Since the last time Beach House played in Spanish Salas, back in 2018, the duo composed of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally has published their most ambitious album, ‘eleven Twice Melody’ (2022) and, above all, has massively popularized its 2015 single, ‘Space Song’, which exceeds one billion views on Spotify. Therefore, an encounter with Beach House in the Razzmatazz room – in the spring frame to the Ciutat – knew privilege, a prize for the very fans.
These fans have encountered an excellent setlist that has thrown hidden successes and wonders. The attainment of jewels (from ‘on the Sea’ a ‘Lemon Glow’, from that A ‘Subwhere Tonight’, a favorite of Taylor Swift; from there to ‘Girl of the Year’, and from there to ‘Myth’) has been to take off his hat throughout the performance. He has caught his attention, yes, the forgetfulness of his latest album: he barely recovers ‘Over and over’ at the close, and is not even the most popular (someone in the public asks for the starting track, but there is no luck).
As usual, the songs played identically reproduce, without surprises or shocks, the sound of the original recordings, because Beach House knows that this looks for his audience, listening to his songs live exactly as he does in the intimacy of his home. The members of Beach House, and the battery that accompanies them at the concerts, James Barone, play hidden in the dark; Very rarely the light illuminates its faces. The screens project vaguely psychedelic images and faint, friendly to view, that evoke the aesthetics of their albums.
The protagonist is music. An assistant lives it as if he were in an Imagine Dragons concert. Although, sometimes, Beach House forces those present to wake up from his dream Dream-Pop. The concert, despite the clarity of the instruments, leaves a certain feeling of improvisation promptly. Victoria, Alex and James go on stage half an hour late and some boos are won. When they emerge, they do not seem prepared to begin the performance: ‘Levitation’, the first song of the repertoire, is aborted twice due to technical problems. Add the delay and this failed start, and the emotion becomes confusion.
Beach House’s technical failures, although very small, or perhaps because of that, stand out in the midst of darkness. Legrand – at the keyboard – is escaped to press the programmed base button on at least a couple of occasions. Of course, who sees anything there? At times it seemed that Beach House offered their first concert. In fact, in the first Bis song, they recover ‘Saltwater’, “the first song we write.” These oversights would be endearing if it were not for the seriousness that musicians project from the stage: it is not necessary to say that Victoria and Alex interact with the public very grimly and timidly. Nor do we want anything else.
Razzmatazz sound, on the other hand, causes disparate reactions in the public. Some say that music sounded wonderful, others that the sound was very improvable and that it did not do justice to the group. Personally, the sound did not seem as an enveloping as in other Beach House concerts in which I have been, including festivals. It is compensated to have been able to see live, in the intimacy of a room, for the first time in a long time, to one of the best groups of our time.
