Weyes Blood
Critically celebrated US singer-songwriter with a voice for the ages, Weyes Blood (aka Natalie Mering) returns to New Zealand to perform this May. With Auckland just announced to have an All Ages allocation now available for sale, this show will now also include Clementine Valentine - formerly Purple Pilgrims - presenting their debut performance under their new moniker.
Clementine Valentine: Sisters Valentine and Clementine Nixon make music that conjures unique moods of contrasts: ancient and modern, paradise and isolation, beauty and brokenness, ritual and the right now. Clementine Valentine will share new material, and a fresh lineup - a special preview of exciting things approaching.
"The singer-songwriter’s secular hymnals and eerie psych-folk songs have an almost sacred quality when played live, leaving the crowd in a state of spellbound rapture." - The Guardian
A galaxy of isolation, narcissism fatigue, technological agitation. These are the new norms that keep Natalie Mering up at night, and the themes at the heart of the celestial new Weyes Blood album, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow.
Weyes Blood’s dreamy torch songs of doom have never been more revealing of the present moment. If Titanic Rising was an observation of doom to come, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is in the thick of it, searching for an escape hatch from algorithms and ideological chaos. We're in a fully functional shit show,” said Mering. My heart is a glow stick that's been cracked, lighting up my chest in an explosion of earnestness.”
Weyes fifth studio album And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow released in November 2022 highlights Weyes Blood urgent concern for the planet and humanity. Lead track It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody speaks about the interconnectivity of all beings, but also the fraying of society around us, while other tracks follow in kind. The lullaby-like Grapevine chronicles the splintering of a human connection. The otherworldly dirge God Turn Me into a Flower serves as allegory about our collective hubris. The Worst Is Done is an ominous warning, set against a deceivingly breezy pop melody.
The last time we saw Weyes Blood live in New Zealand was in March 2020, only a few days before our borders closed and life as we knew it changed dramatically. Now, with much to reconcile within the months and years that followed, Weyes Blood will take the stage here once again for a cathartic and momentous show, with New Zealanders afforded the perfect moment to see an artist this critically acclaimed at the height of her powers.