Although the Beaches may hail from Toronto, they evidently have more Scottish connections than many bands that come this way. Drummer Eliza Enman-McDaniel announced early on that she got her very first tattoo on a visit to Oban around a decade ago, but this was trumped by guitarist Leandra Earl recalling she lost her virginity in Dundee.
The chap in question was not only apparently in the audience for this show, but also the only man Earl ever enjoyed sleeping with. This declaration was made before the group played one of the night’s few slow songs, the keyboard led “Lesbian of the Year”, penned about Earl coming out. Such from the heart moments did not just come from the quartet either, as this was a show that also featured an audience member hauled on stage to talk about a time she over-shared at work, before leading the crowd in a chant aimed towards her ex, as a prelude to the snappy guitar pop of “Did I Say Too Much?”.
There was wild, youthful cheering to all of this chat, and it’s perhaps no surprise. The Beaches feel like cool older sisters who’ve always got your back, a tone established early with the opening gang against the world vibe that pulsed through punchy opener “Last Girls at the Party”, lifted from last year’s No Hard Feelings record that made up over half the set.
In fact, nearly the entire performance was culled from their previous two albums, which suggested a band who have fully embraced the shinier, poppier sound of those releases. That isn’t to say those elements haven’t always been there – the one older track played was the breezy, whistle-led “Grow Up Tomorrow”, but there is certainly a smoothness there now, like on the Eighties MOR sheen of “Edge of the Earth”.
It meant a cover of “Silver Springs” by Fleetwood Mac nested quite comfortably amongst the group’s own material, while the spectre of some of the great pop-rock acts of that era – namely the Go-Gos and the Bangles - hovered throughout. In singer and bassist Jordan Miller they have a frontwoman of confidence and considerable sass, whether rattling through the bratty punk pop of “Can I Can Call You In The Morning?” or leading the communal sing-a-long that greeted viral hit “Blame Brett”, although she felt constrained by said bass at times, given how comfortable she was when given licence to roam around the stage.
Enman-McDaniel offered a rock-solid foundation, helping strengthen some of the night’s best songs, like the angular, driving “Cigarette” and the infectious buzz of “Everything Is Boring”, while both Earl and guitarist Kylie Miller zipped around like on a sugar high. It was a lively, likeable show, and the sheer energy from the stage transferred into an eagerly bouncing Glasgow crowd, the front sections of whom were dancing away with abandon.
However most material coming from the past two records meant it did feel a bit familiar as time went on, and the aforementioned “Lesbian of the Year” was a welcome interlude just to give some variety. The likes of “Dirty Laundry” came across like a copy of a band copying the Strokes, and some of the group’s sharper edges seemed a little sanded off at points, where you wished they hadn’t taken on that slickness quite so much.
The encore also couldn’t match the adrenaline jolt “Blame Brett” had provided, and petered out somewhat, until a reprise of “Last Girls at the Party” brought the night full circle with enough of a flourish to suggest that the good times would be going on for many an hour to come.
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