WOW Hall was transformed last night from a classic wooden venue to a colorful paracosm filled with flowers, fake grass and layers of sound waves that drenched the crowd. The culprits of this transformation were the chillwave commanders Washed Out, who just kicked off their fall tour in support of their new album, “Paracosm.”
The audience was subdued by a wall of sound that left them stunned in their stance and movement was reserved only for swaying shoulders and the occasional closing of eyes. This tour stop was just a warm-up for Washed Out’s upcoming show tonight in Portland for MusicFest NW but that didn’t limit the hypnotic grooves from putting on a delightful thrill.
The show opener was the New Yorker dream pop project Haerts whose set was a fitting oven preheat for Washed Out. Their buzzy single “Wings” features a funky staccato guitar riff and singer Nini Fabi’s voice sores when she sings, “I’ll melt away in your afterglow.” With their debut album slated for release sometime before the end of the year and an EP out later this month, Haerts are a newly welcomed member of the chillwave scene.
Washed Out’s stage setup looked like a gleaming gazebo nestled in a forest of fake flowers and grass. The not-for-Christmas lights drooping around the stage added another sense of fantasy to Washed Out’s already glowing aural fantasia.
Instead of opting for only playing off their new record, Washed Out incorporated gems of their past with the best of their present. And though their style has changed since the beginning, newer material like “All I Know” bedded well with classics like “Get Up.”
In between songs, singer and chief songwriter Ernest Greene would casually speak to the crowd in a nasally manor, similar to a carnival barker but without the carnie or annoyance.
“This is our first time in Eugene and we’re excited to be here! I don’t know why it’s taken so long,” he said before building into the blissful “New Theory.”
Most song structures had the same formula of starting with a simple sample loop and then exploding with layers of melody and sound. Some played-out as a fitting soundtrack to melting into a beanbag while others had the kind of magic that made you look around the venue at every cute indie girl thinking “what if?”
The crowd was excited and responded to Washed Out’s vibe with matching energy. “Thanks for coming here!” yelled a crowd member before Washed Out continued their sound pillage.
Before the end of show, Greene took the microphone to show gratitude to the audience. “Thanks for watching us,” he said. “We heard school was in session and we weren’t expecting much but you guys really shelled out!”
Though the encore felt a little too planned and expected, it didn’t reduce the power of “Eyes be Closed” and the ballistic light show that flickered insanely during the song’s cathartic build.
When Greene began releasing music under the moniker Washed Out back in 2009, his live shows were limited by his heavy use of sampling.
“My first couple EPs, they were pretty much entirely sample-based. Touring for two year afterwards, it wasn’t so fun because there was much sampling there, that it wasn’t very fun to perform it and it wasn’t very entertaining. And so that was one of the big motivations working on this new record for using more live instrumentation and using more varied instruments,” he said during an interview with The Creators Project.
Inspired by change, Washed Out achieved its goal for revamping their performances. The show dazzled and hummed and the light drizzle of rain outside was a cooling relief that only added to the joyful atmospheric haze.