The Beaches - Live in Windsor
On Friday, February 7th, the Toronto based band The Beaches rocked the house at The Colosseum at Windsor Casino. The four-piece female Canadian rock group consists of singer/bassist Jordan Miller, and her sister on the guitar, Kylie Miller, guitarist Leandra Earl, and drummer Eliza Enman-McDaniel. I first discovered this group at Greta Van Fleet’s show in Des Moines, IA, and I was instantly hooked. I ended up seeing them in Ohio in 2024, and I made the trip up to Ontario to see them in February.
The group performed tracks from their most recent album Blame Brett, along with some new tracks, including Takes One To Know One, and another unreleased track off their new album (yet to be announced). One great aspect of seeing an artist on their home turf is the involvement of the audience. Beaches fans always bring a respectful and fun energy to every show, but this show was especially enjoyable!
It was a cold day in Windsor, Ontario, CA, and the crowd was antsy following opener Alex Porat, as we waited for The Beaches to take the stage. Their stage set is simple, but effective, featuring a large disco ball above the stage and a large light-up sign displaying the groups name in their iconic blocked lettering.
The show opened with a track off of Blame Brett entitled Cigarette. This track is lively and features a catchy guitar riff and a smooth bass line, which hooked us all in immediately. One thing about The Beaches is that they know how to write great rock music that still makes you want to get up and dance. This, paired with their charming and charismatic stage presence, makes their live shows entirely worth your while.
The girls' set includes songs from all throughout their career, including songs like T-Shirt and Desdemona, all the way up to their newest upcoming release off their upcoming album. The set also includes a wide array of songs that make you want to get up, sing and dance along, and some tracks that had us all swaying side-to-side together. One track that I will always highlight about a Beaches show is If A Tree Falls, which breaks up Blame Brett as an album beautifully, and has incredibly effective and meaningful lyrics. The song features a very simple acoustic riff alone, and the song delivers a message about love, destruction, longing to move on and knowing that no matter what happens, you will always exist in the same timeline as someone you want to move on from.
Another iconic aspect of the show is Leandra Earl's time in the spotlight. If you are a member of The Beaches fandom, you are likely familiar with their never-to-be-released tune Kinkade. During this track on the set, Earl gets to entirely take control of the stage, while interacting with the audience and really bringing the show to life. During the show in Windsor, with the open floor, Earl was able to run up and down the isles interacting with several members of the crowd, taking signs and gifts from fans, and keeping us all on our toes. This part of the show is always one to remember, especially if you are in the front row!
Speaking of crowd interaction, The Beaches are great with balancing their performance with fan interaction. They even have many songs during their set where fan interaction really brings the live version to life! As I mentioned above, Kinkade is definitely a major chunk of their fan interactions, but there are also many more hidden gems. During the band's newly released track Jocelyn, Jordan picks a member of the audience to be her “Jocelyn” to sing to, and during the Windsor show, multiple fans got to participate in this. Since the floor was easily accessible for the band, Jordan was able to do as Leandra did and come down into the audience to hold hands, hug, and sing with multiple “Jocelyn”’s. It was beautiful to see how much the fans loved singing with Jordan and vice-versa. Another smaller aspect of the crowd interaction can be seen in the track Me & Me, off of Blame Brett as well, where Jordan picks fans out of the crowd to point to whilst singing the lyric ‘I was thinking about girls, supporting other girls’, which always gets an adorable rise out of the audience.
The show closed with the group's newest song, Last Girls at the Party, releasing on April 2nd! This was a great, high-energy, party rock track to end on, and the crowd was certainly left buzzing afterwards. It was great to see The Beaches perform to such a large crowd right in their own backyard, especially as they transition to this new era of a new album! If you are looking for an upbeat rock group composed of four, strong female musicians, The Beaches are definitely worth checking out. We love a talented group with affordable ticket prices! If you are looking to get listening to these ladies, check out their newest release Last Girls at the Party!