[ATTENDED: July 23, 2022] Beach House
I’ve been a fan of Beach House for a long time. I wasn’t sure if they were a band I wanted to see live, but then it turned out that everyone in my family was enjoying them independently of me.
Both of my kids had been listening to a few of their songs and I knew that S. liked the songs she’d heard too. So I thought it would be fun for us all to go see them live.
I got us GA tickets because the closest seated tickets were kind of crappy. I suppose seated would have been fine because the Beach House show was pretty much designed for you to not really see the stage very well.
The lighting was such that it had a presence in the room. You could practically feel the weight of the colors as they fell from the stage. The three band members were placed in a row across the stage. with Alex Scally on the left playing guitar, Victoria Legrand in the center on keys and James Barone on drums on the right. The band was backlit for the entire show so that they were in shadow and silhouette. I am fairly certain I never saw any of their three faces all nights.
Whether it was white lights shining down from the ceiling, a wall of stars on a deep blue background, or waving searchlights through dense fog, the atmosphere changed with every song. The details were different but the overall vibe remained one of a kind of smothering warmth almost like a weighted blanket.
Their music is so otherworldly and transportative as well, that it works perfectly together. Victoria Legrand’s voice–deep and yet somehow soaring (the kind of voice where most casual listeners do not know the gender of the singer) is also otherworldly. Legrand plays keys, but I was really taken with Alex Scally on guitar. I knew there was guitar in Beach House songs, but I had no idea how much. There were some sounds, sounds that I’ve heard many many times, that I never imagined were created by the guitar.
“Drunk in L.A.” projected to giant eyes on the screen behind them. It was all the more disconcerting because they were both left eyes and the were not synchronous.
I loved hearing “Space Song” and I was thrilled that they played “Myth” the first Beach House song that I’d heard and still my favorite.
After a brief encore break, they came back for one more new song and that was that.
Perhaps it would have been more enjoyable to be seated while seeing them (it’s not exactly a dancing show). But being seated for a show like this, you do run the risk of drifting off to sleep (for the most amazing sleep you’d ever have).
Beach House is an experience and I was delighted how great they sounded and how much they got us fully absorbed in their world.
SETLIST
- Once Twice Melody ½
- Silver Soul ™
- Dark Spring ∠
- Lazuli ♣
- Levitation Ø
- Pink Funeral ½
- PPP Ø
- Drunk in LA ∠
- Superstar ½
- Saltwater ∏
- New Romance ½
- Wildflower Ø
- Lemon Glow ∠
- Modern Love Stories ½
- Space Song Ø
- Myth ♣
Encore - Over and Over ½
½ Once Twice Melody
Ø Depression Cherry
∠ 7
♣ Bloom
∏ Beach House
™ Teen Dream
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