One guy playing a violin has never been so enthralling to watch and Wintercoats, aka James Wallace, is exactly that.
With the help of an expertly utilised looping station, Wallace’s lone presence under a chilly spotlight simply heightened his affecting tunes. Finding every way imaginable to produce sound from the classical instrument, the young man from Melbourne strums it like a ukulele, taps at its strings with the bow, plucks, and even blows onto it.
Singing with a desperately emotive voice, and accompanied by his left-of-centre violin technique, it leaves a memorable mark on the crowded room, merely judging by the utter silence and attention Wallace is granted by the audience throughout his set.
With their dream-inducing music, which Beach House have come so well-known and loved for, it’s a difficult set to gain any other reaction out of the crowd other than the dazed faces Alex Scally and Victoria LeGrand receive tonight.
The duo from Baltimore – who bring with them their live drummer Daniel Franz, for extra fleshiness – emerge from darkness and smoke to the percussion of “Wild”. The reaction is instantaneous: the audience swoons and sways in time. There’s not a worry in the world for the next hour or so.
It’s fascinating to watch the charisma and chemistry between Scally and LeGrand, who – simply put – often play the parts the other one is expected to.
Scally’s shimmering, glistening guitar imitates what one would anticipate to see played on the majestic synth set up handled by LeGrand on stage. She, on the other hand, slays the low chords that hum along with his relaxed, surf vibe.
The set list is generously shared between albums Teen Dream (2010) and their most recent release Bloom (2012). Only one track is honoured from the duo’s second album, Devotion (2008): “Gila” is received with a smattering of surprised applause from the more devoted.
LeGrand’s voice is mind blowing. Live, it takes on a life of its own: more fragile than on Beach House’s recordings yet with an added smokiness to those particularly high or low notes she reaches with utter ease.
The light show is simply extraordinary. If LeGrand is not under a silver spotlight by herself, then she is performing through sundrenched blinds, as if the stage were indeed inside a beach house on a warm afternoon. The stage is further backed by a series of metallic drapings seemingly hanging in mid-air.
“Norway” opens up the night sky behind the three musicians, as silver dots light up and soft lasers ebb and flow across the room, it could be the most touching part of the evening.
That is until “Take Care” is played. The trio are in semi darkness until the slow burning build up to the first chorus, and suddenly, the entire venue is swathed in flashes of different shades of blue, white, yellow… (Find a recording online, it is sheer brilliance).
“Lazuli” holds the most spine tingling harmonies between Scally and LeGrand, while “Zebra” is the first time the audience is able to unstick their mouths long enough to feebly sing along. Scally even notes that by the second song he sees “more movement than at the entire Melbourne show – so thanks!”
Closing the set with a beautiful rendition of the Bloom opener, “Myth”, and the closing “Irene” being the glorious encore, Beach House is a band you want to see live in particular, even if it’s just to see what they’re like underneath all of the production of their albums (particularly from the flawless Bloom).
Immaculate as their recorded work is, the moment when Scally slips out of tune during “The Hours” before slipping right back in with a shake of his shaggy head or, similarly, when LeGrand hits a few too many keys at once in “Wishes”, prove even those two otherworldly experts creating beautiful subtleties are indeed human.
Sure, ignorant ears will say sitting at home and listening to the record is no different (and a whole lot cheaper) but those are the same people unfortunate enough to miss the nuances and intricacies that come so easily to Beach House.
