Review: Weyes Blood at Rechabite

Weyes Blood at Rechabite
w/ Nicholas Allbrook
Friday, June 9, 2023

Weyes Blood, the moniker for Portland-based singer-songwriter Natalie Mering, is an artist whose reputation precedes her. After stints early in her career in the noise rock scene, Mering as Weyes Blood slowly transitioned to an inimitable brand of folky chamber pop that sounds like Karen Carpenter running a Catholic Mass. Her 2019 release Titanic Rising was critically acclaimed and one of our albums of the year. Her 2020 appearance at Perth Festival left a lasting impression, with some attendees on this night no doubt hopeful for a repeat performance.

There were certainly worse ways to wait it out than Nicholas Allbrook. Already a Perth legend at this point, Allbrook needs no introduction but this set was a refreshing update on his solo work as he played a selection of tracks off his latest LP Mangenese. Allbrook’s beloved flute was at his side but used sparingly, played more for fun as he opened with it and then played a snip of Jethro Tull later to punctuate a joke. The set was largely contained to keys and guitar, Allbrook’s newer material slower-paced than the latest Pond effort but retaining that same patina of louche decadence. 

Commodore, with its huge melody, was a great early track highlighting Allbrook’s pop instincts. Peace of Mind was a lurching dance number performed with aplomb, followed by a big ballad in Manganese which was set against spare keyboards and a jokey scat solo in place of the flute. The highlight was the closing salvo of Jackie and Parody of a Sharehouse. The former was Allbrook in full flight, his inflections recalling David Bowie at points. Although a tad short the set served as an Allbrook almanac, as one of Perth’s prodigal sons continues to fine hone his brand of decadent eighties rock dipped in a vat of acid.

After the break The Rechabite was at capacity as Weyes Blood reared to go. Mering was raised in a deeply religious household, and while her misgivings towards dogmatic Christianity solidified by her early teens it nevertheless left an impact on her music. Weyes Blood is spiritual music, with Mering remarking before on the magnificence of the church and choir as sheer edifice. This played out live, all in attendance paying respects to the altar of Weyes Blood. 

With the soft white stage lighting backlighting her caped, flowing white dress, Mering looked ethereal as she jumped straight into It’s Not Me, It’s Everybody. It was a frontrunning choice, as the title track of Weyes Blood’s latest LP from last year. It was also, as expected, pitch perfect. Children of the Empire, equally melodic and epic, came next. 

The way that not just Mering’s voice but the orchestral sound of the band carried into a live setting was an unforgettable aspect of her 2020 Perth Festival performance. Perhaps due to the acoustics of an enclosed and packed out setting, the sound did not carry quite as well this time. It was nevertheless extraordinary, Mering’s voice again sounding as if pulled straight from the record. Backing tracks were used sparingly but the band’s backing vocals and harmonisation, alongside the layered chords laid down by keys, created a spacious atmosphere that captured the Weyes Blood studio sound to a startling degree.

A Lot’s Gonna Change saw this rich sound in full flight, another huge track coming early. With its slide guitar and symphonic, Mellotron-ey synth whooshes, this was pure musical cinema. God Turned Me Into a Flower was a change of pace, a slow burn which unfurls into a solemn hymn in its latter half. It was paired against backing projections from documentarian Adam Curtis. Composed of split-second snips of archival footage, it evoked a sepia-toned vision of nuclear family America, but snatches of darker vision (riots, crimes, war and violence) hinted at something amiss. It was here that the smarts of the track sequencing became apparent. Where there was tension, there was release in the form of Andromeda, arguably Weyes Blood’s biggest tune. Here it was in all its chamber pop glory with Mering’s vocal soaring, the harmonies pitch perfect, and its wistful slide guitar riff ever powerful. Grapevine followed in another tactful bit of sequencing as we reduced to bare bones, just Mering and her guitar initially, before the keyboards slowly came in.

Mering’s stage presence was commanding yet effortless throughout. There was a happy birthday chant earlier in the night, as well as a vote for Perth’s most haunted location (Fremantle with the win). A quip about a potential mosh at a Weyes Blood gig got some laughs as they launched into ‘banger’ Everyday which drew an ecstatic reaction. Darkness followed light yet again as the icier, metronomic Twin Flame saw Mering navigating the darkened stage, her vocals achingly beautiful. It was here that the album’s red glowing heart lit up on Mering’s chest, another minimal but effective example of concept meeting execution.

Ocean blue lighting and sequencer builds came together for the night’s highpoint with Movies. The projections were back, this time a film compilation which genuinely evoked feelings of childhood nostalgia and escapism. It was the distillation of Weyes Blood’s vision of a sacred Americana, the remainder of the set a cooldown from the spiritual high. The apropos Hearts Aglow had the audience’s arms in the air in a lighters-out moment if we weren’t a few decades too late. Something to Believe and the acoustic Picture Me Better were perfect closers, the latter just Mering and audience. The sudden encore did highlight a lone complaint: a dearth of quantity atop the quality. At twelve tracks the 70-minute set felt a bit spare, not allowing for some stellar new tracks (The Worst Is Done) nor for a single song from her pre-2019 material (Used to Be, Seven Words). Length paid the price for conceptual cohesion however, in a memorable night that saw Mering the high priestess cast her spell once again.

MATIJA ZIVKOVIC

Photos by Adrian Thomson