Concert Review: Beach House at the Black Cat

Beach House @ The Black Cat
Friday March 26, 2010
w/ Bachelorette

Victoria Legrand is the ultimate band girl. And I would like to be her friend. No, more than friends. I would like to be her best friend. We could exchange BFF necklaces, paint each other's nails and make friendship bracelets together. And at the end of the day, it would be understood that it's one of those uneven friendships, where one person (me) is constantly idolizing and looking up at the other (VLG, which by the way is the nickname I have assigned her). It's likely that our moms are friends and her mom forces her to hang out with me. But she does it willingly, because she's too cool to care and has her eyes set on the cosmos rather than the pettiness of friendships.

When Beach House took the stage at the Black Cat Friday night, all eyes were on Legrand as she stood front and center over her synth, shaking her shaggy mane and wailing like a loosed phenom. She is a commanding presence to witness, and her live act is only slightly more unsteady than her solid-as-a-rock poise on Teen Dream. Vocally, Legrand hovers androgynously somewhere between a banshee and a phone-sex operator, with inevitable Stevie Nicks comparisons-- and like Nicks she leads her band with a certain relaxed authority and great bangs. Even with excessive reverb coming through the mic, some looping of vocal tracks and drums playing over pre-recorded drums, Beach House’s sound never seemed contrived; this is partly due to Legrand’s naturally booming voice, which retained an organic quality despite the effects. It was just authentic enough to recreate that surround-sound, total-immersion effect without blatantly replicating the album echo by echo. (more after the jump)

Review: Beach House, Teen Dream

Beach House
Teen Dream
A

The past few years has seen a bundle of neo-shoegaze bands burst onto the alt rock scene, attempting to blend the sweetness of synth-rock with the tenderness of semi-acoustic, reflective indie… Few groups have been able to strike the balance between sweet and dour as successfully as Beach House has with their third album, ‘Teen Dream’. The towering vocals of Victoria Legrand, at their most expressive in ‘Lover of Mine’ and ‘Silver Soul’, channel a Fleet Foxes-esque monasticism that is splendidly leveled by Alex Scally’s wistful guitar and organ- an interplay on show in opener ‘Zebra’ and the later ‘Walk in The Park’. Adolescent angst is a minefield, and this album could easily have devolved into a confessional record reminiscent of 2009 prodigies, Girls. Yet the triumphant instrumentalism that explodes in clashing cymbals, heavy drums and tropical tambourines in tracks such as ‘10 Mile Stereo’ and ‘Used To Be’, craft an enriching sound that lies somewhere between Peter Bjorn & John and the post-rock outfit Explosions in The Sky. The accompanying DVD with a music video for each of the tracks is a bonus, but the album doesn’t really need it… ‘Teen Dreams’ is one of those rare records that rejects the parameters of indie and documents Beach House's evolution from angsty adolescence to finely balanced maturity.

--Gerard McCarthy
Host, "Artists in Exile," Sundays 2-4 pm on WGTB