wavves rock out, courtesy their myspace

Saturday, February 19th was no night for vocalists at the Hawthorne Theater in the South East corner of Portland, Oregon. With a line-up that consisted of No Joy, Best Coast, and Wavves, volume and reverb were key figures in nearly every song, drowning out lyrics that no one, including the audience, seemed to miss too much.

no joy hide in their hair, courtesy their myspace

First up was No Joy, who played possibly the loudest show of a pretty rambunctious night. The band’s twin female vocalists, Laura Lloyd and Jasmine White-Glutz, each armed and dangerous with a guitar, only looked up to shout something into their mics every now and then, their long, wavy hair nearly concealing each of their faces. The band’s hard-rocking, Shoegaze sound kept raging all the way through their short half hour-set, their drummer to the left of the band as opposed to the back, his furiously intense style powering the whole band. The band played each song with an exact execution, wrapping up their tight, perfected set in the blink of an eye.

best coast bringing it, courtesy their myspace

There was only a brief turnaround (15-20 Minutes) before Best Coast arrived on stage. Bethany Cosentino and company waisted no time in winning the audience over, opening with one of their most famous and most peppy numbers, Crazy For You. Cosentino showed an instant stage presence, her laid-back vibe and audience interaction endearing her to the crowd almost instantly. Snacks, the cat co-owned by Cosentino and Wavves frontman Nathan Williams, was the subject of much random audience yelling, culminating in someone throwing a stuffed cat up on stage, which Cosentino propped up on her shoulder for a short time. The band played nearly all of their debut LP Crazy For You, plus a few more that they had just written on tour. With songs over as soon as they started, Best Coast’s sunny little set of California pop-rock tunes was over within an hour, despite the fact that the band had played nearly their whole catalogue.

Similar to Best Coast, Wavves waisted no time taking the stage, setting up their own equipment and being ready to perform before the clock had even struck 10 pm. Without a doubt, Wavves were the most theatrical performers of the night, a member of their crew throwing inflatable aliens and beach balls at the audience the moment that the band’s distorted guitars first surged through their amps. The band played a surprising amount of songs from their first two LPs, Wavves and Wavvves, and generally avoided any song in their canon that couldn’t immediately be described as rock. Unlike with the previous two bands, the audience was alive and moving, the front and center of the floor full of bodies dancing and head-banging to the tunes. A handful of audience members even took the chance to crowd surf, and were met with no restrictions or security what-so-ever. More like No Joy than Best Coast, Wavves kept their chatting to a minimum while onstage, the exceptions being natural and comedic moments, as when Williams and fellow bandmates Stephen Pope and Jacob Cooper argued over who messed up the beginning of a particular song. Their set was a non-stop assault of sound (which I of course mean in the best way), closing with the defiant anthem Post-Acid before leaving the stage and neglecting their encore. Overall, a perfect night for people who love cats and fun, and don’t care about their eardrums.

Saturday marked the end of No Joy’s tour with Best Coast and Wavves. No Joy can next be seen at The Marquis Theater in Denver Colorado tomorrow night, Tuesday the 22nd of February. Best Coast and Wavves will continue their Summer is Forever tour on Thursday, February 24th at The Music Box in Los Angeles, and then again on the 26th at the Grand Ballroom in San Francisco before playing a slew of overseas shows. Music by all three bands is available through the iTunes store, Amazon.com, or at most music retailers.