Coca-Cola stage reviews: The Beaches
By Daman Singh, July 15 2024—
“Where are the lesbians?” screamed guitarist Leandra Earl as Toronto rock group The Beaches took the Calgary Stampede crowd by storm on July 9. The sun had set on the Coca-Cola stage and the audience was packed to see the two-time Juno Awards winners as they headlined and closed the stage for the night.
Coming straight from a festival run in Europe, The Beaches have taken the world by its neck. With chart-topping singles and two sonically diverse albums, the band has made an impact in the rock scene globally and the people of Calgary got to witness the greatness of their live shows at the Stampede grounds.
Opening the night with a single from their last release, Blame My Ex, “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Paranoid” set the perfect tone for the show. Lead vocalist Jordan Miller’s exceptional vocals were a pleasure to listen to live. Pair that with her melodic basslines and you’ve got yourself a killer frontwoman.
In contrast to the more reverb, indie sound of their new stuff, their debut 2017 album Late Show is unapologetically post-punk and rock to its core. Tracks like “T-Shirt” and “Back of My Heart” showcase the group’s ability to shred out pulse energy to everyone in the crowd. The latter’s thumping drums and almost anthem-like guitar riff made it a highlight of the night. Eliza Enman-McDaniel’s excellent drumming goes to show that she is one of the best drummers in the new rock scene right now.
The band performed a selection of tracks from their last release paired with a couple of unreleased tracks — one of them being the just released track “Takes One To Know One”. The group has been performing the song live through their festival run in Europe and posting it on their TikTok, which led to almost everyone in the crowd knowing the chorus to the song. The Beaches are an exceptional case study on what an independent band looks like in the industry nowadays, and no one does it like they do. With all their shirts having phrases from the new single, the marketing was nothing short of impressive.
The crowd slowly started growing bigger and bigger as their set went by until the whole area was packed. Everywhere you’d look were people taking in the glory that is The Beaches live. They’re one of those acts that truly shines in a live setting and their performance of the hit single “Blame Brett” proved that. The audience not only sang but screamed in unison. Thousands of people blamed their exes on the band. “Blame Brett” is one of those tracks where you won’t get what the fuss is about until you listen to it live cramped in a crowd screaming “…blame my ex, blame my ex, blame my ex…” at your loudest and now I can say that I do believe in the hype.
My favourite highlight of their set was guitarist Leandra Earl dropping her guitar for a spin on the mic for “Kinkade” — which is a live exclusive track. The surf rock, distortion-driven sound of “Kinkade” was one of the most memorable moments from the set. Not only could you not stop yourself from jumping to the beat, you couldn’t stop the headbanging. Earl also picked up a lesbian pride flag from the audience and put it on her shoulders proving that God is a woman and she’s into women.
The Beaches finished their set with a single track encore of “Money” and it was the best sendoff to their powerful set. They finished the set as the fireworks went off on the ground, a shot straight out of a coming-of-age film, and the Beaches were the soundtrack to it.