Purity Ring @ 9:30 Club [DC] - 6/29/2022
Purity Ring’s Megan James at 9:30 Club in DC (Photo ©2022 Mauricio Castro)
Having rescheduled not once, not twice, but three times, Edmonton dream-pop duo Purity Ring have been patiently waiting to show off their impressive new stage show to a sold-out 9:30 Club crowd while mitigating any of the pitfalls of a post-COVID tour. Having released their albums WOMB in April 2020 and the EP graves in June 2022, the duo had a lot of music to show off, especially considering the darker electronic turn their last two releases have veered towards.
The band is hoping a little positive encouragement regarding COVID safety will go a long way. Upon walking into the venue, fans were greeted by A-frames holding KN95 masks, with signs asking fans to take one if they didn’t enter with one in hand. Before the duo took the stage, a recording of singer Megan James politely encouraged fans to put their masks on to help Purity Ring make it through the tour without having to cancel an upcoming show.
The duo nestled songs like WOMB’s “i like the devil” in-between favorites like Shrines’s “Obedear” and another eternity’s “Push Pull,” as singer Megan James performed with a N95 mask on and a dress she sewed by hands from yards and yards of scrapped moire (on Instagram, James calls it her ‘jacket of sadness’). James performed in front of a massive fabric screen as cameras projected her outline among intricate patterns that morphed and coalesced on the giant projection. Producer Corrin Roddick, also fully masked, performed behind the screen, still visible, but obscured by the moving patterns. He encased himself inside an arrangement of luminescent columns that launch a cavalcade of sounds with the hit of a drum stick. And for a few songs, James towered over fans as she performed wearing a massive 10 foot tall dress that required a stepladder to show off its full splendor. The duo delivered a visual spectacle deserving of the wait, and at the time of this writing, COVID hasn’t stopped them yet.
Graves is out now through their own record label, The Fellowship. Opening for Purity Ring was EKKSTACY, whose latest release is the album NEGATIVE through UnitedMasters.
