, and folk.

When I ask how she chose these genres, she uses the analogy of a staircase – the energy reducing every week.

Extending her analogy, the top of this staircase began with a thunderous crack.

Problem Green – a rising four-piece from Sydney’s Inner West — had kicked the month off with a tirade of spat lyrics and energetic distortion, astonishing a crowd unaware of the mighty punch the group could make. Canberra favourites Sonic Reducer had then taken the baton with a scintillating swagger, before tossing it into the cool fury of Western Sydney’s Xiao Xiao.

From then on, as weeks progressed and we descended the ‘energy staircase’, New Zealand hip-hop crew Church & AP brought a bouncing excitement to the room, while young Melbourne star Gordon’s Grandson charmed with beautifully arranged pop hits. Until finally, Zeal.H – a Newcastle based experimental folk group — lulled the residency to rest.

Each night, I was consistently shocked at how different and well curated the energy in the room felt. Despite the ‘Dogs Run Free’ banner perpetually hanging over the stage, few similarities could be found between weeks.

Different sounds flooded from the stage. Different demographics spilled into the alley outside. And different audiences found different ways of appreciating music, from shoulder charging to joyous bubble blowing.

Yet – echoing Lord’s definition of ‘Dogs Run Free’ – every Wednesday, no matter the genre or demographic, every person in attendance, on stage and off, had a palpable sense of appreciation and relief.

Appreciation because, as Lord so avidly insists, if you choose to find it there really is a strong beating heart at the centre of the Sydney music scene.

And relief because, mid-way through a work week, what is more important than the ability to be let off the leash and run free?