Beach House with Midnight Sun at The Ritz, Raleigh, NC - March 22, 2022

Beach House

Beach House with Midnight Sun at The Ritz, Raleigh, NC - March 22, 2022,

Mar 29, 2022 By Mark Moody Photography by Christa Joyner Moody

In the Live Nation land of $14 parking and $33 library cocktails, doors at 8:00 must mean doors at 6:30. We arrived just in time to see opening act, Midnight Sun, play their last song to an already packed and sold out house. Hailing from the same Baltimore environs as Beach House, Midnight Sun sounds quite a bit like their elder statesmen, but leader Hanna Olivegren accompanies herself on autoharp, which lends a different tone to their songs.

The second leg of Beach House’s Once Twice Melody tour started in Raleigh and then swings westward. The duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally are joined again on tour by drummer James Barone, who adds some punch to the proceedings. Each song in the 18-song set is accompanied by individualized lighting effects that lends a psychedelic touch to the show. With their new album only a month old, the set was not as Once Twice Melody heavy as one would expect. They did lead with the title track, but quickly started blending in highlights from their eight album catalog. “Take Care” from 2010’s Teen Dream came early in the set and Legrand’s vocals were particularly strong and clear here.

Of the newer material, the atmospheric “Pink Funeral” stood out in a haze of smoke, lit by, you guessed it, pink lights. It would have been nice to hear some of the more differentiated tracks from the new album like the acoustic driven “Sunset” or the woozy melody of “The Bells,” but mixing in older material was clearly appreciated by the crowd. The set was at its best when it was also at its most propulsive. Main set closer “Lemon Glow” was particularly muscular and that only built in the one song encore—an extended take on “Over and Over,” that ended with Legrand teasing a few unaccompanied “over and over’s” after the music had subsided. Given the visual effects of stage fog, spots, strobes, and film to go with each song, the show was mesmerizing and one that in spite of its generous setlist seemed to flash by, playing to a clearly captivated audience. And those make for some of the best shows, where you forget your place for a few hours and are transported elsewhere, not noticing until the house lights come back up.