Wavves – Breakdown Due To Drugs or Lame Excuses?
Full disclosure here, we (or I) was not a fan of Wavves’ Wavves which we publicly lambasted to surprisingly some praise from commentators. There are a few great reviews for their album and some poor ones. I’ve found that while there are some who will call the album good/great there’s about 5 times as many hating on the album. Rightfully so as Wavves is probably more potential then talent which leads to their breakdown at the Pitchfork Stage in Barcelona, Spain at the Primavera Festival.
From Ryan Schreiber, founder of Pitchfork himself:
From the moment they took the stage, the duo was clearly not in any kind of mood to be playing to a potentially adoring crowd [...]. While the audience– riding high on colossal sets from Phoenix, My Bloody Valentine, and Aphex Twin on alternate stages– grew increasingly impatient, singer/guitarist Nathan Williams fumbled through a disastrous soundcheck, alternately bickering with drummer Ryan Ulsh, complaining at the sound guy, and confusing the three components of their setup (drums, guitar, and vocals) on the monitors.
Still unsatisfied more than 15 minutes into their scheduled 2:20 a.m. set time, Nathan finally succumbed to shouts from the restless crowd and began lifelessly strumming his guitar in what appeared to be totally random chord progressions. As drummer Ryan struggled in vain to find a tempo for Nathan’s seasick improvisation, the music slowly turned into a half-speed [...]
After five minutes of directionless strumming and arbitrary snare hits, Nathan dodged the evening’s first bottle and decided to wind the aimless tune to an abrupt close. Then, rubbing his hands against his face, he declared in annoyed resignation, “All right, hi everybody, we’re Wavves,” [...]
Nathan began ineptly mocking the crowd (”Ooooooh, I’m on ecstasy!”), going off at length about his preference for California over Spain, and eventually telling them the festival was “one of the coolest things we’ve been part of in a while,” dripping with sarcasm. Finally, fed up with Nathan’s petulant behavior, Ryan ran out from behind his drumkit and poured a full cup of beer over Nathan’s head. The act would be met with their most enthusiastic applause of the evening.
At 3:00 a.m. sharp, having dodged their share of bottles and even a shoe, the show mercifully came to a screeching halt: Ryan ran offstage, throwing his drumsticks at Nathan. Infuriated, Nathan screamed into the mic, “Come back here, motherfucker, we’re not done yet!” Immediately, stage crew appeared, breaking down Ryan’s kit. “Fuck!” Nathan shouted, “Stop doing that!” They didn’t, so Nathan decided the show must go on. Helplessly, he strummed his guitar again, clearly intent on playing another song. But as he stepped back to the mic, he realized it had been cut. As the crowd booed, the house lights came up, and a defeated Nathan Williams threw his hands up and left, along with the few remaining attendees.
Not surprisingly Wavves canceled the next tour date. As much as it was funny to read, I’d probably wouldn’t wish this on any other band. Wavves seemed to be riding on the hype machine that Pitchfork perpetuated, having Wavves headline a stage in front of many better acts, it’s almost funny to see this one hit Pitchfork right back in the face. (They labeled the story gossip and many people were talking about it before they finally published something).
Still not going into solitary, Nathan wrote an EVEN more hilarious blog post – which has now been deleted:
I think in the back of my head I knew I wasn’t exactly mentally healthy enough to continue to tour the way I have been since February. Honest truth is this has all happened so fast and I feel like the weight of it has been building for months now with what seems like a never ending touring and press schedule which includes absolutely zero time to myself. I’m sorry to everyone who has put effort into this and to everyone who supported me. Mixing ecstasy valium and xanax before having to play in front of thousands of people was one of the more poor decisions I’ve made(duh) and I realize my drinking has been a problem now for a good period of time. Nothing else I can do but apologize to everyone that has been affected by my poor decision making. I made a mistake. Not the first mistake I’ve made and it for sure wont be the last. I’m human. Don’t know why I chose the biggest platform I could imagine to loose (sic) my shit, but that’s life.
Apparently he was on Ecstasy, Valium, Xanax and mixing it with alcohol. Which on a serious note, is very dangerous. For some reason I don’t believe him, most accounts say he was mocking the crowd by suggesting he was on E (see above). Even then, his drug related issues don’t address the issues within his band. His band member embarrassed/down right humiliated him in front of 1000s. Whether or not Nathan narc’d himself or not is hardly the point.
Ryan Ulsh hasn’t come out with a statement that he was on drugs and thus lashed out at a band member. Obviously it’s something deeper than that. While I try not to wish anything negative on indie bands, Wavves was riding a wave (lame pun) of success that I felt was unearned and most people hoped they would come back to earth and they probably hit rock bottom here.
There’s obviously much more to this set of news, I wouldn’t be surprised if there is A) a lineup change soon. B) Total cancellation of their European tour. For Wavves, no news is the best news.
Fiery Crash by Andrew Bird
Addicted To Drugs by Kaiser Chiefs
So Bored by Wavves
Tags: news
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I played a show with Nathan recently. He drinks a horrible amount. its gotten to his head. i know of a lot more deserving bands that have earned the place he is in. prime example of a kid who doesn’t know how to control rock n’ roll.