A Trip to The Beaches at The Bronson Centre

The Beaches brought their four-woman alternative rock band to the Bronson Centre Wednesday, and played a diverse array of tunes in a highly polished set.

Jordan Miller made for a strong lead singer. She can sing in a lower register than many women, as on the verses of the hit “Fascination”. She has a certain accent, almost a drawl (the “her” in “Fascination”‘s line “I hope you’ll consider naming her after me” comes out like “huh”), that lends these sections a unique character. Add in her ability to belt out high notes without singing falsetto, as on the downbeat breakup song “Highway 6”, and Jordan adds a lot of range and dynamism to their songs. Some of their recordings have that echoey effect on the vocals that’s been popular in indie rock since Merriweather Post Pavilion, and the effect might obscure some of her voice’s power.

Three and four-piece pop rock bands often run the risk of sounding samey–one 4/4 song in major chords after another, with little change in instrumentation. The Beaches never have this problem, infusing their tunes with interesting changeups that kept people hooked. On some songs the other guitarists sang lead vocals instead, such as for their fantastic cover of “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” sung by Jordan’s sister Kylie Miller. That tune featured a killer synth riff by lead guitarist and keyboard player Leandra Earl, with catchy ascending notes in the chorus. That contrasted nicely with the discordant stomp of “Back of My Heart”, just one track later, or the excited “woo”s in “Money” towards the end of the set. once again, keyboards and effect pedals showed their ability to expand the band’s sound; Earl’s ability to switch between keyboard and guitar as needed was a nice touch. Each guitarist sang backup vocals at some point, and bassist Jordan even switched with Earl’s electric guitar at one point. Some bands suffer from players who are unwilling to share their vocal duties, so the whole project felt somewhat egalitarian; some other bands suffer from other members who want to sing but aren’t very good, and that wasn’t an issue either.

The band performed tightly, as one might expect, given that other shows on the tour played the same setlist. Each track was performed with suitable intensity, as drummer Eliza Enman-McDaniel kept the beat with precision. They moved from one track to the next with uncommon speed and preparation, interspersed with some amusing stage banter. Jordan gave a shout-out to the “Itty bitty titty committee” before playing “T-Shirt”, referencing a line in the song.

The Beaches gave shout-outs to their openers Fade Awaays and Goodbye Honolulu, who play indie rock that compliments The Beaches’ sound.

Though they’re hardly the first to do it, something felt a little radical about this all-female rock band. It’s not nearly as common as the all-male variety, of course, but The Beaches didn’t make it feel like a big deal. What really stood out was the sold-out crowd cheering for them at the Bronson Centre, and the many stops they’re headlining on their cross-Canada tour. That felt new, and welcome.

 

Written by Aaron Nava