Wild Nothing, Amsterdam Paradiso

Wild Nothing

August 17, 2010

You have to love bands trumping their album sound, don’t you? When you walk away from a gig and think, you know what, that was actually better than on record. Now I’m not saying the Wild Nothing gig in Paradiso, Amsterdam was the most euphoric thing ever to happen. However, these guys are doing the rounds in small venues for single digit prices (at least here), and to then come on and play a gig where they, in my opinion, sound better than on record, that is certainly getting your money’s worth right there.

The band released their album Gemini earlier this year, and it showed in attendance. The small room of Paradiso is reasonably packed for the foursome led by Jack Tatum. The album sounds a bit distorted, but live this is not so much the case. The vocals are still a bit hazy/dreamy and the lyrics are hard to decipher at times, but musically they do sound a bit cleaner live. Funny is that, for some reason, the instrument with the most to work with seems to come through the speakers best of all. The first song had a lovely bass, and the bass was very up front. The song after that the second guitar player had a nice little riff going, and during the song’s running time that seemed to garner the most attention. I assume this is not deliberately done, but still it does mean that every instrument can be heard well and can be distinguished clearly. So if someone plays something nice you can hear it in the audience, and so everyone can get his turn in the spotlight.

In the middle of the trio of musicians stands Jack Tatum with his guitar. With bands that use a bit of distortion on the vocals I always wonder if they do that to cover up the guy’s singing, but here that certainly isn’t the case. On the album his vocals are pretty restrained, but on some songs live he actually goes the extra mile and his voice sounds excellent. Even so much so that one can hear a “he can really sing” in the audience. On the album they, in some songs, repeat certain key lines, and live and with the extra oomph in the vocals these bits come across very well. They also sound a little bit catchier than on the album, the live instrumentation really adding a bit of extra meat to the sound. I’m a sucker for a good bass, and I was pleased this came out of the speakers so well. I thought ‘Confirmation’ was done pretty well, and he actually went that high on the high bits, so he didn’t cheat himself out of that one.

It is also good to see that the band is enjoying themselves a bit. Not that they are cheering and hooting on stage, but sometimes the guys flash a smile. After playing a new song (which I assume is ‘Golden Haze’ as they mention it being on an upcoming EP in October) they look at each other with their faces shining a bit, as if to say, yeah, that was pretty nice actually what we just did. I always find that a good thing (unless you go the stylistic or theatrical route, but if you are “just playing” you might as well seemingly enjoy it a tad), because if the band isn’t having any fun, how can they expect the people in the audience feel the same? But the audience is having fun, and they even give an audible “aawww” when Jack breaks his string and announces that as a result the following song will have to be their last one (they are at the end of the setlist anyway). Contentedly the audience applauds when the band manages to squeeze out a song extra before leaving, and I think the applause was certainly justified. A band well worth catching while they’re touring the small venues.

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