Waiting for Café Du Nord to fill up a bit, opening act Kan Wakan made their way to the stage around 9:45pm, only 15 minutes behind schedule on Wednesday night.
Accompanied on stage by four additional musicians (assumedly to round out the layered cinematic sounds heard on the group’s self-titled debut EP) guitarist Peter Potyondy and founder Gueorgui Linev earnestly tuned their instruments in silent preparation . Moments later, the show started under a veil of premeditated seriousness when a seemingly timid Kristianne Bautista made her way to her mic.
Accompanied on stage by four additional musicians (assumedly to round out the layered cinematic sounds heard on the group’s self-titled debut EP) guitarist Peter Potyondy and founder Gueorgui Linev earnestly tuned their instruments in silent preparation . Moments later, the show started under a veil of premeditated seriousness when a seemingly timid Kristianne Bautista made her way to her mic.
 |
| Photo by: Nikki DeMartini |
After the first song of the night those in attendance were welcomed to come closer to the stage by the lead vocalist herself before she apprehensively went on to say that the show that night was only the second show that the LA based band played in SF. Maybe this was an explanation for the awkward air?
 |
| Photo by: Nikki DeMartini |
The dark ambiance at Café Du Nord complimented the soberness of the set which featured the evocative EP track, "Forever Found". This parallel hindered enjoyment a little as I found it increasingly difficult to get into an up-coming band who take themselves too seriously.
Maybe nerves got the best of Kan Wakan at this show. Maybe Kan Wakan wants to be perceived as mysterious and melancholy, there's nothing wrong with that! There are a ton of great "dark" acts but misery does love company and Kan Wakan won't let fans in if they continue to keep their guard up when they play. If they lightened up, even a smidge, during their live performance it would make their show more enjoyable for their audience rather than uncomfortable.
The deep string sections were definitely the highlight while Bautista's vocals unfortunately were little lost in the layered mix of guitars and synths, coming across a bit muddled as she carried the show from beginning to end.
Kicking off their full 16 song set with "Darling Please", Diego Garcia's Argentinian flavor was a nice contrast to their otherwise indie soft(er) rock feel.
A majority of their performance Wednesday night were songs off of the recently released, "Paradise", the second album from the former Elefant frontman.
Though he and his band didn't shake the seriousness lingering from the opening act, Diego Garcia delivered a romantic set rich with Latin melodies.
 |
| Photo by: Nikki DeMartini |
By the time the debut full length album, "MOVING ON", from Kan Wakan comes out early next year hopefully they will have found their happy place and will be comfortable performing on stage. Their sound is moving and can be so soothing it'd be quite a show to see those qualities be brought to life.
Looking forward to hearing and seeing their new material in the coming new year.
No comments:
Post a Comment