Musings

The Harley is fit to burst; which could either be to shelter from the bitter cold outside, or to see the evening’s support ably come from recent buzz-band The Vaccines.

Front man, Justin Young at times embodies the cocksure swagger of Julian Casablancas, others the brooding melancholia of The Walkmen’s Hamilton Leithauser, whilst the band provide short, back-to-basic bursts of classic rock and roll.

 It toes the line between merely wearing their influences on their sleeve and being a bit too derivative of bands that have been their done that, but does enough to satisfy.

Jack Tatum, the man behind Wild Nothing played his first ever UK show at the Harley in July, at this year’s Tramlines festival; and his fuzzy, dreamy guitar-pop is perfectly suited to lazy summer evenings as opposed to late autumn dreariness.

Here, accompanied with a full band, Wild Nothing’s live performance takes on a louder, fuller sound, without sacrificing the delicacies that saw debut album Gemini become a critical success.

Wild Nothing roam their way through a selection of lush, fuzzy vignettes taken from Gemini; gorgeously textured and realised, the vocals occasionally seeming detached and functioning as further layered instrumentation.  Tatum’s voice often brings to mind that of The Shins’ lead James Mercer.

 Lyrically, Tatum takes on the human condition, often pessimistically giving a stark and bleak outlook on things, but this doesn’t eschew the feel-good vibes that the album and the live performance itself emit.

The hazy bedroom pop guitars and subtle synths of ‘Chinatown’ manage to stand out in an already stellar collection of tracks. The one-man Beach Boys melodies of set closer ‘Summer Holiday’ seal an accomplished performance.

With the burgeoning lo-fi indie-pop scene that is currently en vogue, Tatum and Wild Nothing have shown they have what it takes to become a major player.