Here we see Beach House. Baltimore’s Dream pop Duo, Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand, joined by drummer Daniel Franz, underneath a sky of mylar diamonds and surrounded at venue 2640, by a church of rapt converts.
Beach House had been described to me as Indie rock, shoegaze, Dream pop, and Baroque pop. Prior to their Saturday night show at Baltimore’s 2640 I asked a concert goer next to me how she’d describe their music and she said it reminded her of slow songs at a high school dance for goths. I had to ask questions, I’d never heard their music before. I was excited to hear them for the first time without interviews, without reading a review of their new cd Teen Dream, basically without someone like me telling me what to think.
Victoria Legrand in the midst of swirling smoke, simple shapes
and the hypnotic music of Baltimore’s Beach House.
2640 is a converted Church, so before the show began I was amused to think of them as Baroque Pop, but when they started to play I could see why they’d also been described as shoegaze, and for French-born singer Victoria Legrand it was more like hairgaze as her locks were in her face the whole time. Beach House is a duo consisting of singer and keyboardist Legrand and guitarist, vocalist and Baltimore native Alex Scally on guitar. They hire a third member, in this case, drummer and seeming stunt double for Scally, Daniel Franz, for live shows. I enjoyed the show, the presentation of giant mylar diamonds hung with fishing wire above the stage, and the hypnotic trippy music; it did seem like a dream or dream pop. I may not have seen much of Legrand’s face but I could feel her passion and energy. If a photographer asked me to describe them at their next show i’d probably say they were like Mazzy Star, if Nico was the singer, but people say a lot of things.
Caption and photo by Philip Laubner.