It was a little weird to be at the Echo last night, the same day than Green Day's secret gig at the Echoplex (the basement of the Echo)! But not having been able to get a ticket for this over-hyped show, didn't mean we couldn't be having fun anyway. In fact the first Monday night residency of Wildcat! Wildcat! had drawn a large crowd, which seemed to have already been conquered by the falsetto of their R&B/pop synth-driven songs.
With a name like this, and two exclamation points in it, you would think the band put up a wild-punk-high-energy show, but not really, if there was energy, the music was all multi-layered glimmering synths (there were several of then on stage) and high-pitch vocal harmonies,… I am talking Bee-Gees-range, although they rather reminded me Active Child’ s Pat Grossi’s angelic lament. Their soundscapes were rather moody, going from quiet moments with sparse keys, a dark bass line, minimalist drumming, and falsetto two-voice (or more) harmonies, to some outbursts of energy carried by the synths, and an explosive drumming. It was both playful and emotional.
Their bio says that the music is the result of Jesse Taylor, Michael Wilson and Jesse Carmichael's friendship since high school, but there were actually five people on stage, adding volume and percussion to their uplifting and lush melodies. The soaring falsetto voices going very often into some eerie ooo-ooo series, were probably the most distinguishable thing about their shimmering and curious tunes, hardly making the difference between a sweet pop song and a dance synth party. They also did a cover of Tears for Fears’ ‘Everybody wants to rule the world’ and it fitted quite nicely in the middle of their music. They had a song called 'End Of The World Everyday', another one called ‘The Chief’, which could have explained the Indian chief on the bassist’s t-shirt, and another one strangely named ‘Mr. Quiche’ (you can listen to it below), which is a good representation of their sound. This is the only song on their bandcamp page, I don’t think they have even released an EP yet, and there are not a lot of songs on the internet, but it shouldn’t last for long. Watching the crowd last night, I don't think any of the young persons around me wanted to sneak in the Echo basement.