On Jan. 23, long before the music began, a crowd of middle-aged concertgoers, young adult couples and student-aged psych rock fans gathered on the cold concrete floors of SLO Brew Rock. A group of strangers connected solely by their shared love for music, only to be further bonded by witnessing the pure awesomeness that is Wand.
A four-piece psychedelic rock band from Los Angeles, Wand’s discography is diverse. You can expect distortion-heavy, rock-style jamming paired with Cory Hanson’s lo-fi vocals in most of their music. For this performance, Wand offered a stripped down rendition of some of their biggest songs, resulting in an unfiltered and organic sound that kept fresh throughout the night.
At 8 p.m., opener KLN Blue started things off with confidence. Their subdued rock sound occasionally broke into harder, more experimental elements with the vocalist sometimes drifting into spoken word poetry.
Shortly after 9 p.m., Wand took to the stage and the crowd was instantly lured into a hypnotic trance. The loud buzz of chatter was almost immediately silenced as soon as the first note rang out.
A sea of pointed beanies and flat-billed caps swayed to their music at different intervals depending on the energy of each song. For some tracks the crowd slow-danced and for others they moshed.
It was clear each member of the band was fully committed to the music for each and every song. Not once did they let up the stiff hold that they had on the audience.
Jumping between their hits and most recent releases alike, Wand transitioned between every song with long psychedelic interludes. They played for close to an hour and a half, and ended the performance after a short encore.
Concertgoers stuck around after the show and spread out all over the venue’s terrace to finish their drinks and conversations.
With such a timeless sound and strong stage presence, it’s no wonder the audience fell in love with Wand that night.
