Please welcome our newest contributor Greg Szeto, he’ll be adding some additional Baltimore flavor (tastes like Old Bay) to BYT, starting off with a review of the Beach House record release show. They’ll be hitting up the Rock and Roll Hotel at the end of the tour on April 4th.
The decaying, dilapidated ruins of industrial Baltimore’s freight-and-port heyday are probably the last place you’d think to look for a night of aural escapism via Beach House. But as you drive down Falls Road towards the G-Spot (amazing venue name eh?), through the innumerable half-finished public works projects, under the overpasses of I-83 and the city’s major thoroughfares, there is a sense of serenity underneath Baltimore’s rough-n-tumble façade. A moment presaging the night’s show.
Thursday night at the G-Spot, located at the bottom of a hill in a former textile mill just south of the Hampden neighborhood, Beach House kicked off their tour in support of Devotion. Beach House is the latest product of Baltimore’s ever-diversifying music scene (up until now largely dominated in the press by Dan Deacon and the crew of Wham City) to venture out on national tour. Now Pitchfork-vetted twice, and with 3+ music videos in the pipeline, this will likely be the last tour you see them in a small venue setting as they are poised to blow up.
The G-Spot, while a tad hard to find *snicker*, was packed to the brim with Baltimoreans eager for Beach House’s engrossing and ethereal brand of indie-pop. I walked in mid-set for first openers Diapensia. They deliver passable and easily forgettable twinkling indie-country/folk. But their music has no real catch or substance. Like a sparse, backwoods mountain arrangement of Beach House. I found myself constantly repeating their name in my head as “sleep apnea” in a rather unfortunate Freudian slip moment. It might have been an off night, but they really need to figure out how to deliver their music in a more engaging manner.
Papercuts were a pleasant surprise. I was very impressed by their set. Imagine, if you will, the passionate and talented lovechild of Tapes N Tapes and My Morning Jacket. This spectacular offspring harbors a deep love of southern-tinged psychedelic rock in the vein of the Austin scene. Music drenched in echo and reverb, occasionally featuring the clop and gallop of classic Western. Lead singer Jason Quever frequently channeled images of Jim James of MMJ, prone to delivering fits of spectral moaning. But his voice somehow seems more grounded and less supernatural, sometimes slightly imperfect and off-key to great effect. The band is very capable and tight, and their arrangements focus more on perfecting pacing through expertly throttled repetition and dynamics. But there are some definite scorching solos from the bass and guitar reminiscent of the hey-day of 60s and 70s pop and psych rock. They are definitely on my short list of artists to watch.
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After Papercuts, Beach House bound on stage in matching, white-and-pure-as-the-undriven-snow matching suits. The room goes pitch black. Victoria asks for a light on her and a tech comes over to hand her one of those mini-LED flashlights. Classy. Alex is fiddling on the ground for a few minutes setting up, when finally the lighting globe comes alive, casting a swirling, psychedelic pattern of goodness on the Papercuts’ drummer and the back wall. And away we go into about an hour of some of the most transportive, beautiful music being made today. Victoria’s voice is spectacular, able to go from haunting and spine-tinglingly gentle to hairs-on-edge powerful. Combine this with her perfect ear and fantastic keyboard work and you’ve got one powerhouse lead. Alex’s guitar playing is the essence of minimalist technique, adjusting the quality, tone and every other aspect of each note to get maximal expression. |
They played a number of tracks off Devotion, highlights being the warmth of “You came to me,” Victoria’s soaring and powerful vocals on “Heart of chambers” and Alex’s lyrical guitar work on “Gila.” They played a few older tracks as well like “Master of None” and “Tokyo Witch.” Another treat was the Daniel Johnston cover off Devotion, “Some Things Last A Long Time” which Victoria stated, self-deprecatingly, was shorter than the original for “artistic reasons.”
Overall, a great and promising show to kick off their tour. The only glitch was that they tended to noodle a few notes before each song, giving away what was coming next; they would do well to keep the anticipation high between songs. And though the venue was pitch-black with horrific sightlines, the sound was spot-on.
Beach House’s songs are a miniaturization of many aspects of modern Baltimore, providing indie-pop through a hazy, decaying fish-eye lens full of nostalgia, but with an undercurrent of strength and hope. I can’t imagine better ambassadors for our charmed city.
Want more:
http://www.myspace.com/beachhousemusic
http://www.myspace.com/thepapercuts
http://www.auralstates.com/
Good review. I liked the Papercuts a lot too, but even though I love Beach House’s records and her voice is amazing I got bored and sleepy halfway through. That venue was hilarious too, I got shitlost in Hamden and actually ended up walking towards a woman on the street prepared to ask her where the Gspot was! I chickened out though. If they had had booze I may have been more amendable to delicacy. Or if everyone had really started a massage circle.
March 3, 2008 at 11:28 am