Author: Yasmin Ettobi
Photo by Cassandra Hannegan
November 17th was a typical chilly autumn evening in Seattle, but you wouldn’t have guessed it based on the sweat-stained t-shirts firmly stuck to the tons of teenagers leaving Chop Suey at 9:30 PM that night. The only justifiable reason for this number of young adults to be inappropriately dressed for the weather would be the fact that on this day, Wavves returned to Seattle with a mission to get everyone moving, and the California quartet definitely didn’t disappoint.
The night started off with Midwestern five-piece Shy Boys, who were far from the rowdiest group, but possessed catchy hooks and sweet melodies that quickly grew on the audience. Their set started with them singing acapella between two microphones, impressing the masses with their natural apt for creating harmony amongst themselves. With a large variance in tempo and genre with each different song on their setlist, Shy Boys won over many fans with their humble personalities, but incredibly musical prowess.
Shortly after Shy Boys left the stage, Wavves came on to thunderous applause, and dove right into their loud and infectious set, starting with the track “Idiot” off of their 2010 album King of the Beach. They put on a great show but seemed to be slightly off their game for various reasons that front man Nathan Williams shared with the crowd between songs. During one break, Williams asked, “isn’t it weirdly early for us to be playing?” which was fair, considering he was asking this at roughly 8:45 PM, which must be odd for a group that usually plays past 10 PM.
In another instance, Williams looked around him and shared, “this is the smallest stage we’ve played in a while, you know.” While this may have been true, the intimacy that Chop Suey provided made for an incredible experience as a fan. Though the “mosh-pit” just consisted of about seven white guys running around in a non-structured frenzy, there was a vibrant energy bouncing off of the band to the fans, and vice-versa.
The crowd really got into the swing of things near the end of Wavves’ set, when they played “Nine is God,” a song that was written for Grand Theft Auto 5, followed by “Post Acid” and “Green Eyes.”
As if this wasn’t exciting enough of a finish in itself, the band came back onstage for an encore and played a cover of the Misfits track “Hybrid Moments,” ending the night on a high energy banger.
YASMIN ETTOBI | imagine a world where doors always open at 6 p.m… | KXSU Music Reporter