THE BETHS
SWX, Bristol - 24th May 2023
Support: Lande Hekt
One of my favourite new bands of the last decade has to be New Zealand's The Beths. They just tick so many of my boxes, and in Elizabeth Stokes, they have one of the most genuinely talented songwriters around right now. Their stubbornly addictive melodies, glorious soaring harmonies and self-deprecating tales of self-doubt and anxiety, have earned them an ever-growing fanbase.
That was certainly on show at a sold-out SWX. Unfortunately, opening act Lande Hekt didn't exactly get things off to a lively start. In fact, she was rather dull. The most excited people got was when she announced: "I wrote this song during lockdown." Now, call me a miserable old fart if you must, but why should we care? Surely EVERY musician, writer and artist used lockdown to create. The number of people who released music during and after the whole COVID thing was beyond measure, so why do we need to know that she wrote this one song during lockdown like it was a huge, unique achievement?
Weirdly, and perhaps rather sadly, there were a couple of audience members who greeted this proclamation with a "whoop"! They were clearly very easy to please. Everyone else shrugged with indifference...
The Beths changed the dynamic by tearing through a brilliant set culled from their three albums. It's notable enough that they've recorded and produced all their records themselves in their guitarist's home studio, but the fact they can reproduce the brightness of their sound, the tightness of their playing and the beauty of the vocal harmonies live is hugely impressive.
There were simply too many highlights to mention, but wonderful renditions of Jump Rope Gazers, Knees Deep and I'm Not Getting Excited were hugely memorable, as was a gorgeous version of You Are A Beam Of Light during the encore.
Not sure why this was my first gig in 6 months (and as it turned out, the first of just two in the whole of 2023), but if it had our first and only show since lockdown, it would have been more than worth it.
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