Coal Exchange, Cardiff Bay
Fri 16 Mar
★★★★★
words: LLOYD GRIFFITHS
As Hayden Thorpe, falsettoed lead singer of Wild Beasts, punctures the mix of ethereal and carnal noise that has preceded a glorious encore, his pleasant offering of good luck for the following day’s rugby match seems strangely at odds with the intensity that came before. Warm hearted rugby well-wishing and risque songs about lust, seduction and premature ejaculation aren’t often found in such close proximity. Then again, the band have always been slightly paradoxical in their polite manner compared with the potency and lyrical sexuality present in the music, something which is clear throughout the gig at Cardiff Bay’s Coal Exchange.
It’s a perfect venue, the moaning white noise off album track Burning reverberating around the high ceilings as the band come on stage to enthusiastic expectation. They waste little time in demanding attention, opener Bed Of Nails bounding into life before unveiling crowd pleaser We Still Got The Taste Dancin’ On Our Tongues, Thorpe’s “oh-oh-oh”s bringing the crowd to enraptured dancing, all to the sound of a band poetically explaining the advantages of outdoor sex.
It’s this kind of strange blend of raw intimacy, rhythmic lyricism and a knack for writing terribly danceable songs which makes them such a captivating live act. For a band described as Friendly Fires meets Oscar Wilde, live there is a laying open bare of their elements (the slowing of syncopated drums and the subtle interplay between Thorpe’s and Tom Fleming’s stunning bass vocals for example) that means they seem anything but pretentious or removed. Rather they sway to the sultry The Fun Powder Plot and thrash guitars to the epic Two Dancers (i) with refreshing intensity.
The encore is just as powerful: it’s opened with the incredible Lion’s Share, which somehow manages to be darkly seductive yet vulnerable at once. The delicate pianos play alongside Thorpe’s seemingly predatorial protagonist, asking “Do I pull you out or let you sink?” before the electronic bass turns the song into an overwhelming revelry. By the time they close with End Come Too Soon, the crowd are truly at the band’s mercy, the extended tension of the mid-song break being fully absorbed by an audience who are happy to be toyed with. The return of Thorpe’s smouldering yelping imbues the almost unbearably candid lyrics with a strangely transcendent feel – a fitting finish to a superb performance.