LANY + TRANSVIOLET
Neptune Theatre, Seattle, WA
09.28.16
LANY (pronounced Lay-Nee) may still be a relatively small band – they formed less than two years ago – but the LA-based three-piece has been tearing up the pop pop scene touring with the likes of X Ambassadors, Halsey, and Twin Shadow to name a few. With two EPs already under their belt, the Polydor-signed group hit Seattle’s Neptune Theatre for a joyful set that was clearly populated by adoring fans.
Transviolet opened the show, but were a bit lackluster as far as drumming up excitement for the headlining set. Their sound is mostly electronic indie-pop, with bright, high vocals like CHVRCHES, but also the moody darkness of a voice more like Lana Del Rey. In a live setting, it was difficult to make out many of the song lyrics, and they lacked variety between songs, with no visual elements setting them apart.
Thankfully, LANY picked the night right up, opening their set with Whitney Houston’s 1991 performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” projected across the back of the stage. As the boys walked on, hands over their hearts and dramatically belting the words along with the projection, the crowd was surprisingly really into. Eventually ending the anthem, the opening notes of “WHERE THE HELL ARE MY FRIENDS” could barely be heard among all the screaming. The whole set was filled with upbeat lyrics about love that everyone shouted along with the band.
There’s something really touching about fans singing (shouting) the lyrics back to the band. Watching the band step back, allowing the crowd to sing, was a moment of emotional connection wherein you could tell just how grateful the band really was. The crowd was louder, clearer, and more passionate about shouting those words than most other audiences of much larger numbers ever are. That’s how it was during “ILYSB,” the final song of the night. During the first chorus of the song, front man Paul Kline simply stepped back from the mic and listened as the whole crowd clearly shouted back the words “oh my heart hurts so good, I love you babe, so bad, so bad.” The thing about that moment though, was the words weren’t lost in the crowd—you could perfectly hear what each word was, because most everyone knew it so well. It was wonderful.
Overall: Transviolet, not the best choice; LANY was great; a lot of love, but there’s always room for improvement. The entire set sounded exactly like the studio recordings. Not like ‘a live version of these studio versions,’ it sounded exactly like the originals (aside from the screaming crowd of course). This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, the tracks you buy from them are great, but a live show is supposed to bring a new quality to them. Throughout the entire set, there was probably a total of about two vocal changes to the songs, and other than that, every track sounded identical to it’s original.
A quick night, but a great night. LANY had a nice set that was much more fun and energetic than originally expected, and it was very refreshing to see a band so joyfully affected and shocked to see a crowd singing with them.
Review by Lulu Dawson
Photos by Zach Etahiri
LANY
TRANSVIOLET
