More about: Wunderhorse

To the humming lullaby of Israel Kamakawiwoʻole’s ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’, Wunderhorse take the stage with their heads hanging high.

Their frontman, Jacob Slater, fronted the ephemeral Dead Pretties, known for garnering an immediate cult following then suddenly dissolving into their individual members without a trace. In the knowledge of this, Slater could be seen as fickle, or averse to fame. But in the crowded and bright Lexington tonight, it is evident he had far more expansive plans than the Dead Pretties. Joined by his youthful band, Slater embarks on a tour-de-force of his solo work, fusing punk sensibilities with classic rock anthemicism, whilst subtly tapping into surf rock and country swing to keep his audience on their hooves.

As the house music fades, we are met with the grinning Slater and company, who dive into their set with ambivalent ferocity, jumping from the building intensity of ‘Teal’ to the heady, reflective and oddly romantic ‘17’ - see “you smile like a razor blade”. The room is boiling over, impatient for more tracks when out of nowhere Slater plucks the ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ motif out of the sky in an effort to calm the swelling audience, lending his gravelly delivery to the classic, before careering into their token fervent grunge with choruses that are more akin to Sam Fender and Bob Dylan over the defunct Dead Pretties punk DNA.

An intensity laces the air, not just from Slater’s occasional shushes and sudden (yet jovial) utterance of “shut the fuck up” to the bustling crowd but in the snarling delivery of the harsher tracks that feel like smoke building up in a contained room with no outlet to escape. Although the set is half made up of indulgent shredding, carefree cymbals whacks and heavy-rock passages, there is a distinct yearning for more. They play swathes of unheard tracks, with each track highlighting either Slater’s curiously endearing stoniness or his penchant for storytelling songwriting.

Although Wunderhorse carefully interlace their bare, semi-acoustic, harmony-adorned tracks with blaring blues solos and punchy anthems throughout the set, at the Lexington, they are most captivating at their loudest and most seemingly out of control.

Photos by Lawrence Hardy

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More about: Wunderhorse