Apr 17, 2017 - For Aesthetic Magazine & Beatroute BC. Review by Hogan Short.
"VANCOUVER – BANKS performed at the Vogue Theatre on April 17th for her second studio Album, The Altar. Her first album, Goddess, was a critically praised, incredibly high bar to live up to. It was an exceptional debut and an incredible body of work, a beautifully honest album from the soul of a heartbroken and angry Siren. BANKS herself once described it as a diary she left open, afraid to have people read it. When she described her feelings on releasing The Altar she said “now I’m saying, here’s my diary and I fucking dare you to read it.” This change in mindset completely comes through in the music giving us an album not of confused heartbreak, but someone who is confident and pissed off. This album is not better or worse, but the same BANKS we love in a different place in her life. If she continues to grow and be as honest as this then every album of hers will be entirely different but always entirely BANKS.
BANKS is an impressive live singer, belting her ballads into the microphone while the crowd watches hypnotized. She has always been beautifully fragile on stage and her music required it. This tour feels different with her new sound. With songs like Fuck with Myselfand Trainwreck her lyrics demand respect and her voice commands them as such. She is no longer a woman wondering what happened but a woman who’s fed up and who knows what she wants. She was running onstage, dancing with an intense ferocity, and she had the entire crowd surprised by her powerful new energy. BANKS was a woman possessed for her perfectly curated fifteen song set list.
BANKS performance was invigorated and you could feel her power in every move and on every word. Every song she sang carried with it a powerful energy and also the relief she was feeling sharing it with us. Her show was the embodiment of a person who didn’t just change in tone on a new record, but that of a woman changed in her very being, and everyone at The Vogue could feel it."
Banks
iamforest
