Weyes Blood at Electric Brixton
Weyes Blood
Ana Roxanne
Electric Brixton, 30 October 2019
I hate it when female artists are only compared to other female artists, which has definitely happened a lot to Natalie Mering aka Weyes Blood, but it's undeniable that Karen Carpenter's voice lives on in Mering's songs. Natalie Prass may look uncannily like Carpenter but Mering actually sounds like her. That said, the musical accompaniment she gives that voice is something utterly unique.
A friend of mine insisted that Titanic Rising was the best album he had heard all year and, giving it another try and being swept away by its lush orchestration and almost psychedelic wandering amid a keen pop sensibility, I knew I had to experience it all live. Thankfully, it was even better than I imagined and it didn't surprise me one bit when someone in the crowd shouted out that she was a genius, to which she humbly replied "Ah, no, genius schmenius but thank you."
Despite all my years of gig-going in London, I had never actually been to the Electric Brixton before, although, back when it was known as the Fridge I think it was more of a dance club than a rock venue. Since it's name change and facelift, it's definitely been attracting some more diverse acts, and when I was finally inside it reminded me of the old, much-missed Astoria (but then both were cinemas, so it makes sense).
Before Weyes Blood though, there was one support act, Ana Roxanne, an ambient artist from Los Angeles, who plays bass and keyboards and whispers, sings ethereal vocals or speaks poetry over droning, atmospheric instrumentation. To be honest I hear a lot of talking throughout her set and she even admits the difficulty of performing ambient music live and thanks us for the mainly positive reaction, but for me it was mainly dull and I was thankful when she finished.
Finally Mering and her four-piece band emerge, Mering wearing a cool 70s-style white suit that she eventually reveals, by moving her long dark hair from her shoulders, has "Weyes Blood" embroidered on the back, which gets a big cheer. I didn't really have too much idea of what she looked like but it turns out she is sophisticated, elegant and cool: definitely a worthy rock star and front woman.
As I'm only really familiar with the incredible Titanic Rising, her fourth album, thankfully for me the set featured nearly all of the record, starting with opening number A Lot's Gonna Change, with its warm Laurel Canyon vibe.
Mering has an easy going, friendly stage style, switching between keyboards and guitar and occasionally just taking the microphone and wandering to the edge of the stage. In between songs she chats with the audience, at one point asking the crowd, which she said she does at every show, if we thought the moon landing was real or faked by Stanley Kubrick, "Interesting, that's more hands than I was expecting, London!" she nods like a school teacher in front of a crowd of eager students. The question leads nicely into the song Something To Believe, about misinformation in the modern world, although it sounds like a beautiful throwback to 70s California soft rock.
Later she gives us another track she tells us is about modern times, Wild Time ("it's a wild time, to be alive" something I think everyday reading about Donald Trump and Boris Johnson), to which a member of the audience loudly shouts "Boo!" She laughs and says "Boo? Do you have a time machine, sir?" Which is kind of funny, since her music sometimes feels like that, in the best possible way.
A more poignant movie comes when she takes an acoustic guitar and tells us that the song Picture Me Better was written for a friend who took his own life and the following rendition is so moving and such a contrast to the huge swirling sounds that came before.
She leaves two of her most epic, dazzling songs, Andromeda ("this is another song about space") and Movies, each letting the band jam out and expand the sounds, while playing in front of a psychedelic backdrop of trippy swirling colours, which just adds to the whole experience. In short, it sounds amazing.
She also gives us some tracks from her previous records and in particular the songs Seven Words and Diary stick out for me, leaving me determined to dig a little deeper into her back catalogue. For the encore she dedicates a song "to the baby boomers out there" although I don't think there were many in the audience that night: a cover of Procol Harem's classic A Whiter Shade Of Pale, which fits surprisingly well into her oeuvre, with its distinctive Hammond Organ and rousing vocals.
After I wandered into the Brixton night feeling I had witnessed something very special and it's given me a whole new appreciation of Titanic Rising, which I think my friend may be right: it might well be one of the best this year. This gig was anyway.
A friend of mine insisted that Titanic Rising was the best album he had heard all year and, giving it another try and being swept away by its lush orchestration and almost psychedelic wandering amid a keen pop sensibility, I knew I had to experience it all live. Thankfully, it was even better than I imagined and it didn't surprise me one bit when someone in the crowd shouted out that she was a genius, to which she humbly replied "Ah, no, genius schmenius but thank you."
Despite all my years of gig-going in London, I had never actually been to the Electric Brixton before, although, back when it was known as the Fridge I think it was more of a dance club than a rock venue. Since it's name change and facelift, it's definitely been attracting some more diverse acts, and when I was finally inside it reminded me of the old, much-missed Astoria (but then both were cinemas, so it makes sense).
Finally Mering and her four-piece band emerge, Mering wearing a cool 70s-style white suit that she eventually reveals, by moving her long dark hair from her shoulders, has "Weyes Blood" embroidered on the back, which gets a big cheer. I didn't really have too much idea of what she looked like but it turns out she is sophisticated, elegant and cool: definitely a worthy rock star and front woman.
As I'm only really familiar with the incredible Titanic Rising, her fourth album, thankfully for me the set featured nearly all of the record, starting with opening number A Lot's Gonna Change, with its warm Laurel Canyon vibe.
Later she gives us another track she tells us is about modern times, Wild Time ("it's a wild time, to be alive" something I think everyday reading about Donald Trump and Boris Johnson), to which a member of the audience loudly shouts "Boo!" She laughs and says "Boo? Do you have a time machine, sir?" Which is kind of funny, since her music sometimes feels like that, in the best possible way.
She leaves two of her most epic, dazzling songs, Andromeda ("this is another song about space") and Movies, each letting the band jam out and expand the sounds, while playing in front of a psychedelic backdrop of trippy swirling colours, which just adds to the whole experience. In short, it sounds amazing.
After I wandered into the Brixton night feeling I had witnessed something very special and it's given me a whole new appreciation of Titanic Rising, which I think my friend may be right: it might well be one of the best this year. This gig was anyway.
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