Wunderhorse are on the up and up. In the past six months alone they’ve supported Fontaines D.C. on US and UK tours, released their debut album (Cub), and joined Pixies on a 16-date European jaunt.
They’re now on a national headline tour that’s almost entirely sold out. And all over the 1500-capacity Electric Ballroom are posters advertising their upcoming November show at O2 Forum Kentish Town, a venue that packs in almost 1000 more people than tonight.
The rapid rise is partly down to the songs: dark, twisty, guitar-based indie rock anthems and haunting, slightly off-kilter ballads that wouldn’t be out of place on Radiohead’s The Bends. (Yes, they’re that good.) But it’s mostly down to how the songs are performed. What started out as a solo project for former Dead Pretties frontman Jacob Slater has long since evolved into a bonafide band. Together, the four musicians instil the music and lyrics with even more drama and dynamics than the studio recordings.
Typically for a one-album band on a headline tour, the bulk of the set comes from Cub. But, in breaking with tradition, the songs aren’t performed too fast or interspersed with obvious cover versions. Wunderhorse clearly know what they’re doing. As the house lights dim, There She Goes by The La’s plays over the speakers. The crowd, most born long after it was released, join in. Mood set, the band walk on to The Replacements’ Unsatisfied.
Butterflies open the show as it does the album: quietly (and slightly ominously), before flourishing into a beautiful (still marginally menacing) chorus (“So jump off the bridge and kiss the water”). Lyrically just as downcast, Girl Behind The Glass is musically brighter and effortlessly soars higher and higher on the back of Harry Fowler’s snaking guitar lines, before ending as quietly as it began.
Leader Of The Pack also benefits from a stripped-back opening that’s far more effective than the album version, before heading on down the highway, Southern-rock style, and instigating the night’s first mosh pit up front. Mantis mellows the mood for a moment, the audience singing along to the chiming opening chords. Their voices grow even louder as the frontman begins singing “Did it move?/ Did I move you?” while accompanying himself on guitar. When the rest of the band join in, the crowd just get louder, practically shouting “It’s a beautiful world”.
Arizona, a new Americana-leaning song played throughout this tour, is next, slowly rising towards a guitar solo that’s perhaps best described as country-psychedelia before gliding back down to the desert sand. A look ahead at album two, perhaps, it’s still not as special as what comes next: the debut of a quietly hopeful track inspired by the gig that, years ago, inspired Slater to become a musician. The kicker? That gig was at this very venue. Understandably then, there’s a real poignancy to the refrain of “This is what I’m waiting for”.
Returning to Cub, 17 (written when he was 17) continues the look back, before Purple erupts. “Massive” say my notes, which is short-hand for an epic slide guitar solo, sudden sonic shifts, and more moshing. Teal, introduced with an atmospheric take on Slowthai’s Falling, is even more hyperactive. Musically Wunderhorse’s bounciest song (even as Slater growls lines like “And when I was using, she still said she loved me/ Be more of a human, less of a junkie”), tonight it’s all about synchronised clapping and bouncing.
The ambient Somewhere Over The Rainbow intro to non-album track Oprah Winfrey (Is This Love?), offers a moment of (relative) calm, before the song itself unfurls as a howl into the dark, perfectly setting up the night’s last two songs. Poppy, which benefits from a long psychedelic instrumental opening, is the soundtrack to all-out moshing and climaxes in a massive (that word again) outro only hinted at on the LP. As the rhythm section of drummer Jamie Staples and bass player Pete Woodin lay down the biggest of grooves, Slater momentarily shows up Fowler with a fierce guitar solo of his own.
Epilogue closes the show as it does the album: quietly (and more than slightly ominously). But unlike the version on Cub, there’s a ferocious twist as the band let loose and the singer screams “Tell me now” over and over. Normal service soon resumes as the familiar guitar riff returns, Slater croons lines like “But times are changing/ Feelings fading”, and the band join in with restraint.
Suddenly, though, they all stop. Silence for what seems like 20 seconds. Tension builds. A space clears on the floor. Those who’ve been to a Wunderhorse gig before clearly know what comes next. The musicians drop back in as suddenly as they stopped, but louder and more intense than ever before. And the moshing — wild but not aggressive — returns.
Based on those final frenzied minutes alone, their show at O2 Forum Kentish Town will be sold out long before November.
Wunderhorse
Electric Ballroom, London
6th April 2023
Photo: Simon Reed
- This article originally appeared on Louder Than War.
Nils van der Linden 