WLDFLWRS at The Old Post Office
Review
In many ways, values & attitudes shape my attraction to certain artists as much as their talent & prowess.
On one hand, WLDFLWRS are going from strength to strength playing their "The Last Waltz" show with impressive arrays of famous guests in equally prestigious venues such as The Viaduct Theatre in Halifax and Birmingham Town Hall (that's coming up on Thursday November 27th: tickets available via https://bmusic.co.uk/events/a-celebration-of-the-last-waltz). Yet they still play tiny grassroots venues such as The Old Post Office in Warwick where I saw them yesterday. As a band grown from their work supporting Stratford's sadly missed Street Arts project, this commitment to this scale is unsurprising but still worth commending.
And I mean "tiny". Not only did I struggle to find any sort of vantage point, but getting in at all was far from certain. Sensibly, the configuration this time was restricted to the Founding Four Flowers: Wes Finch, Katherine Abbott, Jack Blackman & Jono Wright. There was no room for even a percussionist. Wes, Jono & Jack shared a mic (which did make for great harmonies) and as I arrived before instruments came out, I actually doubted if there was room for four necked ones. There was: just, though several were played at angles they wouldn't normally have been.
Any intimate gig with musicians this sublime is welcome, but what was the icing on the cake for me was my first time experiencing the presence of their own compositions (from their eponymous EP) in the set alongside the "Last Waltz" material & how well it fits in alongside songs by The Band, Neil Young and Bob Dylan.
It's also important to highlight their fearless flexibility: some of it was practical like Wes playing basslines on an acoustic guitar (his bass might have taken heads off) but also rearrangements. I've noted the magnificent version of "Helpless" by Nigel Clark in the full shows: here there was a fascinating gender flip between those & the original 1976 gig: instead of a male lead (Neil Young) and female harmonies (Joni Mitchell), Katherine sung the main part with Wes, Jack & Jono in support. This worked great & really helped bring out the sense of poignancy in the lyrics.
People used to call The Band "master musicians" (with justice) and WLDFLWRS certainly emulate them. You won't get as close to them in Birmingham as I did yesterday, but it'll be worth your going if you can: and if you can get to see their gigs on this scale, you're in for an uplifting treat along the lines of how beautiful & healing music can be. The band have been kind enough to use on their posters a remark I once made of how what they do transcends the secular & I definitely stand by that
