by Matt Kelchner
Fresh off the release of their much talked about new album Shriek, Baltimore duo Wye Oak came into Philadelphia Monday night to show the city what the buzz was all about. The central sound of the band has dramatically shifted between their highly touted 2011 release, Civilian, and now. The bold move showed that the band was not afraid to branch out and experiment. Their performance Monday night showed that Wye Oak is every bit as confident as they are bold.
First to take the stage was the Montreal three piece band Braids. The group mixes atmospheric dreampop with the intensity and driving tones of shoegaze in a way that results in some of the most forward-thinking pop music out there. The trio of Raphaelle Standell-Preston, Austin Tufts and Taylor Smith may have started out quietly, but were nothing like that throughout the rest of their set. Standell-Preston’s voice shined through the heavy but spacy dance beats built up by her counterparts. They pulled from both Native Speaker as well as Flourish // Perish throughout the set. Songs like “Same Mum” and “In Kinds” resonated with the crowd as the swayed back and forth. Just as they humbly started their set, they ended it just the same, graciously thanking the crowd before leaving.
Visually not much has changed with Wye Oak. It’s still just the combination of Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner. There are no touring musicians or extra hands on deck this time around. The biggest change, however, is the bass guitar standing next to Wasner’s two guitars. With the bass and synth driven sound of Shriek, it’s a no brainer to see the addition. A majority of the night was spent sharing with the crowd their latest songs. Energy wise, Wye Oak did not skip a beat. New tunes like “Before” and “The Tower” hit just as hard as older hits like “Holy Holy” and “That I Do”.
Wye Oak shifted gears between old and new material every few songs. As Wasner traded one guitar for another, as well as moving to the synths, Stack steadied the ship. Somehow Stack managed to make playing both drums and synths seem so effortless that it looked like he could somehow add another instrument in. For “Spiral”, he came out from behind his kit to play bass and Wanser tore through the song. They ended their set with “Logic of Color” before they went off for a quick break before their encore.
The encore for the night was kept brief. Before they got things started, Wasner introduced the first song as a cover that they had been practicing for “reasons they cannot share”. Take that for what you will, but the two of them followed that up by ripping through Kate Nash’s “Running Up That Hill”. The night came to an end with the title track from their 2011 release, Civilian, a song that anyone there could have guessed to be the final song. Union Transfer became filled with a room full of voices as the crowd sang along word for word. For a band that is testing the waters with a new direction, Wye Oak showed their dominance once again. Any doubts that the fans might not pick up on the new sound were easily squashed Monday night.
