The electronic band consists of Megan James on vocals and Corin Roddick on instrument
s. The band, Purity Ring, first formed when they started experimenting with electronic music in their previous band, Born Gold. Roddick asked James to sing vocal for “Ungirthed,” their first song as Purity Ring, that came out in 2011. Then they continued to test their new sound when they released their official single “Obedear.”
For anyone that listens to Grimes, Phantogram, or Active Child, Purity Ring is your cup of tea with the same kind of dreamy ambiance with an electronic touch.
The band HEALTH opened for the Canadian duo. Unlike the Canadian natives, the Los Angeles band performed songs that were in a completely different genre of what Purity Ring’s music is like. According to their Facebook page, the band plays “RACKET MUSIC,” which has the origins of rock with a touch of dissonance.
HEALTH’s performance was a completely new experience for someone that is not familiar to their type of music, but to some fans in the audience, it was 30 minutes of blaring guitars and a booming bass that shook them to their core.
To be warned, if you plan to attend a HEALTH show and are sensitive to sudden flashes of light, you will not enjoy the lighting they have in their show. Some audience members around the venue were not prepare for the lights in their show and couldn’t keep their eyes opened as HEALTH played their set. One audience member just covered their eyes throughout their performance.
The crowd was brought to life as soon as James and Roddick came on stage to perform their show. James was dressed in on her signature costumes that she designed and sewed herself that had pointed shoulder pads.
Their instrumentation is not what the average electronic band has in store. Their instruments consisted of a row of lights on metal poles that light up with every strike and conduct a different sound with each performance.
Purity Ring began their set with a song from their latest album, Another Eternity called “Heartsigh.” The crowd immediately whipped out their phones to capture the moments when James would walk along the edge of the stage to reach out to the crowd to touch excited fans and take pictures of the many lights that dangled behind Roddick and James.
Purity Ring had a lot in store for their fans during their show. When they played their song “Lofitcries,” James used a lamp as a prop to portray the eerie ambiance the song gives off and also helped out Roddick strike the light poles during “Crawlerout.”
There was not a moment when the crowd was not singing along to every song the band performed. James took notice of the enthusiastic crowd by saying that whenever they perform in California, “the crowds are always the sweetest,” towards the end of their performance and of course, the crowd went wild with elation.
The band ended their show with a crowd favorite called “Begin Again.” James did her usual rounds by walking at the edge of the stage and grabbed the hands of as many fans as possible once again and towards the end of the song, she got creative and leaped off the stage and went into the audience to crowd surf.