On the stroke of half past nine, Wye Oak – the North Carolinian duo of Andy Stack (drums) and Jenn Wasner (guitar, keyboards and vocals), accompanied here by Will Hackney (bass guitar) – step onto the Headrow House stage to the strains of ‘(Tuning)’, the opening track from their latest album The Louder I Call, The Faster I Run. They then proceed to knock out three more songs from this record, straight off the bat. The first of these, ‘The Instrument’ opens with the ominous line “Suffering, I remember suffering”. The second, ‘Lifer’ is then introduced by Wasner as being about “trying not to die”.
On this evidence alone, or so it would seem, the portents for much happiness and joy in Leeds tonight are not really that great. But given their hitherto seismic shifts in musical direction – in a consistently positive and exciting way, I hasten to add – it shouldn’t really come as any real surprise that Wye Oak continue to confound us. Here they once more defy expectations by producing a set that given the darker lyrical hue of the first couple of songs paradoxically exudes the most unexpected of pleasure and contentment. They may be in no particular rush to go home tomorrow – Jenn Wasner describes the prospect as them returning to “that shitty America” – but it is the last night of their August tour of Europe and the UK and there is a heightened sense of triumph and celebration in the air.
The tour, which has included festival appearances in Denmark, Sweden as well as Green Man here in the UK, has by every account been a resounding success. It has given Wye Oak the opportunity to road-harden the newer material from The Louder I Call, The Faster I Run. These songs have been further strengthened in the live setting by the addition of Will Hackney on bass guitar. Hackney who shares a house back in North Carolina with Stack and Wasner, as well tour support act, Madeline Kenney, provides additional rhythmic ballast to the two principals’ textured fusion of ethereal sound.
By the time that Jenn Wasner comes on stage she has ditched her patterned Moog Synthesisers’ sweater, but it’s message still percolates throughout the 14 song set. A fabric of grainy electronics can often be heard bubbling under the surface of her and Stack’s sonic assault, a melodic avalanche of noise over which her voice soars drawing favourable comparisons with that of the former Cocteau Twins’ singer Liz Fraser. This is probably no more true than on ‘Say Hello’, another impressive tune taken from the new album and one described rather mysteriously by Wasner as being a song about “aeroplanes and psychic abilities”.
Come the arrival of ‘Watching The Waiting’ (from the band’s 2016 release Tween) Will Hackney exits the stage, temporarily stripping the current Wye Oak live experience back to its primary elements of Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner. Wasner introduces the song as one that explores “when things don’t go according to plan, but turn out OK”. I think it would be fair to say that tonight in Leeds everything went very much to plan, and turned out to be far much more than just OK.
Photos: Simon Godley
More photos from this show can be found HERE
