After declaring my 12-gig “Autumn Dance Card” closed, this one was squeezed in at late notice, thanks to Beef’s enthusiasm for Torres, the musical pseudonym for Mackenzie Scott, a young Nashville raised singer songwriter. A new name on me, but having checked out a couple of tracks on YouTube and finding them possessing a late 80’s 4AD Pixies/ Throwing Muses quiet-loud dynamic (no wonder Beef likes her!), I snapped up the last-but-one ticket for this sell-out show, and also ordered up current album “Sprinter” for a hothouse listen at my desk during the day of the gig! Larry Last-Minute, that’s me…!
Beef
and Dean collected me at 7 for the trip down to Bristol, my majority
destination for my Autumn Dance Card, pitching up at The Louisiana for 8
after a circuitous and confusing diversion. Chilled
in the bar before the rope was removed, and we eventually wandered
upstairs to the already-heaving venue for opener, solo songstress Katie
Harkin. After a low-key start, she eventually got motoring with some
forthright and upfront amped-up indie guitar licks
and riffery, the punchy power and occasional reverb/ distortion
juxtaposing her fey, Harriet Sunday vocals nicely. Her “apostle epistle”
“National Anthem Of Nowhere” and the rambunctious, rocking closer
“Nothing The Night Can’t Change” revealed a tunesmith
of some note, and I mused what these numbers might sound like with a
full band behind them. I bet they’d rock…!
I
stayed in and inched my way closer to the front for Torres’ entrance at
9.30, the striking blonde vocalist leading her band onstage in matching
black boiler suits to unsettling background feedback.
This actually set the tone for the show perfectly, as the spooky, spiky
riffery and heavily pounding, funereal death march of “New Mother
Earth” kicked the set off, then the excellent “New Skin”, next up,
creeping in like a relative lamb, but then descending
into a pit of Manchester Orchestra-like heavy guitar noise, with
Torres’ vocals detached and menacing, like a younger Patti Smith, before
thanking the crowd as its’ conclusion, “for joining me in my hot box!”
This
was a riveting, unsettling show of remarkable, dark, pseudo gothic
music, delivered with clear-eyed conviction and intensity by a unique
talent and voice. In a similar mood vein to the likes
of Savages, although much less in thrall to that gloomy early 80’s
sonic template, Torres’ songs are invariably unsettling and bleakly
confessional, with dark, foreboding clouds never far from the horizon,
giving them a claustrophobic, menacing feel, a sense
of impending doom. Nonetheless, her compelling performance, the intense
gaze and worried, staccato shakes of her head, had an often indifferent
Bristol crowd hushed, reverent and enthralled. A cheer greeted the
introduction to “Sprinter”, Torres replying with,
“you don’t have to cheer, I was just telling you…!” but then delivering
a deliciously wallowing version of this sleazy, morose little number,
the initial hushed, almost operatic chorus then leading to a more
powerful climax, affording Torres the opportunity
for some scary, wild-eyed vocals. This was however topped with set
highlight “Strange Hellos”, a barbed, vicious stomper with Torres
unleashing a blood-curdling howl mid-song, prior to a lengthy squalling
guitar outro of almost Bob Mould proportions. Crikey.
The
Pixies-like slow-burn sway of “The Harshest Light” (introduced with,
“we’ve got 2 songs left… one’s an encore but there’s no exit [from the
stage] so let’s be real with each other”) preceded
set closer “November Baby”, a quiet, hushed and eerie opening bursting
into a thrilling noise crescendo, with Torres taking to the front rows
of the floor for some slashing riffery, bringing a startlingly fine set
to a close.
Great review! Btw, the first song is called Mother Earth, Father God, i think she just calls it New Mother Earth because it's the new version of an old song. It's the album opener from her first album, which is also fantastic! Maybe even better than the second...
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