Wu Lyf at Whelan’s on March 19th 2012
They’re an enigmatic bunch, this crowd. World Unite Lucifer Youth Foundation – Wu Lyf to you and I – caused something of a stir last year with their DIY approach to the release and marketing of Go Tell Fire To The Mountain. They shunned press and record company advances, instead raising money through the Lucifer Youth Foundation membership scheme and self-producing the album, at the same time building around them a mystique and word of mouth buzz most would kill for. The tail end of a bank holiday isn’t traditionally the best day to be gig-fit – and I’m not talking about the band here – but nonetheless tonight’s Whelan’s crowd is out in force and in fine fettle to check them out.
Dublin duo Thread Pulls get things underway tonight with songs from their début album New Thoughts. The band use a minimalist set-up, laying out percussive, dark rolling forms – just bass and drums with sampled loops, high-pitched vocals and dissonant trumpet wails. The drummer holds it all together, taking a less-is-more approach often punctuated by startling flourishes like the tom rolls in ‘Weight’ or the tribal pattern of ‘Starts ends’, while the vocalist provides atmospheric yelps and calls atop the cacophony of distorted bass and layered effects. Their opaque and often claustrophobic songs blow off any hangover dust that has settled from the weekend before the main men come onstage.
Whelan’s tonight calls to mind a congregation awaiting a preacher, unsurprising given that the band recorded their album in a Manchester church; the cruciform Wu Lyf logo hanging centre stage is the focus of attention before the band come on, with both crowd and cross bathed in red light. Then, the stage goes black, the cross lights up, and the band enter to tear into LYF. It’s a suitably unruly opener which the band spends most of grinning at each other.
A fine version of Dirt comes barreling along, floor tom heavy, launching into that great drum break before the band re-join, with some impressive guttural singing from Ellery Roberts, the group’s charismatic frontman. His throat-shredding style is the focus of the band’s sound and Such A Sad Puppy Dog showcases the largely unintelligible singing and the church organ that is ubiquitous in their songs, performed here by Robert’s largely unaccompanied. The backing vocals of bass player Thomas McClung too, are uniformly excellent throughout the gig, colouring and augmenting those of Roberts.
An early highlight comes with a rocking Spitting Blood with the crowd clapping time as the band rout the song. They are well warmed up by this stage, immersing themselves in a cover of Papa M’s Up North Kids before feedback issues during Concrete Gold bring things to a grinding halt. A wild roadie appears to MacGyver the situation – a second attempt stumbles but third time’s a charm; the band takes it in their stride and the song’s excellent, epic guitar sound assuredly banishes the memory of these mishaps.
“How’s everyone out there? Stone cold sober”, Roberts gently chides the crowd, and in fairness I think the band has had a head start on all of us tonight in that respect. He introduces the musicians before Heavy Pop ends the set proper, and we are instructed to close our eyes for a minute while they do a stage show encore. Re-open…”okay we’re back!” We Bros completes the night – Roberts requests dancing, and not only gets it, but some stage diving and crowd surfing to boot. It’s a triumphant end to a brief set – a 10.20 finish – played with chest-pounding conviction by the band, and as enjoyable a Whelan’s crowd as I’ve been part of.