The magic of Wand at Nightclub 101
New York City, Lower East Side, Night Club 101. The late show starts at 10pm and upon the final wraps up, amps packed and cigarettes smoked, the venue transforms into a drink flowing, DJ playing, and downtown dancing nightclub. However, this is not about that side of the venue. In this experience, doors open at 9:30pm to Cory Hanson and Wand’s first New York City stop on their North American tour.
First came the fans, a hodgepodge mix of previous deadheads, college students and lone wolves—the psychedelic overtones of Wand’s music draws a certain crowd. Upon further research (people were kind and conversation was easy), many ticket holders had seen the band perform before, and were in attendance for the second, fourth, tenth time. This is always a good sign.
Next came Cory Hanson standing solo on stage, dressed in a sharp suit and tie and unmistakable half smile. The Wand lead singer opened for himself unabashedly. Cory Hanson’s solo career was my first introduction to his projects—a modern eclectic singer with a previous affinity for the esoteric and heartbreaking. Cory began with his latest album release, I Love People, playing “Bird on a Swing,” “Joker,” and “Lou Reed.”
Talking later about writing this album, Hanson discussed the musical juxtoposition the album presents against his earlier work. “I think people wanted me to make something like Pale Horse, but I didn’t. Not because they didn’t want me to, I wish I could do that, but just because…it’s what I wrote.”
Next came the main event — Wand in all their glory. The lights dimmed to an otherworldly blue as the boys in the band set up. Gone was the witty academia of Cory Hanson’s solo set and in its place was a more freeform, breathing tension of what was to come. The music broke rapidly, a dissertation on Big Muffs, double guitars and hazy layered reverb. And as life breathed into the instruments and vocals on stage, it did too into the crowd, with jumping and bumping and the excitied shyness of slight moshing. The band’s “Melted Rope,” “Hangman,” and “The Unexplored Map” exuded into the crowd.
As a group, Wand presented an interesting watch. Lead singer Cory Hanson performed virgorously, as he had for his solo set, though the rest of the band was watching, mellow, though just as alluring. Guitarist Robert Cody, positioned at the front of the stage played with rhythmic contentness, semi-brooding under the high position of the lights. Working towards the back of the stage, Evan Backer on bass and Evan Burrows on drums continued the chilled experience, aloof in their own way, though activley part of a holisticlaly enthralling live music experience.
And then the night wound down. The last song played with groaning acceptance and overhead lights returned to their standard state. Groups here and there stayed murmering in the stage room, talking to partners or new friends or members of the band. The majority unfurled into the night, to the main bar of the venue or crisp night of mid-September or onward still, thoughts maybe far away in some place deeply musical, as mine were.
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MORGAN SALZER | INSTAGRAM
