In spite of their new material, The Beths put on a great show
The Beths just played their largest headline show ever here in Chicago. Given they’re the one topic that needs no introduction on this blog, I’ll cut to the chase: their reputation as a great live act is well-earned. Was there a number of songs where I mostly sat there staring blankly at the stage? For sure, but I’ve made my opinion on the deep cuts of their newest album (from which they played 9/10 tracks) quite clear. I’ll talk generally, then go track by track.
First of all, the Salt Shed remains Chicago’s finest indoor venue. If you’ve ever been, you probably already knew this. The sound is clean, well-mixed, and at an appropriate volume (earbuds aren’t quite a necessity in the grandstands).
As for the band itself, they’re a tight as hell live act — they didn’t miss a note, despite all the pedal adjusting and harmonizing and genuinely rapid playing on various tracks. Knowing they can pull off 4 part, intricate vocals while all playing their instruments in a studio context is one thing; hearing it executed flawlessly live is very much another. The band also maintains its charm onstage. They’re not the most animated crew, though far from the least. But their banter is down to earth, and they perform with a lot of passion and haht (that’s a New Zealand accent joke).
As a matter of course, The Beths are not an experimental live act. Almost every song played was functionally identical to the studio version. The most you’ll get is a new guitar solo, which, also as a matter of course, rip. Though it does leave a few songs feeling like missed opportunities, this truth to form overall isn’t an problem. Rather, most songs were better than their studio counterparts through the energy added by live performance. This made many of the duds more palatable.
The opener to the show, “Straight Line Was A Lie,” was mostly as ok as in the studio, with the exception of the outro. There, they cranked the tempo and managed to make it actually catchy as a result.
“No Joy” was a track I wasn’t looking forward to. In some ways, I was both expectedly and unexpectedly disappointed. In one specific way, I was absolutely delighted and genuinely tickled. This was the one track where the necessarily-muddied arrangement of a concert venue hurt the song, obscuring the backing vocal melody beneath the grunge. The net effect was the song sounding even emptier than usual… at a certain point, there’s not much left to lose. This is also a song ripe for experimentation… what does it sound like when Liz Stokes screams, for example? Like, really goes for it? Maybe it’s the pretentious music critic in me (I want Laufey to push her vocal cords to the limit in the same way), but I wanted to hear something more radical. However, one of the absolute best moments of the concert (and funniest things I’ve personally seen at a show) was *all 3 guys* whipping out recorders to shittily play the bridge. That’s cinema right there.
Peak. Absolute peak.
“Silence is Golden” set the trend for the fastest songs banging the hardest. That song is not rhythmically simple at the tempo it’s played at, and the energy was infectious. Johnathan Pearce shredded the solo.
“Future Me Hates Me” was a strong contender for best track of the night. It already stands as one of their compositional finest, playing to all of the band’s strengths. But live? Hearing the final chorus’ melody, harmonized countermelody, and tertiary melody is surreal. Absurdly impressive.
“Metal” was as good as I hoped it’d be. The punchier nature of this live version, especially the backing vocal parts, worked great. While my critic brain still isn’t super impressed by the studio version, my music fan brain vibes with this one more than I let on previously, I think. It is probably my favorite song on “Straight Line Was A Lie.”
“Mother, Pray For Me” got little glow up from being performed live, as the texture is so thin there isn’t much to glow up. I appreciated the band clearing out the stage to leave Liz solo to perform it. It added to the intimacy, but beyond this, not much to say. Frankly, I wish she would have played it on acoustic guitar. That would have been an interesting spin. Still a great track, but “Metal” won the night in terms of new material.
“Happy Unhappy” was another clear standout moment. Everything came together on this one, and it’s perfect for the live setting. Simple as. I don’t have much to say about “Jump Rope Gazers,” which is one of their better songs and was great here. As for “Little Death” and “Your Side,” both are fine songs to me. I kind of forgot the former existed, and I kind of forgot the latter got a music video. Update the vibe stat from my last post to a 75% music video-to-banger correlation. “Little Death” was a decent upgrade to studio, and “Your Side” was still only fine.
Knocking these all out at once, I still have almost nothing to say about the new album deep cuts performed. “Roundabout” was whatever, “Best Laid Plans” was really whatever, “Til My Heart Stops” was still a little too corny to hit (but I do have to give credit, the instrumental portions were atmospheric and effective) and I am baffled that “Take” was the encore, but it did get a decent boost from live energy. I wish “Mosquitoes” was performed with a more folksy or country twang, but maybe that’s the pretentious music critic in me (I similarly really want Sabrina Carpenter to make a country folk album). It’s not realistic to expect them to bring that instrumentation along but this version didn’t do much for me.
That leaves the final two standouts of the night. “I’m Not Getting Excited,” to use the academic terminology, absolutely slapped live. I wish it was even louder, but the chugging guitar and bassline combined with the more energized vocals and the aggressive lights made for a stellar concert moment. They closed with “Expert In A Dying Field,” a safe candidate for their best song. It was fantastic here for all the same reasons as “Future Me Hates Me” : high energy with elegant and intricate vocal writing, and a final chorus that is and was goosebumps good.
This concert reinforced that their new album is, clearly, much weaker on the whole than their earlier output. It’s not that their catalog was flawless before, they even pulled some relative duds from their past for this show. But, wow, the gap between the highs and the lows was wild to experience in real time. They also left some of their other best songs on the table (I was surprised and disappointed to not hear either “Dying To Believe,” or “Out Of Sight” especially), which is a shame.
Despite all that, after this concert I’m a satisfied Bethhead, which is definitely what we’re called. Sure, it was a somewhat-mixed bag of a night, but on the whole I’d still call it very good. You can’t blame the live act for the album they’re working with. I mean, you can, but… you get the point. At their best, few bands hit the way The Beths do compositionally and emotionally, and even fewer could actually perform some of these. If they’re ever in town, I’d definitely recommend getting a ticket. You won’t rigret et. That’s also a New Zealand accent joke.
