Grandpappy of chillwave Washed Out cruised through the main stage at First Avenue this past Thursday evening, and it was one hell of a show. They recently announced and released a brand new album – Notes From A Quiet Life – which came out at the end of June, and after that Washed Out took right off on a tour of the same name to promote it – which brought them through Minneapolis’ famous’ music club for an evening of songs old and new.
Babehoven were meant to be the support for this leg of the tour, but very unfortunately had to drop off the day before due to some immense vocal strain on Babehoven’s vocalist. In their place, the Minneapolis crowd got a local treat instead – bedroom pop singer Daphne Jane recounted on stage that she had received the call to play the main stage gig just three hours before she began her set. Jane’s stripped down set – just herself and an accompanying guitarist from her full band – was a rare treat, a sound normally meant to sound expansive and lush instead pared down to the bare minimum, allowing Jane’s soulful and full vocals to take up more space in the venue. In short, it was a stellar set, with Jane recounting the personal tales that lead to the genesis of the songs, including a particularly charming anecdote about meeting her girlfriend and having the cops called on her.
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The three members of the live ensemble that make up Washed Out joined the stage shortly afterwards, with frontman Earnest Greene taking front and center in front of two square screen setups, akimbo projectors facing past him. His touring musicians were sequestered away inside these little projector boxes, creating a light and dark contrasting effect that was used to great effect throughout the set.Washed Out opened up with the two leading tracks off of Notes From A Quiet Life, “Waking Up” and “Say Goodbye”, which set the warm and relaxing scene to come. As the songs cruised along, the audience got a good idea of the audio-visual dynamics that Greene was after, with a particularly arresting series of projected graphics during “Say Goodbye” of gigantic eyes projected behind him, juxtaposing against his crooning. The meticulous selection of the array of visualizations behind the band as they played is what elevated the set from excellent to sublime. The dizzying almost psychadelic sparkles and splashes crashed against the relaxing presentation of the band as they moved though quite a few tracks off the new album, though later on they did dip back into the back catalogue, with a particularly memorable rendition of “Feel It All Around” backed by a swirling galactic star away.
The band capped off the set with a two song encore, dipping back into their older material once again and playing popular singles “Too Late” and “Eyes Be Closed” to a rapturous audience.
