The Beths – Palace Theater – St. Paul MN – November 22nd 2025

 The Beths (with Phoebe Rings) at The Palace Theatre in St. Paul MN – Saturday, November 22, 2025

Review and Photos by Catherine Zons

The evening began with a gentle performance by Phoebe Rings, a dreampop band from Auckland, New Zealand. Originally the solo project of singer/songwriter Crystal Choi, the group has expanded to four members with the release of their debut album Aseurai in 2024. The album’s title comes from the Korean word aseurai, which Choi describes as “around you in the atmosphere, hard to reach, fading away.” Phoebe Rings played several songs from this album, including “Not a Necessity,” a delicate discussion of holding on and letting go; “Drifting,” an introspective track about unrequited love; and “Fading Star,” a song about an aging musician with a soft, upbeat jazz sound.

With Choi on the Palace’s stage were guitarist Simeon Kavanagh-Vincent, bassist Benjamin Locke, and drummer Alex Freer. Together, they put on a cohesive performance that both soothed and invigorated us in the audience. Their sound felt both inventive and nostalgic, and I found myself grooving along with the rhythmic baselines and exploratory melodies pretty much the whole time.

The Beths came to the stage to an uproar of excited cheering. They began with “Straight Line Was a Lie,” a song from their 2025 album of the same name. The music covers themes of life’s messiness and refusal to be simple or linear, and it was clearly a message that the people of St. Paul resonated with: as I took photos from the pit, I could hear the entire crowd singing the lyrics right back at the band. 

Also hailing from Auckland, New Zealand, indie rock/power pop band The Beths consists of lead vocalist Elizabeth Stokes, guitarist Jonathan Pearce, bassist Benjamin Sinclair, and drummer Tristan Deck. Their sound is deceptively peppy; their songs often wrap witty, introspective lyrics in energetic guitar riffs and dense vocal harmonies. Often exploring difficult topics like loneliness, love, and dissatisfaction, these discussions are packaged in bright melodies that allow the listener to bob their head or dance as the lyrics inspire deeper thinking.

The Beths played songs from all their major albums, including the title track from each of their albums, Expert in a Dying Field, Jump Rope Gazers, as well as Future Me Hates Me. I heard some of my favorite songs, like “Knees Deep,” a song about emotional vulnerability and a desire to be braver, and “Silence is Golden,” a contradictorily loud and energetic track about how anxiety can make a person intolerant to noise. The Beths ended their long set with an encore of “Take,” a song from Straight Line Was a Lie about what the band refers to as the “call of the void,” the desire to fill an emotional hole with self-destructive coping mechanisms. 

Overall, my night at the Palace was filled with music that approached the universal feelings of self-doubt, love, and sadness in unique and inventive ways. Phoebe Rings and The Beths put on a great show, and I’ll be looking forward to their next tour!