Thursday nights are the best. The work week is coming to an end, and everyone can smell it.
Uni kids are out making the most of their concession cards on what is traditionally student night. Reckless rat-racers are out anyway, giving the finger to what will likely be another day of work tomorrow. And there’s a fun little event called Lambda in a Brisbane club called Alhambra Lounge.
This evening’s lineup featured American indie-pop outfit Wild Nothing, who are in Australia, for the first time since forming in 2009, to promote their latest album Nocturne.
Alhambra Lounge, cosy as it is, was packed with a young audience comprising a sea of skater skirts, chambray button-ups, and non-prescription spectacles. It felt like a dorm party in a US college; strangers became friends and hung out together drinking $5 basics and smoking cigarettes at the back.
There were, of course, several early birds, keen to bag good spots on the dance floor and check out the support acts Major Leagues and Black Vacation, the latter somewhat reminiscent of Bostonian 90s band Letters to Cleo.
Sound quality could have been better—the lyrics were muffled in a cacophony of distortion, but that was a technical issue, not a lack of skill, though having left their guitars in the sun all day seemed to have distracted the band, who tried to focus on their music but almost forgot their audience at times.
Maybe with more gigs (or less sun on their guitars) their confidence and thus showmanship will improve. Musically, their skills were sound – pun intended – and they are a group to watch.
By the time Wild Nothing came on stage, the crowd had thickened, as had the air of anticipation. As soon as the first synth-rock notes rang out, it was on.
Frontman Jack Tatum and his fellow musicians owned the stage with humble confidence, flawlessly delivering favourites including “Shadow”, “This Chain Won’t Break”, and “Summer Holiday”. Thankfully, the technical issues were gone and the audience was able to enjoy the music.
Not unlike much of Cut Copy’s work from 2008’s In Ghost Colours, Wild Nothing plays a nostalgic style of synth-pop, though arguably with less of the electronic element; it was the kind of music to be played on long road trips to nowhere, or after a break up as the sun sets into the ocean.
That is to say, it could almost be background or movie-accompaniment music, because for non-fans, some of Wild Nothing’s work could seem repetitive. But Thursday’s audience was clearly thrilled with the five-piece, filling the gaps between each song with ecstatic applause and (somewhat annoying) catcalls.
While the majority of the work performed was their own, they surprised the audience with an amazing cover of a Go-Betweens hit, a band that Tatum announced to be one of his favourites.
This was during the two-song encore that rounded out an almost ethereal performance, evocative of an 80s movie or a dream sequence; or perhaps even a dream sequence within an 80s movie.
After all, Wild Nothing is frequently referred to as a dream pop band. But however this group is defined in terms of genre, their debut tour in Australia opened extremely well.
No doubt they will be welcomed back with open arms by Alhambra Lounge’s patrons in the future
