Review & photos by Andrew Bansal
November 8th 2016, The Echoplex, Los Angeles CA: After years of inactivity following the release of their self-titled third full-length album in 2010, Providence RI mathcore group Daughters have re-emerged to play shows and write new music, and took the stage at the Echoplex in Los Angeles last Tuesday November 8th 2016, as part of a short run of US headline dates with support acts The Body and Loma Prieta. The line of ticket holders outside the venue pre-show was long, and locals gathered at this nearly sold-out event, anticipating nothing less than sonic devastation.
San Francisco hardcore quartet Loma Prieta Loma Prieta started the show at 9 PM with an intense 30-minute set with songs mainly demonstrating mid-tempo post-hardcore and presenting a blend of noise and harmony. They ended with a clean-sung, slow melodic tune as a balancing act for all the chaos that ensued prior to it. Having been around since 2005, this is by no means a band of newbies, and they hold their own amongst bands like Daughters and The Body. With as many as five full albums, the Loma Prieta catalog is worth exploring for fans of the genre, but the stage is where they thrive, as evident from this performance.
After releasing and touring in support of a collaborative album with Full Of Hell, longstanding Portland OR avant-garde sludge/doom trio The Body are back touring by themselves, and at this show they lived up to their reputation and crushed this room with a destructive bleak and loud set, achieving volume levels only they can, but simultaneously portraying great degrees of dark musical expression that left the audience held in a trance, only broken momentarily by attempts of hardcore mosh pits during some parts. For the last piece of the set, the drummer left his seat and lent an extra hand on the samples/programming, and this drumless segment accompanied by melancholic clean singing almost felt like the calm after the storm. The Body was as much of a reason to attend this show as the headline act. For fans of true heaviness, this is a band most certainly beckoning to be experienced live, although as a fair warning, earplugs are absolutely essential.
And lastly at 11, Daughters hit the stage and sent a packed Echoplex in a frenzy, as crowd-surfing, moshing and stage-diving became commonplace, and vocalist Alexis Marshall raised the intensity of the room even further by occasionally venturing to crowd-surf as well. The band played a 16-song set comprising selections from all three albums, as well as a new song which sounded even more diverse and spastic than their past work released till date. The usage of strobe lights also contributed to the chaotic vibe throughout the set, and the combination of the stage and the size and layout of the room made for a perfect setting for a band like Daughters. There was no barricade separating the band from the audience, s fans could close to (and on) the stage if they so desired, get as violent as they wanted, but could also step away from the action and watch from a better vantage point of the slightly but sufficiently elevated sections on the sides.
Daughters proved to be a destructive live act, and it does not hurt the world of heavy music that they’ve returned to the stage as strong and intense as ever before.
Daughters set list:
01. The Dead Singer
02. The Virgin
03. Recorded Inside a Pyramid
04. Fiery
05. Feisty Snake-Woman
06. The First Supper
07. Our Queens (One Is Many, Many Are One)
08. Long Road – No Turns (new song)
09. Fur Beach
10. Nurse, Would You Please Prep the Patient for the Sexual Doctor
11. Daughters Spelled Wrong
12. The Hit
13. Providence by Gaslight
14. The Theatre Goer
15. The Unattractive, Portable Head
16. Cheers Pricks
Daughters + The Body + Loma Prieta remaining tour dates:
11/11/2016 – Portland, OR @ Ash Street
11/12/2016 – Vancouver, BC @ The Cobalt
11/13/2016 – Seattle, WA @ Highline