Wild Rivers at Royale 10/3/22

I will preface this by saying Wild Rivers is my dad’s favorite band. “Heart Attack” was on repeat in our house, to the point where my brother and I recorded our own version of the song as a birthday present for my dad. We were supposed to see them together in San Diego in May of 2020, but when COVID hit and live music shut down, it looked like our Wild Rivers hopes were dashed. 

Now we were on separate coasts, and even as Wild Rivers resumed touring to promote their latest album Sidelines, I wasn’t motivated to see them without my concert buddy in tow. However, when Dad saw them perform in San Diego at the Belly Up and proclaimed “best show ever”, I knew I couldn’t miss out on their Boston date at Royale. Plus, Dad would kill me if I didn’t. 

Even if Wild Rivers was my dad’s band, I shouldn’t have been surprised at how much I enjoyed the show. Hailing from Toronto, Wild Rivers is made up of multi-instrumentalists Devan Glover and Khalid Yassein, alongside guitarist Andrew Oliver. Joined by an additional drummer and bassist, Wild Rivers played folk music with the energy of a pop band and a signature indie twist (Devan had purple hair and Khalid wore a Carhartt jumpsuit, for context). 

In order to navigate their joyfully confusing genre-bending, one thing is always true about Wild Rivers: they write breakup songs. If the title of their 2020 EP, Songs to Break Up To, doesn’t make this clear enough, Khalid told the audience that they wanted their latest album to not be about breakups, but someone kept getting broken up with, jokingly gesturing to Devan.

The result is songs like “Long Time” or “Amsterdam”, which are breakup songs to dance to and not to cry to. As Devan hopped around the stage shaking her purple hair, and Khalid and Andrew swapped solos on the guitar during the instrumental breaks, Wild Rivers showcased their unique ability to blend the introspective lyricism of folk music with the cheery, upbeat rhythms of pop music. 

With a cleverly planned set and a healthy dose of stage presence, they also showcased their skills in jumping from quiet, acoustic moments like “Neon Stars” to raucous anthems like “More or Less” or “Wandering Child”, perfect for “getting drunk in your dorm room in 2012” or a “quarter-life crisis.”

All without causing the energy of the crowd to dip one bit, Wild Rivers strung each song together with the best storytelling of any band I’ve seen live—they probably spent as much time setting up each song as they did playing, but in a way that felt genuine and not too chatty or showy. After a bubbly opening set by singer-songwriter Kyndal Inskeep, they immediately set the tone for the night by asking the crowd who had received their Airdrop. While Kyndal was playing, Wild Rivers had been backstage, sending selfies to anyone who accepted the message on their phones. 

Despite the prevalence of breakup songs, the most special moment of the set had to do with love. Before playing “Heart Attack”, Devan acknowledged that it was a popular first dance song and invited all the couples who chose that song for their wedding to the middle of the crowd for what she called “slow-motion mosh-pit”. There wasn’t a dry eye in the audience or a phone camera that wasn’t out as couples slow-danced to lyrics of “good gracious you’re a heart attack.” 

While I had certainly never witnessed something like this at a show before, I was equally as unprepared for their next move. Instead of bowing out and waiting the traditional few minutes before returning for the encore, Devan announced: “This is the part of the set where we pretend like it’s over, but it’s a charade and we’ve built a solid friendship, so this is the encore.” I wholeheartedly agreed, the idea of an encore was unnecessary, but I had never seen a band so boldly throw it to the wind. 

Closing out the night with their biggest hit “Thinking ‘Bout Love”, Wild Rivers smashed all preconceived notions of genre and performance, as well as my own hesitations. While I wish their hour-and-twenty-minute set was longer, I can’t wait to see them again and hear their inevitable new batch of break-up songs, hopefully with my dad by my side.