Wild by name they may be, but the Mercury Prize nominated Wild Beasts still managed to send a sell-out house of dedicated followers into raptures of soothing sighs on this, the second of their two nights at Londons Shepherds Bush Empire.
With a back catalogue of three albums upon which to draw including this years Smother there was no paucity in set material, nor in showing why they have been conquering each town theyve played on recent tours across N. America and Europe. The Cumbrian art rock/dream poppers play with a refined grace and fragility, inflicting a poetic passion and emotion into each song that is both uplifting and sigh-worthy in equal measure; from the sparser shades the like of Deeper, through to dance tempod We Still Got The Taste Dancin On Our Tongues, and naturally, the eponymous Bed Of Nails. All of which are artfully, and near uniquely, reproduced live to as near perfect renditions of the recorded versions as one could wish for.
The twin heart-and-soul of the band, Heyden Thorpe and Tom Fleming, define their sound. The dream-laden recent single Albatross becomes a kind of electro duel-off on synths, whilst wrapped vocally around each other, with Thorpes soaring falsetto played against Flemings lower register vocal pitch. On All The Kings men vocal tones are reversed, and roused are the crowd for heartfelt singalong accompaniment.
Layered textures that have been honed over successive live outings ooze and burst forth on Hooting and Howling and Reach A Bit Further. Thumping bass that is often enough to alter heart rhythms, the guitar of Ben Little providing such a masterful interlude of six-string dexterity on The Devils Crayon, and the rhythms worked out on drum pads and loops by Chris Talbot add yet further to the complex charm.
The finale, End Comes Too Soon is a majestically dispatched seven minutes, set amidst darkened lights through which it glitters like stars across a night sky. As the crowd surge out onto the streets of Shepherds Bush at its end, the word is this: a beast of a show.