Photo of Purity Ring live at Delmar Hall by Laura Jerele
I had no idea what to expect walking into Delmar Hall to photograph Purity Ring, and it ended up like walking into a sci-fi dream that somebody accidentally plugged into a rave. And it blew my mind! I knew the Edmonton duo of Megan James and Corin Roddick built a reputation for immersive live shows and genre-bending electronic music, but nothing really prepares me for seeing it unfold in person. One second it felt like synth-pop, then dream pop, then straight-up EDM, then shifting melodic drifts through the hall like a soundtrack to an emotional bender. Their whole thing exists somewhere between electronic music, indie pop, witch house, and whatever genre gets invented when you combine glowing fantasy visuals with pulses you can feel in your ribs.
The visuals alone could have carried the entire night, and they blew me away. Huge LED fan displays spanned across the front of the stage, shifting and pulsing with lights, colours, and movement. At certain points I genuinely could not tell if the visuals were happening onstage, behind me, or inside my own eyeballs. It felt other worldly and it was certainly dramatic, like standing inside the Main Street Electrical Parade after someone fed it hallucinogens and synth loops. It was totally trippy in the best possible way. The lights moved with the music so perfectly that the whole room felt like a little world and we were immersed. Paying careful attention to a health risk, all guests were provided with branded N95 masks to wear while being at the show, and to my surprise the band wore them as well. What, at first, felt like a pandemic flashback, turned into a respectful crowd and with the band performing in masks as well, it made it more eerie, like they were shielded, or disguised.
Purity Ring clearly has a deeply devoted fanbase here, and honestly, I get it now. This was not one of those shows where people casually nod along while staring at their phones. In fact, many phones were not even out! People were fully inside the experience. Some danced, some stood frozen like they were watching a religious event unfold, and some looked completely hypnotized by the visuals (they may have been high AF), but it was all good and it somehow managed to feel massive and intimate at the same time.
Megan James has this way of floating through songs that makes everything feel eerie and warm at the same time. Her vocals can sound delicate one second and emotionally devastating the next. She was the opening act with just her, the mic, her guitar, and her songs (some unreleased). She’s quite the talent. Meanwhile, Corin Roddick basically operated like a mad scientist behind the production setup, layering beats and textures that turned Delmar Hall into the aforementioned glowing electronic fever dream. The duo has always blurred the line between pop music and experimental electronic music, but live, that contrast becomes even more obvious. It was a cool orbit to experience and take in!
By the end of the night, I realized Purity Ring is one of those bands that almost feels impossible to explain properly unless you’ve seen them live yourself. You can describe the genres, the visuals, the production, the glowing LED madness, but it still doesn’t fully capture what it feels like standing in that room while everything pulses around you. It was immersive, weird, beautiful, occasionally overwhelming, and honestly just a hell of a lot of fun. Highly recommend!
Purity Ring setlist:
many lives
part ii
Obedear
pink lightning
glacier
red the sunrise
Amenamy
push pull
repetition
between you and shadows
Lofticries
Belispeak
the long night
sinew
imanocean
stardew
Fineshrine
place of my own
begin again
