Tag Archives: Wavves
Grow a Pair: Win Free Tickets to See Best Coast and Wavves on 2/3
February 1st, 2011
Best Coast and Wavves are coming our way, playing Music Hall of Williamsburg on Thursday. They’re both very popular, so this show sold out quickly. But don’t despair, because if you’d still like to go, you can try to Grow a Pair of tickets from The House List. It’s easy. Just fill out the form below and be sure to include your full name, e-mail address, which show you’re trying to win tickets to (Best Coast/Wavves, 2/3) and a brief message explaining why it doesn’t matter if Bethany Cosentino and Nathan Williams are actually dating. Eddie Bruiser, who still hopes they do “Leather and Lace,” will notify the winner by Thursday. Good luck.
Phoenix Plays the Garden
October 15th, 2010
Three guys, Thomas Mars (vocals), Deck d’Arcy (bass) and Chris Mazzalai (guitar), began playing garage rock in a suburban basement in the ’90s. It’s a familiar story you’ve heard from countless other bands. The main difference in this case is that the group began outside of Paris rather than, say, Detroit or Milwaukee. Around that same time, Mazzalai’s older brother, Laurent Brancowitz (also a guitarist), was in another trio, Darlin’. That band released several songs, which Melody Maker described as “a bunch of daft punk.” Not too much later Brancowitz’s bandmates split to form Daft Punk and he joined his brother’s musical outfit, Phoenix. The now quartet got started covering Hank Williams and Prince in French bars, but they kept working their way up and people began to notice. They added synthesizers to the mix and put out several well-received albums, but it was their fourth studio effort, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, that put them in the mainstream. Since then Phoenix (above, performing “1901” on Late Show with David Letterman) has sold out increasingly larger rooms, and now they’re playing the big one, Madison Square Garden next Wednesday. Not only should you be at this show, but make sure to get there early enough to see Dirty Projectors and Wavves, too.
Much Better Late Than Never
September 22nd, 2010Wavves – Music Hall of Williamsburg – September 21, 2010
About 15 minutes after the posted set time at Music Hall of Williamsburg last night, Wavves bassist Stephen Pope finally came out and started setting up. When he left, the drummer, Billy Hayes, came out and did the same. Then guitarist and lead vocalist Nathan Williams untangled his cords. It wasn’t clear why they went about it in such a manner, but it did have the effect of getting those in the crowd good and eager, which is how they stayed until the end. When the music finally began, the trio made it clear they were in a playfully combative mood. Wavves spent much of the time between songs bantering with the crowd, fulfilling and denying requests, smoking and pattering on with inside jokes and non sequiturs galore.
While the preshow prep may have been frustratingly serial, the music was gloriously parallel: Three Uzis raining a constant stream of ammunition on the percolating audience. The pent-up energy from the delayed start exploded immediately into an early-week mosh pit from the first blast of noise. Pope’s flying-V bass was an extraterrestrial chainsaw, buzzing with electricity beneath Hayes’ drumming. Williams was crackling with slacker-punk energy staying just this side of being completely out of control. Ultimately, though, some in the crowd lost control, continuing to pester, heckle and call out requests. The band humored the shouts and tried to overcome, but eventually gave in, honoring the call for “No Hope Kids” midset instead of in its intended closer spot. The pit bounced with triumphant energy as the band raised it to another level, but they were right, it would have been better to end the show. —A. Stein
Photos courtesy of Jennifer Macchiarelli | www.jennylow.com
Amongst the Wavves
August 3rd, 2010Wavves – The Bowery Ballroom – August 2, 2010
For all his songs about weed, surfing and video games, Nathan Williams of Wavves has had to endure a lot of online criticism. Maybe it’s because it looks like he’s having too much fun. On his latest album, King of the Beach, out today, Williams has expanded his sound from lo-fi overblown fuzz into bigger, cleaner melodies that remain sloppy and enthusiastic. It’s still a barrage of jangly power chords with a thrown-together ramshackle feel. And if he’s got any kind of master plan, he’s fooling everyone—it’s more like the plan is to not have one and to make up the whole thing as he goes. From vague interviews to replacing the track “Mickey Mouse” with something he wrote yesterday because he’s being sued over the song title, he’s doing what comes natural.
The best defense against the backlash is to record another catchy melodic album about the mundane and to perform live like it’s his last show. Playing with Stephen Pope and Billy Hayes, Jay Reatard’s old bandmates, helps to take the focus off Williams, who reluctantly plays frontman. These guys have been through everything and are good stage distractions in between tunings, passing bottles of whiskey to the sold-out Bowery Ballroom audience, saying, “That last song is about killing yourself” and “in Sweden they asked us not to look so high onstage.”
After an extensive set Williams said, “Here’s how it’s going to work: We can finish this song and then leave and wait for you to clap and come back or we can just keep playing songs and then leave.” He leaned back and fell into the pit, playing straight through the surf. It was an unrehearsed moment that felt authentic, and that’s been the case so far with his albums and live show. He’s not out to con the audience or to play to the lowest denominator, he just happens to be having a great time doing it. —Jason Dean
(Wavves plays Music Hall of Williamsburg on 9/21.)
