Yesterday I went back in time.  Back to a beautiful time when people paid for music legally and artists played live at your local record store (cause it was still open)!  I was lucky enough to be teleported with one of the most futuristically nostalgic bands on the planet, Wild Beasts!  And boy, all the folks with me at Red Eye Records in Sydney were in for a treat!

Tom and Hayden had borrowed an acoustic guitar and an acoustic bass from some generous staff here at EMI (thanks dudes!) and set up in the corner of one of Sydney’s last surviving indie record stores.  Red Eye is a crate-diggers wet dream – the place is choc-a-block with the best music you can find, impeccably handpicked by the friendly staff.  There was a great turn out and Tom and Hayden played 5 songs with band mates Ben and Chris supportively looking on.

I wasn’t sure how their intricately layered songs were going to translate with just 2 guys, 2 guitars and their unique, warbly voices but hearing songs like ‘All The Kings Men’ and ‘Hooting & Howling’ stripped back only amplified how beautifully clever their songwriting really is.  I wondered if this was how  these songs were born.

As with their set at Laneway Festival in Sydney, my favourite song remained ‘The Devil’s Crayon’ which is accompanied by one of my fav videos of 2008:

After yesterday, I can highly recommend time travel, or at the very least a trip to Red Eye!