GIG REVIEW: Wavves/Sex Beet/Fixers @ Relentless Garage, London

I was pretty darn pleased to finally see one of my favourite bands, or should I say musician?, Wavves, last night at London’s Relentless Garage. A venue so hazy inside you’d think there wasn’t a smoking ban. After buying a ridiculously overpriced drink from the bar at the back, the first support band, Fixers, kicked things off. Now, there wasn’t anything particularly wrong with or about Fixers. They were just a bit boring. The lead singer was overtly into moving and flailing his hands and mainly just those hands, whilst he was singing. It was a major distraction. They weren’t the right band to fit the gig in all honesty.

After what seemed an eternity of their same-y, monotonous set, Fixers finally made way for brilliant lo-fi outfit Sex Beet, whose live set was raucous and upbeat, setting a much better precedent for the following Wavves set. They were comprised of a guitarist, drummer and a guy on a synth, making the kind of noises you’d expect from some chillwave bands. But this added a nice effect to the admittedly familiar lo-fi sound of the rest of the band. I really enjoyed the set and I recommend you check out their song “She Don’t Surf” that reminded me a lot of Takeshi Terauchi.

It was finally time for Wavves to come on, where Nathan Williams and his cohorts quickly launched into “Friends Are Gone”, a CD/itunes bonus track on his 2009 album Wavvves. Aptly being the song I’ve listened to most according to my iTunes, I was ecstatic that he chose to open the set with it, especially as it sounded a lot more impressive live and not as fuzzed as it is on record. There wasn’t much of pause before they then kicked into the titular track from this year’s astounding King of The Beach. As you’d expect, by now the crowd were going absolutely mental. Even in this drab, cold winter, you can’t repress the feelings of summer and riotous teenage antics that are present in Wavves’ music.

The rest of the set was a fantastically picked best of selection from his three albums, for example, his eponymous song “Wavves”, the only one performed from his debut, was a nice inclusion, as well as easily being the best song from that first record, it fit in really well with the tempo of the show. The other songs were either from his more recent albums and it was good to hear all the songs he chose live, especially those from Wavves performed how they probably would have sounded if recorded in a similar way to King of The Beach. These were noticeably different incarnations, especially the closing song “No Hope Kids” that was stretched and extended unto a very loud, very fast conclusion of the gig.

It was an amazing gig to say the least, Williams and co. put on one hell of a show and their between song story-telling, primarily about their lack of weed, added some hilarity and helped pace the gig really well. There was no space for slower, more ambient songs like “Mickey Mouse” or “Baseball Cards” in the up-tempo set, which was slightly disappointing, but then I think it would probably be harder for them to effectively translate those over into their live act, which is so brilliant already partly because of it’s cohesiveness. Check out the setlist below:

Wavves Setlist
Friends Are Gone
King of the Beach
To The Dregs
Idiot
Wavves
Green Eyes
Take on the World
Beach Demon
Post Acid
So Bored
Super Soaker
No Hope Kids

Wavves are currently on a European tour, playing tonight at the AB Club in Brussels, Belgium. Definitely catch them live if you can.