Wrapping up their current tour, Sub Pop duo Beach House (plus drummer Daniel Franz) played two sold-out shows this past week at Webster Hall. The band’s dream pop/shoegazer tunes against the twinkling, starry, deep-space backdrop sounded truly excellent. Through Victoria Legrand’s hair, which hung billowy and long over her keyboard, nearly covering her face, her voice came out sexy and husky. Legrand certainly has an ability to create the most beautiful, melodic phrasing too, which I would say is comparable to previous tourmate Matt Berninger of The National.  “Better Times,†the second song played at Wednesday night’s show, had particularly lovely phrasing around the lyrics, “Running around ‘cause you beat yourself up/And you made a crack and the one that you love is gone/How much longer can you play with fire before you turn into a liar?â€
Alex Scalley’s pedal-heavy guitar was fluid and lovely as the band jammed through the 16-song set. Sampling from each of their three previous albums, highlights included “Gila,†“Norway,†and “Used to Be.â€
Although the band seemed to be at the top of their game, I must admit that toward the end of their set, the songs seemed to blend together a bit. Perhaps this is just the nature of the shoegazer genre though. Regardless, the audience was satisfied and a good time was had by all.
