A few awkward words down the microphone – one actually ‘jinxed’ the other for saying something at the same time…cue awkward laughing from the audience…well when I say audience I mean the thirty people that had meandered into the Norwich Arts Theatre.

Their stage presence may have been lacking but their musical virility was clear from the start – Wild beasts are calling for the age of the musical overstatement.
To say bizarre would not do it justice. Wild Beasts would not look out of place at a scouting for girls gig – yet their musical presence is a completely mesmerising melodramatic, costume drama.

Two singers – one baritone the other falsetto swap vocal leads, meaning their pitch and coverage can carry the editors-esque Devils Crayon and the heights of Brave Bulging Buoyant, which are clearly their stand out tracks so far.

If nothing else this band provides evidence of what would happen if Morrisey and Kate Bush had a love child! Their songs are incredibly haunting, encapsulating all the sinister suggestion of a Victorian tragedy. All this, inside the old church they were performing gave the audience the sense of a preacher from a Hitchcock film trying to convert us.

It was creepy, fascinating and their musical references were astounding, it’s very clear these guys love music, probably far more then the generic groups that fill our charts.

In these play by numbers times, where everyone’s in a band you have to love the pure ingenious originality of Wild Beasts and the fact that you could never, ever call them boring.

Although some tracks are a tad too self indulgent, when they’re good, Wild Beasts are the most exciting new band I’ve heard in years.