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Savages take an aggressive stand inside the Sayers Club

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Beth led Savages through their first Vegas performance.
Photo: Nick Coletsos

"Music has emancipated me,” Savages singer Jehnny Beth said in a 2013 interview with Exclaim!. Two years later, the band’s collective consciousness still seems to hinge on that word. Emancipation. Crafted to go along with Savages’ fiery image, Beth’s philosophy is the driving force behind the post-punk band’s dark recordings, shadowy mystique and aggressive live shows.

Beth arrived onstage Friday night in a black zip-up jacket and structured bustier, hair slicked back as if she’d just walked off Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” set and straight into the Sayers Club. Her presence, energetic and chaotic, and vocals, gigantic and piercing, seemed to fuel the band’s heavy, distorted guitars and thunderous drums. Between howling opener “I Am Here” and the brooding “Shut Up,” the idea of emancipation was present in the band’s physical androgyny, its lyrical abandonment of social mores and dramatic lighting that allowed (most) audience members to lose themselves.

Savages has a no-phones policy for its shows, but that didn’t stop some fans from recording portions of the set. Only when Beth jumped on the monitors, demanding that amateur videographers “Put it down!” did filming finally stop. By the next barrage of songs—some of them off the upcoming LP—phones were back in the air.

Even with a debut album as acclaimed as Savages’, the venue was half-full at best. Sure, some Las Vegans were already on the road to FYF—but considering the way the London four-piece sustained chaos in such an the intimate space, those who skipped out missed a liberating performance.

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