I only heard about The Wind and the Wave less than a month ago, because my uncle recommended them at our family Christmas party (and let’s be real, the majority of my favorite artists right now have been Uncle Billy-approved). So, there I sat at 3^rd and Lindsley on a Sunday night, eating my potato skins and waiting for the show to go on. It’s probably a good thing that I got there half an hour early, because parking was becoming hard to find at this small and intimate venue. One thing that made a really good impression with me was the fact that the show started exactly on time. This might have been because the show was broadcast live on Nashville’s own independent radio station, Lightning 100.

First up was Lucie Silvas, who has opened for the likes of Kacey Musgraves and Lionel Richie. The first thing that Lucie told us was that she almost didn’t make it – she had some trouble getting through immigration, and two days prior, she was still in New Zealand. Right from the get-go, it was obvious that Lucie had a mesmerizing voice, and this made me especially happy that she made it all the way to Nashville, TN. If you don’t just want to just take my word for it, just know that the entire room was dead silent when she performed “Roots” solo at the piano. Silvas also got brownie points for crediting her guitarist doubled as co-writer on her song “Shame.” She even looked over at him and nodded, so you knew that she was proud of him. I’m glad that I was there to capture that sweet moment. And, if all of this isn’t enough to make you want to see Lucie Silvas live and buy her upcoming EP, dropping on February 3^rd (just in time for Valentine’s Day *hint, hint*), Lennon and Maisy Stella  from ABC's hit show Nashville were at the show with their parents, bopping along to “Letters to Ghosts,” Lucie’s latest single.

The Wind and the Wave took the stage in a timely fashion, 20 minutes after Lucie Silvas’ set. They opened the show with “From the Wreckage Build a Home,” the title track off of their debut album. After a few songs into the set, both Dwight and Patty apologized profusely for their use of curse words. “Usually we curse every other word, but we’ll try to hold back. We’ll use the word “spaghetti squash” instead. For example, wasn’t Lucie Silvas spaghetti squasin’ awesome?” Even after this promise, Patty forgot and sang a single curse word at the beginning of “The Heart if Beats the Thunder Rolls,” probably the most curse heavy song on the album. She was so embarrassed, that she covered her face with her hands, and it was adorable. “There’s about nineteen curse words in this song, and only one came out. I’m proud of you,” Dwight said to Patty after the song was over. One of the most beautiful songs in the set was “Every Other Sunday Morning,” which was played acoustically. Although I was captivated by this performance as a whole, I was particularly pleased with how beautiful the harmonies were, as well as how in sync the pauses between lines were.

As a whole, this show was pretty dang good for a band who just released a debut album over the summer. Some crowd favorites (songs that got the audience moving, singing, “woo, yeah-ing,” etc) include:

1. It’s a Longer Road to California That I Thought – I thought that Patty’s vocals here were the best they were for the entire set.
2. Raising Hands Raising Hell Raise ‘em High
3. Edge of Seventeen – A Stevie Nicks cover that kicked spaghetti squash.

For an encore, the band came on stage and sang their own rendition of R. Kelly’s Ignition Remix, which was absolutely incredible. Personally, this was my favorite performance of the night (because really, who doesn’t love a creative and fun Ignition cover, am I right ladies?) For their final song, The Wind and the Wave sang their cover of Simple Minds’ “Don’t You Forget About Me,” which was featured on Grey’s Anatomy. This cover got everybody up and dancing for one final time, so it was a great closer to the show. Dwight told the audience before we left that Sony Records would be releasing a CD called Covers 1 in a few months, which will include a whole bunch of covers, as the title suggests. Hopefully, we will be able to listen to these covers on our iPods real soon (especially “Ignition.")