SFist Reviews Beach House at the Hemlock

Beach House likes our Burritos, and we like them. We've always trusted Jennifer's taste in music. After all, she led us to the Grizzly Bear show at The Independent in September, and more recently she played us some of Alela Diane's haunting vocals, which have been banging around in our heads since we first heard it. So when she told us we shouldn't miss the Beach House playing at the The Hemlock on Tuesday night, we listened to her, even though we had our hearts set on seeing one of our favorite local bands, Vetiver, at 12 Galaxies.

Sharing the bill with Beach House was Over the Atlantic, also on Carpark Records and local band The Parish.

We really wanted to like Over the Atlantic, in part because they have a great name, and there was something really endearing about these two boys from New Zealand who made Beach House sound like Bitch House. But the laptop just ruined it for us. We're not opposed to computer-generated music, in some cases we can't get enough of it. But during a live show it can be distracting and awkward. We were paying more attention to member Bevin Smith bending down to fiddle with the mouse on his laptop than the songs. Our late Monday night was starting to catch up with us and Over the Atlantic's droning, muffled sounds weren't helping us stay awake.

SFist Christina, contributing

We got excited just watching local band, The Parish, set up. There were no laptops in sight, but five band members including a girl on keyboard. As soon as they started playing we felt more awake. The Parish, although formed in 2005, sounded like they had been playing together for years. Without Kim on vocals they would have felt a little too much like a college rock band for our tastes. Jennifer said they reminded her of early REM, but we heard some hints of Wilco in their twangy, pop sound. At times three band members sang and in our opinion the more harmonized vocals the better. It seemed a lot of the people crammed into the Hemlock's tiny back room were there for The Parish. If we weren't so tired we could have watched them longer, but after about their fourth song they all started to sound the same, and we were itching to see Beach House.

We've only seen a handful of shows at The Hemlock. As an overall bar, we love the place, the smoking room, seascapes on the wall and fantastic bartenders. But the sound guy on Tuesday night was killing us. We sat for close to a half an hour just watching Beach House have another sound check. And even after all that the levels were completely off during the first two songs. Had Beach House not been so aesthetically pleasing-- OK, go ahead and call us shallow, but the duo's perfect 70's garb in blues, oranges and browns couldn't have fit better against the metallic fringe curtain behind them, and we couldn't take our eyes off the old school organ with big rainbow buttons-- and had front woman, Victoria Legrand not been so entertaining, we may have just left. We overheard the couple next to us crush out on Lengrand, as she talked to the crowd about how much she loved San Francisco and our burritos. While they tried to work out the sound issues she continued to rap about taco trucks. It was hard not to love the girl before she even opened her mouth and let out that haunting voice of hers. Which did remind us a bit of Hope Sandoval, but nothing about the music behind her voice was like Mazzy Star.

The organs and keyboard give Beach House an almost ancient sound, like you just opened up your great grandmothers jewelry box and this is the sad, longing music that pours out. Filling you all at once with a sense of nostalgia and forebodingness. The Baltimore based Alex Scully and Victoria Legrand make it very clear on their website that they don't use drum machines, and that "beats are either hand made from found sounds, xylophones, clanking bells, etc or taken from the heart of the organ when played live." Their self-titled album provides the perfect sound track to lose yourself in on those days you just feel like disappearing for a while. If we had a car this is the only album we would need while driving down the coast. Despite how sleepy we were getting, we weren't ready for Beach House to give us their last song of the night. When audience members asked for more, Legrand shook her head and told us she had a burrito to finish back stage. Hard to argue with that one.

We wouldn't feel right not mentioning that after seeing Over the Atlantic we checked out their website and we can't stop tapping our feet to their recorded songs. How come we didn't hear that Brit poppy sound, that reminds us of The Postal Service and Magnetic Fields without as much 80's influence, when we saw them? We're going to blame it on the sound guy, or maybe they just can't do live what they're able to do in a studio. Over the Atlantic will continue their tour with Beach House through 11/26, check out their websites for details. They won't be hitting SF again on this tour, but that shouldn't stop you from buying their albums.

On a sadder note, after spending some time on The Parish's website, they sounded flat and not nearly as dynamic as they came across live. But make up your own mind and go see The Parish play at the Make-Out Room on December 21st.