It started as a project with 10 Dollars in their pocket and Beach House were formed and created a genre that has been widely imitated. The band played a sold out Brixton Academy with a catalogue of songs and Victoria Legrand’s mesmerising voice.
Beach House are a neo-psychedelic shoegaze band from Baltimore, Maryland in 2004 and their self-titled debut album was released in 2006 and received critical acclaim. Beach House’s epic ‘Once Twice Melody’ is the most recent 18 track release, with a darker and weirder tone, deluging deeper into their universe Tonight’s set is the main focus on these expansive atmospheric tracks! With such a large venue in mind, it would be difficult to keep the audience engaged with less chatter as at times Victoria’s voice is very subtle!
Tonight’s support stems from ‘White flower, with their dark dreamy pop. They have just related an EP ‘Are you’ in May and consists of songwriting duo Katie Drew and Joey Cobb.
The pair stand on the Darkened stage romanticising with songs about everyday life in a haze of dry ice with a moody swirl of the guitar rhythms, set against Katie’s synth keyboard. The experimentalism of the duo’s soundscapes does fair well with the audience with songs for instance like ‘help me, Help myself’ with its rough guitars and ‘Daylight’ you can get totally lost into with its dreamy melody.
With a short interval, a tightly packed-in audience and the odd punter already being carried away by security as their collapsed in the heat, Beach House come on stage in a haze of green light. Their deluge straight into ‘Once Twice Melody, which is on chapter one of the mammoth four chapter releases in the last months making up the album in its entirety.
The biggest reaction from the crowds comes from ‘Silver Soul’ and ‘Lazuli’ with electrifying guitar chords. Katie really lets loose on the vocals with ‘Pink Funeral’, bathed in shadows and strobing spotlights.
The highlight being ‘Myth, bringing back juxtaposed, late-night festival memories with that twangy baseline and chorus! Overall it was difficult to get the whole experience across in an overcrowded venue with its impressive, moody curation of the visuals. The swirly, sweeping shapes, creepy eyeballs on a large screen, in an outdoor setting being more capitulating under a starry summer’s night and would bring the bouncing synth-pop together as a whole in harmony.
Beach House, 02 Academy Brixton setlist:
Once Twice Melody
Lazuli
Dark Spring
Through Me
Silver Soul
Wildflower
Pink Funeral
Take Care
Superstar
On the Sea
PPP
New Romance
Lemon Glow
Space Song
Myth
Encore:
Over and Over
