Beach House – the indie duo consisting of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally – makes music that persuades the body to sway about with eyes shut and the mind loose to imagination. Seeing them live, no one could take their eyes off of Victoria Legrand, center stage and surrounded by shiny piñatas on their gorgeous set. As sparkly as their set was, the real gem was Legrand, who pulled out little dance moves those few seconds she wasn’t jamming on the keys. On breakdowns, she would rock her hair back and forth, allowing her tangled hair to claw through the color-changing, ambient lighting. Actually, at one point, she banged her head on the mic stand while rocking out, but recovered gracefully. She was also good-humored when she fell down and missed a part of a verse (during “Norway,” was it?). We were too awe-struck with the charismatic Legrand to dwell on such endearing slip-ups.
Alex Scally, the other half of Beach House, supported Victoria with his eloquent, sliding fingers on the guitar. Both Alex and Victoria were in their own unbreakable groove, but meeting guitar to keyboard in such a harmonic melody that their similitude was much more beyond their matching eye-draping bangs. Legrand sang with such command that we were caught in a trance, under her spell. From the moment they opened with “Walk in the Park,” it seemed the entire venue was tuned in. Her voice is deep yet feminine, with that slight, perfect amount of huskiness that made Beach House one of the sexiest bands I’ve seen in a while. They played a set that can only be described as “magical,” complete with a spinning disco ball, a starry background, and rainbow lights. Ending with “10 Mile Stereo,” from their most recent album Teen Dream, Beach House left us heart-swept and shaking our heads in gracious disbelief.
Their opener, Washed Out, one-man band Ernest Greene, also showed command in his performance, which is a challenge for a solo artist/performer. The music was literally ringing, as he vibrated the venue with synthesizers and looped vocals. Though Washed Out managed to have a strong presence playing alone (a combination of sick beats + him prancing around with microphone in hand), his set really came alive when the band members of Small Black joined him on stage for the latter half of his set. They played a show together the night before at the Bell House and it was evident that there was amazing chemistry there.
Enjoy some shaky fan footage of last night’s show and our stellar pictures.
FANTASTIC!!!!