I remembered hearing from Meevs many months ago about how The WAiFs had become one of her new favorite bands. Upon discovering they'd be at the Birchmere this week and that Meevs was actually on the east coast, I thought I'd give her the head's up! Always up for a concert experience, I asked Meevs to send me some sampler tracks to convince me I should go. She was feeling that pressure of having to pick only a few tracks to sell someone on the music; only a little while ago did I do the same thing for her with Ryan Adams.
Well, it turns out she did a great job because Auddie and I listened, liked what we heard, and agreed to go! I personally was sold after hearing the first few bars of "Bridal Train" -- there's something about hearing Aussie accents come through in music that is just so cool. (I can't think of anyone but Aussies who can make "Australia" and "Sailor" rhyme so well!)
Having not been to the Birchmere for a few years, I'd forgotten what a nice little venue it is. The whole concept is pretty simple but innovative: sit at dining tables, order food & drink, enjoy music in calm and casual setting. Despite battling some bad rush-hour traffic and arriving after the crowds had poured in to claim their seats, we still managed to get a great spot up front at the corner of the stage!
The Waifs are some combination of folk, country and blues, with drippings of pop. I think recently I've been getting turned on to the sounds of folk/alt-country, and this was a great next stage in that progression! With beautiful harmonies, incredible guitar riffs, and the ever-underrated harmonica throughout, the Waifs had it covered.
Ok, so the craziest part of the show was the fact that Vikki and Donna, sisters who make up two-thirds of the Waifs (Josh being the last member) walked out on stage and both appeared to be the same "amount" of pregnant. Meevs had mentioned that another time she saw them play, one of them was pregnant. So here I'm thinking, ok, is this a gimmick? Two pregnant gals in a band? What is going on here? Anyway, we found out that they were both 6 1/2 months pregnant, both due on the same day! How wild is that? Apparently the babies were conceived on some joyous occasion back in January when they had a break from touring...
If anything, this pregnancy thing seemed to add to their stage presence and overall charisma. To see two women with their big bellies, dancing around the stage, shaking tambourines, working to balance on a stool while playing guitar, playing long and ridiculous jams on the harmonica, and singing all the while...it was, to put it simply, badass. When Vikki broke out an unbelievable harmonica jam that lasted at least a few minutes during "Crazy Train," I was officially obsessed (i.e, I had that brief "I want to be you" moment). We all agreed she's gonna have no problem with lamaze classes...
Never one to really be into female artists (which I somewhat regret), this concert was a rare and awesome moment in which I felt a dose of feminist inspiration, feeding off the energy of the women I was watching. (Credit is also due to Josh, the third official band member, who plays a really mean guitar.)
Of course, I wouldn't expect you all to read through my long and blabbering concert review without offering you a music track, right?
I've selected one track written by Vikki and another written by Donna, just to illustrate at least two thirds of the writing range of the band. Apparently they no longer write together after some embarassing attempts that made their first album. So they each write their own songs, which I think is interesting, and gives the band some added depth.
Bridal Train (by Vikki, the younger sis and harmonica player)
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London Still (by Donna)
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Hope you like what you hear. One last shout-out to Meevs for introducing me to a new band!
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