Spiders in the Rain (Live)

Album review

Like so many great psychedelic bands, Wand can take on a wildly different form in a live setting than they do in the studio. Though it's just nine songs long, the double-live album Spiders in the Rain does a fantastic job of illustrating just how different Wand can be on-stage, finding the band breaking away from the precision and detail of their recordings and embracing raw, visceral playing on songs that often extend into raging jams, fuzzy dirges, or sonic attacks of spectral confusion. Consisting of recordings captured during the lengthy touring cycle for their 2019 album Laughing Matter, Spiders in the Rain finds the band turning in a far more red-lined read of "Wonder," a tune that sounds somewhat introspective and reserved on Laughing Matter but absolutely lifts off in the live setting. The same is true for the live version of "Melted Rope," a song that appeared as a partially acoustic acid-folk drift akin to early Pink Floyd on the band's 2015 outing Golem, but is transformed here into a slowed-down web of heaving electric guitars and oozing distortion. The most remarkable inclusion on Spiders in the Rain, however, is the nearly 20-minute-long take on "White Cat," a tune that first appeared on the band's 2017 album Plum. After toying with the audience by playing an extended intro, the song's pounding riff kicks in, shuffling through phases of caveman proto-metal before turning into a more technical kind of Krautrock-informed prog, and ultimately expanding into a long-form jam. The song clings to the skeleton of its riff for structure for the majority of its run time, ending with an a cappella vocal before melting into a brief cloud of ambience as it ends. The album does a masterful job of presenting Wand's powers as a live act, with the songs sounding every bit as strong as their studio counterparts, and often much more exciting.

© Fred Thomas /TiVo