The Beths

I’m lucky I have friends who pay more attention to music than I do, ‘cuz I’d never heard of this band. My friend sent me one of their songs on YouTube, and that was enough to convince me to go to their show at the Commodore Ballroom … but not enough to do any further research or listening. I went in with an open mind, I guess. 😅

First, the openers: Phoebe Rings. Like the headliners, they’re from New Zealand. It was their first time in Canada. They were excited to be here. (They also told a cute anecdote about driving up from the States, and how weird it was to be able to drive to another country. Kiwis!)

They played what I’d call indie dream pop. My friend called them city pop, a genre I’d never heard of before (but apparently it’s a real thing). I dug their grooves, and I enjoyed how they played around with time a bit: they had at least one song in 6/4 time, and other songs would drop bars and sometimes even beats (I think!). Their last song was the best: they added some more noise, and the drummer got to rock out. I enjoyed it, but they didn’t grab me. Tonnes of potential, tho.

Then the Beths came out. Are they a rock band? It feels weird talking about rock bands in 2025, but they rocked. The crowd was excited. From the first song I knew that I made the right decision in coming.

I wish I had more to say, but I started writing this on the 17th, then forgot about it for ten days. Suffice to say, it was a great show. I should pick up one of their CDs.

Yarr!