It had been a while since Wand last visited The Windy City, but that wait came to an end July 10th as the band kicked off the summer portion of their headlining tour at Thalia Hall. The tour is in support of their long-awaited new studio album Vertigo, which is scheduled to drop later this month (July 26th) via Drag City Records.
Fans in attendance not only got a preview of some of the material from that forthcoming album, but they also got a chance to see Wand from an entirely new perspective in a live setting. Indeed, as part of the band’s “In the Round” tour, they set up a stage directly in the center of the concert floor, surrounded by the audience. This not only afforded fans the opportunity to soak in the band from various angles but also seemed to enhance both the immediacy and intimacy of their performance. In essence, it kind of felt like we were an extension of the band, all one big mass of energy, a mini-solar system if you will, with Wand in the center and the audience in its orbit, so to speak.
Half-baked astronomical analogies aside, the unique setup definitely helped project Wand’s distinctive wavelength throughout the crowd as the band alternated between crushing waves of feedback-drenched bliss, borderline transcendent quieter moments, and delightfully mind-bending extended jam sessions. For this reviewer, it was those aforementioned “delightfully mind-bending extended jam sessions” that proved to be the most impressive aspect of their live show, as it afforded leader Cory Hanson the opportunity to really display his chops on guitar and suck the audience at large into Wand’s uniquely warped sonic world.
The band kicked off their set with their new single from Vertigo, the crunchy/breezy “Smile”, which did a nice job setting the tone for the rest of the performance. Roughly half of the band’s set was comprised of new songs from that forthcoming album, but even though most of the audience was unfamiliar with them, they nonetheless resonated in a live setting. To this reviewer’s ears, they sounded a bit more like vintage Wand, perhaps harkening back to a slightly heavier sound, at least compared to the pristinely ethereal/delicate tones that characterized their last album, the brilliant Laughing Matter. Then again, everything sounds a bit more emphatic/heavier in a live setting, but whatever the case, the new songs sounded pretty fantastic, which only heightened the anticipation for Vertigo’s arrival later this month.
When the band wasn’t showcasing their new material, they did an excellent job delivering the old-school goods with rousing performances of songs like “Bee Karma” and fan favorite “Flying Golem”. Curiously absent from their setlist was anything off their last album, Laughing Matte, but that aside, it was hard to find any qualms with the band’s performance, as they showed no rust and seemed poised to conquer the world on their upcoming tour.
