WAVVES

WAVVES splashed into Austin, TX on a rather balmy (by Texas standards) June summer night, Monday the 26th, at perennial favorite, Mohawk Austin. California’s Ultra Q, led by the youngest son of Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong braved the 7:30pm Texas heatwave to open the night. Ohio’s Cloud Nothings got a relief from the heat and humidity by playing an hour later. With this being an all-ages show, it was amazing to see so many young people that appeared to be under the age of 12, willing to post up by the stage to get a front row spot for a rambunctious night of righteous pop-punk. 

Not being as heat acclimated as I had hoped and it being an outdoor show, I barely got there in time for WAVVES, opting for a balcony spot versus my normal “in the pit” vantage point to attempt to cool off and catch a breeze from the upper deck. As people crowd surfed through the entire set, I realized I had definitely made the right call. 

WAVVES opened with “Way Too Much” from the album V, andthen proceeded to power through one of the shortest pop-punk sets I have ever seen; I think from when they went onstage to the last note was about 40 minutes. Best of all, in that time span, they were able to play a whooping 16 songs, including singles “King of The Beach”, “Demon to Lean On”, “That’s On Me”, and “Nine is God” from the soundtrack to Grand Theft Auto V. 

As hot as it was (never cooling down below 90 degrees), the audience ate it up, crowd surfing, stage diving and even encouraging lead singer Nathan Williams to run around the entire venue and up to the balcony of Mohawk. Williams grabbed two cans of beer which he opened at the same time, chugged and immediately dove into the crowd that was an entire floor below him. The young, excited crowd seemed to struggle to hold him upright, but Williams was able to be safely delivered back to the stage to finish the set in one sound piece.

Wavves continues their 2023 summer tour with Ultra Q and Cloud Nothings into California, ending in Sacramento on July 6th.