Photos by Ty Hyten
The Scene: Despite heavy blog chatter, a song in a Coca-Cola ad during this year’s Super Bowl and a recent album release, the turnout was somewhat light for Hundred Waters’ show Saturday night at The Bluebird. The heavy snowfall, ungodly priced Lyft’s and the fear of an impending snowpocalypse surely contributed to the low numbers, but made for a good crowd of dedicated fans and left plenty of room to easily refill on Sierra Nevada without tapping any shoulders.
Opener: Moses Sumney. LA’s one-man-wonder Moses Sumney delivered a captivating and crowd-quieting opening set. Armed with a Stratocaster, three microphones, and a pedalboard, Sumney built soulful, jazzy, subtle and African infused symphonies. Looping on stage can often feel gimmicky and fall to a handful of bromidic tricks, but Sumney succeeded in avoiding that. He added and subtracted pieces of his loops beautifully, and most songs almost unexpectedly culminated with a giant wall of sound that sounded like a tribe of forty men and women, complete with drums, didgeridoos, a jazzy guitar work. It also didn’t hurt that Sumney’s vocal range covered some serious ground.
Hundred Waters: The Florida four-piece took the stage just after 11pm, singer Nicole Miglis wearing the same shaggy sweater that got caught on David Letterman’s watch earlier this month. Miglis stood between bandmates Paul Giese & boyfriend Trayer Tryon, each with synths, beat pads, and guitars. “Out Alee” opened the show with a descending piano lines and Miglis’ voice just as pristine as on record – high, mysterious and delicate. A simple but effective two projector light system sprayed beams of light from behind the band and standing light columns lined the stage in light.
The set was almost entirely from 2014’s The Moon Rang Like a Bell. Arpeggiating synths, undefined sounds and time-shifting beats backed the sweet voice of Miglis and her noteworthy piano playing. Miglis, a classically trained pianist, stole the show at times with her playing. This was most evident on a solo performance of “Show Me Love” that was without a doubt the most powerful moment of the show. So much so, that the girl standing beside me began crying. The solo version, peppered with arpeggiatos, highlighted Miglis’ piano prowess and made a great song even better. Other standout songs included “Cavity,” “Murmurs” and a heavy hitting “Animal.” The show came to end after only an hour with a much desired encore and “Xtalk.”
Hundred Waters was one of the more impressive shows I’ve seen in a while and despite only playing just over an hour, the show was surely worth the snowy travel. Sparse and spacious, dark and dynamic, the live performance was a perfect distribution of electronics and live instrumentation and they were able to convey mood in a way many heavily electronic acts can’t.
Energy: B+
Musicianship: A
Sound: A
Stage Presence: B+
Set/Light Show: A-
Overall: A
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