Wavves
July 15th at the Bowery Ballroom, New York City

No, he didn’t have a meltdown. And nobody was hoping for one (or so it seemed with the room’s gushing enthusiasm), but people were expecting another onstage public freakout from Wavves frontman Nathan Williams. Well, at least I was. The broken wrist wasn’t what I would call a promising sign in his favor. But he worked through it. Not only that, he seemed to play better with the cast on his right arm—more energy, more to prove.

I saw Wavves at Brooklyn’s Market Hotel back in March, with a bigger band—at Bowery Ballroom it was just a duo, the group distilled to the drum/guitar format of likeminded groups No Age and the White Stripes (Really! Let’s give credit where it’s due, people)—and a similar-sized crowd (big). The set was shorter back in March, and Williams looked surprised that people came to see him play, a kind of aw-shucks look plastered on his face the whole time. That look transformed into a shit-grin this time around: Yeah, I know I haven’t fucked up yet, and guess what? I’m not going to, muthafuckas!

So the difference was confidence. No longer an innocent boy—how could he be after the Barcelona breakdown and the embarrassing (for all of us) explanation of mixing Xanax with Valium with Ecstasy—Wavves has become a man.

Opening acts Woods and Popo (Real Estate was there too, but I missed it) offered reflective, entirely inoffensive sets and the audience responded soberly, except for the girl behind me who said, out of excitement, “God, I’m gonna pee my pants!” after Woods finished playing. Fine.

The moment Wavves stepped on stage, though, the chaos began. The audience members—not everyone, mostly the dudes wearing flannel—pulled themselves up on stage and dove into the crowd, everyone thrashing about, singing along (who knows how, with so much reverb on his vocals, there’s no telling what Williams is singing) as shoes and sunglasses flew from the audience. All the while, Williams was smiling like he was playing some glorious trick on everyone. This continued until everything in the room climaxed with “So Bored.” This is the song everyone came to ironically enjoy (they didn’t look bored). Folks were throwing their fists into the air before diving off the stage. Someone—not wearing flannel, actually!—ran to the drum kit and smashed the cymbals with his fists before running to the edge of the stage and jumping off. Everyone in the room was jumping up and down like a wave (sigh), pumping their fists, howling in celebration of Williams keeping it together. When it was over, I caught a glimpse of Williams sipping from a bottle of Kombucha. That’s right. Healthy, fermented tea. Well, to be a total dad about it, stay sober kids!

Watch: Wavves, “Summer Goth” [at youtube.com]

Read past installments of It Shows:

Dirty Projectors at the Independent, San Francisco

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone at the First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia

David Byrne at the Greek Theater, Berkeley and the Hunches at the Hemlock, San Francisco