Wild Flag Tickets

First Aid Kit, the opening act, stole the show! Their singing, absolutely incredibly beautiful! Their songwriting and stage presence, very strong. They are gonna be around for a while. Wild Flag put on a decent show, but after seeing the two Swedish sisters of First Aid Kit, well, Wild Flag's songs sounded a little more average, run-of-the-mill. Wild Flag's sound had a pleasant thrash element to it, and if EMA had been the only opening act, I wouldn't have had much else to compare them to artistically, but First Aid Kit is just head and shoulders Above the two other acts on the bill.

I missed the opening band, EMA, so I can't comment on their performance. The two bands I saw were both amazing in completely different ways. First Aid kit is duo consisting of two sisters, Johanna and Klara Sodenberg, from Stockholm, Sweden. They sound like they grew up in Tennessee. For Thursday nights concert, they also had a guy on drums who sang harmonies as well. Johanna plays guitar and sings most of the leads while her sister sings harmony and plays keyboards. Vocal harmonies can be amazing things. They are a perfect example of a situation where the whole is far greater than the sum of it's parts. Single voices can be huge, powerful things. Singers like Bjork and Sinead O'Conner don't need to harmonize with anyone. They can fill up a big space all by themselves. Harmony is a different thing all together. Something quite magical happens when two or more voices interact to create a harmony. With any harmony its a matter of finding two or more melodic lines that make this new thing happen. Kind of like mixing yellow and blue to get green. The sisters in First Aid Kit create vocal harmonies that are beautiful and transcendent. An enormous pleasure to hear live. The women in Wild Flag, on other hand, make three and four part vocal harmonies that are secondary to what they do with their guitars, keyboards and drums. Just as beautiful and transcendent, but not quite so upfront. Two members of Wild Flag were formally two thirds of Sleeter-Kinney. Carrie Brownstein on guitar and vocals and Janet Weiss on drums and vocals along with Corin Tucker on guitar and vocals made up Sleeter-Kinney. I always thought that band needed a bass player in it. Wild Flag does not. Along with Mary Timony (formally of Helium) on guitar and vocals and Rebecca Cole (The Minders) on keyboards and vocals, Wild Flag has a fully rounded out sonic range without anyone playing bass. Even the keyboard player, typically the one left to fill in for bass, doesn't need to. I'm not quite sure how they do this. Even the guitars don't seem to be tuned down at all. The set consisted of just about everything from their debut album with a couple of covers thrown in. The sound of this band is hard to pin down. When they first formed, their Myspace page posted this description: "What is the sound of an avalanche taking out a dolphin? What do you get when you cross a hamburger with a hot dog? The answer is: WILD FLAG.". I guess that sums it up pretty well. This band is so much fun to see live. They play with a sense of abandon without ever falling apart. They manage to sound sound quite sloppy and tight all at the same time. The vocal harmonies lay on top of the guitar, drum and keyboard assault like decorations on a big fat cake. Again, an enormous pleasure to hear live. It was fun to watch them play as well. They seem to be having as good a time as their audience.

This was one interesting performance with Weiss and Cole inundating the audience with a sheet of sound having the roar and wallop of a helicopter hovering directly overhead, with Timony and Brownstein using their guitars to saw through it. As the set progressed, it became clear that any one of these individuals could have carried the audience with their work. The sound was crystal clear and the volume matched to the hall. The evening was filled with the charming contrast that seems to be a signature: we had this intimidatingly professional unit that got down to business from the moment they briskly strode onstage...which then took us to the seriously psychedelic regions. And the encore endeared with its content of covers...well executed and simple...which closed the show with affection..almost guiding the audience back to the real world....and wanting more. I traveled from Houston to see this show, and would do it again in a heartbeat!

This band rocks. Two great guitar players, an amazing drummer & excellent keys player. I saw them in New Haven & New York and really enjoyed both shows. They're not playing the same exact set every night or just going through the motions. Cool originals, classic cover choices, great musicianship & a ton of energy. Can't really ask for anything more that that. Toad's is a much better place to see a band than Webster Hall.

Wild Flag put on a great show! They played 16 songs (2 were new and 3 were covers I believe). The opening act Hospitality was good too!

This was a great show. They played pretty much all of their album and a few new songs. They also played 'Beast of Burden'. There wasn't a lot of banter, but Carrie Brownstein talked to the audience a little. She also climbed up on top of the drum set during 'Racehorse'

The only remark that I will make about the opener, Hospitality, is that they were unremarkable. Wild Flag, on the other hand, did a fantastic job. The moment Janet Weiss opened the set with a powerful drumline it was evident that it would be a high-energy, no-holds-barred show. Carrie Brownstein and Mary Timony traded the spotlight for most of the performance, backed by Ms. Weiss's fantastic percussion and Rebecca Cole's keyboard and vocals. In addition to the high-quality musicianship, the audio was noticeably well-handled. Every instrument and vocal came through clearly. Unfortunately, the energy ended at the stage. The crowd appeared for the most part immobile, unable to render even a head nod in time with the music, to say nothing of dancing. The audience was so lethargic that even Ms. Timony commented that we "sure were quiet". It was bad enough being stuck in a crowd full of people who didn't seem to want to be there; I can't imagine how it would feel to be up on stage busting your butt for folks who don't even seem to care.

best. show. ever. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVVVVVVEEEEERRRRRRR!

Wild Flag rocked and sounded GREAT! Would definitely see them again!

Wild Flag were great! Played for well over an hour. Was really looking forward to seeing Hospitality and was disappointed. Their set really had no energy. Hopefully it was just an off night.