Last Night: Wavves Inspire Moshing, Crowd-Surfing, Rampant Bliss
Wavves/Cloud Nothings/DOM
He's doing much better now. Pics by Georgia, way more below.
Knitting Factory
Thursday, June 24
The Northside Festival opening night was a hipster frat party in which every dude (and a few dudettes) tried to out-bro the next guy. Instead of shotgunning Budweisers, though, these fresh young things chugged PBRs, moshed, and crowd-surfed.
It was a Wavves show! What did we expect?
SoCal punk Nathan Williams played a triumphant show: Now backed by a kickin' rhythm section (previously of the late Jay Reatard's band), the new Wavves is less lo-fi and more straight-up punk. His songs about boredom, disaffection, and slacker fun appeal at a time when young people fear for the future. But does Williams (who himself jumped into the crowd while still playing his guitar) actually think about this when writing his songs? Doubtful. As drummer Billy Hayes announced, "We didn't graduate college cause we're too dumb!" All the more reason to stage dive and land face first on the floor, right?
Williams, triumphant. 
Best hair-flipping we've ever seen. 
Happy moshers. 
What's in that sailor's hands? 
Team Wavves!! 
Perfect execution. 
This guy just fell right on his face. He's feeling it now... 
Hey, now. Smile! 
Totally blissed out. 
This Vivian Girls fan jumped into the audience maybe 10 times? 
Rhythm section rocking it. 
Basking in the clublight. 
Cleveland's Cloud Nothings played second. 
Mr. Vivian Girls liked Cloud Nothings, too. 
Cloud Nothings play straight up pop-punk a la Weezer. Oh, and in between bands, guess what was playing? Yeah, the Blue Album. 
Shining bright on a big stage. 
Big, pretty eyes. This guy later was a big player in the crowd-surfing game. 
DOM played first. The band has grown by two members since we saw them last, about a month ago. 
Breathing green, appropriately enough.
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