Music / Reviews
Review: Culture Wars, Thekla – ‘A confident swagger’
Crammed below the deck of a former German cargo ship in sweltering 31 degree heat among c.300 other warm-blooded bodies is not the ideal sanctuary from a blistering heatwave.
However, the sweaty conditions and mid-evening kick off time for the men’s national football team did not deter the crowd at Culture Wars’ sellout show aboard Bristol’s Thekla.
It’s the final date of a five-show UK run to promote their debut album. Don’t Speak, released back in April of this year, comes 11 years after the band’s formation in 2015 in Austin, Texas, when frontman Alex Dugan and drummer David Grayson left their previous band Zsu.
The long gestation period between the inception of Culture Wars and their first LP hitting streaming platforms has resulted in the cultivation of a mature record replete with anthemic, alt-rock nostalgia and polished production, buttressed with Dugan’s soaring vocals.
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The band thunder through the setlist with a confident swagger to be expected from a quintet of Americans who have honed their craft for over a decade and hail from the great state of Texas (where ‘everything is bigger’, as the saying goes).
The influence of the rock music circulating throughout late 1990s/early 2000s England is evident, while the band also give a vigorous nod to Kings of Leon and the Strokes with the incorporation of jangly guitar riffs and pulsating percussion that are the blueprint of modern-day rock n roll anthems.
And there is still space made for tracks that feel like paeans to the 1980s soft-rock Americana of REO Speedwagon and Mr Mister.
The group cut loose with raw energy during those riff-driven, arena-ready numbers such as Typical Ways and the album’s title track, then recede into a wistful stage demeanour to allow Dugan’s pristine vocalising to carry the weight of the mood during tracks like cortisol, it’s not always what’s in your head and In The Morning which are more melodic, melancholic and personal.
Culture Wars are touring in support of their debut album which has been a long time coming
At around the halfway mark, following the yearnful and airy Miley, the band thank the audience for suffering the weather and allowing them to act as prelude to the subsequent anxiety of an England World Cup match.
For Hell or High Water, a track that is “not on the record but too good not to play here”, the stage is bathed in pensive blue light as the guitars produce a roaring cadence to the backing of a pulsing drumbeat.
‘cortisol…’, as the band explains, “represents a turning point in the set” which they call “the make out song”. The blue mood lighting gives way to a reddish-pink hue, and the tempo slows down to a crawl with a slightly mournful melodic tone.
One can imagine looking up at a band performing at their High School Senior Prom, providing the soundtrack to the tumult of misspent teenage years while couples slow dance in ritualistic step-rhythm.
The flourish of cascading guitar riffs and unwaveringly floaty vocals gives vitality to a bold, thoughtful and nostalgic composition.
The intense heat below deck and the anticipation of England’s World Cup match to come do not put off the fans that have sold out this show
As the early curfew approaches – dictated by the World Cup festivities to follow – the band dispenses with the “bullshit” encore shenanigans and play their final two offerings, uninterrupted, beginning with the hotly anticipated Typical Ways which crashes over the heads of the crowd like a wave with crunching bandsaw guitars and Dugan’s wailing.
For the set’s closer, Lies, a singalong is invoked in which the audience gleefully plays their role before the frontman demonstrates his powerful, soaring vocals one final time to bring the show to a rapturous close.
A shame the England men’s football team couldn’t sustain the high.
All images: Gaia Cicolani
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