Week Of Shows, Episode Four
At no point Tuesday night at Spaceland did Beach House recall in live performance any of the carefree yet sophisticated elements so gorgeously manifested on their self-titled debut album.
Blue Moods of Lame: Beach House's Victoria Legrand at Spaceland
Instead, the capacity crowd was treated to a lifeless waltz through the group’s material, which broadly missed the late-night summer milieu that’s made their recorded music an essential listen. While Beach House the album tends toward the dark and lethargic ala Mazzy Star and Portishead, it’s simultaneously balanced with warm, positive energy and a certain pervading loveliness – all of which was absent this night. Even a mid-set stopover at their single “Gila,” the video for which Pitchfork tapped to help launch their tv site earlier this year, failed to yield a pulse.
It could be that the material, which is a few years old, no longer provides a thrill for the band (essentially singer/keyboardist Victoria Legrand and guitarist Alex Scally, though a touring drummer was present as well), because things threatened to get lively toward the end of the set when they ran through a new song, “Used To Be.” But the damage was done at that point: a third of the house had left the proceedings well before the final curtain.
On the topic of final curtains, Beach House somehow had it in their heads that it would be a good move to jerk-off the crowd and disappear behind Spaceland’s iconic blue and silver sparkly curtain for a few minutes before coming back on stage to finish their already brief set by way of an “encore” (which very, very few were calling for).
Artists are certainly allowed off-nights, and in this case maybe Beach House was tired (after all, they were seated for the entire show – though that was undoubtedly not appreciated by those standing at the back of the sold-out venue). Then again, perhaps they just haven’t yet mastered the stagecraft required to suitably sell the depth of their songs in a live context.
Whatever the case, the fixed monotone blue lighting that brushed the stage throughout didn’t really set a mood as much as it encouraged boredom to creep in. To that end, it helped recall an old SNL skit in which Frank Sinatra (Phil Hartman) gives advice to 2 Live Crew’s Luther “Luke” Campbell (Chris Rock) during a send-up of The McLaughlin Group: “don’t work blue kid, you’ll never play the big rooms.”
Of course, in the skit, “work blue” was a euphemism for using profanity, but in a literal sense, the sentiment translates here. In theory, Beach House would absolutely kill in a theatre setting, but unless they can literally get their act together, they might never get a crack at those big rooms.
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Indie Music is Pretty Swede - The Swedish Indie Music Empire
The most noticeable would be The Cardigans who achieved massive worldwide fame with their ‘Lovefool’ single and blend of charming and slightly tween indie-pop. Perhaps as a reaction to their fame, The Cardigans changed their style, their music got harder and Nina Persson went from blonde to brunette. They may not feature on the radio as much today as they used to but the band still draws a fairly large crowd to any festival at which they perform.
If that was all that Sweden contributed to indie music, it would be a poor return, but when you consider the following acts, you will realize just how many of your favorite tracks have hailed from Sweden:
For such a short space of time that is an impressive list of bands and you may be familiar with some of these songs:
‘Young Folks’ by Peter, Bjorn and John
You may not know the title but as soon you hear the whistling section of ‘Young Folks’ you will know exactly what the song is and recall what a phenomenon it was at the time. The track came second in the NME’s list of best songs of 2006 and fifth in the Pitchfork review of tracks from 2006.
‘Hate To Say I Told You So’ by The Hives
Not many bands could announce themselves as your new favorite band and keep a straight face but The Hives aren’t like many other bands. Filled with a confidence that no other band seems capable of matching this track captured the garage rock revival of the early 2000’s to perfection. The snarling guitar riff and stop-start sections provide the perfect accompaniment to Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist’s trademark yelps and screams.
‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ by The Concretes
Starting off with a guitar riff that could almost have come from the Jesus and Mary Chain, it is a shock when the sweet vocals of Victoria Bergsman kicks in and transforms the song into a delightful and melodic upbeat number. The frantic drum build up to the payoff line for the chorus is joyous and although the band has ploughed on since this 2003 release, they have been unable to match its overall quality.
‘Heartbeats’ by Jose Gonzalez
Although this song was written by fellow Swedes, The Knife, Jose Gonzalez brought the track to a wider audience. The almost mourning feel of Gonzalez’s downbeat vocals mixed with a quiet acoustic backing ensures this is a song equipped to tug at your heartstrings. Appearing in a major commercial gave the track worldwide exposure and Jose’s brilliant cover of Kylie Minogue’s ‘Hand on Your Heart’ proved he could take any song and turn it into a downbeat classic.
This is by no means all that Swedish indie has to offer the world but it does offer a fantastic place to start checking this vibrant indie scene in Scandinavia out.
Ian Dougherty is a freelance music writer and lover from the United Kingdom. Dougherty has written for well known music magazines, Ezines, and websites for over fifteen years. For the latest in indie music and indie band reviews, visit MadeLoud.com, where bands keep more from each digital music download.
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