Wild Flag makes their L.A. debut

November 19, 2010, at Spaceland

By Avalon Jeffrey
Published: November 24th, 2010 | 7:00am

Wild Flag’s—aka Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss from Sleater-Kinney, Mary Timony from Helium, and Rebecca Cole from the Minders—highly anticipated, sold-out show at Spaceland was only their sixth date on their brief, inaugural tour as a band.

When Carrie Brownstein approached her microphone, she asked the audience if they were ready for some "intense Christian rock songs.” The crowd laughed when she said this, but it reminded everyone that people still have no idea what musical direction Wild Flag will take, not yet having released any sort of material, whether it’s through a video or mp3. Their sound ended up being a great mixture of each member's previous work fused with ‘70s psychedelic and punk rock. This was also reaffirmed through their cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Beast of Burden.”

Mary Timony and Carrie Brownstein traded off on lead vocals, hammering home their equal roles with “Wild” (Timony) and “Flag” (Brownstein) scrawled on their hands. Each member brought their own unique style to the stage, and though Cole and Weiss were stationary, they were powerful. Brownstein, though, was all over the place, at times, she jumping around, doing high kicks, and shoving her mic stand into the audience.

Throughout the night, the audience patiently listened, eager to hear what sounds would come next, prompting the band to complain at one point that the audience was too polite and asking for some people to just start heckling them. This garnered responses ranging from “Go back to Portland” and “Can you just play already?” to “Take off your clothes!” (the latter coming from a female attendee). Still, the band members were incredibly gracious for the support of their loyal fans and repeated their thanks at every available opportunity.

Standout tracks included “Future Crimes” and “Oh Yeah,” both featuring lead vocals from Brownstein. “Future Crimes” had interesting guitar parts and highlighted the keyboard with some pretty cool solos, while “Oh Yeah” was catchy and propelled by Brownstein’s signature strong vocals.

The night ended with Brownstein noting that Patti Smith won the National Book Award before playing Smith’s “Ask the Angels.” It was a wonderful closer that celebrated the influence Smith has had on female musicians.

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