Wild Beasts @ The CornerHotel, Melbourne (28/07/2011)

Wed 3rd Aug, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Good news! The lost link between XTC, Friendly Fires and Crying Light-era Antony and The Johnsons has finally been found… about bloody time, you might say. Wild Beasts bring together the power of a stadium rock show, and the intimacy and heart of a folk festival. Although this sounds atrocious in print, the Leeds based neo-psychedelic rock/soul act saw to it at the Corner that fans were unanimous in their agreement – the combination somehow works.

The very, very indie, mostly male crowd found themselves robbed of a whole two hour’s composure, on this second visit by Wild Beasts to our shores as part of the amazing Splendour 2011 line-up. On record, these guys impressively strain and simper over rolling percussion and strings, favouring unstructured spacing – as is the will of bands in the post-SigurRos world – only much like Mariah Carey’s urge to use every fucking note on the octave scale, just because she can. Wild Beasts perhaps could do with reining in a bit of that ‘desire to dazzle’ so much on stage, as they are quite clearly gifted musicians, and have a solid cannon of songs working in their favour.

To give an example of just how well versed and ‘in control’ they were in setting up the right vibes, the band managed to drink enough alcohol between them to dull the pain of three Christmases , and although they were, “still really, really jet lagged”, as co-lead singer Tom Fleming states, nobody dropped a single musical baton in their multi- multi -instrumental set-up. The guys switch instruments in every direction tonight, and taking to it like it ain’tnothang. But hey, if any one of the four guy/one girl team were slackin’ off – guitarist Ben Little did spend a considerable amount of time on the floor – drummer Chris Talbot proved a sensational distraction for them to catch a break. Holding a steady gaze throughout, Talbot played his enormous kit, which included a timpani, as though he were leading a charge into battle.

Despite the drummer’s commanding presence however, it was all eyes on Wild Beasts’ remarkable lead vocalist Hayden Thorpe and his roof-raising falsetto. He was magnificent on the ‘shrinking balls’ choral vocalising, but surprisingly not as high pitched live as on the band’s three albums. As unique as his voice is though, Thorpe found a wondrous foil in co-lead singer, Fleming. The duo, who were positioned either side of back-to-back keyboards, never outshine, but virtually match one another note for note, and it hits me that I never knew it was two guys I was hearing all along on record.

Of the band’s back catalogue, their set is a pretty generous serve of second album, Two Dancers, which clearly pleases the crowd, who get rowdiest during We Still Have The Taste Dancing On Our Tongues and Hootin’ &Howlin’. Yet the stand-out performances come in the form of The Devil’s Crayon and BraveBulging Buoyant Clairvoyants from their debut release, Limbo Panto. To these most festive of Wild Beasts’ songs, a core group of fans gather on the smaller side stage to dance. “Hey I love the Top Of The Pops thing you guys have got going on over there!” Thorpe cracks, only to be met with confused expressions from the ‘too young’ invaders.

Maybe it was a little harsh to say the band over do the ‘dazzle’ in a clear desire to go against typical indie band clonery, but on reflection, their show would simply have worked better in a stonking big arena. In other words, Wild Beasts were a jet engine blasting in a two-car garage in this setting, and their performance was far from ‘considerate of the neighbours.’ If my prediction is anywhere near right, we were lucky to see them in such an intimate venue tonight because somebody soon is gonna see what these Beasts are capable of if let out to play. In which case, it’ll be ‘watch your arses, Muse’.