Last night (25 February), Weyes Blood took The Zoo (in Brisbane) above the fog of modern angst and into her own private realm of nostalgic romanticism.
Led by songwriter Natalie Mering, the Weyes Blood band delivered a stunning, uplifting and haunting performance in support of her fourth album, ‘Titanic Rising’.Opening song ‘A Lot’s Gonna Change’ set the scene for the show, with sparse piano accompanying lyrics such as “. . .born in a century lost to memories, falling trees, get off your knees,” evoking a sense of wistful rumination, urgent encouragement, and seasick melancholy.
The low-lit performance built into a symphonic tapestry of timeless motifs, calling back to the likes of Nat King Cole, an out-of-time hallucination of Ella Fitzgerald on Zoloft fronting Pink Floyd.
Though comparisons may be odious, it’s hard to avoid hearing specks of influence from The Beatles on such a tune as ‘Everyday’, a harmony-laden power-pop gallop climaxing in a burst of ecstatic noise.
Further tinges of the '60s and '70s colour tracks like ‘Something To Believe’, which features slide guitar undeniably reminiscent of George Harrison’s ‘All Things Must Pass’.
Click here to read our recent interview with Weyes Blood.
Natalie played into the optimism and lightness of ‘Everyday’ by candidly warning the audience the next tune would be more ‘down here’ (gesturing below her keyboard), whereas the previous was ‘up here’.
She also took the time to note the Australian heat had not ignored her (or her all-white dress suit), comically remarking: “I feel like I’m in a DIY show! It’s very very warm, but I’m professional – and I’m not taking this jacket off.”
Tears fell to ‘Picture Me Better’, a touching and frighteningly authentic telling of a close friend's suicide. The performance cut to the true depth of 'Titanic Rising''s conceptual severity, detailing with utmost sincerity the harshness and pressures that face artists in our modern world.
Space-age synth warbles collided with old-timey feel on ‘Andromeda’. “Running from my own life now, I’m really turning some time, looking up to the sky for something I may never find,” she confessed, in a spiralling expression of hope and desperate longing.
Self-described prog-rock number ‘Mirror Fever’ brought a sense of the sublimely psychedelic, with Moog-bass synthesiser resonating aggressively beneath a shifting array of intoxicating synthesisers and effected guitar.
‘Wild Time’ saturated the audience in immensely stunning melodies, evoking something of the surreal with its Radioheadesque instrumentation. The song’s jumps in harmony and progression hinted at some fourth-dimensional reality, like echoes whispering from beyond the scope of human perception.
Encore song ‘Generation Why’ was performed solo. Its lyrics mock the habits and vapid philosophies of a generation brought up on smartphones and YOLO.
Amid, above, and beyond the pervasive sense of impending doom which beleaguers our worn-out generation, Weyes Blood encapsulates a plethora of ethereal and contradictory feelings.
She stands on the shoulders of giants, singing strangely comforting songs of painful realism and self-aware folly to a generation hard-pressed for solace. She successfully celebrates and integrates her influences, wearing them on her sleeve while maintaining the essence of pertinent ‘presence’ and absolute relevance.
Her performance at The Zoo solidified her status as a champion of the young, one we hope will continue to share so generously from the well of her own mystic insight.
