Purson made their US debut on Wednesday night at a special showcase at the Viper Room on the Sunset Strip. Lots of suits (record label types) in attendance, but also a real nice turnout of local fans who I quickly discovered crossed a wide variety of ages and backgrounds. Standing in line waiting for the doors to open I noticed a few other grey-hairs like myself, some metalheads, some hipsters, some others whose stereotype I could not discern...but the unifying thing evident in the conversations was the excitement about this young band.
Since it was a showcase gig there was no opening act.
It took the first couple songs for the house engineer to get a good balance with the sound, but by the time they had finished Spiderwood Farm it was dialed in and the band was tight. The slight nervousness at the beginning washed away and their obvious excitement about playing the show took over.
I'll tackle the band first. In the interim since their debut album The Circle And The Blue Door was recorded they've gotten an upgrade via a new rhythm section. The new bass player and drummer have changed up some of the underlying arrangements and it has been an improvement in every case. They have that balance of being airtight when needed, loose when the arrangement calls for it. Rosalie's songs have a tendency to twist and turn in interesting ways and these guys have the ability to navigate it. The guitarist and keyboard player positions haven't changed since the album, but their parts in those songs have also evolved, there were distinct arrangement touches in many of the songs, no major shifts but new colorations.
I was happy to discover that these guys jam a good bit, they are a little looser than I had anticipated them being. A couple of the songs had extended solo sections and there was a lot more lead guitar from both George and Rosalie scattered throughout the set. The keyboardist doesn't take any solos.
Now for Rosie. Everyone knows I'm a picky bastard, there aren't a whole lot of bands with female vocalists in my music collection. But I was impressed by Rosalie the very first time I heard her. I can tell you right now, the studio recordings only hint at how good this 24 year old really is. She's got PRESENCE to go along with the powerful voice. She has been playing in bands since she was a teenager, so she's already a seasoned performer, that confidence comes through on stage. She's a really good rhythm player and gets a lot of nice vintage sounds from her setup. She's a tasteful soloist, not flashy but she's got a great ear for using effects and even pulled out an e-bow for the guitar solo on Wanted Man. ...and that voice...awesome.
They played 3 new songs last night that will be on the next record, they were some of the best tunes of the night, I'm real excited to hear what else Rosalie has come up with. I talked to her after the gig and she said they are currently in label negotiations, she said a lot of good things have started to happen for them and recording for the new album should commence soon. She also said they will be coming back to the States for more shows in the near future.
The crowd was pumped through their entire set, the new single Devil's Kiss got a HUGE reaction. My favorite part was the one-two punch of Sapphire Ward and Twos And Ones played back to back, totally killer. I really hope the next album captures the power they put across in concert.
I didn't write down the exact running order, but here are the songs they performed (the 3 new songs I'm unsure of the titles, she didn't introduce them). Twos And Ones, Spiderwood Farm, The Contract, Leaning On A Bear, Sapphire Ward, Rocking Horse, Tragic Catastrophe, Let Bloom, Death's Kiss, Wanted Man. I was hoping for Well Spoiled Machine but the concert was so good even I'm not going to complain...for once.
Subject: Concert review: PURSON @ The Viper Room 11/5/14 
Fri Nov 07, 2014 3:47 am
) My biggest regret was missing them play with Astra a couple of years ago as it would have been amazing and I actually had tickets but the girl I was going with couldn't make it.
