Last Tuesday 5-26 and Wednesday 5-27 night brought two uniquely different shows to New Orleans and yet at their core was a new breed of electronic music. Tuesday night Winter Circle brought Purity Ring and BRAIDS to a sold out Republic show. On Wednesday, SimplePlay Presents ushered in another unique show featuring Geographer and Empires.
Both show oddly enough had the same formula, a rocking and energetic opener BRAIDS and Empires and an experimental electronic closer Purity Rings and Geographer. That’s where the similarities for the most part ended.
BRAIDS and Empires served as perfect openers for their respective headliners. BRAIDS is an art-rock Canadian three piece speared headed by front woman Raphaelle Standell-Preston. The music is very moody and fed well into Purity Rings set. Continuing the moodiness of the evening, the Canadian duo took to a well-crafted and stylistic stage. The hanging lights and procession stand as well as a giant moon looking backdrop piece, almost made you feel like you were looking into the stars. This look lends heavily into their future-pop sound which they firmly embrace. While the lack of “instrumentation” can be a bit off putting, because, you really don’t know if they are just pushing play, it’s easily overlooked by the show itself and Megan James’ amazing vocals and stage presence.
The Geographer show was a pleasant surprise. Michael Deni took every opportunity to engage and infiltrate the crowd. His live looping of several instruments throughout the night kept the set even more entertaining. Joyce Lee’s back and forth between synthesizer and electric cello, sometimes in the middle of songs was refreshing. The band was welcomed to the stage by Empires who put on a straight up rock show. Sean Van Vleet made the small stage his home. The set was mostly comprised of last year’s Orphan and sounded every bit as good live as the recording. You can see an extended gallery of both shows here: http://jalbum.net/a/1627218
