Wallows at Electric Brixton - 06.06.19
You may not have heard of Wallows, but you very well should have. With a lead singer that moonlights as the star of a controversial Netflix show and fans that have been queuing outside of Electric Brixton since early in their morning, they fit the criteria of a band you should be paying attention to.
Wallows started out in Los Angeles and is comprised of actors Dylan Minette and Braeden Lemasters on guitar and vocals and Cole Preston on drums. Dressed in polos and dad jeans, they are everything a cool indie rock band needs to be in 2019. Their first EP Spring came out last year and features energetic, yet romantic tunes. Earlier this year, they released their full-length album with its witty title Nothing Happens and it is the perfect soundtrack to a coming of age film. Their songs encapsulate the feeling of a cool sunny Californian day and this energy translates all the way to Brixton on a Thursday evening last week.
Photo credit: onestowatch
Wallows have played in London before and were clearly excited to be back. They explained to the crowd that their last performance was received with so much enthusiasm and the crowd was bursting at the seams. This show presented itself to be nothing less, with a sold-out crowd singing along carelessly to every song and jumping around energetically to great tunes like Remember When and Drunk on Halloween. They even got the crowd to fill in the whole of the second verse of Are You Bored Yet? a song that features Clairo – internet cool-girl known for her bedroom pop tunes.
Whilst the songs do seem to blend into one another, making them sometimes seem indistinguishable one from the other, they still keep their charm as a happy-go-lucky band. Their music manages to remain effortless cool, despite their self-deprecation which can be seen in songs such as Scrawny and in their performance of 1980s Horror Film for their encore. As the crowd cheers, Braeden returns to the stage on his own to perform an acoustic version of the song. The rest of the band soon join him to sing the chorus huddled together around one microphone. With self-aware lyrics, like 'why are girls in songs always seventeen', and their energetic camaraderie, it is evident that Wallows do not take themselves too seriously and that is what makes them so loveable.
Their final song of the night, Pleaser, ended on a high when the entire audience shouted back the lyrics. The band are clearly grateful for such an enthusiastic reception. Overall, the night was a fun and energetic experience. Sure, their songs might sound almost all the same, but the liveliness and dreaminess that they show makes the criticism irrelevant. Wallows are proof that indie music can still be great, as long as it doesn’t take itself too seriously!
Wallows will be opening for Vampire Weekend at Alexandra Palace later this year, so you have plenty of time to dance along to their songs in the hope of feeling just as great at one of their live shows.
Edited by Evangeline Stanford, Digital Editor
