Wunderhorse, the voice of a broken generation.

By Ruby Corrigan.

Melodic, melancholy, magical. All three words can be used to describe the up-and-coming band Wunderhorse and their gig in Dublin on the 28th of October.

Opening with their encapsulating hit ‘Girl Behind the Glass’, the band started with a high — and the crowd was responding accordingly. Immediately everyone sang along, and for still such a small band, you could tell that they are very loved. While the crowd was rather rowdy – creating mosh pits far too prematurely and shoving people unnecessarily (a personal pet peeve), it didn’t deter from the beautiful show the band put on.

Often up and coming bands struggle to structure their gigs due to a lack of performance experience, meaning that the evening lacks dynamics and tends to drag on — this is an issue Wunderhorse never has to worry about. One moment we were greeted with a song like Teal: upbeat, catchy and one you should absolutely scream the lyrics to. However, suddenly I was floored. Lights dimmed and Jacob Slater (lead singer) was left centre stage with a single spotlight and his guitar singing ‘Morphine’, a slow song full of haunting lyrics about freedom, reducing the entire audience to a trance-like silence.

Leading on from this, it would be rude of me to not comment on how brilliantly the entire band commands the room. Although they don’t engage often with the crowd and their staging is just a simple backdrop with their logo, their stage presence is immense. I have never seen a band be able to enthral a crowd so easily just with their musicianship, encouraging moments of collective chaos, as well as deafening silence.

Wunderhorse’s music can be seen as very angry, full of powerful guitar solos and moments where the lead singer just screams.  Some might see this as an extremely subversive style, and question why they are becoming so popular with young people. The short answer is that young people too are angry: angry with themselves, their lives, and even just the state of the world right now – Wunderhorse gives voice to that. While performing ‘Leader of the Pack’ a strong sense of rage filled the room, it was as if both the band and the audience were egging each other on, trying to see who could scream the lyrics and stamp their feet louder and with more passion. It was clear that these boys are voices of a broken generation, not just giving the youth a space to be angry and vent out their feelings through music, but actively encouraging it.

The only thing that left me confused was their encore. Jacob and the band came out to perform two songs. What confused me that out of the two they performed they chose to end with the experimental four-minute track ‘Poppy’, with the final two minutes made up of a guitar solo, rather than ‘Purple’ arguably Wunderhorse’s most iconic song form their album. While I appreciate ‘Poppy’ as a very good song, it was a choice that I personally didn’t love as I think ending on ‘Purple’ would have been more impactful, however I respect the band choosing a more experimental approach to their encore.

Wunderhorse are solidly becoming one of my favourite bands and are honestly changing the game in the independent-rock genre. If you don’t know them already, get listening before they become huge.