North Texas Daily

Indie rock band Wavves took the UNT stage Friday night for a show full of good music and laughter.

The band walked onto the stage to a mystical sounding tune. The music quickly took a turn as everybody in the band broke into song simultaneously with strong drums, bass, guitar and vocals.

Bassist Steven Pope was bobbing his head wildly as his long, curly blond locks swayed from east to west.

“How y’all doing Denton?” guitarist and lead singer Nathan Williams said. “It’s great to be back in Texas. Well, we’re gonna play music. This next one is a song.”

The song Paranoid immediately flooded the speakers. The band’s energy levels were high and the audience cheered loudly at the end of the song.

Williams then recalled a funny story involving fellow guitarist Alex Gates following the performance of the song.

“Me and Alex went to a party last night…. But we got kicked out,” the lead singer told the audience.

The audience was on their feet the whole time, and soon rushed to the front of the stage to Wavves, standing as close as possible.

“Happy Birthday Steve! You’re the birthday boy.” The singer said to Pope. He then went on to making a lewd joke about one way the band would celebrate Pope’s birthday.

Afterwards, Wavves played their song “Tarantula.” The song was so rhythmically pleasing that at one point many people in the audience were seen bobbing their heads simultaneously to the beat.

“It’s real quiet, it’s like a church!”

The crowd then went wild. Wavves then went onto performing a love song, “Pony”. After that, “My Head Hurts” was performed, which is a high energy song that also included romantic undertones. Wavves proceeded to play “Afraid of Heights” followed by “Heart Attack.”

“You ever fuckin’ bump into me again on stage, it’s over!” Williams joked with Pope. “My stage!” He exclaimed as the audience laughed.

Williams then apologized to Pope.

“I’m sorry Steve, I came down on you a little hard.”

Williams later said he wanted to bring a guest onto the stage and teased the audience by throwing out a familiar name of which guest that could be.

“Norah Jones?”

The crowd roared with approval.

“Nah, she won’t return my calls. But she’ll be here later!” He said.

Wavves then went onto performing “Nine is God.”

“We might fuck this one up. We’re just gonna do it.” He said as before they performed “Dog,” a song that incorporated rock sounds as well as sounds coming from a xylophone.

Following the performance of the song, he jokingly threatened Pope about bumping into him again.

The next song:

“This one’s about aliens!” he said as they performed “Heavy Metal Detox.”

He then revealed the next song, “Way Too Much,” was about drinking too much. It also combined themes of overthinking about life and trying to find purpose.

The crowd applauded giving a long, sincere ovation as the performance concluded

“We have a couple more left, and then, I don’t know whose next but they’re probably gonna be better than us.” Williams told the audience.  He then dedicated the next song to Pope.

“This one is dedicated to Steve, cuz it’s his birthday.”  Williams said, as Gates played a tune on his guitar that almost sounded like Happy Birthday as he led the band into the next song.

They then went onto performing the “King of The Beach.” The audience members danced away, fist pumped and sang the lyrics, “You’re never gonna stop me.”

They then delivered a passionate performance of “Demon To Lean On.” Gates gently rocked his guitar while Pope bobbed his head to the beat even more.

“Thanks a lot you guys! This is our last song. Thanks for partying with us!” He said as he took a swig of what appeared to be a cup of beer, and started their last song.

“Is that broken?” the lead singer said, testing his instrument. “Ahhh fuck. I broke something.”

The band quickly resumed play and strongly closed the show with “Green Eyes.”