REVIEW: The Beths & Sidney Gish 3/24/23

The Beths & Sidney Gish - The Fonda Theatre

This past Saint Paddy’s Day, I was really feeling the luck of the Irish. While I’m not Irish, I was lucky enough to attend a sold-out show featuring The Beths and Sidney Gish at the Fonda Theater. As a sea of green stood in a long, cigarette-ridden queue on Hollywood Boulevard, my sister and I were geeked to see Sidney Gish live. Though I was less familiar with The Beth’s discography, my sister and I were lucky enough to sit in five hours of traffic during the drive to Hollywood from San Diego - which was plenty of time to get acquainted with The Beth’s latest release, Expert in a Dying Field. 

As the jesters on the Fonda’s walls sneered at us, spirits were high as a singer-songwriter, producer, and indie darling Sidney Gish took the stage. While Gish is a multi-hyphenate, she is also a one-woman show. With a pedal board and her spunky charisma, Gish was able to captivate the crowd. Using a loop pedal, drum machine, her guitar, and loyal devotees in the crowd screaming her lyrics, Gish made a one-woman show look effortless. Throughout her set, the crowd sang her snarky and introspective lyrics as if they were a holy text - a notable lyric being, “I’m kinda p*ssesd if this is the real me, but at least I know who I kissed and what I eat.” To contrast some of Gish’s hard-hitting introspective bits, Gish made sure that people were grooving In her live rendition of “Where the Sidewalk Ends” featuring jungle beats to spice up the song. 

While the crowd did not want to see Gish go, the atmosphere was buzzing for The Beths. While somewhat soft-spoken, The Beths’ jangly and sunny sound filled the Fonda with a happy-go-lucky mosh as the New Zealand-based indie rockers opened their set. In their lead single “Expert in a Dying Field” off the album of the same name, frontwoman Elizabeth Stokes’ charming head voice provided a gentle grounding element to the upbeat breakup ballad. In addition to Stokes’ grounding vocals, The Beths pulled a pleasant surprise on us. Throughout their entire set, there would be moments when all four band members would harmonize or bounce off each other’s vocals. Though this happened multiple times throughout the set, I had to nudge my sister each time it happened because I was so impressed each time. Despite LA’s unusually cold weather, The Beths’ sunshine-filled sound was a great escape from March’s cold blast.

As my sister and I smelled the hot dog vendors grilling as we left the Fonda, we both agreed that we were pretty lucky to experience such an electrifying and sold-out bill. So if The Beths or Sidney Gish are performing in your city, you better be sure to catch them live!
 
- Meena Aspeytia 

RIYL: Snail Mail, Beach Bunny, Diet Cig