Beach House Concert Review

By Allison Belcher
Music Journalist

As a die-hard lover of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally of Beach House, I felt that it was only appropriate to talk about my incredible experience at their show in Dallas. Beach House’s tour, featuring their newest albums Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars, is a grand one making its rounds all over the United States and Europe. After writing album reviews on Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars, I was more than determined to buy tickets to what would be my first time seeing Beach House live. To my dismay, their ACL Live show at The Moody Theatre was sold out, so I bit the bullet and said, “Whatever. I’ll just drive to Dallas to see them.”

It was an incredibly rainy and gloomy Saturday evening in downtown Dallas, but high energy and sheer excitement surrounded The Bomb Factory (the venue where Beach House would be performing.) I arrived an hour before the doors opened and there was already a line out the door wrapping around the building. Nonetheless, I still managed to get a spot only three feet away from the stage.

After about two hours of standing around and waiting, Beach House’s opening band The Chamanas took the stage, setting up the atmosphere for the concert. While I wasn’t a huge fan of The Chamanas set, they still ignited a powerful feminine flame in The Bomb Factory, which soon turned into an explosion of energy once Beach House took the stage.

Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally, Beach House’s singer and guitarist, opened with “Levitation,” the first track off of their Depression Cherry album. Other favorites off of Depression Cherry were also played, including “Sparks” and “Space Song.”  While the average fan would expect the duo to primarily play songs off of Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars, the band played several old favorites from their album Teen Dream, mesmerizing the crowd with haunting vocals from “10 Mile Stereo” and the familiarity of “Norway.” Song were, of course, played off of Thank Your Lucky Stars, but not as much as one would expect coming from a new album. The lack of songs played from Thank Your Lucky Stars didn’t seem to cause much of a stir, being that the album wasn’t as big as a hit as Teen Dream or Depression Cherry.

Beach House’s light show and stage set could be described, visually, as T. Dreamy blues and shimmering white lights highlighting the silhouettes of Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand beautifully, creating a sense of mystery and haziness from the stage. Every so often, the crowd was treated to a spacey looking backdrop, consisting of a black background and shimmering stars. The space like background seemed to occur out of intensity, filling up the room every time Legrand and Scally would perform an emotional and heart wrenching part of a song (such as the chorus of “10 Mile Stereo.”) Legrand was in the center of the stage, putting her heart and soul into her keyboard and synthesizer, while Scally showed off his deep connection with his guitar on the left side of the stage.

To a person that is new to Beach House, the show may have felt sleepy and lackluster, but to know Beach House is to understand their song’s messages and the feelings they want their fans to channel. The ambience, setlist and light show, as a whole, perfectly depicted the band’s overall character; and for that, I’m grateful. As I stared up at the beauty and grace of Victoria Legrand, I realized that this was going to be a concert I’d remember for the rest of my life.