The Beaches (2024)

One Liner:  Poppy garage rocking ladies

Wikipedia Genre:  Alternative rock
Home: Toronto

Poster Position: 10
Both Weekends.
Saturday at 3:20.

T-Mobile Stage.

Thoughts:  Last here in 2019, which I did not recall, except that some of these songs really rang a bell.  But, since they were last here, they have released another album that angles more into pop and less into the garage rock that colored their early stuff.

The early stuff is surprisingly awesome garage rock from a foursome of ladies hailing from Toronto.  You'd be excused for thinking that one of their most popular early track is the Strokes with a deep-voiced lady taking over for Casablancas.  This is "Fascination."  3.4 million streams on an EP called The Professional from 2019.

I'm sure they are already super sick of any comparison to any of the other all girl bands out there, but this one, especially the drumming and guitar, reminds me of the GoGos, or like a less-hard Donnas.  But this stuff is pretty solidly fun and good.  "Snake Tongue" just made me look up from what I was doing and check the name of the song.  "Desdemona" has a disco rock tilt to it.  And one line (in "T-Shirt") has been running through my head all day, because she said "itty bitty titty committee," which is an amazingly descriptive and titillating line.  But the tunes are catchy and driving rock.  I dig it.

So, the band is four ladies from Toronto, most of whom originally played in a pop punk band called Done with Dolls.  The band name isn't a play on bitches, but instead is the name of the Toronto neighborhood where two of the ladies grew up.  The band's 2017 album was produced by the folks from Metric.  They won Breakthrough Group of the Year from the Juno Awards, and got picked to open for the Stones in their only Canadian stop in 2019.  They later won Juno Award for Rock Album of the Year in 2022 as well as the 2024 Juno Award for Group of the Year, so they are well-regarded in Canada!

Not surprisingly, the track with my favorite line is their most streamed early tune - "T-Shirt" has 8.2 million streams.

Pretty solid, even before that line about the itty bitties.  The harmony vocals, the good groove, and the good holler-able chorus about not giving back his sweaty t-shirt.

I've been through their tunes twice now and it is a great transformation.  The truly early stuff from 2014 is definitely their weakest - you can tell they were still feeling out their identity and weren't quite so confidently ready to rock out.  The 2017 album is confident and fun.  Then the 2023 album shows them breaking out.  Sometimes I thought that maybe the lead singer was actually a dude - her voice is definitely at the lower range, but I like it.

Confusingly, the name of the 2023 album - Blame My Ex - is what it sounds like when they are singing the first, and most popular, track on that album which is called "Blame Brett."  Maybe they are?  I feel like they are tricking me.  57.4 million streams.

Ah, by looking at their lips I can see they are saying both!  Hooray for paying attention!  Wikipedia says that track went off on TikTok, leading to its popularity and high stream count.  Dig the lead singer playing the bass.  I don't know why but I always like that move.  Trying to think of other bands that do that - Primus and the Police for sure, Royal Blood (but he makes it sound like a guitar so I'm not sure that counts).  Whatever.  Looks badass.  "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Paranoid" is cool, and I love the tempo and spacey 80's guitars in "Me & Me."

I'd go see this.