Given
that they’d followed a remarkably similar gig trajectory on my previous Dance Cards
– intriguing support slot discovery, small venue headliner, upgrading to the
Fleece and then SWX – it was only a matter of time that New Zealand’s The Beths
and/or Vancouver’s Alvvays would graduate to Bristol Academy headliner.
Question was, which one first? Well, it turned out to be Elizabeth Stokes’
spritely bunch of Antipodean helium punky-popsters, announcing their biggest UK
tour yet in support of 4th album “Straight Line Was A Lie”. More
introspective and less immediate than the upbeat and Summery jangle-pop
harmonies of their previous releases, this one’s been taking time to land with
me; however repeated listens have started to reveal some well-crafted, intelligent
and mature (yes the dreaded “m” word!) songwriting, and some particular
heartstring-tuggers. Just maybe need a “live” showing to really hammer it home
for me, as they’ve never disappointed in that environment thus far. Oh, wait…!
So, I hit the road for that familiar M4 jaunt to Brizzle, getting there about 20 minutes after doors. Managed to get a spot one row back, house left, in this very quiet, early doors venue. Ropes up across the balcony steps as well got me a bit concerned; has this step up to the bigger venue happened too soon? Anyhoops, on at 8 were the support, fellow Zealanders Dateline; a two boy, two girl outfit who opened their set with a couple of pacey slabs of jangly indie-pop, all well and good but sailing a bit too close to their headliners for me. However, after some nervous banter from the vocalist about raiding Bristol’s vintage shops and developing a whisky habit to get through the shows (!), a few harder edged and noisier numbers provided some separation; the obligatory Pixies-ish death march number was followed by a hectic, hard-hitting “Wishing” and a darker, squally reverb drenched “Little Charmer” which was best-of-set for me. A decent if slightly generic set ended with one final pounding pop number, before the singer departed to call her 4-year-old daughter! Ahhhh…
Took a look around and noted that the place had considerably filled up during the support, and the balcony was open too! Debated this point and had a nice chat about music and neuro-diversity with a lovely lady down the front whose name I didn’t catch (sorry!), before the Beths emerged at 9 pm. Kicking into their stride early with the title track of their current album, opener “Straight Line Was A Lie” was a slice of plangent pop, building up a head of steam throughout, with the darker, more monotone “No Joy” following in short order, guitarist Jonathan Pearce and bassist Ben Sinclair embellishing this number’s middle 8 with toy plastic recorders! Oldie “Future Me Hates Me”, powered by that old “Buck Rogers” riff into its joyfully undulating singalong chorus was an early highlight, vocalist Elizabeth Stokes incredulously remarking at its conclusion, “look how many of you there are! We played this room in 2019 with Death Cab For Cutie (yes they did and I was there – gig 1,120!) and thought, these boys have made it!”
Any
concerns that The Beths weren’t ready for this step up were quickly dispelled,
the band delivering a warm-hearted, varied and well-paced career-spanning set,
albeit firmly focussing on the new material, which as hoped, was largely excellent
“live”. Also, some relaxed and entertaining between-song banter enlivened
matters throughout, from a lengthy band intro focussing on “data points”, to a
recurring theme of the boys encountering a squirrel on their day out in Bristol!
As for the music… “Metal”’s understated melodic jangle ceded to a stark and
lovely Death Cab-esque alt-pop “Till My Heart Stops”, an early highlight; Elizabeths
subsequent solo heartbreaking “Mother Pray For Me” elicited possibly the longest
applause of the night; and a pacey and undulating “Happy/ Unhappy” saw the mood
bounce back strongly thereafter. However, my highlight was a late-set duo of
the amphetamine-fast “Little Death” and punchy punk powerpop of “I’m Not
Getting Excited”, both delivered with speeded-up Animal drumrolls from sticksman
Tristan Deck”, and nineteen-to-the-dozen stream of consciousness vocals from
Elizabeth. Breathless and brilliant!
“Get your last heckles in!” announced Elizabeth, before the smooth melody and excellent band harmonies (a feature throughout) of “Expert In A Dying Field” rounded off a splendid 1 ½ hour+ set, the band returning for a slightly discordant outlier in “Take”. No joy on the list tonight; nobody came onstage to start unpacking before I (and the other final stragglers) was ushered out! Bah! Still, some days you get the bear etc. etc… Didn’t distract from a fine night which proved The Beths were ready for that graduation to the big stage. Well done folks; in your own words, you boys (and girl) have made it! Alvvays for the step-up next then…
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