Live Review: PVRIS @ Norwich UEA

Words originally for Outline Magazine

L-R: Brian MacDonald, Lynn Gunn, Alex Babinski

Massachusetts rock outfit PVRIS have gone from strength to strength since exploding onto the scene with their 2014 debut White Noise. Tonight, they bring their powerful electro-punk bangers to the masses, plunging Norwich into a cascade of smoke and mirrors.

Bones are first on. The London-based power trio previously opened for The Kooks here in January, but seem far more comfortable tonight with their slick rock numbers and fierce delivery. Opener Happy is a thunderous monster, grabbing the room by the throat to shove down some filthy riffs, a pattern repeated throughout. Girls Can’t Play Guitar achieves the best reception, a classic rock inspired “fuck you” to a guy in Camden who once claimed that “it’s biologically impossible” for girls to play guitar. Safe to say Carmen Vandenburg proves him very wrong, the audience cheering in delight as she effortlessly swaggers through brain melting solos.

A forceful dose of self-dissecting anti-pop comes next, from L.A. hip-hopper K.Flay. FML (that’s ‘fuck my life’ for the over 25s) is angsty and raw, as is So What, a track with anarchic content but an adept groove in performance. Crowd response is unfairly minimal but Flay – real name Kristine Flaherty – maintains a coy and gracious stage presence. Her energetic performance serves as a perfect warm up for tonight’s headliners.

Changeover time is short, and soon PVRIS bound on stage under the cover of darkness powering straight into Smoke. A shockwave is immediately visible in the audience, as the mostly teenage crowd erupt with ecstasy at the sight of their rockstar idols. Lynn Gunn fronts, her spine-chilling vocals prancing over a hurricane of electronic instrumentals. She jumps and screams from the word go, a reflection of the what goes on in her audience, made all the more apt by the overbearing image of a mirror – the band’s album cover – displayed on the back wall. Brian MacDonald controls bass, which reverberates through the LCR, making walls shake and windows rattle. It’s clear that this band is made for big venues as the ferocious barrage of noise engulfs the room in its entirety.

St. Patrick comes third, punching high-octane dance intensity into the crowd like fuel to a jet engine. It’s furious and infectious, leaving no one uninvolved, not even the inattentive semi-fans like myself, as few and far between as we are. The outstanding quality about this show is the hugely personal connection between PVRIS and their fans, made clearest during Ghosts; mid-song Gunn stops the performance to deal with a group of men towards the front who are being antisocial, who are quickly dealt with by security. The honesty in her apology is heart-warming, and proceedings quickly get back on track once she’s made sure everyone is okay.

“We came over here about a year ago supporting Lower Than Atlantis”, she reminisces, of their support slot at Epic Studios almost twelve months ago to the day. “It’s incredible to think we’d get this far in a year”. An accurate reflection on the sold-out gig, which is watertight and slick in every aspect. The vicious Let Them In closes the main set, but we all know there’s an encore.  The band return for one final smack down, the mirror above their heads flickering dramatically as My House wraps things up in a stratospheric hailstorm of pumping synths and pounding drums. The whole room jumps in unison, ending a sublime evening with a battle cry of screams and strobes. 

White Noise by PVRIS is out now.

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