Live Review: Baths

Going to a gig is a bit like eating food. Hearing music of a genre or style you are not familiar with is like trying a foreign dish for the first time. The different combinations of sound can excite or diminish your sonic palate. Therefore, going into a musician you are an avid fan of compounds these issues – just like having your favourite dish. You have certain expectations. Will they perform this or that? Will they be genuinely pumped to put on a local show?

These expectations can often leave a bad aftertaste in the mouths of fans. Acts can miss the unattainable heights one may set in their own mind. Thankfully – all predictions and expectations aside – Baths came into his own as a live performer last Sunday night at The Bakery. As you can likely tell, I was a Baths fan going in. And I am happy to say that I am more than a Baths fan coming out.

Pulling largely from last year's LP Obsidian, Baths – pseudonym of US citizen Will Wiesenfeld – put on an incredible live set at The Bakery. Album single Miasma Sky opened proceedings with a synthesized bang and gave the sound system a test right off the bat. The Bakery speakers obliged. I was unsure how he would go performing his vocals live – after all, this is a man who, on top of writing and producing, consistently hits falsetto frequencies on his recorded material. His vocal chops certainly did not disappoint as he wailed into the microphone in all his high-pitched glory. Utilising an effects pad gave space and distortion to vocals and there were moments of genuine pain and anger in his singing inflections. The live vocal ability was certainly standout amongst the gritty production.

If the vocals had moments of “prettiness”, the sound had moments of chaos, grime, glitch and experimentation. Sure, Baths incorporates varied instrumentation to an almost symphonic degree on his records but this is hugely expanded on in a live setting. The piano, strings and guitars are introduced and then decimated by glitch and dark electronic segues. These portions presented industrial electronica on an impressive scale. There was so much going on in the compositions that it was all-consuming just to keep up with what was happening. These moments gave Baths an interesting musical edge and a hint to what he may evolve into.

Baths also proved his knack for sonic evaluation. The producer constantly communicated with the sound desk for level checks and could even tell when components like vocal compression were too high or low. It must have been annoying for such a perfectionist to have his program seemingly die on the introduction to No Eyes. Regardless, Baths got on with it, performed an obligatory encore and wished us all a good Sunday night rest. This was an engaging, exciting and at times inspiring set.