Wild Beasts, a seductive Indie Rock feast!
Indie rock band Wild Beasts oozed understated talent on Sunday at the main stage of Common People Festival Southampton. Their album cover of their 2016 release Boy King was a backdrop to the set; a bald black face emanating red light from the eyes set the tone for the seductive and mysterious style of the band’s latest tracks. The lead singer Hayden Thorpe has a voice that is similar to Filthy Boy’s Paraic Morrissey; intoxicatingly sickening which is not what the band intended when they formed, claiming in an interview with The Independent that they wanted to be an effeminate art-band in reaction to the intense masculinity of many Indie rock bands in the industry.
But personally, Boy King has features the band’s best music; the performance of Big Cat and Get My Bang could have been recorded at Common People Festival and been fit for release on a CD that’s how perfectly composed the band were with their electronic effects played live on stage alongside growling guitars and tight drum rhythms.
Their song Alpha Female was my personal favourite, its irresistibly catchy lyrics and message of queendom was impossible not to twist your hips to.
Wild Beasts are not greatly known of in the mainstream, but judging from their humble and beautifully executed performance on Sunday its clear to see that for them fame is not something they value. The mixed audience of fans like myself, mouthing the lyrics and people chilled on the grass eating chips was not off-putting to Wild Beasts, and their seductive songs were perfect on a warm, cloudy evening in Southampton.
Click on the image to visit the band's webpage -