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Preview Wed Aug 04 2010
Wild Beasts' Busy Weekend in Chicago
Even more fun than tearing down a sophomore slump album is praising the followup that slays a debut. It's exhilarating to hear a band with promise graduate from raw and disjointed to refined and orderly.
From the beginning of the Mercury Prize-nominated Two Dancers, Wild Beasts exhibit coming into their own. Where the debut Limbo, Panto often sounded like a lesser Elbow (not that a hundred bands wouldn't love to achieve that), Two Dancers finds singer Hayden Thorpe confident in how best to use his distinctive falsetto while the group hones in on a pop-oriented theatrical theme. Lust dominates the album's subject matter, getting progressively darker with seemingly amusing lyrics like "Any rival who goes for our girls will be left thumbsucking in terror and bereft of all coffin bearers" to the more serious "I'm left here, and I'm here on my own." It's a mighty effort and the band should be drawing heavy from it as they roar through Chicago for three shows.
Wild Beasts play with the Boxer Rebellion at the Apple Store (679 N. Michigan) at 6PM on Thursday afternoon. Friday night they'll headline the Empty Bottle (1035 N. Western) with the Kissaway Trail and Lone Wolf at 10PM. Tickets are $15 and it's 21+. They'll wrap up the weekend with a set at Lollapalooza on Saturday before heading off to complete a short tour on this side of the pond.
