BAEBLE CONCERTS: Wild Beasts at The Mercury Lounge

One of our most beloved bands to emerge most triumphantly from the Domino Record label, Wild Beasts are positioning themselves as a premier act in the making. Earlier this Fall, we declared, "it's so rare to hear anything that truly startles a listener into full attention, eyes wide in delighted surprise, a pulsing vitality and variety in a melody, a voice". From listen one of the band's sophomore release Two Dancers, we were madly in love with this young, English quartet. Naturally, we knew we had to capture one of their shows when the band strode through New York on a series of high-profile shows last month.

Filmed under the cover of the Mercury Lounge's moodiest of lighting, this video casts the band in an appropriately mysterious manner. Here selections from both Two Dancers and Limbo Panto, the album that preceded it, are recreated so true to form, it's startling. The band's shape shifting melodies, dense textures, sophisticated compositions, sky-high falsettos, libidinous lyrics; even on a dark, foreign stage performances of "This Is Our Lot", "The Devil's Crayon", " Fun Powder Plot", and "Hooting and Howling" leave no part of their music to chance, exquisitely recreating even the most modest characteristics of their recordings, ultimately upholding the band's lofty, ultimate vision in the process. It's a stunning thing to witness, and it's all for the taking in this incredible concert video. - David Pitz