A few days back Purity Ring got to finally play a live show at the Toronto’s Phoenix Concert Theatre. This show, this entire tour has been on a steady two-year delay with 3 cancelations due to COVID. It is also the band’s first major tour in 5 years so it was no surprise that they requested the audience to be masked as much as possible. A few minutes before the show began a personal message from Megan came through the speakers, pointing out that their health will not only affect the tour but also all the people, like ourselves, who have been waiting to see them performing in the coming cities for months. Megan and Corin were both masked the entire performance but that did not affect the sound or theatrics of it all one bit.

A thin veil hung across the center of the stage, separating Megan from Corin. She had an elevated stage, he had a pedestal made of glowing white tubes (Twinkies?), angled to show his upper body to the room. As Megan went through her songs, dancing across the stage, and stepping away to give the spotlight to her partner, mixed visuals were projected on the veil. Layering behind, through the stage in a very dimensional manner the abstract visuals created a multi-dimensional environment (shapes like plants, molecules, stars, and layers of Megan in a hood).

Naturally, the band played a handful of tracks from the latest release including the title track “graves,” “soshy,” and “unlucky” but the crowd went particularly wild for  “Lofticries” and some of the other well-remembered tracks like “Repetition” and “push pull”.

It was great to see Purity Ring return to the city and finally get to play their impressively produced tour. Additional dates across North America are below, we hope you get to see them as well.

Upcoming tour dates:

6/24 – New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall*
6/25 – New York, NY – Webster Hall*
6/26 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel*
6/27 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer*
6/29-6/30 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club*
7/1 – Raleigh, NC – The Ritz*
7/2 – Charlotte, NC – The Fillmore Charlotte*
7/3 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel*
7/5 – Nashville, TN – Marathon Music Works*
7/6 – Atlanta, GA – Buckhead Theatre*
7/8 – Orlando, FL – The Plaza Live*
7/9 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – Revolution Live*
7/10 – Tampa, FL – The Ritz Ybor*
7/12 – Birmingham, AL – Iron City*
7/13 – New Orleans, LA – The Joy Theater*
7/14 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall*
7/15 – Austin, TX – ACL Live at The Moody Theater*
7/16 – Dallas, TX – The Bomb Factory*
7/17 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom*
7/19 – Tucson, AZ – The Rialto Theatre*
7/20 – Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren*
7/21 – San Diego, CA – The Observatory North Park*
7/22 – San Diego, CA – The Observatory North Park*
7/23 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern*
7/24 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater*

* w/ EKKSTACY

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It speaks to the strength of the all-Canadian lineup that a good half of the capacity crowd was there before sundown. Openers Born Gold—perhaps not coincidentally, the band which used to count James and Roddick as members before they formed Purity Ring—was a largely unknown quantity. Tracks available online have a strong synth bent punctuated by a hint of 8-bit lo-fidelity, and might have been performed by a guy and his laptop. Live the band’s sound is more muscular, making the most of two percussionists and lead singer/guitarist/founder Cecil Frena’s energy. The set was danceable and fun, inspiring lots of talk and curiosity from an appreciative crowd.

Second on the bill was Braids, riding the buzz of their breakthrough single “Miniskirt.” The trio has more of a pop/rock sound than the rest of the bill, much of their music solidly mid tempo. Lead singer Raphaelle Standell-Preston established a lovely rapport with the crowd early in the set, relating anecdotes in a conversational tone that made the venue feel far more intimate than it was. This is among the most rare and unfakable of pop star gifts, a far cry from the “Hello, Cleveland!” clichéd fallback of many touring bands. Braids sounded tight as a drum.

Purity Ring are one of a handful of groups who craft a visual brand as potent as their sound. The lighting design—long dangling stands of oversized LED pearls, the glowing alien sphere from the Another Eternity album cover hanging at center, Corin Roddick beneath it surrounded by tall crystalline “drums”—all tells a story of futurism and elegance. And the clothes! Megan James reportedly designs and sews their stagewear, which if true makes it all the more remarkable. Roddick’s black and white outfit was one part BMX, one part B-boy, one part Space: 1999 yet looked casual and contemporary. James, her hair constantly aswirl from multiple fans, strode on stage in a white neoprene jumpsuit with oversized white mesh shoulders and sleeves, recalling a sleeker, slinkier version of Tina Turner’s Aunty Entity from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. The cumulative effect of all this was striking, a perfect accompaniment to the band’s sometimes dubsteppy, gently glitchy electropop, separating them tonally from the current crop of darkwave electronica groups that sometimes feel as if they are all cut from the same cloth. There’s nothing dark or edgy about Purity Ring. They gleam.

The band alternated back and forth between their two albums, demonstrating how consistent their sound and songwriting really is. Roddick’s setup, a tabletop controller and electronic drum trigger pads built into light-up crystals which surround him‚ allows him more activity than you’d expect. His musicianship is very much a strong visual element. But the bulk of the weight of crowd expectation falls on the structured shoulder pads of lead singer James. Emoting yet cool and aware of the crowd, she covered every inch of the stage three times over, making sure the fans felt they each got a moment with her. Her voice sounded clear and strong yet delicate, bringing just the right vulnerability and humanity to the synthesized soundscapes of the music.

Roddick mingled with the crowd during the breaks between sets, happily chatting and posing for photos with fans. Purity Ring is getting to the point where that won’t be possible for much longer. With increased popularity comes forced isolation, and the Another Eternity tour might be the last one where such casual bonhomie is possible.

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Edmontonians Megan James and Corin Roddick, the duo who make up Purity Ring, arrived on time and ready to create not only an unwound sound, but an atmosphere to accompany it. Aided by interactive, glowing lights, James played with her occasionally mumbly, ethereal mermaid voice, a complement to Roddick’s orchestral, Sebastian-the-crab performance on the synthesiser and drums. The crowd, held transfixed mostly of their own volition but also perhaps due to their chemicals of choice, completely absorbed the encompassing artistic presentation that Purity Ring offered, growing slightly livelier with hits “Lofticries” and “Belispeak”.

The harmonies and layered sounds were deceivingly larger than might be expected from a duo, and it was clear that James and Roddick don’t use beats to simply create movement. What they generate is quite fluid, and unlike various other electronic groups who grasp at synthesisers to fill space.  This pair utilised lagged momentum and repetition to capture the crowd’s mood and attention.

As Toronto marked the last stop on their recent tour, we can (hopefully) look forward to more from Purity Ring, a shining example of Canadian strength in the electronic scene.

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