DUAL FEATURE: Wavves @ The Electric Factory

WRITTEN BY: ALLISON SALMON

Cherry Glazerr, Wavves, and Best Coast killed it at the Electric Factory on Wednesday night for the east coast leg of their Summer is Forever II tour.

Cherry Glazerr was the opening act and I have to say they might have stolen the show. I’ve never heard any of their music up until the show and I was blown away. Not only did the stage presence of lead singer Clementine Creevy capture the audience, but their psychedelic punk rock sound was mesmerizing and at the same time it made you want to head bang to it. Songs to check out that I personally enjoyed from the band include “Grilled Cheese,” which she opened up by saying this is a song about a sandwich, and “White’s Not My Color this Evening.”

Wavves was up next. Coming from San Diego, California, Wavves formed in 2008 with singer Nathan Williams, guitar player Alex Gates, bass player Stephen Pope, and Brian Hill on drums. Their music ranges from punk rock to alternative rock to surf rock to pop punk to grunge rock. Meanwhile, they sing about things ranging from drugs to boredom to the beach. Their albums include Wavves, Wavvves, King of the Beach, Summer is Forever (collaboration with Best Coast), Life Sux, Afraid of Heights, No Life for Me (collaboration with Cloud Nothings), and V. V is their most recent album released in October of 2015.

They had the crowd going wild, to say the least. There must’ve been around 20 kids that crowd surfed the entire audience and got escorted by the security guard. Being in a mosh pit myself, I have to say that the crowd was absolutely loving and losing it to the hard punk sound of the band. Besides the music itself, Stephen Pope on bass guitar might’ve been the inspiration for the crowd going wild as he was swinging his long hair around on the right side of the stage.

Wavves had a great set list. Going into it, I thought they’d mostly be playing songs from their most recent album, V, but they played a great variety of songs from every album. The performances that stuck out the most to me were “Green Eyes,” (you can check out some of it on my Instagram – @asayyyy) “Nine is God,” and “Post Acid,” which are obviously crowd favorites as everyone was singing along and head banging to them simultaneously. Wavves definitely brought it to Philly.

Best Coast was the final performance of the night and I have to say I’m not a huge fan of the type of music they play (indie pop), but they still put on a good show. It was obvious most of the crowd didn’t buy a ticket to see Best Coast, but people were still feeling it (definitely not as much though). A particular song they played that stuck out to me was “California Nights,” my personal favorite from the band. Check out Morgan Kovatch’s article to find out more about the Best Coast performance.

Some final thoughts, if I had it my way, it would’ve been Best Coast opening up for Wavves and Cherry Glazerr. I feel like Cherry Glazerr’s sound goes a lot better with Wavves than Best Coast’s. However, the concert was all around great and I am looking forward to when any of these bands come to Philly again.