Live Review: Purity Ring, Headaches & Fishing

When Fishing's on the bill, you know you're going to have a fantastic time. Kicking off the show for all the early-goers, these sample aficionados brought the room to life with an animated world of music and joy. Unfortunately the joy did not continue once Canadian 'hip hop producer' Headaches took over, as his beats were uninspiring and remained stagnant.

From the ceiling hung giant white cocoons, which lit up in sync to the music; different colours at different moments. Montreal's Purity Ring – Megan James and Corin Roddick – had also brought some sort of xylophone contraption of light gems, which burst with brightness when struck with drumsticks. The trance-like quality of the visuals coupled with their dark, haunting sound sucked you into their weird and wonderful world of beautifully cut up R&B and electro.

Their live manipulation of vocals – the chopping, twisting and distorting – was flawless. The knob-twiddling done by Roddick allowed James to float around the stage, wielding and dancing with a drum stick, striking it at the floating drum on stage, which, of course, was also lit up. This also allowed her space to focus on her singing, even going a cappella at one stage – in a way, to prove that there is quality behind all the effects.

Five songs in and they finally addressed the audience; however, nobody cared that it took them that long to speak – the audience were already too deep in a trance, watching the flashing gems react on impact as Roddick struck at them while James danced around with her own light, creating playful, animated shadows with each move. Their haunting stage presence perfectly captured everything Shrines is and could be in a live context, taking the audience into the dark and surreal corners of their minds. Playing for only 45 minutes, the short but very sweet set surpassed all expectations.