Last Sunday, the city of Paris and Le Trabendo was once again blessed to host yet another evening with David Eugene Edwards and the boys from Alternative Country/folk rock act Wovenhand from Denver, Colorado, on tour promoting their latest record released last year through Glitterhouse and Deathwish Inc. As the evening passed and the start of the show drew nigh, the venue ended up filling up with quite an impressive amount of fans, so I hastily made my purchases at the merch stand before heading into the pit to save myself a good spot.
Joining these Colorado cowboys on this current tour were another band I had been eagerly waiting to see, the Los Angeles band known as Marriages, featuring one of my favorite female vocalists, Emma Ruth Rundle, whom I got the opportunity to interview before the start of the show. This current tour marked the bands' first set of European dates, offering fans an opportunity to hear songs off the bands' debut album Salome, released earlier that week.
photos by Colin Gentile
The L.A. trio stepped to the stage at 8pm sharp, greeting the audience with a timid and all too humble "Hello, we're Marriages. We're gonna be playing some songs then Wovenhand are gonna come on" before getting right to business. The band started off their set with the swelling shoegazy sounds of "Ride in my place", the opening track of their debut EP Kitsune, from which only 2 tracks will be played tonight, dedicating the rest of the set to the bands' latest release.
A few moments into the start of the set, my attention was drawn towards the quality of the overall sound, which was arranged and blended into a pretty clear and organic mix. The drum set was set up with a nice, punchy kick tone which blended and locked in nicely with the bass guitar, serving as a solid rhythmic layer on top of which Emma added her shoegazy guitar and her beautiful, emotionally gripping reverb-heavy vocals. There were few instances during which the guitar sections were a tad bit buried by the other instruments, though they did little to undermine the overall quality of the show.
The setlist also got to showcase the bands' few readjustments to their sound: whereas the bands' EP mainly drew from shoegaze and post-rock, the debut album tones down the linear, compositional formula in favor of more traditional "song" structures, with the addition of subtle hints of metal and influences from Emma’s recent solo work.
Every song was superbly rendered live through the bands' terrific performance, making for a set full of melancholic, soothing passages gradually swarming up into epic, magnificent sonic tempests. After such a great show, my guess is that we've yet to hear the last of Marriages, as we'll most likely be seeing "Salome" featured on quite a few year-end lists... we'll just have to wait and see!
A few moments into the start of the set, my attention was drawn towards the quality of the overall sound, which was arranged and blended into a pretty clear and organic mix. The drum set was set up with a nice, punchy kick tone which blended and locked in nicely with the bass guitar, serving as a solid rhythmic layer on top of which Emma added her shoegazy guitar and her beautiful, emotionally gripping reverb-heavy vocals. There were few instances during which the guitar sections were a tad bit buried by the other instruments, though they did little to undermine the overall quality of the show.
The setlist also got to showcase the bands' few readjustments to their sound: whereas the bands' EP mainly drew from shoegaze and post-rock, the debut album tones down the linear, compositional formula in favor of more traditional "song" structures, with the addition of subtle hints of metal and influences from Emma’s recent solo work.
Every song was superbly rendered live through the bands' terrific performance, making for a set full of melancholic, soothing passages gradually swarming up into epic, magnificent sonic tempests. After such a great show, my guess is that we've yet to hear the last of Marriages, as we'll most likely be seeing "Salome" featured on quite a few year-end lists... we'll just have to wait and see!
To read full review click HERE.
via Two Guys Metal Reviews
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Marriages will be on tour with Wovenhand until the end of April and headlining a show in London May 1. See all show details HERE.