The guitar work hardly ever rose above a light swirl. The drummer pitter-pattered way more than he pounded. The singer stood behind her keyboard the whole time and usually sang in whispery tones.
Somehow, though, despite all its seemingly timid elements, Saturday's sold-out concert by Beach House at St. Paul's Palace Theatre actually rocked. Not the Iggy-Pop-rolling-around-on-broken-glass kind of rock, of course, but there was something surprisingly kinetic and visceral about the 90-minute, zone-out-style performance.
On tour for the first time in four years, the cultishly adored Baltimore electro-pop duo — a trio on stage with the addition of live drums — emerged from quarantine with the most ambitious album of its 14-year career, the sprawling and at times experimental double-LP "Once Twice Melody."
Beach House's live show, though, remains an understated, low-lit affair. The musicians' faces and figures were washed out under a backdrop of soft, atmospheric, aurora-borealis-like lighting, with nary a spotlight involved. The stars of the "Twilight" movies could have been standing up there and even fans wouldn't have seen the difference.
Of course, there was no mistaking Victoria Legrand's slightly atonal but richly ethereal voice as she opened with the title track of "Once Twice Melody" under a bank of soft pink lights, sounding equal parts Nico and Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins).
"No matter where you go / There'll always be your shadow," she sang.
Other highlights culled from the new record included the show's hypnotically throbbing finale, "Over and Over," and the organ-laced whirrer "Masquerade," which crescendoed into a dark soulfulness as Legrand animatedly repeated the refrain, "Here tonight / Gone forever."
When a fan yelled out "Play it again!" after "Masquerade," Legrand joked that the audience would need to set up cots if every song was played twice.
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