Words & Photos: Ed Fry
★★★★☆
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Rough Trade’s intimate venue space provided the perfect backdrop for headliner Asher White’s first UK tour. Accompanied by drums and bass, White also adorned a guitar and a laptop in place of a sampler they’d broken earlier in their first visit to the UK.
Photo: Ed Fry / Asher White
Opening the night at Rough Trade in Bristol were support band Hamburger, who hit the stage with an immense, multi-layered wall of sound. Boasting four guitars and three distinct vocal styles, Hamburger delivered a glorious mashup of classic '90s Weezer-style rock and Smashing Pumpkins-esque noise, pairing jangly guitars and crunchy grunge riffs with sweeping falsetto vocals and searing solos.
Opening track ‘Reverie for Work’ kicked off true to its studio counterpart before taking a sharp turn into heavy, uncharted territory. Deceptively serene passages morphed into proper glitchy drum breaks, driving basslines, and head-banging sections that caught me by surprise. Next up, ‘Memory Patient (Motor Cycle Angel)’ offered a chilled, atmospheric groove from start to finish, much like the studio version on White’s latest LP ‘Love Aggregates’.
‘Downstate Prairie’ erupted with absolutely crashing drums and raucous guitars before White drifted into a wistful solo section, her vocals over arpeggiated guitar lines, before the full band crashed back in, showing how diverse White’s three-piece is. ‘White Castle Sad’ was a delicate solo affair, with White picking and falsetto-singing her way through the melody. That calm was abruptly shattered by ‘Cobalt Room: Good Work / Silver Saab’, unleashing octave guitars, half-time drums, and riffs most thrash metal bands would be jealous of.
As the set neared its end, ‘Stage Dive’ delivered a more down-the-middle '90s pop-rock hit with its super catchy melodies and driving, strummed guitars. The standout moment of the night was undoubtedly ‘The Eagle is No Omen’, a track off her latest album that perfectly encapsulates her push-and-pull between ethereal songwriting, staccato guitars and intense, weaving melodies anchored by groovy basslines and frenetic, pounding drums through the chorus.
Somehow, Asher White can snap from gorgeous, delicate melodies to the heaviest of breakdowns packed with crashing cymbals and meaty riffs — and make it completely work. The transient shifts were so loud and sudden that they made you jump, yet despite the chaotic sounds, Rough Trade’s sound engineer crafted a phenomenal mix where every detail shone through. To end the set, White returned to the chaotic energy of the opening with a driving bassline and an intense, searing guitar solo.
I’d highly recommend catching Asher White live whenever you get the chance. Her live performance takes the beauty of her latest studio recordings and the chaos of her many, many albums and elevates it into something raw, dynamic, and unexpectedly heavy.