Snarkattack

It was only very recently that I’d come across the name Imaad Wasif and admittedly, it was him being somehow connected to the band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs that piqued my interest. However, seeing as I was going to be attending a show where Wasif and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were billed to play in my home city (Melbourne, Australia), it seemed prudent to do a bit of research.

From my initial searching online, Wasif only just released a self-titled album that came out in April of this year. He has been a member of a few groups prior to this – lowercase, alaska! and The New Folk Implosion, and has a decent discography to reflect this, according to the Kill Rock Stars website, which is the label that both him and most of those acts are signed to.

Thanks to a few tracks on Wasif’s MySpace page, I was able to get a bit of a feel for his work. There were three tracks: ‘Into the Static’, ‘Coil’ and ‘Without’. Well, that was the case a few days ago. I’ve just been there again as I resume writing this and while ‘Coil’ and ‘Without’ are still there, there are two other ones: ‘Out in the Black’ and ‘Tomorrow Is Ours’ (though you can also preview ‘Out in the Black’ on Wasif’s Kill Rock Stars profile page). ‘Into the Static’ is not there at present, so perhaps they get rotated periodically.

My first impressions are that the songs are melodic and folk-like, and the guitar accompaniment adds to their intimacy. I find them very easy to listen to, and they invite introspection – the sort of music I like listening to in solitude so I can focus on the words and the stories they tell. They also seem pretty short and I’m curious to see how these poignant vignettes will be received in a venue like the Forum, which is large, but could be set up to appear cosier.

The day arrives and though I’m unwell, I’m at the Forum. It’s been set up so that there is padded bench-like seating way at the back, a bar on either side, and the front is just empty, for the standing patrons. While I’d love to be closer to the stage, I’ll stick to the seating, thanks. Five-foot-nothing me doesn’t stand a chance in the mosh pit. The hall is not even half-full, but a man dressed in black with some gravity-defying hair walks onto the stage with a guitar. I assume this is Imaad; he doesn’t introduce himself but says hello quietly to the audience and launches into his first song. The crowd is getting noisier as the venue begins to fill. This seems to be reflected in the first song. It sounds shaky and timid.

By stark contrast, he goes straight into the second song which I recognise as ‘Out in the Black’ and wow! Everyone is now quiet, and listening attentively. You can hear and almost feel the change in the air. That must sound incredibly wanky, but having a past as a stage fright-stricken performer myself, you become attuned to these things. Fear – it’s a character builder. Weirdly, I feel nervous for the performer: singing and playing a guitar in front of a crowd waiting for a kick-arse rock band sounds a tad daunting.

Just as quickly as he’s grabbed the attention of the restless crowd, it’s lost in the third song – largely due to an awful intonation problem in a lower string. I’m trying to ignore it (and my rigid classical music training which seems grossly out of context here) but it keeps dropping, and taking the vocalist’s voice with it. Mind you, it seemed to happen at the same time some horribly glacial breeze whistled through the building as more people began to arrive.

All good performers will experience some sort of hiccup like that – it’s inevitable. The rest of the set goes smoothly and sounds much more confident. The other songs played were ‘Isolation’, ‘Spell’ (the title of which was confirmed after a bit of banter with the audience which most likely involved comparing the Australian and Canadian/North American accents), a sixth track (the title of which was not audible to me from where I was, though it was announced), and the last track which I suspect was ‘Without’ as I definitely recall listening to it online.

Though the set had its issues, like the floozy I am for a good old heartfelt song, I was won over largely because of the gutsy performance of ‘Out in the Black’. I find myself listening to it a fair bit after the gig. He doesn’t seem to be another nameless bloke singing sappy songs while he plays on a guitar, but I can’t quite figure out what sets him apart from such persons. It might be those resonant, sustained/pedal-point notes that sound a little eastern, or lots of little hints at other musical influences. It’s intriguing enough to warrant repeat listenings, definitely. Imaad Wasif is very clearly not just some tag-along member of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and I’ll be keeping an eye out for his self-titled album on my next CD binge (yeah, I still buy them, get over it…).

Of course, I’m no fool – I sure as hell stayed for the rest of the concert. I was curious to see how an acoustic guitarist/singer-songwriter would be placed in a freaking awesome (er…non-acoustic…) band like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Once Imaad appeared on stage in a bright red jumpsuit, and strutted his stuff on keyboard as well as the faithful acoustic, it was pretty bloody obvious. Only in rock ‘n’ roll can there be magic in a hairdo and a bright, retro jumpsuit.

This article first appeared on Blogcritics at http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/07/27/094816.php viewable here.