The Wave Pictures have finally arrived. A career stretching back almost two decades and with a critically acclaimed recording output that is far more than you can reasonably shake any contemporary musical stick at, you would be right in thinking that they already had. But an upgrade from their customary place at the bijou City Screen cinema Basement to the far more expansive Crescent Community Venue confirms – in York, at the very least – that they most surely have.
With its tumbledown, dilapidated charm The Crescent is a perfect fit for The Wave Pictures. Walking through the venue’s door is like stepping back in time. And with their wry references to Thin Lizzy, Dire Straits and exquisite covers of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Sinister Purpose’ and The Grateful Dead’s ‘Friend of the Devil’, The Wave Pictures do have one foot firmly in the past. Yet for all that their music owes a gratitude to another era, their admirable refusal to stand still means that The Wave Pictures end up taking a more nostalgic view of the future.
This is the third date on a UK tour to promote their umpteenth album, A Season in Hull. The trio are augmented tonight by David Beauchamp on percussion and Paul Rains, guitarist from this evening’s principal support act, Tigercats. Together the five men bring the songs from that record thrillingly to life. ‘Remains’ assumes a far more reflective Latin spring in its step and whilst during ‘Thin Lizzy Live and Dangerous’ David Tattersall – The Wave Pictures’ lead singer and guitarist – and Rains do not quite replicate the traditional Thin Lizzy dual-guitar attack, Tattersall does peel off a solo that both Scott Gorman and Brian Robertson in their considerable pomp would have been mightily proud of.
It is a trick that Tattersall repeats time and time again throughout the evening. He must surely be Britain’s most unsung guitar hero. The interplay between him and Rains on ‘Red Cloud Road Part 2’ – a track from their sprawling 2013 double-CD album City Forgiveness – is to die for and Harrington’s beautifully understated solo in the middle of ‘Friend of the Devil’ captures the very essence of this purest slice of classic country-folk.
Having blasted out a valedictory ‘Atlanta’, The Wave Pictures return for a richly deserved encore of ‘Strange Fruit for David’. Taken from their 2008 release Instant Coffee Baby it is a song replete with sharp, oblique social observation and clear melodic loveliness, characteristics that reflect the true spirit and almost-telepathic chemistry that exists within one of the country’s still most unheralded bands. At the end of a long week, this is just what Friday nights are made for.
Photo credit: Simon Godley
More photos from this show can be found here
