Distracted

By Allie Russell

There’s a unique kind of joy in seeing a band you’ve loved for years get better at being the band you fell in love with in the first place.

I’ve been seeing The Wldlfe for the better part of five years, long enough that returning to one of their shows feels a little like catching up with old friends. There’s the familiarity of the songs you’ve had memorized for years, the anticipation of knowing exactly which little moments are coming, and the realization that somewhere along the way both you and the band have grown up a little.

On November 7th, The Wldlfe brought their Long Way Home Tour to Chicago’s Outset in support of Revolver, their latest album. With Girl K and Landon Conrath setting the stage, the night was a celebration of where the band has been and, more importantly, where they seem to be going.

Their set opened with “Ruby,” then moved straight into “Close To You,” immediately establishing the kind of energy The Wldlfe have become known for. They moved between newer material and older favorites with an ease that felt like a conversation between different eras of the band. By the time they closed with “Blood Orange” and “Somebody’s Gonna Love You,” the crowd was singing along to every word of every song. But the most memorable moment of the night came when everything got a little quieter.

The title track of Revolver offered a different kind of showcase for the band. Without the rush of their more energetic songs, there was room to appreciate the smaller details: the space between the notes, the softness of the arrangement, and the way Carson and Jansen’s voices fit together. It was gorgeous, the kind of moment that makes you stop thinking about what song might come next and simply exist inside the one you’re hearing. It was a reminder that a great live show doesn’t have to operate at full volume all the time to leave an impression.

That restraint made the rest of the performance all the more striking. The Wldlfe has always been a great live band, but this time, they felt elevated. Everything sounded crisp, clean, and remarkably assured without losing the spontaneity that makes a concert feel alive. It was clear that they have spent years learning exactly what they want to sound like.

They briefly touched on this idea themselves, explaining that with every new album, they want to challenge themselves and create something that sounds different from what came before. There’s something admirable about a band that refuses to treat its sound as a finished product. It would be easy to keep returning to the things that already work, especially when those songs are the ones people show up ready to scream back at you. But The Wldlfe seem just as interested in discovering what they can become as they are in celebrating what they’ve already made. They even called Revolver their favorite album they’ve released yet, and after watching them bring it to life, it’s easy to understand why.

I went into Outset expecting to have a great time. The Wldlfe is one of my favorite bands; loving the show was practically a given. What I didn’t expect was to leave so struck by how much they’ve grown. Five years ago, I was showing up to see a band I liked. Now, I get to watch them push beyond what made me love them in the first place, without losing any of it along the way.

There’s something pretty special about that kind of familiarity, about returning to something you love and finding that it still has somewhere new to take you. You don’t always notice the growing as it happens. Sometimes, you only recognize it when you find yourself in a room full of people singing along to songs you’ve known for years, watching the people who made them sound a little different than they used to.

Five years in, The Wldlfe are still giving me reasons to show up. And maybe that’s the best thing a band can do: not just give you songs worth remembering, but give you new reasons to keep making memories with them.