Wussy - at El Corazon / Funhouse

Seeing Wussy [Trio] at  El Corazon/ Funhouse) in Seattle Thursday night can be best likened to happily paying to watch your best friends rehearse. Chuck Cleaver (guitar/vocals), Lisa Walker (guitar/vocals) and John Erhardt (pedal steel/guitar) played their hearts out, and the audience opened their own hearts to them. If you’ve never heard of Wussy, they’re (usually) a five piece band and they describe themselves as “bridging the gap between The Band and Sonic Youth.” The Wussy [Trio] went on tour this month to promote their new record Forever Sounds (available March 4th), and they promised the full band will be back in Seattle this June.

With only three band members, Wussy couldn’t play songs like “Dropping Houses” from the new record or any of their signature loud, Sonic-Youth-style songs without Mark Messerly (bass, keys) and Joe Klug (drums). Before the show I overheard Chuck Cleaver saying “we’re gonna play the stuff that will sound good.”

This was definitely the quietest Wussy show I’ve ever been to, but also one of the most endearing. Wussy is always very open and honest when they’re on stage, and this show was no different. They told us after the first song that they hadn’t solidified their new arrangements before the show, and they were delightfully self-deprecating about it. At one song break as Chuck Cleaver was tuning his guitar, Lisa Walker joked that that was new for them. Their self-deprecation combined with the gorgeous yearning in their harmonies and hilariously poignant lyrics like “Ever since I was young / I’ve expected to die” from “Hello I’m a Ghost” off of the new record will make you fall head over heals for this band.

Words by Sophie Pattison