On a cool fall Tuesday night in lower Manhattan, The Beaches pulled into town, sold out the Mercury Lounge, and rocked faces with bouncing energy on October 17th.
The Toronto-based power-pop group had the crowd in a frenzy to end the night, however, The Thing from Brooklyn started everything off with some home cooking. The quartet sounded like a mix between The Knack and The Strokes as they used their muscle car-fueled, poppy, indie-rock to work up the fans who arrived early to catch the sounds.
The nattily attired group of Jack Bradley (guitar), Michael Carter (guitar), Lucas Ebeling (drums), and frontman Zane Acord (vocals, bass), deployed the shaking of “Beige Bouquet”, the garage rocking “Dixie Queen” and the soaring, stretched out, “Ana de Armas” to guide the packed house in a singalong around shimmering guitar lines of a repeated phrase of “Life is so predictable.”
Then it was time for the headliners as The Beaches, Jordan Miller (lead vocals, bass), Kylie Miller (guitar, backing vocals), Leandra Earl (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), and Eliza Enman-McDaniel (drums) strutted on stage to shrieks and applause. After a brief intro, the hip-shaking sway of “Kismet” kicked things off as the loud bass of Miller bumped and led the way before she put on her Debbie Harry costume for the Blondie-sounding “T-Shirt”.
The grungy guitars of Earl and Miller fuzzed up the sweet pop of “Grow Up Tomorrow”, while the revved-up sounds of “Destination” percolated with abandon before the neon pop glow of “Want What You Got” shone brightly. One of the set highlights was “Back Of My Heart” which featured huge stomping drums from Enman-McDaniel and ZZ Top-like riffs from both guitarists; the head-banging riffage and beats allowed the more saccharin tunes like the acoustic-based “If A Tree Falls” go down that much smoother.
The group channeled Pat Benatar-sized arena pop for both the thudding “Edge of the Earth” and the explosive “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Paranoid” which contained huge, dramatic vocals and riffs. Crashing into the venue curfew the band wrapped up the night with the song most in the audience came for as “Blame Brett” rang out with fist-pumping angst, wrapping up The Beaches set and closing a fun night of live music on the Lower East Side.
