By Jase Walker
Every now and then the stars align and something drops onto my radar which takes me by surprise seemingly out of nowhere and tonight’s show at Patronaat in Haarlem is one of those moments. Since moving away from the ÜK I had to accept that there’s probably going to be a fair amount of bands I loved to see when I was in Manchester that may never appear near me again and one of those was blanket. So, imagine my surprise when the initial other half of this tour, Post-Profit decides to throw in the towel and is replaced by none other than one of my shoegazey post-rock favourites from Blackpool. Taking up the other half of this endeavour is headliners, Wayside, who thankfully didn’t have to pack in their journey all the way from Australia. I’m admittedly very new to Wayside so I’m quite excited to see what they smash out tonight in Patronaat’s gezellig Stage 3.
I won’t lie though, the venue is looking very quiet considering Blanket are due to start very soon which is a real shame for them, especially on the latter half of the EÜ shows before dipping back into the ÜK.
The room goes dark and blanket begins their set with a dialogue in the background along with some ambient noise to signal their start. Their reverb drenched sound and dreamy soundscapes wash over me like a familiar.. uh, blanket, I’m instantly transported back to the dingy Manchester venues where I saw these so many times over the years I spent there. It’s probably to the surprise of noone that their guitarists have some rather meaty looking pedal boards.
Fortunately shortly after their start I can see a steady stream of people beginning to filter into the venue, fashionably late is better than never I guess! Every time I get to see these guys do their thing I’m always blown away by how thick their live sound is that has so many layers to it thanks to guitars put through a million pedals but it also seems their vocalist has some sort of filter for his vocal lines that really pads things out too.
Clearly I’ve missed a couple of newer releases too. ‘Blur’ is a new one to my ears and is a great example of their dreamy soundscapes. ‘Blue Eyes’ from their killer 2023 EP is immediately recognizable though: I’ve genuinely lost count of how many times I’ve listened to it and it’s a good bit of proof that shoegaze can still be riffy. Sadly for me, this a bit of a shorter set than I expected but finishing up a quality set with ‘Where The Light Takes Us’, channeling some of the strongest dreamy Deftones influences you can shake a stick at, wraps up a brilliant set that is what I’ll take as my top up of blanket until I somehow end up in the ÜK at a festival or weekend with them doing a fatter set.
Until then I’ll just have to keep cranking that lovely recorded material. Well done lads, hope the rest of the tour is great.
Wayside seemingly suddenly started without much fanfare after doing their stage setup and what immediately stands out to me is holy shit do these have such a strong nu-metal influence. I’ve not heard a band use that odd phaser pedal with heavy distortion since Spineshank, but it’s immediately home territory for me. This sort of guitar work mixed in with dreamy vocals and droney bass reminds me a lot of Deftones too, these have really caught me off guard.
I’m acutely aware that we’re starting to see a bit of a resurgence with nu-metal recently but seeing a band from Melbourne no less suddenly smashing out music that’s simultaneously new and nostalgic to me wasn’t what I expected. The bass guitar is meaty as fuck, the guitars maintain this atmospheric feel while staying heavy, the drums groove away and the vocals emulate Chino Moreno’s soft, breathy style and it all adds together to make a sound that has really got me focused in on them.
Zero 7s ‘Six Underground’ as a brief sample to pad out their song break is a nice touch too. Wayside has completely got me baffled beyond belief over how a band that I’d never even heard of prior to seeing this show, can have music that feels so incredibly familiar on the first listen.
I don’t know what it is with Melbourne in Australia but somehow that city keeps on fostering some of the best talent for metal and alternative music in the world right now and Wayside pulling off a ÜK and EÜ tour at such a young age and so early in their career is no small feat.
Of course I shouldn’t be surprised that they’ve got a cover of Deftones’ ‘Be Quiet And Drive’ given their style and they really do it justice too. The final song of the set feels that little bit too soon but there’s no doubt that it’s been a quality set and although 45 minutes could be brief for a headliner set, there’s no complaints when it comes to pulling off such a significant step in their career like this, Australia to ÜK/Europe is no joke.
Wayside have firmly burned themselves into my mind as a name to keep track of in future and it’ll be a joy to see their careers develop and hopefully be the first of many times I get to see them on this side of the world. Absolutely fucking phenomenal.