Here's another rainy Monday night. It seems they're the best time for gigs.
Along with seven hundred other people, tonight, I will be seeing Pvris live (in Paris).
There is a French band I do not see, and then, there is Prides. Prides are from Glasgow, in Scotland, as they tell us in French, and Prides have been catapulted on the tour last minute to replace Fickle Friends, who had to pull out. Prides' sound is the perfect mixture between straight up pop and catchy pop-rock hooks. The keyboards give their music an eighties vibe that isn't outdated or over the top, and all these elements put together get the Trabendo happily dancing, and even jumping when asked. (I sure as hell got my best worst dance moves out, who do you think I am). After forty minutes of an electric set, Prides bow out and exit the French stage, and there is no doubt they have earned themselves some new fans in the city of love. On my end, it was a really good discovery, and I can see myself being on board in the long run, busting some more moves to their music.
There really is something in the air in Scotland, isn't there.
When I see Pvris live, I am not just there to hear some of the best pop-rock songs released this decade. I have signed up for an atmosphere, a general aesthetic, a universe. Pvris live doesn't just mean hearing some great songs played by an equally great band - seeing Pvris live is an experience.
Since the release of their magnificent debut album, White Noise, in the winter of 2014, Pvris have been making waves. Their unique sound is being praised left, right and centre, they have found themselves on the cover of several music magazines already, tracks St. Patrick and Holy have been featured in the MTV series Awkward., and tickets to their shows have been selling like hot cakes. They have made their way in the scene like a perfect storm, and considering tonight's show, I can see no sign of it stopping anytime soon.
When you see Pvris live, you experience and witness something that can only be called a communion between the trio and the crowd. The band opens with You and I (from the deluxe edition of White Noise), and its chorus is instantly echoed by the audience. There is no time for a warm-up, and no need for it - from the very beginning, everyone is giving it their all. Frontwoman Lynn Gunn will ask the people in front of her to sing after her, will hand her microphone to the Parisians, and such requests will be met by an immediate, perfect singalong. There is such an easy communication and loving relationship between the band and their fans, though, that it makes no doubt that there was no need to ask the crowd to sing : they would have done it anyway.
The setlist, unsurprisingly very short (as Pvris have only released one album), is immensely dedicated to White Noise. If the album is arguably one of the best records released these past five years, its live rendition gives it another dimension. When songs such as Let Them In, Holy or Fire resonate between the four walls of a venue, they become larger than life, they are intensified, they take a whole new meaning and hit you in a whole new way. Title track White Noise, as well as Ghosts get the stripped back treatment, a way for everyone to be moved by Gunn's delicate high notes and to rediscover the Americans' stunning songwriting, to concentrate on the words once more.
This short European run (which has also stopped in London, Amsterdam and Berlin), is an introduction to a brand new chapter in Pvris' career. The band premieres their new song Heaven, one of the catchiest, yet darkest tracks you'll hear this year. Another song from the outfit's future sophomore album, All We Know of Heaven, All We Need of Hell (out on August 4th), gets played. Entitled Half, it gives us some sort of insight as to where the trio is going musically, and does a frankly great job at getting everyone excited for what comes next.
Closer track My House sees the audience jumping, bouncing, dancing and losing their voices one last time, the Trabendo is doused in bright lights once again, seven hundred people erupt into a joyous singalong to Queen's classic Don't Stop Me Now, and, you know what - it felt like I was about to combust with happiness.
Thank you, Pvris, and see you in November.