Kings of the Beaches: Wavves at Ocean Mist

 Rhode Islanders have a sort of Napoleonic complex about them. Eh, maybe it’s more of a Rodney Dangerfield complex of not getting any respect. Time and time again performer after performer release their tour schedule, only to give Lil’ Rhody the shaft, skipping on over Providence and heading straight to Boston. It can get frustrating at times! I know you can drive through Rhode Island in like 50 minutes, but schlepping up to Boston, or worse, Hartford can be painful when there’s a band or artist you want to see. With that in mind, when Rhode Island does get some love, they go all out at those shows. Case in point: Wavves playing Ocean Mist last Monday night.

I shan’t lie to ya, I was very surprised and confused when I saw Wakefield, RI pop up on the tour poster. Normally, I scan to look for the RI on the poster, then sigh when I don’t see Providence on there, and then check to see if the inevitable Boston show is on a weekend night (the true sign I’m getting old, I know). I was pleasantly surprised when I saw Wavves announce their 12th anniversary tour (postponed 2 years cause of that whole pandemic thing) of their iconic album King of the Beach. 

Glorious

 I had never been to Ocean Mist, but I know lots of cover bands play there, it was my mom’s old watering hole back in her URI days, and that it was on the water. That’s about it. As the show approached sooner and sooner, it hit me how this has the opportunity to be iconic. It suddenly made a lot of sense for the Ocean State to host Wavves, while being able to hear actual waves crashing and smelling that salty air during a show (a first for me at least). To help make it legendary was Union Station Brewery creating a beer for the event, King of the Mist. As Nathan Williams mentioned on stage, they were in fact some very crispy boyz and everyone seemed to enjoy them. Now if creating a beer for a band isn’t the most friendly Welcome to Rhode Island, then I don’t know what is.

it was crispy. oh so crispy!

On to the show. I’ve seen Wavves 6 or 7 times now, dating back from around 2010 when I saw them with dear friend Danny Allen at the Paradise in Boston right around when the King of the Beach album came out. Wavves is one of those bands who NEVER disappoint. Every time I’ve seen them they always bring the heat and always have an awesome setlist. 

At this show in particular, they had 19 songs, and all of them slapped harder Stephanie McMahon. They played all of the King of the Beach album, which for me was cool to hear some songs live that I had not before. That album means the world to me, as it brings me straight to the smack dab middle of college where I had that sumbitch on repeat. Personally, the standouts for me Convertible Balloon, Baby Say Goodbye, My Head Hurts, Demon to Lean On, and the ALWAYS excellent live Linus Spacehead. 

It should be noted that they came out to the stage to the theme from Rugrats, which everyone loved. I had seen them come out to Stone Cold Steve Austin’s theme music, the Seinfeld theme, and some other stuff that I can’t recall cause I had too many beers, but I always appreciate their dedication to an awesome intro. Wavves is a well oiled machine live. Watching Stephen Pope headband his majestic curls will never get old to me. Stevie Pop, you beautiful bastard, keep on keeping on! Wavves mastermind Nathan Williams was excellent. He also made sure to tell everyone to watch out for each other in the pit, and to not hit his fucking microphone if you choose to stage dive. I think everyone at Ocean Mist cringed when he mentioned he had already chipped his teeth 3 times from his mic smacking him in the face and he didn’t want to get veneers. The crowd was also amused when the merch dude (great guy! Very friendly and great customer service!) huddled up with Nathan after the 2nd or 3rd song to which Nathan said “very interesting. It seems the venue doesn’t have insurance for crowd surfing” so everyone was doing it at their own risk. 

Take my money!

Another thing to give Wavves credit for is their kickass merchandise. In the past, I’ve got 5 of my favorite band tees all from Wavves, and also a prayer candle. This night in particular I picked up a Wavves tee featuring Kevin McAllister of Home Alone fame (from the back artwork of King of the Beach). I toiled with the idea of bringing home a Wavves skate deck, but then saw that they offered a Tech Deck version of it, so I figured that was easy enough to carry in my pocket and put on my bookshelf for the rest of eternity. The only bummer of the show was that they had sold out of the King of the Beach beach towels. They looked awesome and, truth be told, I was actually in the market for a new beach towel. Besides that and the dickhead bouncer who grilled my ID and was a total bitch to everyone, it was a truly awesome show. (Really though, my brother in Christ, I was grilled harder on my ID as a 32 year old then I was as a 19 year old when I was at the original King of the Beach tour. I’m so old I have to stretch before shows now. what the hell are you doing grilling me of all people? Geez Louise. Okay. Sorry. I’m done). 

how could I leave this there?

For me, it came full circle going to this show for an album that means a lot to me. It was great to go with Danny to both shows, and also to hang out with his wife Annik (they met because of me lol ur welcome) and my buddy Jed who was throwing down in the pit with the best of ‘em. Wavves is the real deal, folks. For a good time, go check out those dudes. 

I appreciated it, and Rhode Island did as well. I have a good feeling down the road I’ll be able to blow people’s minds saying “yeah I was there” about this show. It just had that sort of feel to it.