CHVRCHES- SCREEN VIOLENCE TOUR 2021
Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
Chicago Illinois
Friday 11/19/21

Chvrches- on their “Screen Violence Tour 2021”, with a stop at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago.
Shots are mostly of Lauren Mayberry of Chvrches- the other band members were buried deep into the stage, and from a pit standpoint, and how high the stage is at the Aragon, it wasn’t feasible to get solid shots of them as I had wished.
Nevertheless, the show was a splendid assessment on Chvrches view of current state of affairs from a cultural and social standpoint, with an obvious theme of violence in general- violence on screen by screens and through screens, along with most of the songs on their latest release reflecting and addressing feelings of loneliness, disillusionment and fear and other emotions.
So it’s obvious the angst level is up exponentially, with our current state of affairs pandemic and Covid related wise, especially since when the band was sequestered last year for recording Screen Violence, most views of our current state of paranoia were (and are) front and center.
But for Chvrches- Screen Violence Tour 2021, with Lauren Mayberry commanding the stage and showing confidence as the lead singer for Chvrches, it was evident from the opening song “He Said She Said”, from Screen Violence, that this show was going to be bristling with kinetic energy and might.
Touring on the strengths of their intense fourth release- “Screen Violence”, they rushed out of the gate with the song “He Said She Said” from their new album, a song like most from “Screen Violence”, which has a dark edge and vivid imagery, with a sledge hammer groove.The stage and backdrop are bathed in icy colors throughout the show, with distortion and vivid hues coming from their gigantic LED backdrop.
Lauren Mayberry commanded the stage from beginning to end, having now contemplated and convincingly becoming a seasoned performer, pacing herself from stage right to stage left and looking gorgeous / model like, but with a take no prisoners persona with a dark side.
And off we go from there, into “Forever”, and then into “Leave a Trace”, followed by “California”.
Most of the set is spotlighted by songs from “Screen Violence”, and embracing the theme of dark and twisted personas and fem fatales,
Unfortunately though, a day before their stop at the Aragon Ballroom, Chvrches made an announcement that despite following strict COVID safety protocols, Lain Cook, their keyboards and programming guru, had a positive COVID test result and was unable to perform in Chicago,
They had Lain’s spot filled in by their tour tech Dave Simpson, who has worked extensively with the band for many years, along with the addition of their friend Sam Stewart, from the band Lo Moon.
So the band was filled out rather nicely, adding more oomph into the mix to convey the low underbelly of most of their recent songs from “Screen Violence”.

Chvrches now, in the present day, a band with tons of passion in regards to live performance, full of fighting spirit, cutting through the noise of the mundane, and making a presence felt and known throughout this Friday night as a band that can pack a wallop, a band that will have you leaving with a vision ingrained in your head, that they just keep getting better and better, and are observant of the world’s current claustrophobic state of affairs, and have the songwriting chops to back it up.