Azure Ray sleepwalks in San Francisco

July 16, 2009, at the Great American Music Hall

By Jolene Torr
Published: July 20th, 2009 | 7:08am

“Some bands take a few weeks, some take five years between albums,” jeered Azure Ray’s adorably matching twins Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink with their long locks, mini frocks, and boots. With five years passed before reuniting onstage, the duo (accompanied by three dudes) picked up where they left off years ago and pretty much stayed there … the whole night. The whole night.

You’d expect five years to be enough time for a band as lyrically sophisticated and sensuously melodic as Azure Ray to somewhat evolve out of their sadness, or at least find different and unique ways to sing about it. Or even channel that sadness with a bit of the same emotion onstage, but with their precise acoustics and lilting vocals that lingered over dreamy soundscapes, the girls still could not connect with their fans.

Taylor and Fink alternated between their first self-titled first album on WARM Records and their third release, Hold On Love (Saddle Creek). They chose to open with “Sleep” and “Safe and Sound,” almost as if they planned on lulling everyone to sleep right from the start as the tempo rarely changed. Even when the band got into the self-deprecating song “Rise,” with meditations and melancholy that had the potential to connect with the audience, Azure Ray still managed to disengage.

One zealot from the crowd did scream, “I love you!” but he was the desperate exception. The girls giggled, locking eyes only with each other, and replied coyly: “Thank you. Our pleasure.” What was surprising was that you’d expect some serious sulking from Fink and Taylor but they were cheery and chipper amidst their sparse interactions. It’s as if they didn’t even connect with their songs.

Changing tempo slightly, the twins played the poppier “If You Fall,” with Maria Taylor at the Casio, her fingers buoyant on the tinkling keys. There was a flicker of life with this song, similar to the energy found only during an encore that opened with “Blackout Curtain” sung by homeboy Andy LeMaster. It was soon followed finally by a new song which was a refreshing change in tone, theme, and tempo as the band got a bit heavier instrumentally and cheerful topically. If this is a sign of things to come, then positive things await for the new Azure Ray album.

Of course, Azure Ray is not bad in any way — far from it. They were as gracefully measured live as they are on their albums and performed with perfection and precision. Fink and Taylor were dreamy and delicate as they lamented and pleaded with bittersweet melodies and startling concentrated lyrics. But unfortunately, this all could have been experienced just the same by popping in a CD.

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For more photos from this show visit Venus Zine’s Flickr page

Azure Ray official site

Azure Ray MySpace page

Saddle Creek Records