Kevin Bronson on August 27th, 2015

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Singer Jehnny Beth literally walked on the crowd Wednesday night at the Roxy Theatre. That was amid her four-piece Savages figuratively pummeling them. Beth and bandmates Ayse Hassan, Fay Milton and Gemma Thompson tore through 15 songs, seven from their 2013 debut “Silence Yourself,” their 2014 single “F*ckers” and a handful of new songs — “Adore,” “Slowing,” “INSN” and “Evil” — that will appear on the quartet’s sophomore effort, which as of this summer was being mixed by Trentemoller and was slated for a 2016 release. Nobody who saw them at FYF Fest, or on their previous visits to L.A., expected anything tepid. Beth herself was not quite the foreboding presence she has been at previous shows; she told the crowd how lucky “we” (the band and the crowd) were to enjoy the night. She cracked wise a little bit and at one point asked the crowd to move closer (they obliged). And during “Husbands” she climbed onto the crowd and walked toward the center of the floor, singing, falling backwards and then crowd-surfing back to the front.

Photos by David Benjamin

||| Previously: Live at the El Rey, 2013; at SXSW, 2013; at Coachella, 2013.