San Francisco – The last time I saw Canadian duo Majical Cloudz was at Pitchfork Fest 2014, when their musical equipment unexpectedly stopped working and they had to perform the entire set a cappella. It was worrying at first, but they pulled it off with grace and fortitude, relying almost entirely on singer Devon Walsh’s incredible vocal talents. This past Tuesday, I was given a chance to see the band again, at one of San Francisco’s most breathtaking venues: the gorgeous, intimate venue The Chapel, nestled in the city’s Mission District, where a sold out crowd was treated to a heavenly display of humility and provocative talent.
After an impressive opening set by duo (and fellow Montreal natives) She-Devils, Majical Cloudz humbly strode onstage amidst a few scattered pools of uncharacteristically bright white light. Singer Devon Walsh—looking especially monochromatic in his dark gray long-sleeve shirt and matching slacks—almost seemed to cower at the luminosity the spotlight provided, finding more comfort as their set began and the more subtle lights began to pace rhythmically across the stage. His compatriot—producer Matthew Otto, who provides the instrumentation for the band—helmed the tabled electronics slightly behind and to the right of Walsh and was dressed similarly, yet somehow darker, his long black hair bleeding into the garden of facial hair that imperialized the majority of his face. Otto remained mostly silent (vocally) throughout the set, intently focused on the buttons and knobs that beckoned to his fingertips, while Walsh stood slightly in front, offering up minimal banter between songs, as well as a sort of deer-in-headlights look towards the eager sold out crowd throughout the set. Even when his voice was at its most powerful, evocative peaks—which was often—Walsh’s eyes disclosed a sense of entrancing apprehension. It’s not unheard of that terribly talented musicians experience stage fright—Adele comes to mind—but Walsh made it work to his advantage, his wide eyes and robotic side-stepping and binary hand movements providing a powerful juxtaposition that accentuated the purity and arresting humanity of his lyrics.
Much of Majical Cloudz’s set was rooted in material from their latest LP, last year’s superb Are You Alone?, the third proper full-length LP Walsh has released under the moniker in collaboration with Otto, and it was translated beautifully to the stage. Admittedly, there were parts of the set that I felt didn’t carry as much gravitas as their studio counterparts (the gorgeous, dirge-like piano in the beginning of album- and set-opener “Disappeared” was definitely missed), but Walsh’s vocal delivery matched with Otto’s deliberate, focused, minimal instrumentation synthesized something completely new and altogether fascinating. These somewhat skeletal versions of these tracks were draped with muscular talent, pulsing with a sort of sincerity that is not often witnessed with such enthralling intent.
Beginning with “Disappeared” was not the obvious choice—even though their latest LP does so as well—because the song is slow and does not offer much of a hook, which is usually a technique artists employ when starting off a show. It was effective however, because it perfectly set the tone for the rest of the show. It was briskly followed by the album’s title track “Are You Alone?” (the studio version of which features Owen Pallett), and then “Heavy,” a sort of trip-hop-ish song that is repetitive in the best possible way. The slinking “If You’re Lonely” was also featured, as well as the LP’s two most prominent singles: “Silver Car Crash”—a morbidly romantic track that celebrates the possibility of being truly happy, even if it means dying in a car crash with the one you love (punctuated with Walsh screaming ‘YAHOOO!!!’ after every few measures)—and “Downtown,” which is perhaps one of the most arrestingly simple and painstakingly gorgeous love letters anyone has ever put to music. Again, the live version of this song lacked the layered production heard on the studio version, but the flickering gray scale arrangements that Otto provided live for the song provided a sound foundation upon which Devon Walsh’s bursting, saccharine vocals were truly allowed to bloom.
Majical Cloudz also backtracked a couple of years into their catalog for a few tracks, namely selected songs from their 2013 LP Impersonator, including “This Is Magic,” “I Do Sing For You,” “Silver Rings” (which closed the set), and Impersonator’s two major singles: the haunting “Childhood’s End” and the wrenching “Bugs Don’t Buzz,” which boasts some of the most fascinatingly simple yet profound lyrics matched with perhaps Walsh’s strongest vocal performance to date. We were also treated to the closing track of the band’s latest (surprise) release—an EP entitled Wait and Seereleased just a few weeks ago, featuring tracks that did not make it onto Are You Alone?—including a song called “My Heart Soaks Up Every Drop of Your Blood.”
Are You Alone? is a staggeringly beautiful journey into the psyche of one always questioning the ethics and illusive normalcies of interpersonal relationships, and with their live show, Majical Cloudz have turned their audience into the (sometimes) unwilling subject of their inquiries. If nothing else, this show left many members of the audience scratching their heads…not in a way that had us wondering, ‘What the hell is going on?’ or ‘What the hell did I just witness?’; rather, it had us thinking about how we as “normal” people interpret the minute idiosyncrasies that define uniqueness, both in terms of the self and in how we interact with one another. It’s not often that one leaves a concert questioning reality, and that’s a shame. We could all use a little reminder every so often nowadays that not everything has to be consumed to be appreciated. Majical Cloudz reminds us that bare emotion is something remarkable in and of itself.
Majical Cloudz has been on tour in North America for the past several weeks, wrapping up this Friday, January 29th in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. They will then head to Australia for a two-week run through mid-February. Their latest LP, last year’s Are You Alone?, and their newly released EP Wait and See are both available now via Matador Records.
Corey Bell
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