Live Review and Photos: WU LYF and Crystal Antlers, July 26, 2011, Echo – Los Angeles, CA

If you asked me what has been the best show of 2011 thus far, I would probably go back to the Fleet Foxes show at the Palladium. That was before Tuesday night and World Unite Lucifer Youth Foundation, or WU LYF, made their third appearance in America at the Echo in Los Angeles. And, it wasn’t just me. Among media members polled after the set, most opinions put the WU LYF set at or near the top of concerts in recent memory. Pretty awesome considering how fresh the songs are and how far from home the band was (they are from England).

Crystal Antlers began the evening having freshly wrapped up a month-long residency at the venue, one that frequently reached capacity and helped spread the word that Crystal Antlers are back and in a big way. Their latest album, Two-Way Mirror, is easily the best work that they have crafted yet and their live performance has slowly moved away from being a messy adrenaline rush to becoming a frantic display of a band that doesn’t lack enthusiasm and, now, does not lack in songs.

The new record’s two singles, “Summer Solstice” and the title-track, are both clear standouts, but set closer, “Dog Days,” kicks the Crystal Antlers into a whole separate level. Singer Jonny Bell began the set by handing out bananas to the people close to the stage, indicating that there was a “shit-load” of food backstage. But, this would not be his final gift to the front, as he concluded the frantic closing of “Dog Days” by repeating “in a dream” and hammering his mic stand with his bass, causing it to fall forward into the audience. Sure, with the frequency that Crystal Antlers plays in L.A., it is easy to take them for granted, and the band will probably serve themselves well to hit the road and get out of the city. Still, all in all, you have to think it was a pretty successful month for the Long Beach band, capped off by capitalizing on this opportunity.

As WU LYF’s equipment was setup, someone noticed that the band had a total of four pedals on the ground, two of which were tuning pedals. But, though the equipment may have been bare-bones, nothing about the performance of WU LYF seemed scaled back. Truthfully, the reality of the evening was that no one knew what to expect. Go Tell Fire To The Mountain is a fantastic album, one that inspires different comparisons from anyone you talk to. I liken it to Explosions In The Sky meets early Modest Mouse. But, no comparison does the record justice. And, that is why the record is finding such a diverse audience. The music is melodically accessible, strange sounding, energetic, unique, and exciting. At a risk of sounding hyperbolic, this is what it felt like to listen to Arcade Fire in 2004.

But, as we know, Arcade Fire didn’t build to the force that they are today without a killer live show, and WU LYF seems to be following suit. It was not a set built on gimmicks or pandering to the crowd, rather, it was a reciprocal effect of the audience being so into it that it made the band get better. After opener “L Y F” saw the crowd remain quite docile, feeling out the sound of the band to make sure that they earned their approval, “Cave Song” opened and everyone in the audience started moving. Even the photographers. “Cave Song” and nearly every song after it saw WU LYF sounding much like the record, with singer Ellery Roberts sounding slightly more intelligible, at times sounding close to Caleb Followill in his vocal style, yet never piling on the cheese like Followill is capable of doing.

Then, the show’s biggest turn came mid-set with “Spitting Blood.” The energetic crowd flipped a switch and went into super-crowd mode, with everyone suddenly knowing the words to every song that would come and shouting along, which suits the music of WU LYF perfectly, as they thrive on the shout-along choruses. The floor never got into full-moshpit range, but, rather, was one of those pits where everyone is pushing and swaying together, hugging more than hurting, like a musical love-fest with a few hundred strangers. This positive energy seemed to fuel the band, who could be seen sharing holy-shit glances and grinning from ear to ear at the excitement they had caused. At one point, guitarist Evans Kati addressed the crowd in awe, stating “you’re doing it, L.A.”

From there, the second-half of the 60-minute performance was all build until the eventual anthems of “Heavy Pop” and closer “We Bros,” for which singer Roberts came out from behind his keyboard to stand on the edge of the stage over the crowd. The band members would howl wildly between songs and when Roberts finally addressed and thanked the crowd, he spoke like a young Tom Waits. Crystal Antlers’ secondary percussionist Damian Edwards appeared on stage toward the end to hammer on a tambourine, recalling how he had originally come to be in Crystal Antlers. And he wouldn’t be foolish to try to switch bands, as WU LYF could very easily be a “next big thing,” sky-is-the-limit kind of act. The crowd seemed to identify directly with every sound that was produced from the stage, so much that every crowd surfer and stage diver felt natural, like there was no other action that could have been performed at that moment but to crowd-surf. Yeah, Show Of The Year doesn’t seem like a stretch. In fact, I don’t know if it even sums the fun and the memorability of Tuesday night enough.