CHVRCHES at the House of Blues, 12/1
It’s 2014, my freshman year of high school. I’m somewhere between the Elements Mall and the West Kowloon Waterfront, walking as fast as I can to Clockenflap, Hong Kong’s best international music festival. I feel nervous because it's the first time I’ve ever been to a concert by myself, let alone a whole festival. I’m only really at Clockenflap to see one band – CHVRCHES – but I unfortunately get to the venue late and am resigned to standing at the very back of the thousand-plus-person crowd for the length of their set.
Much in my life has changed in the intervening 7 years. I’m in an entirely new country and continent, for one. I am in my final year of university, and have since been to 50 more shows. I’ve been at the very front – be that in the press pit or the actual crowd – for most of them. But one of the few things that hasn’t changed is that I’m still unbelievably gassed to be at a CHVRCHES show.
There’s a huge reverence that people my age share for the indie pop and rock of the early-to-mid 2010s. Some of this reverence is driven by nostalgia of course, but above all else, the music just bangs. Elements of dance and electronic music came to the forefront of indie music during this time, with acts such as Chairlift, Purity Ring, and The xx making a name for themselves. And of course, CHVRCHES were right there amongst them. The point I’m trying to make here is that CHVRCHES is one of the bands that I grew up on. I still remember Spotify – when the algorithm was still in its infancy – manually promoting them to me as an exciting new band to watch. It wasn’t long before their 2013 debut The Bones Of What You Believe grew on tweenage me, and to this day I credit it with being pivotal to developing my musical tastes.
Shortly after an incredible opening set from Donna Missal, Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook, and Martin Doherty walked on stage to rapturous applause before launching into “He Said She Said.” Love is Dead highlight “Forever” followed, with Mayberry spinning around the stage during the song’s multiple refrains. It was an example of how much better the band’s stage presence had gotten since I saw them last, as Mayberry in particular had clearly grown comfortable with the on-stage theatrics that are often necessary of a band’s lead vocalist, dancing and striking occasional power poses throughout the set. She even had three costume changes, culminating in her covered in a splattering of fake blood.
As this particular tour was in support of the band’s incredible latest album Screen Violence, most of the setlist was dedicated to songs from the album. Screen Violence finds the band at their very best, with some of their lushest and sparkliest production to date. As was to be expected, the songs off Screen Violence sounded even more immaculate live. Good Girls, How Not to Drown, and Final Girl in particular enraptured the crowd. This is not to say that the band neglected their previous releases, however, as they did pay excellent attention to their tried-and-true back catalogue. I was particularly delighted by the inclusion of “Science/Visions” on the setlist, a brilliantly moody and ethereal track that is admittedly one of the less popular cuts from TBOWYB.
You wouldn’t guess it from CHVRCHES’ galaxy-sized sound and somewhat melancholy songwriting, but the band somehow manages to remain so intimate with their audience. Despite the fact that they were playing a venue as large as the House of Blues (I maintain that they could easily have played a larger venue), it often legitimately felt like being at a much smaller venue. Early on in the show, Mayberry took time between songs to direct medical attention to an audience member. And nearing the end, she brought a kid from the audience up to the stage and gifted her a Final Girl-inspired merch tee. It was moments like these that made me feel like the band will stay true to their DIY roots, no matter how much bigger their profile will inevitably grow in the future.
Here’s where I get to talk about the encore – and what an encore it was! The band chose the biggest bangers from Screen Violence, TBOWYB, and Every Open Eye in the forms of “Asking for a Friend,” “The Mother We Share,” and “Clearest Blue,” to close out the show. “Asking for a Friend” in particular has two frighteningly meaty breakdowns that sent the crowd (and me!) into a frenzy. When the opening “oh oh oh oh” refrain of “The Mother We Share” came on, I was sent into overdrive. And “Clearest Blue,” with its slow build-up to a gut-bustingly euphoric drop, was the greatest song possible to round out the night.
Being a show reporter/photographer is a bit of a double-edged sword. You get to enjoy shows in a unique way, but when your time in the press pit is over after the first 3 songs, you immediately find yourself thinking about how you’re going to edit your photos and write your upcoming review of the show. It’s harder to live in the moment, to savour every detail of the show. But when “Asking for a Friend” came on, I started dancing like an idiot, blissfully ignorant of the surprisingly stoic showgoers in my immediate surroundings. CHVRCHES and their music is etched into the very fibre of my existence, and I’m so grateful that I finally made it back to one of their shows, let alone to the very front. I like to think that 14 year old me would smile upon hearing that.
