Show Review: Wax Idols @ The Mohawk (11/4)
Even with the busy week that led up to Fun Fun Fun Fest, we’re always excited to catch one of our favorite acts like Wax Idols. It’s even more important when said artist is coming into town to promote a new record…in this case American Tragic. Check out below for thoughts and comments.
First, I want to commend Hether Fortune and her band. I know it’s hard being on tour, and I know when you come into a town where you know people, it’s even more difficult. But, Fortune and her band were seen in the crowd during both opening acts…taking it all in. I have a great deal of respect for that, especially having toured a lot myself. That’s how you form camaraderie on the road, not to mention learn new tricks and what not. Unless you’re a superstar (and even then there are ways), if you don’t check out the opening acts or the acts that follow you, you’re doing something wrong.
Austin’s Single Lash opened the night, in a quiet, yet forceful fashion. They had the perfect dark-wave sound, made even more emphatic by the video/lighting production that backed their set. Those sorts of touches do add an extra layer to a live show, and I’m not sure why more bands of this ilk don’t use that to their advantage. Perhaps a tad too much stage posturing, but I acknowledge that that’s just my own pet peeve. Still, the ultimate winner is the songs, and this trio definitely had themselves a set of great songs.
Them Are Us Too were definitely inspiring, at least in the performance they gave us. It was simply two people, one responsible for piling noise upon our ears, and the other for carrying this great operatic voice to captivate the audience. Crafting elegant noise is not an easy feat, though this duo seemed to pull it off with ease, utilizing amps and pedals to create a wall that echoed through the inside of the Mohawk. It’s not every day you walk into a set with little to no expectations and come away feeling awed by a performance, yet this is precisely what Brian and I talked about following their set.
Finally, just before midnight, Wax Idols took the stage. Wow. I’m going out on a limb here, formulating my own narrative (to a degree) of Hether Fortune. To me, her first two records (in retrospect) seem like an exorcism. They seem like it was Hether working her way through her successes and failures, coming to terms with who she was as an artist. American Tragic and it’s tour seem like the rebirth. Having seen the band on all of their tours through Austin, I’ve never seen her as confident and theatrical as she was last Wednesday night. She owned the stage, and in her own way, came across as a huge rock star. Not only that, but the songs like “Deborah” and “Lonely You” seem destined for a bigger audience, a bigger stage. Nods are also necessary to the rhythm section who held it down and enable the band to bring it, song after song. On this night, it was far more than I expected…in the best way possible.
