REVIEW: Riding the ‘Wavves’
I don’t believe that rock is dead. I don’t think that popular music, nor MTV has killed true rock. Rock exists today in the bands that play in little venues — sometimes big venues — tour for months and try to express themselves through creamy and growling distortion. I experienced a portion of this rock in a shack just outside of downtown Salt Lake City called the Kilby Court. Last Friday I went to see Wavves with Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin and Spell Talk.
After parking at the janitorial supply store, one then must go down the alley of the Kilby. Lovingly put by my friends, it’s the alley where you might get shanked by a crack dealer. Trust me, the residents of Kilby Court and the alley to get to the venue are very safe and friendly, but the first time walking down the dim alley may seem a little daunting. Dodging the puddles, one is then greeted by a sign welcoming all to the Kilby and warning that parking at this point is only for bands.
Before getting through the door I stood for a minute, chilled by the night air. By the fire sat some of my fellow concert goers enjoying a cigarette, while feet away inside the building the first band was sound checking. It was a chilling 50 F and the place wasn’t as packed as I thought it was going to be. Being the skinny, little white boy that I am, I froze for a while. It was all worth it as the music started playing.
The first band Spell Talk was probably my favorite of the bands that played that night. They brought to the table a unique blend of old southern-style blues with lines of surfer rock that went down with a definite raw indie taste to it. Listening to the vocals was like being transported through time to a small mountain abode, to be swept by the rough, yet enjoyable, backwoods blues man. The Salt Lake-based band was enjoyable to listen to, because you could follow the lead guitar as the other guitars built a wonderful platform for these enjoyable riffs to launch from. I would recommend following them and listening to their music on Facebook.
The second band Mikal Cronin took to the stage and lugged its pretty guitars and amps onto the raised platform in front of Christmas-light-decorated plastic siding, aka the stage. As the band began to play, I realized what I was getting into.
I would say Wavves is a noise rock band that is slightly punk. That being said, the bands to complement and open for Wavves would be similar, and thus I got to hear from two indie-punk bands.
Mikal Cronin, is a California-based band and its music reflected that. It was a mixture of California surf rock, mainstream punk and face-melter solos. It reminded me of a harder, more distortion-based Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. The cool thing about Mikal Cronin was how each song had an unique and a seemingly complex song structure and complementing solo in it. With three guitars it sounded a little cluttered at times, but the punchy bass and upbeat drums kept it together. A few minutes into the seemingly short, 30-minute set, I began to feel a bit bored, even though they sounded good.
After Mikal Cronin, Ty Segall took the stage with a presence. I had a feeling that they were the big band for the evening as the shack got packed with people. Being on tour with Cronin, Segall used a lot of the same equipment but his style was different. I would describe it as being more rough and intense, with emotion spewing as he would sing into the microphone. The guitars were moving and sounded good, and there was a great groove settled among the crowd as they chugged along.
Segall continued into chaos at points. As he would scream and shout the crowd ate it up. Maybe I wasn’t used to this type of music, but after a couple of songs in I started to feel bored, and my head started to ache. Segall finished strong with a couple of songs, which someone said were covers, but I only recognized the bit of “Iron Man” that they played. While they were cool to listen to, I was hoping for more tonality in the music and not chords being blasted through a distortion pedal.
After they finished the set, Wavves then began to load out onto the stage. They had multiple effects so I was excited to hear a variation in the programing for the night. I had only heard Wavves through a couple of singles on MySpace. I was hoping for something like The Drums with more crazy and distortion, but what I got was AFI. It was as if they had been punch-drunk over some silly, yet great, joke. The punk feeling rock continued over the upbeat bright beat and it was fun to listen to, but the repetitiveness and flatness of a lot of the songs made me grow tired of them. Overall the concert was fun but not what I was expecting. Personally, I’ve never been to a punk concert like Warped Tour, so I didn’t enjoy it as much as my cohorts did. I would recommend looking all of the bands up and listening to the recordings, because from the recordings I’ve heard, it’s significantly better than listening to them in person — especially Wavves.
– alexander.h.van_oene@aggiemail.usu.edu