Weyes Blood | Chevron Lighthouse | 23rd Feb 2020 | ★ ★ ★ ★
Natalie Mering has been recording as Weyes Blood since 2011 and has produced four albums of material, but it has been her most recent record Terminal Rising that got critics attention and saw her record listed as one of the best of 2019 when end-of-year lists were created.
While the masses headed to the Optus Stadium to see rock legends Queen perform, possibly for the last time, a troop of music fans chose to spend the night at the Festival of Perth’s Chevron Lighthouse being enchanted by the American musician.
Support came from Perth musician Jack Davies, who with just one of his ‘Bush Chooks’ in tow presented a bunch of folk and country flavoured tunes. Davies is reminiscent of Arlo Guthrie and Bob Dylan, playing his harmonica and strumming his guitar.
Weyes Blood and her band took to the stage with Merling dressed in a crisp white suit, the fashion decision combined with her beautiful voice reinforcing comparisons to the late Karen Carpenter.
Starting off with A Lot’s Gonna Change, the opening track from her highly acclaimed most recent album, the band set the mood for a blissed out and laid back evening of music that floated between hazy Americana and spooky synth heavy numbers.
As Merling herself described them ‘sad cowboy songs’ and ponderings on space travel and horror movies. The singer joked with the audience saying this was the furthest they’d ever been from home and asked what Perth’s best spooky spots were.
Highlights included the tender Picture Me Better, and the spacey single Andromeda. The set wrapped with the epic Movies tripping into psychedelic territory.
Recently the band had been including a cover of Procol Harum’s Whiter Shade of Pale as their encore, but for Perth audiences this was dropped in favour of Weyes Blood’s own Generation Why. Finally Merling delivered a solo take of Bad Magic to close the show.
Music continues this week at the Chevron Lighthouse with disco star Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King, the legendary gospel artist Mavis Staples, Aldous Harding and The Blind Boys of Alabama.
