Wild Beasts, Wakefield Escobar

After repeatedly listening to Wild Beasts critically acclaimed debut album it’s easy to adapt to the band’s avant garde direction. Fronted by the whimsical falsetto vocals of Hayden Thorpe, the band stand shoulders above the rest for their offbeat complex rhythms and high pitched melodies - and with tonight’s date the final of the tour, the band have some treats in store for the audience.

Playing a foray of new material, the group take their music from the strangely bizarre to soft dance. Making an entrance with a haunting spoken word piece the band explode into a percussion infused cocktail, only softened by the high rising vocals. ‘Devil’s Crayon’ gives the performance a kick start while a new song brings the highlight of the evening. Bringing a darker bassline, with a pounding rhythm, the track manages to keep its structure as bass player Tom Fleming attempts to howl across the simple instrumentation. It’s one of the strangest songs of the evening, but slowly builds into a sublime understated performance.

Obvious tracks such as ‘Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants’ are the first to hit immediate responses with the audience, but it is the slow smooth numbers which really impress. ‘Please Sir’ leaves you on tender hooks as notes are held to extreme lengths while new tracks really outshine the old. It’s tough hearing new material live yet Wild Beasts make tonight’s performance effortless leaving us overjoyed and begging for that avant garde direction to continue.