The Wave Pictures, Cumberland Arms, Newcastle
- Written by Lee Hammond
In a world where a band could be quite easily forgotten and labelled as landfill indie, The Wave Pictures are here to breathe a real energy back into British music. This evening sees them taking to the stage at a sold out Cumberland Arms, the tiny backroom rammed to capacity and with an added film crew, expectations are high.
From a personal point of view getting to see The Wave Pictures has been something of an arduous task, every time they’ve dropped into Newcastle I’ve always been otherwise engaged. This time nothing was going to stop me, arriving with no time to spare as one of the actors from their new music video takes to the stage to tell us what’s going to happen.
This was going to be interesting to say the least, the guys ploughing in to tracks from albums new and old. ‘I Could Hear the Telephone (3 Floors Above Me)’ is an early highlight from their new album Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon, as is the brilliant ‘Long Black Cars’ they have everyone in the room dancing and grinning profusely from the start.
As we watch on, the band are not far short of musical geniuses, whilst they may not win prizes for the most in depth lyrics there’s a real element of fun and excitement. What they also have is incredible talents with their instruments, particularly David Tattersall, his guitar playing is otherworldly at times.
Throughout they’re unbelievable for us a particular highlight is new track ‘Pea Green Coat’, the lyrics are utterly brilliant and like all of the others they have an insanely catchy hook. The Wave Pictures create the most brilliant indie pop songs; to us it’s hard to understand how these guys aren’t massive. Their songs have a way of working there way deep inside your head and staying there.
Tonight’s set does lean towards the new album with a number of the stand out tracks coming from it,. We’re certainly not complaining though as it's an astounding album. Its title track, a tongue twister in itself, is yet another earworm, which we find ourselves humming for hours after.
The band are also such humble characters; unlike most they interact with the audience and appreciate our excitement. To such an extent where they’re willing to take audience requests. This also shows their incredible adaptability and talent. We’ve had the pleasure of seeing the wonderful Daniel Johnston and its plain to see that he has been an inspiration to these guys (and yes we’re aware of their sets playing his songs).
However, The Wave Pictures have that similar sublime subject matter that is difficult to replicate well, yet these guys really pull it off. As the band close out with three covers of their favourite band Creedence Clearwater Revival, we make our exit high on excitement.
The Wave Pictures have restored our faith in live music with a pretty bleak and bland landscape it needs something a little different with a brightly coloured shirt to stand out above the rest and tonight The Wave Pictures shirts helped them to breath a little excitement and happiness into everyone in this room.