Electro-pop trio CHVRCHES brought enough bass to The Ritz to make your glasses shimmy and slide right down the bridge of your nose. In lieu of their most recent album, The Bones of What You Believe, the indie super group took to Tampa for the first time on Oct. 6, accompanied by ultra-chill electronic musician, The Range.
It was a full house, the beard-tattoo ensembles were aplenty, and solo DJ-esque musician The Range set the chilled-out vibe for the evening as opening act. Given the honorable title of “Best New Music” from Pitchfork, the music cleverly blended elements of 90s hip-hop and ambient tunes with hushed lyricism just scarcely floating to the surface.
Two long, narrow, mirror-like screens stood on each side of the lone synth board on stage projecting trippy silvery images throughout the set. The graphics pulsed along with the heaviness of the bass, allowing for a very sensual performance, both audibly and visually intriguing. However, the opening set stretched out into one long, nonstop track. The performance was fluid enough to make one feel as though they were being rocked to sleep by a sea of synth.
CHVRCHES definitely picked up the groove, opening their set with the bombastic track “We Sink.” The Scottish pop trio falls somewhere in the realm of dreamy synth pop and pure euphoria, and lead singer Lauren Mayberry has much to do with the euphoric overflow the group’s very distinct sound, simultaneously helium-high and angelic.
The ending of the first cut melted into “Lies,” the group’s debut song that dropped last May and gained them widespread notoriety, landing them on a few Best Of ’13 lists, such as “Sound of 2013” for BBC and “Scottish Album of the Year” at the Say Awards. They’ve also been selling out shows from the U.S. to the U.K., keeping them plenty busy.
“We went out to Miami last night and… People think this glitter is all for aesthetics, but it’s really just to hide the bags under my eyes,” Mayberry said mid-set, pointing to the stripes of gold glitter below both of her eyes.
However, the upbeat energy didn’t falter once throughout the show, thanks to keyboardist Martin Doherty and his contagious all-over-the-place dance moves. The frosty pop bits were all accompanied by crazy intricate light displays, flashing hot pink and orange, almost like an allusion to the opening scene of Enter the Void. Some of the following songs included “Lungs,” “Stronghand,” and “Recover.”
The set wrapped up with “The Mother We Share,” previously and most famously heard on the 2014 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremonies in Gasglow. It’s airy yet weighty on the claps, ecstatic, sticky, and so painfully catchy. Essentially, the audience nearly cried for an encore, which consisted of “You Caught the Light” and “By the Throat.”
I couldn’t blame the guy with the aggressive vogue-style dance moves throwing his elbows in my face the whole night, because CHVRCHES’ music kind of sounds the way you wish you could wake up every morning: clear, blissed out, and anticipating every single beat.
Jackie Braje can be reached at Jacquelyn.braje@theminaretonline.