Live Review: Wil Wagner

Wil Wagner, lead singer of The Smith Street Band, played a stripped back acoustic set last night in support of the band's freshly released album More Scared Of You Than You Are Of Me.

A considerable queue built up along Pulteney Street as an eager young crowd waited to cram into the small record store. As we shuffled through even the tall people in the crowd tried standing on their tippy toes to see what was going on. Luckily, the show would be followed by a meet and greet where the audience would be able to see and talk to him.

Wagner played a quick half-hour set using only his acoustic guitar and singing directly to the crowd with no amplification. In a way this was quite a strange combination with the soft tone of the guitar in stark contrast with his singing style, particularly as he had to shout to project his voice all the way to the back of the room. "This is gonna be quite intense," warned Wagner when the arpeggiated guitar almost disappeared behind his vocals during Passiona. On the other hand, his throwaway style of singing was very refreshing in a time where soft, autotuned, pitch-perfect vocals are everywhere.

Even though the album only came out a few days prior, there were some very committed fans who knew a lot of the words — and of course to singles Birthdays and Death To The Lads, with Wagner praising the crowd and mentioning how he even messed up a part because he was too distracted by the "beautiful harmony" sung by an audience member.

The stripped down versions of the songs really shone a light on how fantastic the lyrics are. They paint stories so vividly and in such an interesting way that despite Wagner being out of sight it made being in that room an exceptionally memorable moment.