Wild Beasts & Blue Roses – Oxford O2 Academy, 07/10/09

-

October is one of the busiest months of the year for live music, especially in a student town such as Oxford. After the summer months of festivals, the tourists have now been replaced in town by students and as the ever shortening days turn to night the streets are littered with boys and girls in fancy dress acclimatising to their new home. You would think that given the similar scenes that dominate the latest long-player from Kendal’s Wild Beasts, and the acclaim that has been heaped upon the record since it’s release, that Oxford’s Premier music venue would be rammed for a such a show, so it’s with curiosity and no little disappointment that upon arriving at the venue, it’s, well… a bit empty.

The room is still only half full when Blue Roses take to the stage and Laura Groves is ably backed by a pair of multi instrumentalists who add subtle, lush layers to her skeletal yet sophisticated compositions.

Those that are here promptly are treated to a truly wonderful set that draws heavily on the material from this year’s eponymous debut album as Groves and band send the entire room into if not stunned, then at the very least awed silence. ‘I Am Leaving’ is an early highlight and ‘Coast’ finds Groves on electric guitar to pleasing effect. It’s a cliché to talk about star quality but Groves is certainly an unusually engaging performer and while there are nods to some of the decades more prominent female solo artists but it doesn’t really matter when the songs are just so good. If there’s any justice then all of tonight’s converts will be present when she returns to town next month to headline.

Numbers are looking more respectable and there’s even a low buzz of anticipation by the time the headliners take to a darkened stage, lit only by twinkling fairly lights and crash into ‘The Fun Powder Plot’ still bathed in shadow. Hayden Thorpe is in commanding voice and the band have honed their rhythmic chops on recent tours and are now as tight a band as you’re likely to see. Nearly all of the most memorable moments of this evening’s set come when all four band members are at full pelt and firing off one another, each knowing when to lock the parts in together and when to hang back and let each other breathe.

This is well illustrated in the gap in quality between the tracks from Two Dancers and the Limbo, Panto numbers which are more reliant on vocal theatrics. There are exceptions of course and ‘Brave, Bulging, Buoyant Clairvoyants’ is met with a roar of approval which buoys the band on (sorry) and there is a great moment as the bass drops away to leave Thorpe’s falsetto standing at the track’s climax you start wonder which other band would even be capable of creating these songs.

‘We’ve Still Got The Taste…’ and ‘Hooting and Howling’ are just a tad too slow compared to the album version (a fine lesson not to record things faster than they’re played live) and feel sluggish as a result but the likes of ‘All The Kings Men’ and ‘Two Dancers(I)’ find a pummelling, vital rawness that only comes from a live performance. While frontmen Hayden and Tom Fleming are the undeniably the main attractions as they dispense slightly inebriated yet genial banter it is guitarist Ben Little and drummer Chris Talbot that are the unsung heroes. Little note perfect in wrapping swathes of delayed tones around the tracks while Talbot propels the band along with dexterous yet powerful toms work and a nice line in agitated cowbell to boot.

With twists and turns that even surprise the hardened fan it’s probably not so shocking that the casual listener hasn’t quite come around yet. And as the band close the set with a joyous cowbell heavy ‘Devil’s Crayon’ and ‘Empty Nest’ and the audience empty out into the night past the those stumbling up the Cowley Road in various states of disrepair, you realise that they are simply one of the most interesting, and strangest bands around right now and one to treasure in their ability to transform such mundane scenes into something so fantastical.