Waiting For The Penny Drop

Wild Beasts @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 2/28/2010

The Fun Powder Plot / We Still Got The Taste Dancing On Our Tongues / Vigil For A Fuddy Duddy / This Is Our Lot / Two Dancers I / His Grinning Skull / Two Dancers II / Please Sir / Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants / All The King’s Men / Hooting & Howling // The Devil’s Crayon / The Empty Nest / Cheerio Chaps, Cheerio Goodbye

Everything I wrote about Wild Beasts in concert a few months ago still stands. If anything, they’ve only gotten better and more confident with American audiences. Let’s talk about a song, shall we?

Wild Beasts “This Is Our Lot”

There’s a lot of violence and romance in the music of Wild Beasts. Sometimes the violence is very literal, as in the brutal gang rape described in “Two Dancers I” or the loutish behavior of the thugs in “Hooting & Howling,” and sometimes it’s more subtle or metaphorical, hidden in the peculiarities of social ritual or a character’s callous entitlement. Even when the band sing from the perspective of aggressive men, there’s an odd passivity in their language, as if their bold, selfish actions are something thrust upon them due to their relative status or physical power. Two Dancers in some ways seems like an album-length argument that humanity is doomed to both perpetrate and suffer violent action because we’re always living out some narrative based on our status relative to other people. We’re always stronger than someone else, and weaker than someone else. We push on other people as much as they pull on us. It’s all a vicious cycle, and sometimes it gets very grotesque.

“This Is Our Lot” is one of their more romantic songs, but it’s got a very potent sense of dread. The setting seems to be formal ball, the mood is celebratory but anxious. Sexual tension is everywhere in the room, but it’s all hemmed in by custom and ritual, making the character frustrated and agitated. The song builds to a climax in which he exclaims “I couldn’t be more ready!”, as if he’s about to burst. It stands out on the album as a moment in which aggressive desire is trampled by culture, and a character suffers for not being transgressive in his behavior.

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