Photographs by Sarah Rix.
I’ve been going to gigs for over 25 years. Many say I’m jaded and sometimes I believe them. Sometimes I know I’m not and case in point would be last night’s Wild Beasts and Mutual Benefit gig at the Mod Club.
I’ll be honest – I wasn’t in the mood to go. Nothing to do with the bands at all, as I was curious about Mutual Benefit and I’d say I was a casual fan of Wild Beasts. But I’m really glad I went.
Mutual Benefit, from Boston via Austin, were met with an indifferent audience that seemed to be more concerned with catching up on the day’s gossip rather than absorb the sounds coming from the 4 piece stretched across the front of the stage. This was surprising as from what I can tell, the two acts definitely compliment each other. The volume for their set was too low and the chatter threatened to overpower their serene songs. Frontman Jordan Lee’s banter was completely drowned out and I couldn’t make out a joke he tossed off mid-set. And they really could have used a bass player and more volume to make everyone pay attention.
Wild Beasts, the quirky 4-piece from England are touring behind their excellent fourth album, Present Tense, which brought them to a cool Toronto last night. I had never seen the band before but really enjoyed their last two albums and was curious as to how they translated in the live setting.
Opening with “Mecca” off the new album, some sound levels had to be ironed out before the gig hit its groove and then it really took off. The band were met by a very enthusiastic and pretty packed house. This was a two-way street with the band giving back the same enthusiasm over the course of 70 minutes.
Live, Wild Beasts are just that – wild beasts with a surprisingly strong rhythm section and some of the most bone-shaking bass I’ve experienced since Disclosure at the beginning of the year. If you thought of their albums as twee, live they are all muscle. Vocals, shared by both multi-instrumentalists Hayden Thorpe and Ben Little, were beautiful. Everything after the first song just sounded so fantastic. Surprisingly, they recalled The Hurting-era Tears For Fears, albeit instead of primal scream therapy, the Beasts songs are “either about fighting or fucking”. There was no fighting last night, only a lot of love and their set will definitely figure in my top gigs of the year.
