Speedy Ortiz Live at the Echo, Los Angeles

This Thursday night concert in Echo Park drew in quite a crowd as fans of local indie band Winter and touring act Anna Burch and Speedy Ortiz took the stage for a night of female-fronted music.

Indie dream-pop outfit Winter took the stage first promptly at 9 pm, and it was clear they had some fans in the audience both old and new. The group performed the songs of Samira Winter, and the crowd nodded along to dreamy tracks like “Alligator” and “Zoey,” which Winter wrote specifically for her cat. The band was constantly kneeling between songs to create screeching effects before heading into the next song, adding a layer of haze to the already dream-filled set. Songs like “Black Sea” and closing track “Jaded” filled the small room with shoegaze-y, pulsating sounds and they ended the set with each band member slowly laying on the group until the noise disappeared.

Detroit native Anna Burch took the stage next and continued in a similar vein as Winter’s sound, incorporating carefree tracks like “2 Cool 2 Care” and “Quit The Curse.” The band shared about their latest release Quit The Curse and played more songs off the album. “We’re from Detroit and this is our first show in L.A. on tour with Speedy Ortiz,” Burch shared with the crowd who received the band well. Burch also shared about the band’s stay in LA from waking up on a boat to seeing the Snow White Cottages in which Elliot Smith resided. “This next one is about dating my drug dealer,” Burch shared before going into “Asking 4 a Friend.” She took the time to stop and share about most songs including “Belle Isle,” a song about an island in the middle of the Detroit River.

Around 10 pm, fans cheered as Speedy Ortiz took the stage. Singer Sadie Dupuis donned a fun, youthful outfit complete with a metallic, color striped dress and music note top. Each band that night shared the same exact formation — female singer and bassists and male guitar and drummer. “We haven’t played here in three years,” Dupuis shared with the fans, who welcomed the band with cheers. They performed many new songs off their latest album Twerp Verse, but the die-hard fans in the front cheered loudest for older hits like “The Graduates,” the heavier “Ginger” off Foil Deer and the ’90s-alt inspired “Casper (1995).”

The sometimes spastic nature of Speedy Ortiz’s songs made the listener want to lean in and make sense of what they were hearing, as at times it sounded as though different keys were being played at a time such as in “Plough,” for example. Newer songs like “I’m Blessed” and “You Hate the Title” brought a modern twist to ’90s-alt sounds, in the vein of Best Coast.  The band also performed possibly their most popular song, which Dupuis referred to as the “video game song” aka “No Below” featured in the game Life is Strange: Before the Storm. In the game, the character, Chloe, feels that her best friend Max abandoned her, and she felt lost and alone without her. However, Chloe ended up meeting Rachel, who helped her out of that funk of feeling lost. The song from this game garnered many new fans for the band through devastating lyrics like, “I was better off just being dead / but I didn’t know you yet,” referring to the nature of Chloe and Rachel’s newfound friendship in the game that ultimately dug Chloe out of her depression.

Before finishing their set, Dupuis took a moment to share that the band was raising funds for the Islamic Relief Fund and encouraged the attendees to participate. “No Below” closed their set on a high note, leaving everyone humming the melodic guitar line on their way out.

Setlist:

1. Buck Me Off
2. Lean In When I Suffer
3. Lucky 88
4. Raising the Skate
5. The Graduates
6. Can I Kiss You?
7. Alone With The Girls
8. Ginger
9. Casper (1995)
10. I’m Blessed
11. Plough
12. Villain
13. Dvrk Wvrld
14. Swell Content
15. You Hate The Title
16. Moving In
17. No Below