Purity Ring, early show May 29, 2015 at 9:30 Club

Purity Ring is not a Christian rock band - it's a an electronic pop band that likes to be abstract in an artsy way and has a lights fetish. I mean all those things in the very best way. The duo is wonderful to watch live - I've seen them three times now, and was impressed every time. In March, Natalie became a big fan of some songs from their 2015 album, notably Push Pull and Bodyache. When the early show tix for Friday night went on sale, we grabbed them for Natalie, Eric and I. Then a few weeks later I realized that we could turn it into her birthday party celebration, so I bought three more for her BFFs and arranged a sleepover for my son, then loaded up on glow gear.

The night of the show, I picked up the girls from school, painted their faces and bedecked them with glow lights, took them to a hibachi restaurant for dinner, then drove to 9:30 Club, where I got them all shirts. As we entered, I told a couple 9:30 Club employees that it was Natalie’s birthday, then I tweeted both the 9:30 Club and the band. During the second opener, the tour manager found us and told us that Megan (Purity Ring’s singer) saw the flashing glow lights and wanted to offer VIP box seats to us.  I don’t know which tactic actually worked. We were actually standing on the balcony, in view of the window to the dressing rooms. Net effect: we got to sit in VIP with the best view in the house. Even better, Megan called out Natalie from stage and led the crowd in Happy Birthday.  As we left, tons of strangers wished her a happy birthday. It was the best 10 year old birthday EVER.

Here’s the video.

 The show itself was excellent. Sound was good and the light show amazing.

I honestly don’t remember much about the openers. Born Gold had a dark stage and danced weird, (according to the girls). I remember Natalie being grossed out by the singer showing his armpits and a lot of jumping around on stage. BRAIDS was a little more pop/dance, and the keyboardist had an interesting dance that resembled a seizure. Here are the set times: 6pm Doors, 6:30 - Born Gold, 7:15 - BRAIDS, 8:15 - Purity Ring.

From Eric:
We just caught Purity Ring at the 9:30 Club. I have never thought much for their music when I have heard it on the radio, but it really comes across great live. However, the star of the night for me was the light show. I typically do not take notice of that kind of stuff, but it really was amazing. Each song had its own personalized light theme and there was always some component that was linked directly to one of the instruments or vocals. If you are into concerts, I would consider this a must see act.

Of course my impartial judgment of the evening is a bit tainted by the fact that the club offered us seats in the VIP section thanks to Anita Wiler’s guerilla Twitter tactics. She dropped a few notes that our daughter was celebrating her birthday that night, and we ended up with a seat upgrade and the band even led the entire crowd in a rendition of “Happy Birthday”.