Wild Beasts – The Academy, Dublin

• 13th Apr 2010

Critical success has never paid the bills, and giddy reviews of Wild Beasts’ second LP have hardly propelled them into superstardom – Hot Press nominated ‘Two Dancers’ as its 2009 album of the year, yet a headline slot at Slane remains unlikely to trouble the band’s diary. The more modest reward of a sold-out Academy will have to do for now.

“We’ve been looking forward to this for a long time,” says singer Hayden Thorpe. The crowd roars, reflecting a similar sentiment on their part, then hushes as the band unfurls the opening riff to ‘Two Dancers II’. Weightless notes float and shimmer above the heaving bodies before Thorpe’s falsetto vocals join them in a worrying, woozy marriage. The delicacy of this ethereal sound in such an austere, sweating venue seems almost disconcerting, but then Wild Beasts are masters of the contrast: raw lyrics continually bare their teeth behind fragile musical bars.

‘All the Kings Men’ exemplifies this tension (sexual ambivalence has never been so tuneful), and brings fellow front man Tom Fleming to the fore, physically recoiling as he fires out its opening rasps. Things proceed briskly – melodies, songs and arpeggios seem to blend into one another, all the more effectively thanks to minimal intra-gig banter, while appreciative cheers occasionally intrude for such moments as the siren call intro to ‘We still got the Taste Dancing on Our tongues’.

The set is an unabashed showcase of ‘Two Dancers’ – the album dominates the playlist – and Tom and Hayden barely hit a bum note between them as they reproduce the record’s vocal intricacies. Time flies, as it tragically tends to do, and suddenly things are drawing to a close with the echoed thrust of ‘Hooting and Howling’. Applause dies down, lights fade up, and people blink, looking around as if woken from a vaguely troubling dream…