Wild Beasts

Troubadour - February 10, 2010

Live Review by Adam McKibbin

One of the real pleasures of regular show-going, of course, is the rare night when you stumble across a previously unknown act that makes you stop in your tracks and say “Wow, this is good.”  But maybe an even deeper – and just as rare – pleasure is going to see a band that you already like and leaving in love.

If I hadn’t slept on Two Dancers, it would have been a surefire contender for my 2009 year-end list, a confident stride forward from the band’s fine debut, Limbo, Panto – and, as the albums were only a year apart, showing a band that was maturing very quickly.  Two Dancers lost little of the debut’s dramatic flair, but channeled it into a more nuanced and consistently engaging album.

A lot of attention around Wild Beasts is focused on Hayden Thorpe, and indeed a lot of anticipation around this gig – their first ever in Los Angeles – was to see how Thorpe’s theatrical countertenor translated from album to stage.  The answer came quickly, as the quartet started into “Fun Powder Plot,” the beguiling opener from Two Dancers.  But even before Thorpe opened his mouth, there was a sense that it would be a good night, as the rhythm section immediately sounded more inventive than the average indie buzz band – and, indeed, even more vital than they come across on record.  Then came Thorpe with his strange, mesmerizing, fluttering vocal – at times sounding like an art-school, rock-and-roll Antony.  He’s a star, and the band’s new tracks like “Fun Powder Plot,” “We Still Got the Taste Dancin’ On Our Tongues” and “Hooting & Howling” (the latter the set closer) are brilliant vehicles for him.

In L.A. for the first time, Wild Beasts had an appropriately hungry look about them.  It seemed like a show that meant something to them, and the energy infected the good-natured crowd as the night went along.  Even though their flamboyant leanings are somewhat polarizing, they seem bound for bigger venues.  As for dramatic, forward-thinking rock and roll, they’re already ahead of some bands that are headlining out in the desert for Coachella (ahem, Muse, ahem).

The surprise revelation of the night was bassist/singer Tom Fleming, the baritone foil to Thorpe.  Taking the lead on some of the band’s best songs, including “The Devil’s Crayon” and “All the King’s Men,” and providing powerful harmonies on tracks like encore closer “Cheerio Chaps, Cheerio Goodbye,” Fleming was a more commanding presence that anticipated, his wonderfully rich vocal a perfect companion piece to Thorpe’s hooting and howling.  I haven’t been so impressed by a pair of frontmen since an early TV on the Radio show.  All in all, a fantastic show from a fantastic band – and if that seems like hype, well, Wild Beasts don’t exactly encourage one to exercise restraint.