The Gothic opened their doors wide open as they greeted Californian rock band Wavves this past weekend on Saturday, July 30th. With Summer slowly, yet surely, coming to an end, a fresh breeze of that California love is exactly what patrons were looking for as they set out for a night on the town. Wavves made two stops here in Colorado as they’re traveling across the states performing their “King of the Beach 12th Anniversary Tour”, once in Boulder, CO, at the Fox Theater then followed up with one a bit closer to the city, south on Broadway at The Gothic Theatre. Other local bands from California are joining Wavves throughout the tour, such as experimental rock band BOYO and pop-rock group SMUT.
With the stress and fear of recovering from being sick, lead vocals and frontman Nathan Williams has been on fire, not letting anything stand in his way since the opening date of the tour back in Ventura, CA. With this being the start of a wild journey for the band, not a single person could wait to hit the road as they set off to hit over 30 different shows over the next two months.
Joining alongside Williams, creating the full band we know as Wavves is Stephen ‘Stevie’ Pope” on bass guitar and backup vocals, Alex Gates on the guitar and backup vocals, and newest member Ross Traver holding it down in the back on Drums. Together these four conduct quite the show as they mix things up with their dynamic sounds that draw in the crowd’s participation. If you ask me, any show that gets the crowd going so much that they start crowd surfing, is a great time!
As lights began to dim, the attention of the entire room rushed to the front of the stage with anticipation. Among seconds of darkness, the crowd had echoes of excitement bouncing off the theater walls. With great performances from the opening acts BOYO & SMUT, fans were pumped up and ready to catch some Wavves.
Kicking off the set Wavves began with the song “King of the Beach”, fitting, as stated before they’re currently on tour for their 12th year anniversary tour of the album King of the Beach released back in 2010. Two additional back-to-back tracks were played from KOTB, “Super Soaker” and “Idiot” before they brought the show back in time playing fan’s favorite “Way Too Much” from one of their earlier albums released in 2005 “V”.
Jumping back into things, Williams led the show with four straight songs from KOTB starting with “When Will you Come”, then rocking into “Post Acid” which had the crowd literally bouncing off one another that flooded into “Take on the World”. Wrapping the stretch up they flew off with “Convertible Ballon” before floating back to the “V” album and playing “My Head Hurts”.
Knowing the show was nearing its end the Wavves took a second to send their love out for all the support that the fans have provided not just over the past few years but from the very beginning. Again, being on the “KOTB” it was only fitting for them to end the set with some more songs from the album which came “Linus Spacehead” before closing things out with heart breaker “Baby Say Goodbye”…
… Of course, they came back out as the fans begged for more to jam out for three final last songs. For those of you that don’t know Wavves had a guest performance starring on the “Music of Grand Theft Auto” of which they wrote “Nine is God” that they started the encore with. Next came a song from the second album they ever produced titled “Wavves”, said to be (not yet confirmed) written or at least in the makings of during the production of their first album titled “Wavves”. Wrapping things up for good this time, they came to a nice cool relaxing end playing “Green Eyes” from “KOTB” before taking their bows and leaving the stage.
Full Setlist – King of the Beach, Super Soaker, Idiot, Way Too Much, When Will You Come, Post Acid, Take on the World, Convertible Ballon, My Head Hurts, Demon to Lean On, Sail to the Sun, Baseball Cards/Mickey Mouse, Afraid of Heights, Linus Spacehead, Baby Say Goodbye
Encore – Nine is God, No Hope Kids, Green Eyes
Websites
- Wavves – https://wavves.net
- BOYO – https://boyomusic.bandcamp.com
- SMUT – Linktr.ee/smut.onlineSMUT
