Concert Review: Torres

Photo Courtesy of Shawn Brackbill
Photo Courtesy of Shawn Brackbill

TORRES delivers an emotional and captivating performance on the opening night of Garbage’s 20 Years Queer Tour.

Date: October 6
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Location: Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay

On Oct. 6, diehard Garbage fans started flooding into Humphrey’s in swarms on the first sold-out night of the 20 Years Queer Tour. The crowd was a sea of graying locks with the occasional 20-something peppered in, all dressed in their best rock-show attire. Fans gathered around awaiting a trip down memory lane to a time when Garbage soundtracked its high school glory days, but not before TORRES kicked off the night with a brief, yet mesmerizing, performance.

With two albums under her belt, 24-year-old singer-songwriter Mackenzie Scott (otherwise known as TORRES) has shown a lot of growth in her music, both sonically and lyrically despite a brief career. Her debut album, “TORRES,” was released while Scott was still in college. The simple, efficient production contrasted against her highly personal and somber lyrics revealing experiences as an adopted child and her struggles with depression. Scott’s second album, “Sprinter,” was released earlier this year in May. Although still as emotional and raw as her first album, it is sonically bigger with very dense and layered songs reminiscent of early PJ Harvey.

The venue was a little under half full when the lights dimmed and the intro to “Mother Earth, Father God” started playing through the speakers. Moments later, Scott took the stage clad in black and with a guitar strapped around her shoulder. Without skipping a beat she stepped into the song and muttered, “I was born on bloody battleground” in her unconventionally husky voice, setting the stage for a dark performance. Unfortunately, Scott stuck to her usual sparse stage banter and smoothly transitioned from one song to the next. The show was a testament to her growth in the space of two albums, with the setlist alternating between the earlier and later heavy rock selections.

Despite her introverted tendencies and shy demeanor, Scott is unapologetically open and emotional on stage. She performs with a raw intensity and doesn’t bother to hide behind a performer’s facade. TORRES didn’t stray far from her microphone much but did let out a couple smirks during “Cowboy Guilt” as she sang “you had us in stitches with your George W. impressions” and playfully danced in place along to the riff.

“Honey” brought out a more vulnerable side of Scott as she sang “everything hurts but it’s fine/ happens all the time,” with a sense of hurt and desperation. She traded in her softer vocals for growl-infused roars to end her set in what is arguably her best live song: “Strange Hellos.” Scott’s abrupt screams and aggressive stomping to the beat of her guitar strumming really amped up the audience and got them excited for the equally-as-energetic headliner, Garbage. She ended her set with a guitar solo in which she squatted and gripped the neck of her guitar between her legs, violently jostling during the duration of it. In a final fit of passion, Scott threw her guitar at the song’s end and walked off stage without a word, leaving the audience caught off guard and completely won over.

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