Denver welcomed Providence, Rhode Island natives Daughters as they continue to support their abrasive yet hypnotic 2018 release “You Won’t Get What You Want.”
If you have decided to give that record a spin you would not be surprised to hear that their performance exuded raw, nearly animalistic energy. However, you would not want to keep eyes off of said performance in fear that you might be missing out on something truly unique but more on that in a bit.
First, I’d like to give some praise to the two openers in HIDE and Gouge Away. Two bands being devoid of any similarity in taste but share a common trait of having frontwomen who simply crushed it in the limited amount time they had to perform. HIDE, an Industrial duo, made use of strobes at the start of the night, to help perpetuate an ominous vibe that the crowd seemed to feed off of throughout their set. That energy carried over into Gouge Away’s set, a punk outfit hailing out of Florida. This energy was needed to keep up with the bands set backed by powerful vocalist, heavy drum beats, and dissonant guitar work. While at face value the contrast in style may seem ill-fitting but both bands captured two sides of Daughters performance as a whole, that I now think is time to get into.
On one hand Daughters’s one-hour long set captures the essence of what you’d expect out of a performance art piece. Lead singer Alexis S.F. Marshall throughout his time onstage was a conduit for whatever the song called for. When it called for crowd involvement, he had no problem getting up close and personal with those in attendance. When moments allowed for him to be a spectacle, he had no problem being a provocateur as well. Highlights being his very intimate moment with his microphone stand where he licked it from the floor-up and him nearly shoving a whole microphone into his mouth.
None of this has the lasting impact it does ultimately have without the stellar instrumentation the rest of the band provides which is the other side of their performance that needs to be noted. The highlights being the guitar solo in “The Reason They Hate Me” played by Nicholas Andrew Sadlerand the pulsing drums in “Guest House” that were perfectly executed. Without a solid foundation, all the extracurriculars would have been lost upon those in the crowd. With all that said, however, the night still came to a fitting end with Marshall screaming the last words of “Ocean Song” at a mesmerized crowd. (Review/Photos: Jalen Lomax)
