REVIEW: Melody's Echo Chamber 3/28/23

Melody’s Echo Chamber -  Lodge Room

On any given Tuesday evening in Highland Park - you can expect to be packed at an establishment with five hundred millennials and their newer ending supply of quirky craft brews. However, on Tuesday, March 28, I was at the Lodge Room, with five hundred millennials, their quirky craft beers, and France’s finest, Melody’s Echo Chamber. 

Ten years ago, Melody Prochet released her debut self-titled album, Melody’s Echo Chamber. To Prochet, the album is “wistful but totally commanding; cosmic but muscular, and as strange and singular as it is immediately arresting on a gut level,” which perfectly sums up the kaleidoscopic landscape of Melody’s Echo Chamber. After the band’s debut, they were set to drop another album shortly after - which was deterred after the frontwoman’s breakup with then-producer, Kevin Parker. As part of the self-titled’s ten-year anniversary, the band unearthed this scrapped album, the Unfold EP in 2022.

Selling out three consecutive nights at the Lodge Room, Prochet’s band kicked off the night with “Endless Shore.” The band started to jam and demand the audience’s attention. Out of thin air, Prochet appeared and started to enchant. With her soft and phantom-like delivery, she instantly had the audience under her spell. As the song ends, Prochet is reborn - “Here I go again, this time, another cycle; Couldn’t tell that you were ready for it.” 

As her set progressed, Melody’s Echo Chamber continued to keep the crowd enamored. With all eyes glued to the stage and mouths left ajar, Prochet’s phantom presence guided the audience to let go of themselves for brief moments in time and feel a cosmic connection with her music. Her feminine spirit grounded the prog rock heavy jams and distorted synthesizers, leading the audience like a sonic beacon. Despite some songs being in French (including my personal favorite - “Quand Vas Tu Rentrer”), language did not prevent the audience from losing connection to her musical pulse. 

After almost two hours of music, Melody’s Echo Chamber concluded night one at the Lodge Room with a hit - “I Follow You.” The crowd beamed with excitement as the opening riff started, with lovers and friends swaying, singing, and embracing a beautiful psychedelic evening. Prochet concluded, “This time with you, our love is new.” 

- Meena Aspeytia