LIVE REVIEW: The Beaches, Chloe Slater, SWG3 Galvanisers Yard, Glasgow, 02/09/2024
Photo Credit: Becca Hamel
Toronto indie rockers The Beaches have been making waves this year with sold out shows across North America, Europe and now the UK, this show was deliberately the last of the UK leg of the tour as the band have a big connection to Scotland. Since the release of second album Blame My Ex in September 2023 they have been turning heads with their energetic live shows as well as the lead track from the album, Blame Brett that now has over 69 million streams on Spotify alone. The music scene in Toronto is alive and well with bands such as Alvvays and Slow Pulp also from that neck of the woods.
Tonight’s support is Manchester singer-songwriter Chloe Slater who gets the crowd well warmed up for the main act and this is her first time playing in Scotland. The set gets off to a great start with Death Trap, a song that deals with modern issues around private landlords as these lyrics testify to: Our house is damp and we’ve got rats/The landlord is a piece of crap/We’re twenty one living in a death trap”. Sinking Feeling continues the high-energy start but slower than the opener. Chloe’s vocals remind us so much of Newcastle indie artist Lizzie Esau, her song-writing is very meaningful as the twenty five-minute set continues with Price On Fun, the band is oozing self-confidence, The Beaches made the right choice of support for the UK tour in our opinion. Slater played a new song Tiny Screens which is as yet unreleased but the best of the set is 24 Hours, the last of the set and a great finish with a track that is very clever lyrically and musically. Slater’s debut EP You Can’t Put A Price On Fun was released in May 2024, we hope to hear more new music from Slater and eventually a headline tour. Chloe thanked the Scots for inventing Irn Bru before kissing a bottle of Scotland’s finest and leaving the stage! 8/10
After seeing Alvvays recently at the O2 Academy in Glasgow it was now time for another band from that very same city to hit town, so who are The Beaches? They formed in high school and are Jordan Miller (vocals), Kylie Miller (Guitar), Leandra Earl (keyboards & guitar) and Eliza Enman McDaniel (drums), Jordan and Kylie are sisters. The band released debut album Late Show in 2017 which had nowhere near the exposure of Blame My Ex, the second mentioned album has catapulted them to bigger and better things including the 2024 Juno Award for group of the year, the UK tour was completely sold out showing the draw of these four talented ladies. The 1200 or so that attended this show were treated to seventy-minutes of feel-good indie rock intertwined with stories of past exploits in Scotland and beyond. I Want What You Got was the third track into the set and was played very well live, the stage energy was memorable with three of them changing places on the stage constantly amid great enthusiasm from the crowd. Singer Jordan mentioned that they had played T In The Park previously and after fact checking this they did indeed play at Balado in 2015 on the BBC Introducing stage alongside bands such as Blossoms. Guitarist Leandra Earl then continues the story in that she travelled to Dundee that night and lost her virginity, in fact she had invited the person to attend tonight’s concert! Tonight they played some older tracks such as Kismet that were good to hear, Shower Beer is one of the best so far as Jordan shows off her vocal range to full effect.
An acoustic version of If A Tree Falls from the Blame My Ex album brings the energy down slightly but Grow Up Tomorrow gains the momentum once again, they would play nine tracks from the second album so a decent return. The crowd participation during Everything is Boring was a special moment and an unreleased song Jocelyn saw the crowd fall silent listening intensely to this new song, written about a musician called Jocelyn says Jordan. Another older track Desdemona is sung by Leandra Earl, she is almost in the crowd here whipping the fans into a frenzy. Two of the best tracks of the set were next up, starting with Edge Of The Earth and quickly followed by Blame Brett, a song dedicated to Jordan’s ex-boyfriend Brett Emmons of the band Glorious Sons, the fans were moving for this one and we would imagine some came along tonight just to hear that song, they wouldn’t have been disappointed as it was played perfectly. Latest single Takes One To Know One was the first of the two track encore and has quickly became one of our favourites, it has such a hooky guitar riff. it’s Jordan’s turn to almost be in the crowd this time. The set ends with another popular song T-Shirt and the promise that they will be back in Glasgow soon, we certainly hope so! Would love to see the TRNSMT Festival people have a look at them for 2025. 10/10
Written by: Alan Brown
