TR/ST + VASCHA – DUST, BRIGHTON 22.10.24
Three days ago I was here at Dust in East Street, Brighton enjoying a live set from The Surfragettes (Review HERE) who hail from Toronto, Ontario, in Canada and as luck would have it I’m back at Dust again this evening and by sheer coincidence tonight’s artist was formed in the exact same place – Toronto, Ontario, in Canada – What’s the chances eh?
This evening we are in the company of the rather wonderful and totally unique TR/ST which is the dark electropop project of producer, singer, and performer Robert Alfons who was born in Winnipeg in Canada. The project commenced back in 2010 when Alfons met Maya Postepski who was the drummer for fellow based Toronto artist Katie Stelmanis who goes under the banner of ‘Austra’, (who we saw live back in 2017 (Review HERE) but in 2012 Postepski decided to leave TR/ST, who back then they were called ‘Trust’ up until 2015, but have operated under the TR/ST banner ever since.
Thus far TR/ST, who have been based in Los Angeles for the past decade, have released a string of celebrated albums fusing swooning synth-pop, confessional darkwave, and anthemic emotion: ‘TRST’ (2012), ‘Joyland’ (2014), ‘The Destroyer – Part One’ (2019), and ‘The Destroyer – Part Two’ (2019). In late 2023, TR/ST joined the Dais Records roster, announcing the union with the release of the single ‘Robrash’, while hinting at more new music ahead. January 2024 then saw the release of the new, minimally titled ‘TR/ST EP’, featuring four new tracks in addition to ‘Robrash’ : the new dancefloor heater ‘Run’ featuring Canadian hyperpop star Cecile Believe, a beautiful cover of the Pet Shop Boys classic 1990 anthem ‘Being Boring’ featuring Jake Shears, (co-lead vocalist of New York City pop-rock band Scissor Sisters), the delicate and gauzy nearly-ambient composition ‘Evercall’, and an official release of the fan favourite ‘Slug’, previously only released to YouTube in 2015.
Then on 13th September the brand new TR/ST long-player titled ‘Performance’ was released and included nine new compositions that were recorded in Los Angeles. Alfons co-produced the collection with versatile composer and producer Nightfeelings. They stated that “‘Performance’ is persuasive, immersive, and intoxicating, at the threshold of stirring and disturbing. Alfons’ voice is the anchor in the storm, singing a collage of impressions and confessions with a smeared, stream of consciousness logic. He’s both observer and instigator, performer and playwright, liberated by the stage and the night”.
We are here at Dust in order to give our verdict on what this latest material is like, as well as the addition of the previous big hitters. Although tonight is Robert’s debut Brighton concert, we have actually had the pleasure of reviewing TR/ST on two previous occasions when Robert brought the project across the pond back in 2019 and then again in 2023. The 2019 concert took place at the long standing gay club mecca for the capital, namely Heaven, on 20th November (Read our review HERE) and the 2023 gig happened at the cavernous Fabric, which is located directly opposite Smithfield Meat Market, on 15th February 2023 (Review HERE).
We were initially going to travel up to London again to catch TR/ST performing live tomorrow at EartH (Evolutionary Arts Hackney) which is an independent arts centre in Dalston, London which opened in 2018 in a former cinema, as that date was announced prior to promoters FORM booking Robert and chums here in Brighton, so it made sense for us to switch gigs and so this evening we arrive nice and early in order to grab prime positions and after some time we are greeted by the players taking to the small stage, which is much more compact than our two previous encounters, so we are up close and personal for this seventeen song set lasting 66 minutes from 8:46pm to 9:52pm.
The left hand side stage door opens and Romain Barry and Lia Braswell take up their positions. Romain stands behind two keyboards which are at right angles to each other and there’s a presets unit there too, whilst Lia is seated behind the drumkit, a position she has held at TR/ST live gigs since 2019, Romain being a new addition to the ranks. They commence with the first of only three cuts from ‘Performance’, this being ‘Regret’. Two minutes into the composition the side door swings open again and there’s a loud hearty cheer to signify the arrival of Mr TR/ST himself, Robert Alfons, who is clad in his trademark white vest and white trousers. He makes his way to the centre of the stage where the sole microphone is standing. This is truly exciting for myself and my colleague as Robert is a mere five to six feet away from us! Although in our previous two encounters, we have virtually been at the front, he has still been quite some distance away from us due to the size of the stages and the way the venues are designed. We are literally up close and personal!
With the slow chugging opener under their belts, without hardly a momentary pause, the trio launch into selection two, ‘Bulbform’, which is a drumming led track which has a bouncier beat than the opener and is found on the 2012 ‘TRST’ album. It’s a corker! It’s here that I absorb the lighting for the event. On our previous encounters the lighting has been almost non-existent and so added to the dark synthy mood. Tonight, although the lighting is vastly less than my gig here three days ago, it is better than previous TR/ST gigs. There is an array of neon tube lighting in various colours that not only light the rear wall of the stage, but also continue right up to the ceiling and out across the room above our heads.
Next up we have ‘Slug’ from this year’s ‘TR/ST’ EP, which has some serious kick drum and cymbal action going on. The beat is the fastest yet and it’s the best song for me thus far! The trio then speed into 2019’s ‘Grouch’ from ‘The Destroyer – Part 1’ album which has a similar bouncy beat, and is hotly followed by ‘Dressed For Space’ from 2012’s ‘TRST’ album, which has some keyboards from Romain. The songs have been racing by with none outstaying their welcome, none during tonight’s set do! I’m starting to build up a slight sweat from my bopping along and the EMB style beats are keeping me a very happy bunny indeed, especially on the following ‘Capitol’ which is only one of three tunes from their 2014 ‘Joyland’ album, which is my favourite TR/ST long-player, and not surprisingly ‘Capitol’ is my new fave tune of the set. After its conclusion, Robert addresses the faithful in the room with a simple “Thank you” and the trio are at it again with the excellent ‘Rescue, Mister’, which is located on ‘Joyland’.
The keys, drums and varying levels of vocals are working in perfect harmony on the chugging duo of ‘Colossal’ from 2019’s ‘The Destroyer – Part 1’ long-player and ‘Iris’ found on 2019’s ‘The Destroyer – Part 2’ album. After which we are addressed again with “Thank you so much for coming Brighton”. They then revert back to ‘Part 1’ with ‘Bicep’ with its almost metallic sounding drums delivery, with the keys to the rear. As with every TR/ST tune, I hear Robert’s hypnotic voice but really haven’t a clue what the lyrics are, and you know what, I don’t really mind, as it’s the overall sound of the composition that floats me away. I’m not alone, as I spy a woman on the opposite side of the audience at the front who is waving her arms in the air with her eyes shut! She gets it and so do I. Mind you, it helps standing in front of the speakers which even make my skinny jeans flap due to the airwaves blasting out at them.
Romain flits between the two keys and is totally absorbed in his work. Lia’s drummer is getting better, the longer the set goes on for and she starts to seriously give them a good seeing too, especially around the next two cuts, 2012’s ‘Shoom’ from ‘TRST’ album and the title track of the new ‘Performance’ album, which notably the drumkit has emblazoned on the front. Prior to ‘Performance’ Robert introduced his bandmates and again said “Thanks for coming”.
By now there were only four songs to go, two before the encore and two afterwards. All of these were great choices, kicking off with ‘Sulk’ from 2012’s ‘TRST’ album and followed by the excellent ‘Soon’ from ‘Performance’ and after which the trio exited the side door, with Robert leading the way. After what seemed like a few minutes, but probably was only about 90 seconds, they returned and the EMB almost HI-NRG disco action rounded off the evening with the playing of ‘Run’ from the recent ‘TR/ST’ EP and ‘Peer Pressure’ from ‘Joyland’. I swear that there wasn’t a single substandard song to be found anywhere in the set and as compared with our previous two TR/ST gigs, this one felt more constantly upbeat, although obviously wasn’t as an exciting day of going to London to see them perform live after taking in the sights, food and beers beforehand. But overall, I’d say that tonight (musically) it topped the lot, especially judging by my t-shirt at the end which was totally stuck to me and filled with sweat! A truly brilliant night out and we got to speak to Robert afterwards as well…Happy days!
TR/ST:
Robert Alfons – vocals
Romain Barry – keyboards
Lia Braswell – drums
TR/ST setlist:
‘Regret’ (from 2024 ‘Performance’ album)
‘Bulbform’ (from 2012 ‘TRST’ album)
‘Slug’ (from 2024 ‘TR/ST’ EP)
‘Grouch’ (from 2019 ‘The Destroyer – Part 1’ album)
‘Dressed For Space’ (from 2012 ‘TRST’ album)
‘Capitol’ (from 2014 ‘Joyland’ album)
‘Candy Walls’ (from 2012 ‘TRST’ album)
‘Rescue, Mister’ (from 2014 ‘Joyland’ album)
‘Colossal’ (from 2019 ‘The Destroyer – Part 1’ album)
‘Iris’ (from 2019 ‘The Destroyer – Part 2’ album)
‘Bicep’ (from 2019 ‘The Destroyer – Part 1’ album)
‘Shoom’ (from 2012 ‘TRST’ album)
‘Performance’ (from 2024 ‘Performance’ album)
‘Sulk’ (from 2012 ‘TRST’ album)
‘Soon’ (from 2024 ‘Performance’ album)
(encore)
‘Run’ (from 2024 ‘TR/ST’ EP)
‘Peer Pressure’ (from 2014 ‘Joyland’ album)
Much to our surprise on arrival this evening we found out that there was a support act for tonight although there was nothing to suggest this in the media prior to the event. So warm-up duties fell to the now Brighton based Vascha. We last caught Vascha at The Prince Albert on 13th April as part of the inaugural six venue ‘Homegrown Festival’ where we succinctly reported thus “Vive-la-trans… or should that be vive-la-trance? Vascha knocks out a beat-laden dance-track that definitely deserves a bigger, smokier, bassier venue than The Prince Albert… although this will do for now… techno, techno, techno is the order of the day, and it may be slightly weird… but it’s weird in a really fun way…. Pride Events will eat this up!!!”.
This evening it is very much the same with a half hour set running from 7:45pm to 8:15pm and consisting of nine tracks, with seven of these being original compositions and two being covers. The tall slender figure of Vascha takes to the stage to a loud electronic rumbling effect. This evening she is sporting strangely long black hair and wearing red boots, black pants, and a punk style ripped and torn long white shirt. To our left of the stage is a SubZero Mini MIDI Controller with Knobs Buttons and Faders, as well as a laptop. The music is nice and loud and as I’m standing in front of one of the speakers, the tips of the hairs on my head tingle via the airwaves.
Vascha vocal deliveries are distorted and high-pitched tuned via the use of an electronic autotune device, which is the mainstay for many hyperpop artists and thus blurs the lines of gender, which is ideal for tranny artists. The pace of the tunes vary, but I’m particularly taken by the higher BPM selections. The only prop used during the performance is a pink handled green light fairy wand. The final two numbers were the cover versions, the first being Blondie’s ‘Heart Of Glass’ which I had also heard just three days ago at Dust when The Surfrajettes performed their take on the song. The closing song was a cover of ‘Meet Me Halfway’ which I think was the Black Eyed Peas song. I understand why (at some stage) Vascha was picked as tonight’s support artist and the punters present were appreciative of what we were served.
Vascha:
Vascha – vocals, SubZero Mini MIDI Controller, laptop
Vascha setlist:
‘Hell’
‘Fall Of The Damned’
‘Broken Tr*nny’
‘Succubus’
‘Earthly Delights’
‘Temptation’
‘Terrestrial Paradise’
‘Heart Of Glass’ (Blondie cover)
‘Meet Me Halfway’ (cover)
