Woodhands at the Astoria, Vancouver, BC
This is what happens when ‘revenge of the nerds’ get a hold of some analog synthesizers and practices the drums a lot.....
This is what happens when ‘revenge of the nerds’ get a hold of some analog synthesizers and practices the drums a lot, and if they’re trying to get girls or not, it’s not really a problem. They are the party that the world has been waiting for and they are a party of 2 called Woodhands.
A while back now, I experienced being completely blissed out! It was a dark winter/spring night and hoards of road bikes where fighting for parking spots outside of the Astoria in Vancouver to see Woodhands and The Clips. I had to lock mine up on top of the fence in a hurry. There were 5 of us friends going and not one of them knew what I was getting them into. We arrived kind of late hence the hurrying to get in. The audience was balled up in front of the stage as if it were a big outdoor festival and it must have been a full moon or something because everyone was in the exact kind of mood. The minute Dan Werb and Paul Banwatt played the first note, the place took off. It was a monstrous sweat-box of glory and people were playing the part naturally. I can’t even comment on one particular song to another because the whole night was consistently good. I am sure just about everyone in a 40 square foot facinity can remember the huge drunk guy who kept falling on people. He crushed everyone of us and usually this would be the cause of a bad bad brawl but instead, spirits were high and we all just went with it, and so did he. There couldn’t have been a better venue for it. I don’t remember seeing anyone other than this guy even drinking, probably because a) you didn’t have to. And b) because no one really knows when the lines were last cleaned to get a nice tasty sip of beer.
No one in the room sat back. People I knew who are usually non-dancers were right up at the front with the rest of these keeners and Woodhands really did too. The drummer Paul Banwatt was amazingly quick and precise. He’s a hard hitter and those beats were relentlessly jolting. Dan Werb multitasked his synth/ keys set up, all the while, singing till his vocal chords stretched to outer-space. How could you not be pumped! This was the most euphoric experience that my friends and I had ever felt at a show (and we were completely sober… remember me mentioning that?). I go to A LOT of shows and this one by far was the best show I had attended this year. The energy was high and it was positive, the music was overwhelmingly exciting and unexplainably like itself: grungy off the cuff vocals, spasm-y electronic keys/ vintage synthesizers and drums. It’s like, one needed to call oneself an exorcist, because you just couldn’t control yourself!
Woodhands, Heart Attack is available on Paper Bag Records. Photo © David Sherret (Creative Commons)
http://www.woodhands.com/press.html
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