Wild Flag strut their guitar-hero poses and play an enthusiastic brand of rock that sounds more Sleater Kinney-esque live than it does on record. Despite her presence, they’re not just Carrie Brownstein’s band, and it falls to co-vocalist Mary Timony to delivery the first truly funny line of the day, when she explains how glad they are “to be here in this Whitesnake wind-tunnel video.”
The band play energetic rock with real weight and fuzz, and with none of punk’s fear of guitar solos. Well-worked harmonies and solid tunes, such as the punk-pop ‘Romance,’ stop things becoming overly heavy, and overall they represent a beacon of energy in the sea of earnestness that risks flooding the smaller stages.
