Once again, rock and roll royalty graced The Leadmill stage as The WAEVE rolled into town for a sold-out show on their UK tour.
White Magic for Lovers introduced us. Accompanied by soft, anchoring drum tracks and saxophone cameos, the sultry soft-pop duo echoed the sounds of Julee Cruise – if she swapped synth for acoustic strings – yet remained equally committed to ambient textures.
Our attentive Sheffield crowd was absorbed by their crooning, making for an intimate and tender environment that warmed and softened. Their vocal sensibilities demonstrated an understanding of the voice as an instrument – and played it was by both performers, weaving their silk-sodden noise seamlessly into the work.
Accomplished musicians Graham Cox and Rose Elinor Dougall, along with their bandmates – better known tonight as The WAEVE – packed the room. Flaunting material from their two albums and recently released EP Eternal, this jazz-rock/art-pop outfit demonstrated the chops required to play both the biggest and most intimate venues in the world.
Cox, of Blur fame, and Dougall, familiar from her time in The Pipettes, have shed the shackles of the well-trodden road with this project. In many ways, it’s the collision of alternative scale and scope that makes The WAEVE so compelling. In one fleeting moment, you’re convinced this is music built for huge arena stages, before being swayed by the notion that these tightly spun tunes are designed to be heard in a dark room, in a crowd of a dozen. Like good music always does, it succeeds in transcending categorisation.
Their music is full of friction and verve, yet collected and considered. There are echoes of David Bowie’s final records, The Next Day and Blackstar, in their more vigorous catalogue features. They’ve mastered a maturity that does not accept itself as inevitable or stale but as a driving force for eclectic and provocative work. There’s a sense of competent urgency – dance now or forever be still. And when we are still, it’s because we are arrested by the mellower vibes that the band also masterfully curates.
Arresting and potent, The WAEVE made a statement tonight – despite the realism of their position, they’re new on the scene and hungrier than ever.
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