On Thursday, I managed to wrangle a ticket to see Leeds-based indie outfit Wild Beasts play The Academy, courtesy of Celina.Admittedly, I've been living on a musical diet of synthy electronica and female-fronted alt-pop for the past while, but White Beasts are one of the few 'indie' acts to have successfully infiltrated my Itunes.
I've tried and failed to come up with an adequate description for the four-piece's sound. Perhaps part of this difficulty stems from the fact that they have two rather different-sounding singers that share vocal duties.
Hayden Thorpe's distinctive falsetto anchors the lion's share of the band's set but, as on the band's current album 'Two Dancers', Tom Fleming's deeper, more conventional register provides some welcome variety now and again, helping to prevent Thorpe's voice from grating.
Thorpe tells us a few tracks in that "everything's gone wrong up here", presumably addressing technical difficulties. The decidedly mixed crowd (occasionally shouting 'hilarious' things like "Come on, yis beasts!") don't seem to notice/care, greeting recent singles 'All The King's Men' and 'Hooting & Howling' especially emphatically.
Admittedly, I wasn't familiar with much of the band's material before the gig but, having been won over by their rousing performance and the variety within their set, I fully intend to acquaint myself a bit better with Wild Beasts.
After the gig, a crowd of excitable younger music fans have gathered outside the Academy in the hope of catching a glimpse of Charlie from Fightstar (née Busted), who was playing upstairs. Hayden Thorpe strolls out the main entrance and nobody budges but, to tell the truth, I'd rather have him sign my face any day.
Hooting & Howling:
[Image: Last FM]
1 comment:
YIZZER WILD... x
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