An evening is guaranteed to be an interesting one when, upon arriving late, you are confronted with a piano being carted off stage and a roomful of patrons, all wielding glow sticks. Having apparently missed a ‘mental’ gig by Tankus the Henge, one can only hope the evening has yet to peak.
The atmosphere in the Water Rats never fails to descend on you with full impact, from the red velvet set curtain to its cosy size. And tonight the effect is maximised with a suitably dreamy line up – Baltimore based BEACH HOUSE, Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand, take the dreamlike quality of Mazzy Star and the dark undertones of Big Star and This Mortal Coil, add the husky yet crystal clear warm voice of Legrand and mix it all up with organs, slide guitars and various effects – sometimes organically or accidentally created – and place you on a boat on a summery breezy day, when anything can happen and everything is yet to happen. Baltimore is ever the home of the eccentric and undergrowth avant-garde, bred in the most unlikely conditions but more potent for that same reason.
To support them, we get THE PIERCES, an extremely eye catching and harmonious of voice pair of sisters from Alabama. Now based in NY and aided by Blues Explosion man Russell Simins, their producer/guitarist, they bring a mesmerizing performance of a Tarantino soundtrack in the making if there ever was one.
Both made up in a boho-twenties style, complete with head jewelry, the duo seductively dances in long flowing motions, and adeptly swaps between a xylophone and a ukulele to tell tales of burlesqued bad-love and revenge. ‘This song is a Hootenanny. Do you know what it is? Someone told us it’s an Irish word’ ‘Scottish!’ yells someone in the crowd. ‘Scottish, Irish…’ the girls retort, thereby losing some of the crowds’ sympathy at once, but maintaining the lust factor. Instrumentally versatile and pouty, the set goes down a treat and not a moment too long.
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A word to describe Beach House’s onstage persona is ‘seemingly shambolic’. Another way to describe them would be ‘high on creation’. Her eyelids heavy, incredible vocalist Legrand takes her place in front of her keyboard. ‘Last time we played here everything exploded’, warns her partner Scally, fiddling with many knobs and setting their backbeat to ‘extremely mellow’. The said beat is always slightly out of synch with the song, deliberately or absent mindedly – who can tell?
Then the music comes in and the grand plan is suddenly revealed to be anything but shambolic. It sweeps you away with Legrand’s rich and soulful voice making it all ok. A child’s face, with the soul of a woman’s lifetime, she soothes and caresses into a timeless fetal place. The occasional rogue electronic overload distracts them momentarily but is unable to dispel the magic. ‘Have you met Don Pop-Sound, the third member of our band?’ asks Scally bitterly.
Despite a chaotic and disheveled performance, as soon as Legrand opens her mouth everything melts into a gooey haven of bubbles and cuddles. As long as she keeps singing, chaos will be kept at bay. Well deserving of their Bella Union protégé, and their self titled debut album an undoubted triumph, this partnership can afford to be a little off-beat as the rewards are so very high.
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