Weyes Blood has a way of transforming any old stage into a cathedral. Dressed in a white caped gown and backlit by soft light, she recalls the image of a religious icon. To borrow the words of Flannery O’Connor – whose novel Wise Blood is the origin of Los Angeles singer-songwriter Natalie Mering’s moniker – her voice is “Christ-haunted”: serene, yet heavy with experience that belies her years. Her sold-out performance at The Roundhouse has a congregation in silent rapture: scared to move, scared to raise a phone, in case it should break the spell.
She sings of love everlasting, curses and blessings, but also of James Dean, freeways and feeling alone at a party. Her spirituality is hard to name, but California runs through her veins. Mering’s otherworldly take on Americana has led her to collaborate with Perfume Genius and Lana Del Rey, and she shares their sense of longing. Her fifth record, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow, is a lonely, hymnal collection and in a live space her songs take on a sacred quality. There are more than three thousand people here, but we might as well be friends gathered around a campfire. The eerie edge of Mering’s nostalgic psych-folk and soft-rock is softened by her gentleness. It feels like it’s just us, Mering and her guitar – to a degree, her band feels like part of the scenery.
