The weather tonight is less than desirable for a night out at the Opera House. But even with shoes that resemble water balloons I push on to the lower part of the Opera House to see up and coming Manchester Band, WU LYF.
WU LYF have become somewhat of an AR persons object of affection during their short career. They are shrouded in mystery due to the lack of interviews and press releases the band do. They have also released a £50 EP which stirred up shit on the industry side of things. They have played only around 20 live shows in their career and they also happen to make damn good music.
The stage tonight has the bands symbol projected two levels high behind them. Due to an unexpected and damn punctual start time of 7pm I miss the first few opening numbers. But what I did see was nothing short of amazing. For a band who only have a handful of shows under their belt, no one could tell as the band were as tight as most of the senior bands getting around in this day and age.
From the minute you hear frontman Ellery Roberts sing into his elevated microphone you are impressed. His shrieking into layers upon layers of reverb sounds even better in the acoustic prepared Sydney Opera House studio. The best way to describe his vocals is as if At the Drive In and Grizzly Bear got together and traded jobs for a day. When backed by the rest of the band it makes the vocals of the band sound amazing, the musical side of things is quite impressive too!
'Spitting Up Blood' is an early highlight, as is latest single 'Dirt' which features drums as hard hitting and confronting as on record, courtesy of the groups drummer, Joe Manning.
The chanting of the chorus by the band gets the head nodding and singing along. The band inform the crowd that this will be their last song as they launch into one of their bigger tracks 'Heavy Pop'. The cathedral like organ and guitar are a odd counterpart to the strained musings of Ellery Roberts. The drums build as soundscapes form and even though most of Ellery's words are inaudible. But it is impossible not to attempt to sing along. It is quite the marvel to watch and when the band leave the stage I was rather disappointed for not getting more.
Luckily the band return one by one for a single song encore which is led by the groups bassist Tom McClung, taking on vocal and keyboard duties. It is a nice little number to go out on and it was interesting to see the wall of sound they were trying to build grow and grow as each member returned to the stage. It was a shame that it was only one song and that the band had played for only just little over an hour making the night come to a unfortunate early finish. This aside, I think that everyone here tonight was impressed as to what they saw.
Have you ever seen a band and just known that these guys are gonna be big? WU LYF are the prime example of that feeling. Their sound is a unique blend of reverb drenched alternative music with hints of indie complexity that bands such as Foals and Animal Collective have paved the way for. It is obvious why Stephen Pavalovic picked this band for this unique festival for they deliver exactly what this festival stands for.
It is also a good thing to see such young talent like this being represented at this huge festival in what is a foreign land for these Manchester upstarts.
Take a guess at who will be headlining festivals such as Laneway in the next few years...
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