Chvrches September 21, Brooklyn Bowl.
I wanted to love this show. Really, I did. Because I love the singles off of Chvrches’ debut album, The Bones of What You Believe. “The Mother We Share” was one of my favorite songs of 2013. And “Recover” is probably even better. But what I learned on this night is that it is possible to have too much too soon.
Chvrches shows it's possible to have too much too soon.
Can you really blame the threesome from Glasgow? They’ve been a band for less than three years. So yes, it’s acceptable that their entire set was just a resequencing of their record. But the other half of Bones is kind of boring. For every amazingly catchy, super accessible, electronic-pop tune like “Gun,” there’s an equally bland song like “Under the Tide,” the type of tune a masseuse might play in the background to relax you during a rubdown.
Yes, I love Lauren Mayberry’s voice. She’s a next-generation Kate Bush ... maybe. But her stories were some of the most boring I’ve heard a singer tell a crowd. In fact, one of her stories was about how boring she was.
So, sadly, I didn’t love it. Chvrches, at their best, present pop songs that cling to your head and remain there happily for days. But until they create a catalog of songs at that level, they’ll continue to be a victim of their success. As a concertgoer, that means you sit through the banal to get to the beauty.
