After a little over a month in Europe1, Thursday marked the first stop in the North American leg of The Beths’ tour in support of their most recent album Straight Line Was A Lie and an eager crowd piled into The Orange Peel in Asheville to give them a warm welcome.
Though The Beths won’t be back in New Zealand until spring, a little piece of home is found in their supporting artist for this leg of the tour: fellow Auckland four piece Phoebe Rings2. Self described as Dream Pop, the group was quick to pull the crowd into the shimmering warmth of their sound. Crystal Choi's vocals floated effortlessly over the gentle grooves laid down by Bassist Benjamin Locke and Drummer Alex Freer. Guitarist Simeon Kavanagh-Vincent played double duty, providing some of the signature sparkle of the band's dreamy style, occasionally joining Choi on synthesizer to do so. The group’s background in jazz is apparent, but while you may pick out a bassline that wouldn’t feel out of place in a bossa nova chart, these influences never undercut the band's unique sound. Instead they are completely encompassed, drawn through the looking glass into the warm pastels of the liminal world of Phoebe Rings.
As the set drew to a close and the afterglow faded, Choi made no attempt to conceal her excitement as she announced “And now we get to hear The Beths!”
The strongest impression I took away from the second set was The Beths are an incredibly thoughtful group of musicians. I’m well aware that isn’t the kind of high-octane adjective you’d expect in a review of a rock concert, but Thursday’s performance was proof that thoughtfulness is perfectly capable of creating an electric atmosphere. A lot about The Beths is understated. The group handled their own set up, going incognito in black hoodies with labels like “Guitar tech 4” and only after the first few songs did lead singer Elizabeth Stokes feel the need to add “We’re The Beths and we’re going to play some songs”. If the group has a “no frills” approach to introductions, the opposite is true of their music, in which tremendous attention is given to the finer points. The balance is deftly struck, as the band manages to be detail driven without becoming stodgy, exacting without losing heart.
For a group with a catalog this diverse, I imagine it can be tricky to put together a set list that feels representative without being jarring, but it was smooth sailing all night. A couple instrumental interludes, and a few asides from the band about an incredibly niche piece of fan merch, the gadgets they made for the tour, and the “incredible retail experience”3 in Asheville, proved to be all that was necessary to smooth out transitions. As expected nearly all the tracks off the new record made appearances, alongside plenty of staples from past albums. The emotional center of the concert came with a trio of songs: “Til My Heart Stops”, “Mother, Pray for Me”, and “Mosquitoes”. The latter, written about the catastrophic Auckland Anniversary floods, resonated particularly strongly with the Asheville crowd with Hurricane Helene fresh in their memories.
I’ve been to many concerts I’ve loved, and have been to a handful where the music just bowls you over. In many of those cases I can point to a moment: an outstanding solo, a particularly heartfelt rendition of a song, an artist enlisting the audience as an impromptu choir, something that gives the extra push. This concert certainly had these moments, Jonathan Pearce seems ever-prepared to turn out a dizzying solo with the kind of casual demeanor with which one might approach small talk and Liz Stokes’s performance of “Mother, Pray for Me” was imbued with a showstopping immediacy and feeling, but the impact of the concert was much broader than that. Force was applied with an almost glacial quality, slow moving but unstoppable. From the first note of “Straight Line Was A Lie”, there was this underlying presence, insistent but subtle, up until the point it knocked you off your feet.
The Beths are a band that excels at culmination, if you want to pick apart their songs you will be rewarded with plenty of delicious details and be doubly delighted by how artfully and unexpectedly they are woven together, but even a casual listen gives the sense of fruition. Seeing them live only enhances that feeling. It’s one thing to hear the intricate layering on the album, it is quite another to see recorders launched from a custom built gadget4 so that bassist Benjamin Sinclair and Pearce can make a quick transition in “No Joy” or watch as Stokes juggles her guitar and a tiny triangle to cover a part of “Best Laid Plans” I hadn’t consciously registered up until that point. As these details build toward something larger, Stokes’s lyrics work in the opposite direction, grappling with complex emotions and teasing out lines that cut to the core of the matter, with remarkable clarity and immediacy. That sense of culmination has long been a hallmark of their music, but it finds deeper meaning in the context of this most recent album. If linear progression is a myth, the significance comes in the form of process and continuity, a place where a band so clearly in love with the craft of songwriting feels right at home.
Thursday night I felt that sense of culmination most strongly in the penultimate song “Expert In A Dying Field”, one of my favorites from the band and one I feel encapsulates much of what makes the band special. The crowd felt it too that night, belting out the lyrics with an earnestness mirrored by the band.
Love is learned over time, but if this concert is anything to go by, it only takes about three hours to fall head over heel for these bands.
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1 And a stop in LA to perform on Kimmel
2 Phoebe Rings is the second band I’ve covered this year that has its own video game;
2 isn’t a lot but it is weird it’s happened twice.
3 October is considerably warmer in NZ and the band found their wardrobe ill suited to the chilly autumn weather.
4 Drummer Tristan Deck also enthusiastically demonstrated another tour gadget innovation, a utility belt mounted shaker
