Beach House
3/26/o8
Schubas Tavern in Chicago
Headlining a sold out show at Schubas, Beach House fans surely echoed the Devotion. Though I’d seen them two previous times, once opening for The Clientele at the Subterranean and another time playing Pitchfork music festival last summer, this third time at Schubas felt more right than either of the previous. With it’s warmth and hard wood floors, the languid and enveloping tones of the music was brought out perfectly. It shouldn’t also be understated that Beach House’s live performance has shown some improvement as well in the last year. Both with the release of their second album and with touring, their sound has really come to fruition. The super melodic songs of this Baltimore two piece seem altogether more self assured and capable of filling the void of emptiness within any human space.
Heavily based in both Victoria Legrand’s main vocals with Alex Scally providing occasional harmonizing, Beach House creates a dream pop landscape that is both heavy and light at the same time. It is rich and textured and seems well beyond what could possible be produced by two people. At this show, they were also joined by Jason Robert Queve from The Papercuts for the drums, which can be described as minimalist. There is something altogether comforting with both their albums and their live performance. Even as Victoria’s vocals climb to new heights on “Turtle Island,” they refrain from being too shrill. Her lush organ sounding keyboard notes surrounded the crowd and mingled with Alex’s lackadaisical guitar playing perfectly.
Very appropriate for their name, Beach House decorated the stage with shimmery palm trees. However, fitting with a sense of a music focused show, Beach House turned off the lights of the club to sing with only the revolving lights of two disco balls. This created a greater emphasis on the music component and allowed audience members to concentrate fully on what they were hearing. It might be easy for some to be lulled asleep in the darkness of the Hawaiian-esque lullaby if it wasn’t so enchanting to listen to. Though they only played for about an hour, it felt complete and utterly fulfilling.
Click to view the complete photoset with Papercuts and Night Owl Choir on flickr