Despite the fact it was very dark when I came in, I could spot a lot of clones of Chris Pureka, young women having adopted her haircut style, some cult following there!
Fences, a band from Seattle who had the 8 pm spot, were still playing when I arrived and even though I did not hear enough to form an opinion, the singer appeared surprisingly much rougher-looking than his acoustic and melancholic music indicated.
Chris Pureka took the stage right after them and the first thing noticeable was how young she looked. As most of the die-hard fans went closer to the stage, I managed to move to the front just to see how confident she seemed at cultivating her androgynous appearance in front of her audience. A black tie around her neck, some converse shoes, right away she appeared very friendly, talkative, at home in this place and very much at ease.
She identifies as gender queer (falling outside the gender binary) but during interviews she said it doesn’t influence her songwriting per se, but it rather influences the shows. Yesterday night, the audience which consisted mainly of young female couples, was a good example of what she meant. But this has to be based only on the way she looks and not on the content of her songs which focus on human emotions and relationships in general.
Looking very happy, she said with a large smile it was the first time she was playing with a full band in LA. She also asked the audience to be quiet between songs since tonight show was been recorded. As she started, the crowd, very noisy as usual in this kind of place, went quiet in a matter of a few seconds.
Although it was a release show for her new album ‘How I Learned To See In The Dark’, she opened alone with an acoustic ‘Come back home’, a song that does figure on her previous album ‘Chimera’.
For the rest of the show, she was joined on stage by four musicians, an all-female band (violin, violin/bass, guitar and drums). Alternating songs from ‘How I Learned To See In The Dark’, with older work and a cover, she shined through the show, interpreting her songs with passion and making them really alive. After introducing Gillian Welch as her favorite songwriter she had the chance to meet last time she was in LA, she seemed to own the Welch’s song with a perfect execution.
The violin duets were really powerful especially on ‘Song for November’, and Chris Pureka showed that her voice is even stronger live than on the album.
There was a cute moment after she sang a folk-sounding song she said she wrote for her grandmother. As she was still smiling, a guy, she introduced as her cousin, brought her a bunch of flowers.
Some highlights of the show were her energetic and almost enraged rendition of ‘Wrecking ball’, which received tons of applause, as well as her intense interpretation of ‘Broken clock’, so intense she broke a string at one point (the most important one for the song she noticed) and had to restart the whole song. It was the only song she sat down for, but her sitting did not mellow her passion at all.
Before singing the beautiful and peaceful ‘August 28th’, she talked a little about her writing process, which is studious as she can work for a month on the music and even more time on the lyrics which, she said, come always afterward. Still looking amazed by what she was revealing, she said she wrote ‘August 28th’ in three days, a total unusual thing for her. The show ended with an encore, an absolutely enjoyable rendition of ‘Lowlands’ with the banjo player from the previous band and another person coming on stage.
As she has embarked on a two month tour, she seemed to be quite happy to be in California, where she has a strong following seeing the crowd yesterday night. She radiated on stage and the songs sounded even stronger and more effective than on the album.
Here is the set list